Habitability & HDRR Manager

JOB SUMMARY

Habitat for Humanity Ethiopia (HFHE) envisions an Ethiopia where everyone has a decent place to live. As part of Habitat for Humanity International’s global network, HFHE contributes to the national vision of sustainable, resilient, and inclusive housing. Under the new Country Strategic Plan (2026–2030), HFHE will focus on resilient housing ecosystems, climate adaptation, and inclusive urban and rural development that ensure habitability, dignity, and safety for all.

To advance this vision, HFHE seeks a Habitability and Housing Disaster, Resilience, and Recovery Manager who will lead the organization’s programming and strategic initiatives in disaster risk reduction (DRR), resilience building, and post-disaster recovery—ensuring that housing and settlement solutions are safe, sustainable, and adaptable to climate and humanitarian challenges.

The Manager will provide strategic leadership, technical expertise, and program management in habitability, resilience, and housing recovery. This role ensures HFHE’s interventions integrate climate-smart housing, community resilience, humanitarian response, and sustainable reconstruction within the national and global Habitat for Humanity frameworks. The position bridges HFHE’s resilient housing ecosystem, inclusive urban development, and emergency response programming to guarantee quality and sustainable outcomes for affected communities.

The position contributes directly to Strategic Objective 2 and 3 of the 2026–2030 Plan:

• SO2: Promote resilient and inclusive housing and settlement solutions for climate and disaster-affected communities.
• SO3: Strengthen local systems and partnerships for sustainable recovery and resilience.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

A. Strategic and Technical Leadership

• Lead the development and implementation of HFHE’s Habitability and Housing Disaster Resilience and Recovery Strategy, ensuring alignment with the 2026–2030 Country Strategic Plan.
• Provide technical guidance on safe, resilient, and sustainable housing design, construction standards, and habitability principles.
• Ensure that habitability, housing recovery, and DRR interventions are fully integrated with HFHE’s Basic Services framework, including WASH, household energy, land tenure security, and climate adaptation
• Champion climate-smart and locally appropriate building technologies and materials.
• Promote low-carbon and energy-efficient construction technologies and materials, and strengthen HFHE’s innovative construction models
• Develop technical guidelines, toolkits, and quality assurance mechanisms for disaster-resilient housing.
• Collaborate closely with the AFR Area Office Focal Point for Habitability and HDRR for coordination and alignment with regional priorities as well as HFHI Guidelines on Habitability and HDRR.

B. Program Development and Management

• Design and manage projects related to disaster risk reduction, housing recovery, and resilience building.
• Ensure effective planning, budgeting, implementation, monitoring, and reporting of all resilience and recovery programs.
• Lead proposal development and donor engagement for resilience and disaster recovery programming, with key donors such as EU, ECHO, UNICEF, UNDP, UNHCR, and BMZ
• Ensure that all resilience and recovery projects adopt a multi-sectoral Basic Services approach that integrates housing, WASH, energy access, land governance, and livelihoods strengthening.

C. Partnership, Coordination, and Advocacy

• Engage with government institutions (e.g., MoWE, DRM Commission, and MoUDC), UN agencies, and civil society partners.
• Represent HFHE in national and regional coordination mechanisms on housing, DRR, and resilience.
• Advocate for inclusive and resilient housing policies and contribute to national platforms and technical working groups.
• Build and manage strategic partnerships with academia, private sector actors, and professional associations.

D. Capacity Building and Knowledge Management

• Facilitate training and capacity development for HFHE staff, partners, and communities on DRR and resilient construction.
• Promote research, learning, and documentation of good practices in resilient housing and recovery.
• Develop and maintain a repository of evidence and lessons learned to inform HFHE programming and policy engagement.

E. Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL)

• Collaborate with the MEAL team to develop indicators and frameworks to track habitability and HDRR outcomes.
• Ensure robust monitoring, technical quality assurance, and results-based management.
• Support adaptive learning and continuous improvement across projects.
• Ensure effective application of HFHI global indicators
• Inculcate a strong learning agenda management (producing technical briefs, evidence papers, and policy recommendations based on project outcomes and learning)
• Integrate MEAL in emergency programming

F. Project Management & Staff Supervision

• Organize stakeholders and community forums and interact with regional and local government stakeholders and partners to ensure effective communication about the projects.
• Oversee and manage regional WASH and VG Housing project budgets and development plans, ensuring compliance with donor funding regulations.
• Identify, interpret, and apply relevant laws, policies, and regulations as needed for compliance monitoring and reporting to government agencies.
• Provide leadership for regional project teams, supervising team members and ensuring high-quality project outputs

G. Safeguarding

• Support the staff and manage focal points with adequate resources and prioritization of safeguarding efforts.
• Hold teams accountable for delivering safeguarding best practices and mitigating risk.
• Promote a safe, productive and respectful environment, including a “speak up” culture of reporting.
• Other related duties as assigned by Program Manager

Duration of the contract: - 1 year with possibility of an extension.

Duty Station:  Addis Ababa

Salary:  Negotiable

Required number: –  1

Vacancy Closing date: – January 06

• Years of Related Experience: 6 years of progressive experience in disaster risk reduction, post-disaster recovery, resilient housing, or humanitarian reconstruction or construction management or Civil Engineering
• Proven experience managing large-scale, multi-stakeholder housing or resilience projects.
• Experience working with international NGOs, government institutions, and donors (e.g., USAID, EU, UN agencies).
• Strong understanding of Ethiopia’s national disaster management and housing policies.

Skills and Competencies:

• Technical expertise in resilient housing design, green building, habitability standards, and climate adaptation including community-based approaches.
• Knowledge of multi-sectoral Basic Services programming, including WASH, energy solutions, land tenure, and climate-resilient housing.
• Excellent project management, coordination, and leadership skills.
• Strong analytical, report-writing, and presentation abilities.
• Demonstrated partnership and advocacy skills.
• Commitment to HFHE’s mission, values, and principles of equity, inclusion, and accountability.

Preferred Requirements (in addition to minimum):

• Master’s degree in Disaster Risk Management, Climate Change Adaptation, Sustainable Development, Environmental Planning
• Professional registration with a relevant professional body

Active support of HFHI Values:

Humility – We are part of something bigger than ourselves

Courage – We do what’s right, even when it is difficult or unpopular

Accountability – We take personal responsibility for Habitat’s mission

Safeguarding: HFHI requires that all employees take seriously their ethical responsibilities to safeguarding our intended beneficiaries, their communities, and all those with whom we work. Managers at all levels have responsibilities to support and develop systems that create and maintain an environment that prevents harassment, sexual exploitation and abuse, safeguards the rights of beneficiaries and community members (especially children), and promotes the implementation of Habitat for Humanity’s code of conduct.