Regional Climate and Anticipatory Modeling Specialist at Action Against Hunger International

About the Role

The Regional Climate and Anticipatory Modeling Specialist will serve as the consortium’s technical authority for climate science, environmental risk, hydrometeorological modelling, early-warning systems, and anticipatory-action trigger development.

Reporting to the Regional Consortium Coordinator, this role will translate climate intelligence from ICPAC, national meteorological agencies, and global modelling platforms into operational trigger matrices, Early Action Protocols, contingency plans, and preparedness decisions across Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and South Sudan.

The Specialist will lead the calibration and validation of multi-hazard models, strengthen cross-border trigger systems, support climate-informed malnutrition modelling in South Sudan, and oversee the integration of DG ECHO Minimum Environmental Requirements throughout program delivery.

This position is ideal for an experienced climate scientist or hydrometeorological modelling specialist who can translate advanced technical analysis into practical humanitarian decision-making in fragile and climate-vulnerable contexts.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the development, calibration, and validation of multi-hazard climate and hydrometeorological models supporting anticipatory action across Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and South Sudan.
• Analyze and integrate global, regional, and national climate datasets, including ERA5, MERRA-2, CHIRPS, NDVI, MODIS, IRI, ECMWF, GFS, and ICPAC seasonal forecasts.
• Apply drought, flood, heat, and climate-projection models—including SPI, SPEI, HBV, SWAT, and VIC—to produce decision-ready risk information for pastoral, agricultural, urban, and cross-border contexts.
• Assess shared river-basin risks, seasonal migration corridors, urban flash flooding, heat exposure, drought conditions, and climate impacts affecting vulnerable communities.
• Review existing early-warning systems and identify opportunities to strengthen interoperability between ICPAC, FEWS NET, IGAD PREPARE, national EWARS and IDSR systems, and operational anticipatory-action platforms.
• Produce accessible climate-risk bulletins, seasonal forecast summaries, technical reports, scientific briefs, and decision-support products for program teams, governments, donors, and regional partners.
• Lead the development and validation of multi-hazard trigger matrices integrating climate, hydrological, epidemiological, food-security, displacement, and conflict-sensitivity indicators.
• Conduct cross-border trigger-validation exercises across the Ethiopia–Somalia, Somalia–Djibouti, and Ethiopia–Djibouti corridors.
• Ensure trigger methodologies align with the SCALAA harmonization framework, the IGAD Anticipatory Action Roadmap, national disaster-risk management systems, and other ECHO-funded Crisis Modifier programs.
• Analyze trigger performance following simulations, pilot activations, and Crisis Modifier responses, including accuracy, false-alarm rates, lead times, operational reliability, and decision quality.
• Develop technical guidance, standard operating procedures, and training materials for trigger verification, activation decisions, risk interpretation, and Early Action Protocol development.
• Lead climate-informed malnutrition modelling for South Sudan by integrating drought, flood, seasonal forecast, livelihood, nutrition, SMART survey, MUAC, IPC, and INFORM data.
• Develop and validate predictive models that identify potential nutrition deterioration before crises emerge and support early-action decisions within the FAO-led consortium.
• Align South Sudan modelling outputs with national and regional systems, including SSMD, FAO EMPRES, FEWS NET, IPC Acute Malnutrition frameworks, and ICPAC.
• Lead the application of NEAT+ environmental screening and DG ECHO Minimum Environmental Requirements across program activities.
• Integrate climate adaptation, environmental sustainability, Eco-DRR, green logistics, responsible procurement, and reduced single-use plastics into program design and Crisis Modifier planning.
• Conduct environmental-risk assessments and gender-responsive climate-vulnerability analyses for target communities.
• Provide technical support to urban preparedness activities in Djibouti Ville, including flash-flood modelling, heat-risk analysis, extreme-rainfall assessment, and municipal contingency planning.
• Design and deliver technical training for national meteorological services, disaster-risk management authorities, IGAD technical working groups, implementing partners, and Action Against Hunger country teams.
• Mentor technical staff in the practical use of R, Python, QGIS, ArcGIS, Google Earth Engine, CHIRPS, IRI data tools, and ICPAC platforms.
• Produce working papers, technical publications, operational research, and learning products for ICPAC, SCALAA, regional dialogue platforms, and relevant scientific or humanitarian audiences.
• Contribute climate and environmental indicators, trigger-performance evidence, and scientific analysis to the program MEAL system and DG ECHO reporting.

Requirements

Who We’re Looking For

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Climate Science, Meteorology, Hydrology, Physical Geography, Environmental Science, Atmospheric Sciences, or a closely related field.
• Advanced training in climate modelling, hydrometeorological risk, forecast-based humanitarian action, or climate adaptation is strongly preferred.
• Additional qualifications in Disaster Risk Reduction, GIS, Remote Sensing, Humanitarian Action, or environmental management are an advantage.
• Minimum seven years of relevant experience in climate science, hydrometeorological modelling, early-warning system development, or environmental-risk analysis.
• At least three years of experience applying climate or environmental expertise within the humanitarian or international development sector in fragile or climate-vulnerable contexts.
• At least five years of experience in climate forecasting, including practical use of numerical weather-prediction models and impact-assessment tools.
• Demonstrated expertise with seasonal forecasting tools and models, including IRI, ECMWF, and GFS.
• Strong experience with hydrological models such as HBV, SWAT, and VIC; drought monitoring using SPI and SPEI; and flood-inundation modelling.
• Proven experience designing, calibrating, and validating anticipatory-action triggers and Early Action Protocols in a target country or comparable fragile context.
• Hands-on experience working with ICPAC, FEWS NET, IRI, national meteorological services, or comparable climate and early-warning institutions.
• Strong understanding of climate-informed humanitarian programming, forecast-based financing, disaster preparedness, and trigger-based early action.
• Experience integrating food-security, nutrition, epidemiological, displacement, or conflict-risk information into climate and anticipatory-action models is highly desirable.
• Specialized training in weather and climate-model development and experience running models on high-performance computing systems are advantages.
• Proficiency in Python and R for climate-data analysis, modelling, and visualization.
• Strong GIS and remote-sensing skills using ArcGIS, QGIS, Google Earth Engine, or comparable platforms.
• Experience working with CHIRPS, ERA5, IRI, MODIS, NDVI, and other relevant climate or earth-observation datasets.
• Ability to communicate complex scientific findings clearly to government counterparts, humanitarian practitioners, donors, and non-technical audiences.
• Strong facilitation, technical-writing, capacity-strengthening, and stakeholder-engagement skills.
• Full professional fluency in written and spoken English is required. Working knowledge of Somali, Amharic, or French is a strong advantage.
• Ability and willingness to travel approximately 30%–40% of working time across Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and South Sudan, including remote, cross-border, and high-security locations.
• Availability outside standard working hours during seasonal forecast windows, simulation exercises, After-Action Reviews, and Crisis Modifier monitoring periods.