Operational Safeguarding Manager
Organization: Doctors Without Borders in Switzerland
Closing date: 20 Sep 2026
Join MSF OCG as an Operational Safeguarding manager!
We are looking for passionate candidates ready to contribute to our humanitarian mission.
Below, you will find the job details and the qualifications we are looking for.
Inclusivity and Diversity at MSF
Do your qualifications and experience not exactly match all requirements of the job
At MSF OCG, we are committed to an inclusive culture that supports and amplifies the diverse voices of our staff members. We strive to create workplaces where teams of people with diverse backgrounds, characteristics, perspectives, ideas and experiences work together to advance MSF's social mission and create better outcomes for our patients and the communities we work with.
We understand that some people may hesitate to apply for employment if they don't meet all listed job requirements.
Research shows that this is especially true for women. If you believe your profile is a good match for this position, we invite you to apply even if you don’t fulfil every listed qualification.
We encourage applications from individuals of all genders, ages, sexual orientations, ethnicities, background, religions, beliefs, ability status, and all other diversity characteristics.
MSF does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of discrimination or harassment, including sexual harassment. All selected candidates will undergo reference checks.
Context & mission
Médecins Sans Frontières is an independent, international medical and humanitarian organization that provides care to people in need, people affected by natural or man-made disasters, and victims of armed conflict, without discrimination and without regard to race, religion, creed or political affiliation (MSF Charter).
The MSF movement is built around 5 operational centers supported by 24 sections and offices worldwide. MSF Operational Center Geneva (MSF OCG) is one of these centers.
In this role, you manage a function or multi-team area by overseeing people, resources, and operational priorities.
You translate strategies and policies into operational plans, structure team activities, and resolve complex issues that span multiple tasks or workstreams. You ensure coherence in how work is carried out and strengthen collaboration across teams. This role carries full people-management responsibility.
• Lead functional delivery, ensuring coherent results across teams and alignment with organizational policies.
• Set objectives, structure teamwork, and manage performance to achieve functional priorities.
• Allocate resources and balance competing demands to support effective delivery.
• Resolve complex or cross-team issues and ensure consistent use of policies, processes, and standards.
• Strengthen cross-team collaboration and represent the function in coordination forums.
• Develop team capability through coaching, feedback, and supportive development planning.
Tasks & Responsibilities:
• Lead the operational implementation of safeguarding across all programs, ensuring that safeguarding principles and technical standards, safeguarding risk assessments, and mitigation measures are effectively embedded into day-to-day operations.
• In collaboration with the flying team, guide and provide technical support to program teams in developing, operationalizing, and monitoring the implementation of the Mission Behavior Fundamentals, ensuring these measures are consistently applied and effectively integrated into operation department and programs including safe recruitment, safe programming, detection and local reporting mechanisms for patients, care takers and communities’ members
• Mobilize, coordinate and deploy dedicated flying teams and provide technical safeguarding support in the rollout of the Mission Behavior Fundamentals and safeguarding priorities, in collaboration/concertation with the operational teams.
• Develop a program support model with dedicated locally appointed safeguarding human resources that ensures projects benefit from technical safeguarding expertise at both project and coordination levels.
• Ensure that local program dedicated resources are supported by both coordination and the flying referents through technical guidance and oversight of safeguarding implementation.
• Work in synergies and in a functional mode with the OCG head of safeguarding to ensure coherence and alignment with OCG positioning technical safeguarding standards, and organizational priorities
• In collaboration with flying SFG staff and Country teams to produce detailed country-level safeguarding situational and risk analyses to inform strategic decision-making, propose prioritization of safeguarding actions according to organizational safeguarding objectives and operational context, and provide operational oversight of the implementation and effectiveness of safeguarding measures.
• Represent the Operations Directorate in internal and external meetings requiring operational and technical safeguarding input, analysis, or coordination related to the OCG Safeguarding Plan at programme level. Support any internal communication requesting the accountability of ops department in regard to safeguarding.
Your profile:
Education
• Master’s degree or equivalent in a field relevant to this profile (e.g. law, social or organizational sciences, psychology, social work etc.) an asset
Experience
• 5 to 10 years of experience in humanitarian projects management in MSF.
• Similar validated experience in technical expertise in the related field, preferably in non-governmental, charity or international organisations.
Languages
• Fluency in English and French are required
• Knowledge of another language (Arabic, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish) is considered an advantage.
Skills & Personal Abilities
• Project management, organization & accountability
• Management, Integrity & Ethical Judgment
• Risk Assessment & Mitigation
• Compliance & Policy Adherence
• Leadership, team management, active listening and organizational skills.
• Delegation
• Cultural sensitivity
Terms of employment:
• Full-time position 100% (40h/week)
• Open-ended contract
• Working place: Geneva, Switzerland, with frequent travel for field visits
• Swiss residency while under contract mandatory (because of the frequent travel)
• Ideal start date: As soon as possible
• Gross annual salary (for 100%): from CHF 102’180.- to CHF 116’484.- (salary commensurate with equivalent experience and internal salary grid)
• Paid vacation: 25 days per year, prorate temporis, plus any Swiss public holidays falling within the contract period.
• Pension plan: pension contribution covered 3/4 by MSF, 1/4 by staff member.
• Relocation support available for eligible candidates.
How to apply:
Candidates are invited to submit their application exclusively through our recruitment platform, following these guidelines:
• CV (maximum 2 pages)
• Cover letter (maximum 1 page)
• Documents must be submitted in either English or French.
The application deadline is September 20th 2026.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy earlier if we receive a sufficient number of quality applications.
Apply Here: https://msf.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/fr-FR/work-with-msf-ocg-hq-lhs
All applications will be treated confidentially.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Please note that we do not wish to use the services of recruitment or placement agencies.