Program Manager - Exercise Planning
$190,000–$200,000 year
RemoteUnited States
Job Summary
Lead planning and exercise support activities for a major FEMA consequence management and special-event program, providing executive leadership and technical direction for large-scale national and international events. Direct and oversee the full exercise lifecycle, from concept development through evaluation and corrective-action tracking, while managing multidisciplinary teams across federal, state, and local jurisdictions. Coordinate with FEMA Headquarters, DHS components, and interagency partners to ensure integrated planning and operational alignment, facilitating workshops, working groups, and stakeholder engagements. Oversee complex planning products, data analysis, and executive reporting to validate plans, identify operational gaps, and drive decision-making. Manage project schedules, risks, staffing, and configuration control to ensure timely delivery and knowledge transfer.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Emergency Management, Homeland Security, Public Administration, Business Administration, Project Management, or a related field
- Minimum 10–15 years of progressively responsible experience managing complex federal emergency management, homeland security, exercise planning, consequence management, or major special-event programs
- Demonstrated experience leading large-scale exercise planning and execution, including exercise concept development, design, planning, facilitation, conduct, evaluation, and reporting
- Demonstrated experience supporting national- or regional-level consequence management, emergency preparedness, or major national/international special-event planning
- Strong experience coordinating complex activities involving Federal, state, local, regional, and interagency stakeholders
- Demonstrated ability to manage multidisciplinary teams and simultaneously oversee multiple planning workstreams, exercises, deliverables, dependencies, and deadlines
- Demonstrated program management experience with IMS, project plans, deliverable tracking, risk and issue management, action-item tracking, performance metrics, and executive status reporting
- Experience developing and reviewing technically complex planning products, exercise documentation, executive briefings, reports, decision-support materials, and senior-leadership presentations
- Strong understanding of emergency management, preparedness, response, recovery, consequence management, continuity, and interagency coordination principles
- Excellent facilitation skills with demonstrated ability to lead planning conferences, workshops, working groups, exercises, and senior-level stakeholder engagements
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate complex operational and planning information into concise executive-level products
- Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite, Microsoft Project or comparable scheduling tools, SharePoint, Teams, and other collaboration, project management, and data visualization platforms
Desired Qualifications
- Project Management Professional (PMP) certification
- FEMA Master Exercise Practitioner Program (MEPP) or comparable advanced exercise-planning qualification
- FEMA Emergency Management Institute (EMI) and/or National Incident Management System (NIMS)/Incident Command System (ICS) training
- Experience applying Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) principles and methodologies
- Previous experience supporting FEMA, DHS, or another federal emergency management/homeland security organization
- Experience supporting National Special Security Events (NSSEs), Special Event Assessment Rating (SEAR) events, Olympic/Paralympic Games, large-scale sporting events, or similarly complex national/international events
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