Location: Dakar, Senegal
Job summary: The Outbreak Response Officer will support outbreak preparedness, detection, investigation, response and recovery activities under the STRIDES activity in Senegal. The postholder will support national and regional institutions, including the Ministries of Health, Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Livestock, and Environment, to strengthen multisectoral capacity to respond to public health threats, zoonotic disease outbreaks and other emerging infectious disease events, using a One Health approach. The role leads the planning, coordination, implementation and monitoring of outbreak response interventions, supports emergency preparedness systems, strengthens rapid response teams (RRTs) and promotes timely and effective investigations and response under STRIDES Objective 4.
Key responsibilities:
- Technical leadership and emergency response: provide technical leadership and guidance on outbreak preparedness, investigation, response and recovery; help authorities establish and operationalize outbreak preparedness and response mechanisms; strengthen rapid response teams, emergency operations centers (EOCs) and incident management systems; coordinate outbreak investigations, response planning, deployments and after-action reviews; support simulation and tabletop exercises; promote One Health approaches to zoonotic outbreaks.
- Capacity building: design and deliver training programs for outbreak response personnel, RRTs, field investigators and emergency managers; develop training materials, job aids, response tools and operational guidelines; provide field mentoring to government counterparts and partners.
- Preparedness and coordination: support emergency preparedness systems at national and sub-national levels; facilitate coordination across human, animal and environmental health sectors; contribute to contingency plans; participate in national technical working groups and outbreak response coordination meetings.
- Monitoring, evaluation and reporting: track preparedness and response activities and performance indicators; support collection and analysis of outbreak investigation data; prepare technical reports, situation reports and after-action reports; support integration of the 7-1-7 benchmarks in outbreak reporting.
- Project management and collaboration: contribute to annual work plans, budgets and project reports; work closely with epidemiology, surveillance, laboratory, risk communication and One Health teams; engage donors and stakeholders; identify programme risks and recommend corrective actions.
Requirements: Master's degree (or international equivalent) in public health, epidemiology, veterinary public health, emergency management, global health security, One Health or a related field. At least 6 years of progressively responsible experience in outbreak preparedness and response, emergency management, epidemiology, public health or global health security. Demonstrated experience supporting outbreak investigations and public health emergency response, and working with government institutions and multisectoral stakeholders. Experience with RRTs, EOCs or incident management systems strongly preferred; FETP training strongly desired; knowledge of IHR, JEE and NAPHS desirable. Must be fluent in reading, writing and speaking French, with professional English preferred. Domestic travel 10-50% of the time. Reports to the National Technical Director.
Closing date: 2026-11-04
HOW TO APPLY:
Apply online through the FHI 360 Workday career portal before 4 November 2026.
https://fhi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-GB/FHI_360_External_Career_Portal/job/Dakar-Senegal/Outbreak-Response-Officer_Requisition-2026201565/apply