If you’re looking for a career where you can use your leadership skills to make a difference in communities across the nation, then you should consider management jobs available with the Red Cross. First founded in 1881, the American Red Cross is a humanitarian organization headquartered in Washington, DC to provide emergency assistance and disaster relief efforts in times of crisis. Not only does the Red Cross help victims of 70,000 disasters each year, but they also provide first aid training and collect over 40% of our country’s blood supply. Often named the world’s largest humanitarian network, the Red Cross offers various career and volunteer opportunities. Below are some of the popular managerial-level positions available for individuals seeking to lead recovery operations for touching millions of lives.
Disaster Program Manager
On the front lines, disaster program managers are given the responsibility of implementing disaster services programs in an assigned geographic region of the United States. Disaster program managers lead a primarily volunteer team to carry out all emergency preparedness, response, and recovery programs needed in the local area. Grant funding, geography, disaster risk, population, frequency of catastrophic events, and regional government infrastructure contribute to how many disaster program managers work in a region. Disaster program managers typically must have at least a bachelor’s degree, possess five or more years in implementing social service programs, and have at least one year of supervisory experience.
Regional Account Manager
For the Red Cross, regional account managers are hired to design, develop, and implement effective customer strategies for their assigned U.S. territory to maximize the organization’s revenue growth. As the primary liaison between local contracts and the biomedical services department, the regional account manager cultivates relationships with regional suppliers for boosting blood sales and covering operating costs. Since regional account managers often work with 40 to 50 different hospital customers, it’s essential that they have at least five years related work experience interacting with senior hospital executives. A bachelor’s degree in business administration, management, life sciences, or a relevant field is also required.
Divisional Chief Medical Officer
Across the United States, Divisional Chief Medical Officers (DCMOs) are employed by the Red Cross to oversee the development and implementation of all medical procedures of the blood services departments in their region. Typical job responsibilities would include hiring skilled medical teams, arranging for adequate coverage of all medical functions, providing medical consultation in transfusion services to hospital customers, directing the medical aspects of regulated blood center operations, investigating donor complaints, and offering professional development opportunities to medical directors. DCMOs must have an M.D. degree with post-graduate training in blood transfusion medicine and state medical licensure. Five years of experience in managing blood center operations or relevant medical research is also preferred.
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Overall, there are endless career opportunities with the Red Cross for individuals seeking competitive pay, comprehensive benefits, professional development, and the rewards of leading dynamic missions. If you’re aiming for a career with the Red Cross, you should consider attending the Summer Internship Program at one of the 500 units located nationwide. These ten-week paid internships are designed to help introduce undergraduate and graduate students from diverse backgrounds to the daily operations of the organization. Then, you can begin working your way up and gaining the experience needed to fulfill these upper-level management jobs available with the Red Cross.