Emergency Specialist

Job no: 596866
Contract type: Fixed Term Appointment
Duty Station: Mexico City
Level: NO-3
Location: Mexico
Categories: Emergency

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do for as long as we are needed. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, the right to protection

Mexico's humanitarian context is shaped by the convergence of large-scale mixed migration, organized and armed violence, and recurrent climate-related disasters. As a country of origin, transit, destination and return for migrants and asylum seekers from across the Americas and beyond, Mexico is home to a large and growing number of children on the move who face heightened risks of family separation, exploitation, trafficking and prolonged disruption to their access to health, education and protection services. At the same time, communities in several regions of the country are affected by organized crime and armed violence, exposing children to displacement, recruitment and severe psychosocial harm, while Mexico's exposure to hurricanes, earthquakes and other climate-related hazards places additional children at risk each year, as part of a regional caseload of several million children across Latin America and the Caribbean projected to need humanitarian assistance in 2026.

Responding to needs of this scale and complexity requires strong, consistent humanitarian leadership within the United Nations system, to ensure coherent inter-agency coordination and the consistent application of humanitarian principles and UNICEF's Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action, and close support to the Government of Mexico, to strengthen national systems, protocols and institutions rather than substitute for them.

In Mexico, UNICEF's humanitarian approach is anchored in system strengthening with the aim to enhance the capacity of government institutions at both federal and state levels to anticipate, prepare for, and respond effectively to emergencies affecting children. UNICEF's role in this context is therefore not only to deliver direct assistance to the most excluded children and families, but to help lead and sustain a coherent, principled humanitarian response, and to accompany the Government in building the long-term capacity needed to prevent, prepare for and respond to future crises.

How can you make a difference?

Under the guidance and supervision of the Deputy Representative Programme (P-5), the Emergency Specialist establishes and implements country office emergency preparedness and response. He/She is responsible for the development, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of emergency interventions to ensure the survival and well-being of children and mothers, and the affected communities in an emergency.

The Emergency Specialist acts as the Country Office's focal point on emergency preparedness and response, working horizontally across sections, and represents UNICEF, as delegated, in inter-agency humanitarian coordination mechanisms including the UNETE that is co‑coordinated by UNICEF and UNDP, and relevant sectoral coordination groups as well as in support of the Government of Mexico's national emergency preparedness and response systems and institutions.

The Emergency Specialist is central to system strengthening approach, working directly with national and subnational counterparts to strengthen their preparedness and response systems, protocols and institutional capacities, so that gains are sustained and owned by the Government beyond the life of any single response.

Key functions, accountabilities and duties:

To qualify as a champion for every child you will have…

• Education: A completed advanced university degree (master’s degree), preferably in one of the following fields, is required: social sciences, public administration, international law, public health, nutrition, international relations, business administration or other related disciplines. Preferably a combination of management, administration, and relevant technical fiel