The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) is a treaty-based intergovernmental organization headquartered in The Hague that works with governments, civil society organizations and justice institutions worldwide to address the global challenge of missing persons and to secure the rights of families of the missing to truth, justice and reparations.
The Director of Science and Technology provides strategic leadership for ICMP's global scientific and technical capabilities required to locate, recover, document, account for, and identify missing persons. As a member of senior management, reporting to the Director-General, the Director leads the development, implementation and oversight of the Science and Technology Program and serves as a core component of ICMP's Standing Capacity for Crisis Response, ensuring world-leading capabilities in forensic archaeology, forensic anthropology, DNA testing, kinship analysis and applied research.
Key responsibilities:
- Provide strategic leadership for the Science and Technology Program and act as principal advisor on scientific and technical matters relating to missing persons.
- Develop and implement ICMP's scientific strategy and lead the Standing Capacity for Crisis Response.
- Oversee forensic archaeology and anthropology, DNA laboratories, research and development, and scientific quality, ethics and compliance systems.
- Drive scientific innovation, including adoption of emerging technologies and methodologies.
- Lead scientific and technical assistance, capacity building and partnerships with governments, forensic institutions and academic and research organizations.
- Lead, supervise and mentor multidisciplinary scientific and technical professionals and represent ICMP in international forums.
Requirements:
- Advanced university degree in a relevant scientific or forensic field (e.g. forensic anthropology, biology, forensic science, pathology, genetics, archaeology).
- Minimum 10 years of relevant professional experience, including significant senior-level scientific/forensic leadership and management.
- Extensive expertise in DNA science relating to human identification and broad knowledge of forensic science disciplines.
- Experience leading scientific teams and developing scientific methods.
- Knowledge of the role of forensic science in legal and investigative systems.
- Professional fluency in written and spoken English; additional languages desirable.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills.
This is a full-time, fixed-term professional staff position at the E8 grade on the ICMP Professional salary scale, with paid leave, health insurance and expatriate allowances.
Closing date: 2026-11-13
HOW TO APPLY:
Apply online via the ICMP BambooHR careers page: https://icmp.bamboohr.com/careers/345. All applications must be submitted in English.