Principal, Global Event Security and Risk Management

About this role

PRINCIPAL, GLOBAL EVENT SECURITY AND RISK MANAGEMENT

Summary

The Wikimedia Foundation is looking for a Principal, Global Event Security and Risk Management, to join our team. Our aim is to ensure everyone, everywhere can securely participate in free knowledge. As an organization, we are committed to proactively identifying and mitigating risks that impact both the Foundation and the Wikimedia movement. This includes enabling secure physical convenings and spaces for the robust global communities of volunteers we serve and often support through grants, and effectively addressing other physical security and enterprise risks our ecosystem faces.

The Principal will report to the Deputy General Counsel in the Legal Department, and will lead the Foundation’s efforts in proactively preparing for and addressing critical risks to the physical security of staff, community members, and other participants engaging in Wikimedia movement activities. The Principal will coordinate with staff in the Foundation’s internal Enterprise Risk Management working group to broadly identify and track risks to the Foundation and Wikimedia movement. In their focused work of identifying and leading the response to physical security threats, the Principal will partner with internal teams such as legal, grantmaking, external and movement communications, human rights, product security, and trust & safety; and groups outside of the Foundation, such as Wikimedia volunteer organizers, external partners, and security experts.

As the point person for the mitigation of physical security risks, the Principal must remain informed on global geopolitical developments, in order to identify emerging and shifting threats to Wikimedia users around the world, and synthesize information from a variety of sources, including Foundation risk reports and consultations with internal teams. The Principal’s goal is to support the organization, the Wikimedia movement and its communities in their efforts to reduce vulnerability and minimize harm when threats materialize.

The successful candidate will possess a wide range of experience and a deep understanding of best practices in risk coordination and response, security, and crisis management. They will have experience working in global contexts, particularly the global south, and will bring curiosity, an ability to work across different cultures, and vision. They will have strong people skills, with the ability to empathetically motivate and inspire both staff and volunteers, while understanding the needs and capacities of disparate stakeholder groups. Their experience and good judgment will enable them to achieve impact on a wide variety of high-stakes, emergent risk issues facing the Foundation and the communities it supports.

You are responsible for:

• Working closely with Wikimedia movement organizers to develop and maintain an understanding of the environments and challenges facing Wikimedia volunteers around the world, mitigate those risks, and define best practices for physical security in movement activities.

• Strengthening the Foundation’s overall enterprise risk management approach and execution, including policy development and implementation.

• Leading the process to create risk and gap assessments, to identify, document, and track high risks for the Foundation, consulting with subject matter experts in technology, brand, operational, legal, and strategic risk.

• Improving the organization’s expertise in identifying, mitigating against, and addressing emerging physical security threats to Wikimedia’s staff, communities, and affiliated organizations.

• Leading risk assessments for community conferences and other events funded by the Foundation, including consolidating input from multiple teams, and communicating the findings to various stakeholders, including community organisers.

• Creating emergency response plans for physical security threats, bringing together stakeholders and experts as necessary from the organization, law enforcement agencies, or external consultants where appropriate, and managing the implementation of those plans once approved.

• Being on-call as required to review emergency alerts to ensure proper escalation of and response to physical security threats, including leading emergency response working groups during an emergent situation, designating an on-site incident coordinator as needed, and providing risk management expertise.

• Remaining current on emerging geopolitical trends and best practices in physical security.

• Briefing the Deputy General Counsel and senior leadership on a regular basis, with recommendations about what works, what doesn’t, and financial and staff resource management, focused on ongoing systems improvement.

• Providing crisis support to other internal teams who work directly with at-risk communities.

Skills and Experience:

• Substantial professional experience in corporate and physical security work in a variety of geographic and political contexts. It is particularly valuable to have experience working in the global south.

• Substantial risk management experience, particularly experience in a leadership role that involved risk management.

• Substantial experience developing, communicating, and executing emergency response plans.

• Strong networking and analytical skills, with the ability to process and synthesize large amounts of information on geopolitical trends and elucidate their specific impact on the organization and its stakeholders.

• Strong communication skills, with the ability to summarize essentials for an executive audience, detail precise response plans and debriefing documents, and to communicate with compassion and clarity.

• Ability to remain calm and focused in ambiguous situations and to plan and act in circumstances where individuals may be at risk of physical harm. (Note that this role may include exposure to troubling images and media, or direct contact with individuals in crisis.)

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