Background

People and communities around the world have the solutions to social injustice, authoritarianism, and the climate crisis. But repressive governments, corrupt corporations, and armed groups use violence and oppression to try and silence them.

By building resistance and resilience among those challenging unaccountable power, Open Briefing supports a shared vision for a world where communities and ecosystems can thrive. 

As a mission-driven nonprofit, we join forces with grassroots activists, community groups, and social movements at risk. Working together, we strengthen their physical safety, digital resilience, and collective wellbeing. As a social impact consultancy, we help high-profile nonprofits and foundations navigate risk and support the people and partnerships that make change possible. This dual approach allows us to work at every level of civil society, from the grassroots to the global. 

We have scaled to meet a surge in demand for our support over the past two years, with our international team now responding to 774 calls for assistance across 68 countries. This led to nearly 7,000 hours of mentoring and accompaniment delivered to at-risk civic actors, and 1,400 activists in 155 holistic security workshops. Read our latest impact report here.

Across all our work, we come with questions, not just answers. We listen to the knowledge and experiences of the people we support before sharing our own. Then we act together to challenge unaccountable power.

We are expanding our diverse, inspired, and purpose-driven team. Will you join us as a safety & security consultant?

Role description

You will play a key role in providing expert and tailored security and protection advice and training to local organisations and activists and their international partners to help disrupt attacks and reprisals from highly-capable and motivated adversaries.

You will be directly supporting these truth-tellers, changemakers, and risk takers by helping them resist and recover from the security threats that they face. You will provide mentoring, remote accompaniment, and knowledge sharing and capacity building, in a scalable and bespoke manner. 

It is a challenging and rewarding role. It requires consultants to work across a broad range of countries, civil society actors, and rights and justice issues. You will be supported in this by experienced and knowledgeable colleagues and leaders in the safety and security team and wider organisation. 

Depending on your skills and experience, your primary responsibilities will include:

• Working with at-risk human rights defenders to help them better understand their allies and adversaries, co-design the actions that they will take to reduce the risks to them and their colleagues, and agree what they will do should things go wrong.
• Working with the leadership teams of international nonprofits and foundations to develop security risk management policies and procedures, share knowledge and build up their capacity, and lead other strategic risk management and duty of care initiatives.
• Reflecting our organisation’s values and liaising in a professional and friendly manner with the clients and recipients assigned to you, escalating any concerns or challenges to your line manager.
• Being highly organised and taking ownership of any project management and administration duties for the projects that you are assigned to.
• Sharing learnings with the team and providing input into our processes and procedures in order to help us continuously improve our support to clients and recipients as well as our own security risk management.

Person specification

Essential

• You will have a proven track record of either or both:
  • Providing security and protection advice and training to human rights defenders, activists, and local civil society organisations.
  • Building the capacity of international organisations for security risk management and duty of care, including developing security policies and procedures and conducting audits.
• You will have a deep knowledge of security risk management, security in violent environments, duty of care, protection strategies, shrinking civic space, and state and non-state adversaries.
• You will be highly organised and possess strong project management skills. 
• You will be sensitive to the progressive and rights-based missions and diverse profiles of our clients and other stakeholders.
• You will be a good listener and able to adapt your approach and style to suit different projects and stakeholders.
• You will have excellent written and spoken English, and Arabic or French
• You will be based within the Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region, and have good knowledge of protection issues faced by civic actors in that region, as well as any regional or local protection networks

Desirable

• You may have a proven track record of in one or more of:
  • Change management in the nonprofit sector.
  • Living and working in violent environments or closed civic spaces.
  • Delivering training in-person and remotely to a diverse range of learners.
  • Engaging with senior leadership and board members.

Terms and remuneration

We are a remote-first organisation, and this is a home-working role with some potential for international travel. We are looking for someone who wants to become part of our close-knit team and develop a long-term working relationship with us and our clients. You will be properly onboarded and continually supported by empowering managers and highly-experienced colleagues. Your line manager will be Renata Oliveira, our associate director of safety and security.

We welcome applications from established consultants with a range of backgrounds, experiences and profiles, from anywhere in the world. The hours can vary from month to month, depending on demand and your availability, and the role may require occasional remote meetings outside of normal office hours depending on your location. Please note that this role is not suitable for those in full-time employment or currently searching for full-time employment. You will need to usually be available to take on new assignments by agreement within 2-3 working days.

You will receive £52.50 per hour, ongoing mentoring and support, and a package of wellbeing and mental health support, including welfare counselling. As a consultant, you will need to have or obtain your own professional indemnity insurance, including cover for work in the United States.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion

Open Briefing values diversity. We are committed to being equitable and inclusive, and to being a place where all can be their authentic selves. We therefore encourage applications from all who may meet the person specification and particularly from candidates who are from historically-marginalised communities and are under recognised in our safety and security team. This currently includes Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour and women and/or non-binary people. Please read our diversity, equity, and inclusion policy for more information. 

Open Briefing is neuro-inclusive, positive about mental health, and a Disability Confident Employer. We welcome applications from all candidates who meet the person specification. Please let us know in your cover letter how we can be the recruiter and employer that you need us to be.

We follow the gender pay gap reporting guidance from the UK government. This reveals that women currently have higher average pay than men in our organisation. We have also checked the text of this advert using the Gender Decoder tool. 

How to apply

To apply, please email your CV to our office manager, Viktoriia Zhurakovska, [email protected]. Please also include a cover letter of no more than two pages setting out:

1. What excites you about Open Briefing and the role of safety and security consultant.
2. How you meet the advertised person specification.
3. A project in which you advised a low-capacity organisation at high risk of attacks and reprisals.

Please note the following dates:

• Closing date: Open, until suitable candidate is found
• Interviews: To be determined upon shortlisting

The successful candidates will need to complete a reasonable vetting process before engagement.