Disaster Response Senior Engineer

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Who is Water Mission?

Water Mission is a nonprofit Christian engineering organization that designs, builds, and implements safe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) solutions for people in developing countries and disaster areas. Guided by love, excellence, and integrity, we are driven to share clean, safe water and God’s love with all. To date, we have served more than 7 million people in 57 countries. Working at Water Mission is as much a calling as it is a career, and we are searching for people with the courage, passion, and drive to help us change the world. Read more about our Statement of Faith and Christian Mission.

What is the opportunity?

The Disaster Response Senior Engineer is responsible for applying sound engineering principles to various safe water and sanitation projects in disaster response worldwide. The position is also responsible for collaborating with the engineering team to research and test innovative water solutions, contributing to the capacity building of the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) members, and participating in duties that contribute to growing the DART roster. This will require a commitment to servant leadership, sound engineering principles, and excellent communication skills.

The position will require up to 25% international travel to remote destinations that have recently experienced or are recovering from a disaster. Travel typically occurs multiple times per year for durations of 3 to 4 weeks at a time.  Candidates need to be aware that travel to a disaster response situation may be required with 24- 72 hours of notice. Other travel may also occur for training, program development, and partnership collaboration. The Disaster Response Senior Engineer can work remotely or from Water Mission’s headquarters in N. Charleston, SC. The role reports to the Director, Disaster Response.

A successful Disaster Response Senior Engineer will:

Innovation - Engineering

• In collaboration with the Engineering team, annually research and test innovative, safe water solutions and other existing equipment to better prepare the solutions that Water Mission can deploy during a response.
• Ensure that all engineering efforts are rendered in accordance with approved engineering and construction standards within Water Mission during a disaster response.
• Ensure that engineering efforts are of high quality, including the accuracy of minor details.
• Prepare and give presentations to other departments, country program office staff, strategic partners, outside organizations, government officials, donors, and volunteers on disaster response interventions.
• Be prepared to support other engineering activities as needed at headquarters, in field offices, and in unknown remote locations.

Preparedness and Curriculum Development

• In collaboration with the disaster response team, contribute to the development and implementation of training strategies and professional development plans for DART members.
• In collaboration with the engineering team, develop a DART training curriculum that prepares DART engineers to set up, maintain, repair, and break down Water Mission water solutions.
• Co-facilitate DART trainings and contribute to building the capacity of the DART members.

Disaster Response

• Deploy as the Senior WaSH engineer on disaster responses.
• Design and implement, when needed, custom solutions to ensure the provision of safe water in a response.
• Manage the provision of engineering services for disaster response which will include leading a team of engineers.
• Evaluate local supply chains for technical equipment relevant to the needs of the response.
• Assist in the installation and troubleshooting of safe water equipment implemented in the field.
• Attend cluster meetings during a response as requested.
• Provide on-the-job training, support, and technical guidance for DART programs and operations during deployments.
• Contribute to the development and review of WaSH proposals for disaster responses as needed.
• Provide surge capacity to the Incident Command Team (ICT) that directs the response from headquarters.
• Advise country offices on individual preparations for disaster readiness and response, when requested.

Administration

• Support the growth of the DART roster through regular reviews of applicants.
• Participate in after-action reviews following each response.
• Participate in DART team annual reviews.
• Commitment to the values of Love, Excellence, and Integrity.
• Other responsibilities assigned.

What is required?

• Personal and growing relationship with Jesus Christ.

• Work in a posture of humble service to God and others.

• Alignment with Water Mission’s Statement of Faith and core values of Love, Excellence, and Integrity.

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering – Civil, Chemical, Environmental, Electrical (Mechanical and other Engineering degrees considered).

• Licensed Professional Engineer (PE) preferred.

• 5+ years of engineering experience preferred, with a minimum of 2 years in project management and managing teams.

• Knowledgeable skills with office computer programs (Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook) and familiarity with engineering programs such as AutoCAD, EPANET, Microsoft Project, etc.

• Experience in developing countries is required.

• Experience with maintenance, plumbing, or electrical installation preferred.

• Diagnostic or troubleshooting experience preferred.

• Experience working in international disaster response is preferred.

• Ability and willingness to work in very difficult disaster response situations with limited resources.

• Thrives under pressure and has a proven track record of meeting deadlines.

• Excellent relationship skills.

• Excellent analytical skills.

• High attention to detail.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

• Foreign language skills are beneficial, not required.

• Home internet bandwidth strong enough to support video conferencing and other job-related responsibilities is required.

• Flexibility to work periodic nights and weekends as required for ministry operations.

• Legal authorization to work in the United States without sponsorship.

• Commitment to the values and mission of the organization and ending the global water crisis.