Emergency Response Coordinator - On a Rolling Basis (Applications will only be accepted if submitted through the URL link provided)

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible.

In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions

into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within.

Now, and for the future.

The Program / Department / Team (Program / Department Summary)

Working in Lebanon since 1993, Mercy Corps is committed to generating positive opportunities for women, men, boys and girls from Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian communities, with a strong focus on engaging youth. Mercy Corps exists to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping build secure, productive and just communities. Our programs focus on four outcome areas across the humanitarian-development nexus: economic opportunities, access to food, water security and peace and good governance. The Mercy Corps Lebanon team consists of over 50 staff working throughout Mount Lebanon, South Lebanon, North Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.

Given the evolving operating context, Mercy Corps Lebanon maintains readiness to scale emergency assistance to conflict-affected and crisis-affected populations across priority geographies, coordinating closely with national and local stakeholders and humanitarian coordination mechanisms.

The Position (General Position Summary)

The Emergency Response Coordinator (ERC) provides leadership and day-to-day coordination for Mercy Corps’ emergency response portfolio related to the 2026 escalation in Lebanon, with a primary focus on cash assistance, hot meals, and Critical Relief Items (CRI) distributions. The ERC ensures response activities are delivered rapidly, safely, accountably, and in full compliance with Mercy Corps policies and donor requirements.

The ERC leads emergency response planning and operational coordination across Programs, Operations, Finance, Monitoring Evaluation Learning (MEL), and Community Accountability Reporting Mechanism functions; supports emergency proposal development and reporting; strengthens partner delivery; and represents Mercy Corps in relevant response coordination platforms. The ERC promotes adaptive management based on the fast evolving needs, evidence, contextual analysis, and community feedback.

Essential Job Responsibilities

EMERGENCY STRATEGY, PREPAREDNESS & COORDINATION

• Under the leadership of the Country Manager, lead the coordination of Mercy Corps Lebanon’s emergency response approach, ensuring alignment with the country’s emergency response plan and Mercy Corps policies and procedures.
• Maintain and regularly update contingency plans, response scenarios, and surge/referral pathways based on contextual analysis and early warning information.
• Coordinate rapid response decision-making processes (internal coordination meetings, prioritization, prepositioning of procurement and partnerships).
• Ensure emergency response designs integrate protection mainstreaming, gender, and Do No Harm principles, and reflect local context and access constraints.

PROGRAM QUALITY, EVIDENCE & LEARNING

• Ensure response decisions are driven by evidence: rapid assessments, secondary data review, community feedback trends, market monitoring (as relevant for cash), and PDM findings.
• Coordinate learning moments and after-action reviews; translate learning into updated SOPs, tools, and response improvements.
• Support high-quality internal and external reporting on outputs, outcomes, constraints, lessons learned, and community feedback actions.

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

• Oversee the implementation, and monitoring of the emergency portfolio interventions, ensuring they are on-time, on-scope, and within budget.
• In coordination with the relevant technical teams and support department, lead on the development of Standard Operating Procedures for the delivery of cash, hot meals, core relief items (CRI), as applicable, and ensure their application throughout implementation.
• Lead the development and regular updates of emergency implementation tools (response workplans, distribution plans, trackers, procurement plans, risk registers, partner oversight plans).
• Coordinate with MEL and CARM to ensure strong targeting, monitoring, learning, and accountability systems (including safe feedback/complaints mechanisms).
• Ensure timely identification and escalation of programmatic bottlenecks and risks; lead corrective actions with relevant teams.
• Provide support as needed to the CLEAR program team on the delivery of assistance under the crisis modifier.
• Ensure emergency interventions adhere to Mercy Corps’ Gender Policy, Do No Harm principles, and program participants accountability standards.

PARTNERSHIP MANAGEMENT

• Support identification, mapping, selection and onboarding of emergency response partners.
• Oversee the partners’ implementation of emergency interventions through close collaboration, regular check-ins, spot checks and troubleshooting as needed.
• Ensure partners are supported with clear deliverables, compliance requirements, capacity support, and monitoring plans.
• Promote principled partnerships and strengthen partner capacity for safe, accountable delivery.
• Review programmatic reports and documents prepared by the partners before final review by the Country Manager.
• Coordinate as needed with partners to gather inputs for new proposal development.

COMPLIANCE, SECURITY  & SAFEGUARDING

• Ensure compliance with Mercy Corps policies and donor regulations, including ensuring that all distributions follow approved SOPs, and are in line with Mercy Corps’ procurement and finance procedures.
• Ensure that partners’ implementation is in line with the sub-award agreements and liaise closely and promptly with the sub-award team in case of any amendments required.
• Under the leadership of the Country Manager, closely coordinate with the security team ahead of field interventions to ensure access is safe and risk mitigation measures are in place.
• Ensure security protocols are followed at all times during implementation.
• Ensure safeguarding and PSEA standards are adhered to across the intervention, including by our implementing partners.
• Ensure prompt reporting of any safeguarding risk identified throughout implementation.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & DONOR ENGAGEMENT (EMERGENCY FUNDING)

• Under the leadership of the Country Manager, contribute to emergency concept notes, proposals, flash appeals and budget inputs; support rapid revisions and top-ups as needed.
• Provide timely situation updates, pipeline summaries, and operational inputs for donor engagement as required.
• Support donor reporting with accurate data, narrative inputs, and coordination of annexes/evidence.

INFLUENCE AND REPRESENTATION

• Represent Mercy Corps in relevant emergency coordination platforms (clusters/sector working groups, INGO forums, local coordination structures) as delegated.
• Maintain active coordination with local authorities, UN agencies, INGOs, and local actors to avoid duplication and strengthen complementarity.
• Ensure Mercy Corps’ response priorities and operational constraints are appropriately communicated and reflected in coordination efforts.
• Represent Mercy Corps in donor meetings as delegated.

HUMAN RESOURCE /TEAM MANAGEMENT  

• Recruit, onboard and train team members to fill critical functions of the response team. 
• Create a sustainable work environment of mutual respect that attracts motivated, skilled and effective team members and enables them individually and collectively to strive to achieve excellence. 
• Supervise and lead a diverse team of direct and indirect reports in field offices.   
• Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback via regular performance reviews.  
• Provide team members with information, tools and other resources to improve performance and achieve objectives. 
• Contribute to country team-building efforts; build constructive internal relationships; help team members identify problem solving options and ensure integration of all team members into relevant decision-making processes. 
• Collaborate with the people team to promote staff access to high quality learning opportunities, with a special emphasis on national team member development. 

LEARNING

• As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

ACCOUNTABILITY TO AFFECTED POPULATIONS

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts towards accountability, specifically to our program participants and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging program participant communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

SAFEGUARDING RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Actively learns about safeguarding and integrates it into their work, including safeguarding risks and mitigations related to their area of work.
• Practices the values of Mercy Corps including respecting the dignity and well-being of participants and fellow team members.
• Encourages openness and communication in their team; encourages team members to submit reports if they have any concerns using reporting mechanisms e.g., Integrity Hotline and other options.

Supervisory Responsibility: Emergency response team (if applicable)

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Country Manager

Works Directly With: CLEAR program team, MCO DoP, CARM and MEL teams, Regional Program and Technical Teams, Regional Support Services Teams, MCO Finance and Compliance, HR and Operations Department, MCO Security Coordinator, regional Emergency Response Focal point.

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Knowledge and Experience

• BA/BS required; MA/MS or equivalent preferred in relevant field (international development, humanitarian affairs, social sciences, public policy, etc.).
• Minimum 4–6 years of relevant experience in humanitarian response, including at least 2 years in emergency program coordination/management.
• Demonstrated experience delivering at least two of the following: cash assistance, in-kind distributions, food/hot meals assistance.
• Strong understanding of humanitarian principles, accountability, safeguarding/PSEA, and risk management in distributions.
• Proven ability to coordinate cross-departmentally under pressure, manage multiple priorities, and meet short deadlines.
• Experience working with local partners and strengthening partner delivery capacity.
• Strong reporting, documentation, and donor compliance experience (e.g., ECHO/EU, FCDO, UN, USAID, or similar).
• Ability to work in a multi-cultural team, always maintaining professionalism and respect.
• Fluency in both Arabic and English is required.

Success Factors

The successful Emergency Response Coordinator will be highly organized, calm under pressure, and able to translate shifting context into practical response actions. They will demonstrate strong coordination and communication skills, solid distribution compliance discipline, and a commitment to accountability to affected populations. The ERC will be proactive, solution-oriented, and able to build trust across teams and with partners and stakeholders, while ensuring safe, principled, and high-quality emergency delivery.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The position is based in Beirut and it requires up to 40% travel to support country programs, which may include travel to insecure locations where freedom of movement is limited and areas where amenities are limited.  Housing for this role is in individual housing and staff will have access to good medical services and the living situation is of a high standard.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development

Team Engagement and Effectiveness 

Achieving our mission starts with how we build our team and collaborate. By bringing together individuals with a variety of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives, we strengthen our ability to solve complex challenges and drive innovation. We foster a culture of trust and respect, where every team member is valued for their contributions, empowered to reach their full potential, and motivated to do their best work.

We recognize that building a strong and effective team is an ongoing process, and we remain committed to learning, improving, and growing together.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief, national origin, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristics protected under applicable law.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct elearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.

As an applicant, if you witness or experience any form of sexual misconduct during the recruitment process, please report this to Mercy Corps Integrity Hotline (integrityhotline@mercycorps.org).

الصون و الأخلاق

ميرسي كور تلتزم بضمان المعاملة اللائقة واحترام جميع الأفراد اللذين نتواصل معهم من خلال عملنا, سواء كانوا أعضاء الفريق أو أعضاء المجتمع أو المشاركين في البرامج أو غيرهم.  نحن ملتزمون بالمبادئ الرئيسية المتعلقة بمنع الاستغلال والإساءة الجنسية التي وضعها الأمين العام للأمم المتحدة واللجنة الدائمة للتنسيق بين الوكالات الإنسانية (IASC)، وقد وقعنا على نظام الإفصاح المتبادل بين الجهات الفاعلة في حالة السلوك الغير اللائق. عند التقديم لهذا الدور، يؤكد المتقدم أنه لم ينتهك في السابق سياسة السلوك الجنسي، والاستغلال والإساءة جنسية، صون الأطفال، أو الاتجار بالبشر لأي جهة عمل. ميرسي كور لن تتسامح مع إساءة معاملة الأطفال أو الاستغلال الجنسي أو الإساءة أو التحرش من قبل أو بسبب أعضاء فريقنا. كجزء من التزامنا تجاه توفير بيئة عمل آمنة وشاملة, من المتوقع أن يتصرف أعضاء الفريق بطريقة مهنية, تحترم القوانين والعادات المحلية. والالتزام بسياسات وقيم مدونة قواعد السلوك الخاصة بمنظمة ميرسي كور في جميع الأوقات. كما يتطلب من جميع أعضاء الفريق إكمال دورات التعليم الإلكتروني الإلزامية لقواعد السلوك عند التوظيف وذلك بشكل سنوي.

     كمتقدم للوظيفة، إذا كنت قد شهدت أو تعرضت لأي نوع من أنواع السلوك الجنسي الغير لائق خلال عملية التوظيف، يرجى الإبلاغ عن ذلك إلى خط النزاهة في منظمة ميرسي كور (integrityhotline@mercycorps.org).

RECRUITMENT SCAMS & FRAUD WARNING

Mercy Corps has become aware of scams involving false job offers. Please be advised:

Recruiters will never ask for a fee during any stage of the recruitment process.

All active jobs are advertised directly onDaleel Madani.

Official Mercy Corps emails will always arrive from a @mercycorps.org email address.

Please report any suspicious communications to ((integrityhotline@mercycorps.org))