Project manager

Background and rationale

The Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) was established in 1986 to support the advancement of safer communities and sustainable development, through implementing programs that reduce the impact of disasters in countries and communities in Asia and the Pacific. ADPC is governed by its Board of Trustees and annually convenes the Regional Consultative Committee on Disaster Management (RCC) that brings together National Disaster Management Offices (NDMOs) from 26 countries of Asia and the Pacific region. In 1999, ADPC was constituted as an independent non-profit foundation under Thai law, with its headquarters in Bangkok. Currently, ADPC is in the process of becoming an inter-governmental organization, with the ADPC Charter signed in 2005 by 9 founder member countries of the Asian region. For more information, please visit www.adpc.net.

ADPC’s operational and technical services programs are currently organized on the thematic areas of Climate Change & Climate Risk Management, Disaster Risk Management Systems, Disaster Risk Assessment & Monitoring, Public Health in Emergencies, Resilience Cities and Urban Risk Management, Safer Development Planning & Implementation, while recognizing training and capacity building as a cross cutting theme. ADPC delivers a range of regional flagship training courses, tailor-made national courses, and program/project based training courses with a global scope while primarily focus is on Asia & the Pacific region. Courses offered by ADPC are diverse in nature and generally covers several thematic specializations, including but not limited to; Disaster Risk Management, Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Risk Management, Flood Disaster Risk Management, Earthquake Vulnerability Reduction, Disaster Risk Assessment, Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction into Development Planning, Public Health in Emergencies, Urban Disaster Risk Reduction, Monitoring & Evaluation in Disaster Risk Reduction, Disaster Risk Reduction Leadership Studies, Community Actions for Disaster Response etc. ADPC also delivers need-based training courses designed to the specific requirements of external organizations and national government agencies in the region.

Program for Reduction of Vulnerability to Floods in Thailand; The Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) - supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) - initiated the Program for Reduction of Vulnerability to Floods in Thailand to address the risk management challenges, which were identified as a result of the flood disaster. The program works to strengthen the capacity for disaster risk management in Thailand and provide support for flood vulnerability reduction.
Supervisor: RCRUM Department Head

Duties and responsibilities:

The position requires a high degree of technical knowledge and understanding in flood risk management as well as the ability to interact with partners in Thailand in the area of flood risk management and End-to-End Early Warning Systems, including senior level local government officials, NGO partners, donors, UN Agencies, media, and other key stakeholders. In addition, the position will heavily involve training program development. Specific roles and responsibilities are given bellow;

Responsibilities:

Project management

• Manage the program by providing strategic approach to achieving program goals and sustainability of program efforts
• Provide guidance, technical advice to members of the team to ensure their integration with other ADPC regional initiatives
• Guide partner institutions in implementing demonstration projects reflecting the ADPC core areas of competency in general and the Resilience Cities and Urban Risk

Management department in particular.

• Supervise program staff attached to the program
• Coordinate program implementation with other project managers and team members
• Conduct program monitoring and evaluation activities, managing result systems, developing progress reports, work plans and reporting to supervisor
• Conduct site-visits to monitor the implementation of the projects
• Communicate project results to target audiences and maintain a network of relevant external partners that could play a part in future project development

Technical capability / training program development

• Provide technical resource inputs in activities such as capacity building and training course development, Flood End-to-End Early Warning, and Standard Operating Procedure/operational manual development
• Provide technical supports on flood modeling and flood risk assessment, flood analysis for agencies and users
• Package scientific and technical information for communicating risks and assessment and gap analysis of end-to end warning dissemination between the source agencies and users
• Actively involve in technical interventions undertaken by project teams such as hazard assessments, socio-economic impact assessment, and urban level DRR demonstration projects including flood risk reduction program
• Work with ADPC technical teams and implementing partner institutions in designing and delivering quality training courses to meet the training demand of implementing partner institutions
• Lead the process of conducting periodic reviews of training courses to improve curriculum and training materials
• Develop training materials including but not limited to participant’s handbooks, reference reading, case studies, scenarios, group exercises and games
• Perform as a trainer and a facilitator in regional and tailor-made training courses of ADPC
• Design effective tools for evaluating training & learning outcomes of regional and tailor-made training courses of ADPC
• Be responsible for conducting training evaluation and preparing reports

Required qualifications and specification

Qualifications and experience:

• Advanced University Degree in Civil Engineering, Hydrology, Water Resources, Irrigation Engineering, Disaster Management, and/or a related field.
• A minimum of 7 years of relevant experience including field experience in the applications of flood disaster risk reduction, of which 3 years should be at a management level in a comparable organization.
• Professional expertise and experience in at least one of the key technical areas of RCURM Team (flood disaster risk management, urban risk management, capacity building) and broad understanding in developing new programs and projects to cover flood risk management disciplines
• Working experience with the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, the Irrigation Department, or the Department of Water Resources of the Thailand government would be an advantage
• Ability to build strong partnerships and networking
• Demonstrated knowledge and understanding on assessment of impacts of hydro- meteorological and geological hazard risk on urban societal systems
• Ability to manage projects effectively - consistently ensuring timeliness and quality of project work
• Excellent inter personal and public relations skills; pleasant personality; team oriented working style; demonstrated ability to work effectively and harmoniously in a multi cultural environment
• Familiarity with USAID programming, rules and regulations
• Strong skills in oral and written communication, and computer skills
• A high degree of competence in management of strategy; management of change; leadership; planning; management of budgets; management of resources; monitoring; supervision; reporting; communication; networking; management of self; and management of others
• Encourage teamwork; commitment to the program; integrity and personal conduct; diplomacy and sensitivity to diversity; flexibility and adaptability; initiative and direction; interpersonal skills to build trust and confidence; resilience; and patience
• Strong analytical skills; common sense; desire to learn and undertake new challenges and new work; must be a creative problem-solver; willingness to work hard that pays attention to quality, excellence and efficiency of work
• Willingness to work off hours and weekends depending on the needs, workload or emergencies in the region
• Excellent English proficiency in oral and written communication, including a demonstrated track record in technical report writing and ability to communicate technical matters effectively to general audience Personal Qualities
• Must be a Thai national

Personal qualities

• Self-motivated, pro-active and takes initiative
• Demonstrated ability and plan and organize work and time independently
• Excellent interpersonal skills, team-oriented work style, and experience in working in a multi-cultural environment
• Strong desire to learn, undertakes new challenges, must a creative problem-solver, must have self-confidence, willingness to work hard, good sense of humor but with seriousness about the quality and excellence of work.