Senior Crisis Management Advisor

The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) monitors the safety of food, products, animals, and plants in the Netherlands. Because sometimes things go wrong—think of the fipronil in eggs, avian influenza in poultry, or Legionella in central heating boilers. In such situations, the NVWA plays a key role.

During the active phase, your role is that of a crisis management expert, and you will support the team by:

• Flexibility in crisis roles: During incidents, emergencies, and crises, you are always prepared to take on one of the necessary roles within the team, such as crisis management advisor, information coordinator, or observer. Your knowledge and decisiveness make all the difference.
• Performing under pressure: You remain focused on your role, remain calm under pressure, and collaborate seamlessly with the various teams (the incident response team and your own team). In crisis situations, you provide the stability needed to act effectively.
• Think on your feet and keep the big picture in mind: You have the ability to quickly analyze complex situations, adapt, and maintain a clear overview. You connect the right people and ensure that tasks are carried out. 
• Expert advice: You will advise the chair of the incident response team based on your expertise in crisis management. 
• Developing scenarios: You help create and refine scenarios so that the team is always prepared for what lies ahead.
• Willingness to work outside regular office hours: Since crises don’t adhere to office hours, you are willing to step in outside of regular working hours and take responsibility as part of the on-call team.

During the cold phase, you are responsible for preparing for crisis management:

• Ensuring capacity and expertise: Together with your colleagues or team members, you continuously monitor the capacity and expertise of the incident and crisis response team to ensure that we are always fully prepared.
• Identifying risks: You have a keen eye for potential new risks and report them to the crisis coordinator and your colleagues. Working with them, you help assess these risks to help the organization move forward in mitigating future crises.
• Improvement and innovation: You are always on the lookout for opportunities to improve and innovate the crisis management organization.
• Developing and maintaining manuals and procedures: You ensure that the manuals, procedures, and implementation guidelines under your responsibility are kept up to date, so that the team always has the correct guidelines available in times of crisis.
• Education, training, and drills: Together with the crisis coordinator and your colleagues, you will develop and implement the education, training, and drill plan to ensure that the crisis response team is always in top form. You will ensure that the team has the skills and knowledge to act quickly and effectively.
• Tactical and operational coordination: You will coordinate with all relevant departments and teams regarding the area(s) for which you are responsible.
• Review and Coordination: You work with your colleagues to review incidents and crises in order to continuously learn.
• Creating network and knowledge maps: You will update and develop network and knowledge maps that enable us to respond to incidents and crises even more effectively and make the best use of the network.