National Strategic Advisor- Disaster Resilience

National Strategic Advisor- Disaster Resilience

Freese and Nichols is seeking a National Strategic Advisor- Disaster Resilience to serve as the firm's foremost technical expert and trusted advisor in disaster resilience, emergency management, and community recovery. This individual will help shape and advance Freese and Nichols' national reputation as a leader in disaster resilience by bringing deep technical expertise, industry credibility, and strategic insight across the full disaster lifecycle.

As the National Strategic Advisor, you will guide the technical direction of Freese and Nichols' Disaster Resilience initiative, helping communities prepare for, respond to, recover from, and become more resilient to natural hazards. You will work alongside the Strategic Initiative Leader and collaborate with technical experts across practices to elevate capabilities, identify emerging trends, influence industry best practices, and strengthen client trust. This role will help establish Freese and Nichols as a nationally recognized advisor capable of delivering integrated resilience solutions that span infrastructure, emergency management, funding, policy, planning, and long-term recovery.

Responsibilities include:

• Serve as Freese and Nichols' National Strategic Advisor for Disaster Resilience, advising the firm on the technical direction for disaster resilience-related services.
• Advance FNI's technical excellence and national reputation in disaster resilience, emergency management, hazard mitigation, recovery, and whole-community resilience through thought leadership, innovation, and industry engagement.
• Provide strategic advisory services for complex resilience initiatives, helping clients address risk, preparedness, mitigation, response, recovery, and long-term adaptation challenges.
• Partner with practice leaders and the Strategic Initiative Leader to define, develop, and continuously improve disaster resilience service offerings across planning, engineering, emergency management, funding, and program management disciplines.
• Champion integration of disaster resilience principles into FNI's planning, design, and program delivery practices.
• Lead the development of technical frameworks, methodologies, best practices, tools, and guidance that strengthen consistency and quality across disaster resilience projects and services nationwide.
• Identify emerging trends, evolving policies, funding programs, technologies, and industry practices that create opportunities for innovation, service expansion, and improved client outcomes.
• Mentor and develop technical staff across practices, building organizational capability in resilience planning, emergency management, disaster recovery, climate adaptation, and related disciplines.
• Advise firm leadership on strategic investments, capability development, emerging technical needs, and opportunities to enhance FNI's competitive position in the disaster resilience market.
• Serve as a senior technical reviewer, mentor, and subject matter expert for key resilience projects, ensuring delivery of high-quality, innovative, and defensible solutions.
• Build and maintain relationships with national organizations, government agencies, universities, research institutions, and industry leaders to strengthen FNI's visibility, credibility, and access to emerging best practices.
• Represent Freese and Nichols through conference presentations, technical publications, industry committees, research initiatives, training programs, and client education efforts that elevate the firm's national profile.
• Support strategic pursuits by providing technical credibility, executive-level client engagement, industry intelligence, and subject matter expertise for major opportunities involving resilience, emergency management, recovery, infrastructure adaptation, and disaster funding programs.
• Foster collaboration across practices and geographies to create integrated resilience solutions that leverage the full breadth of Freese and Nichols' planning, engineering, environmental, program management, and funding expertise.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of progressive experience in disaster resilience, emergency management, infrastructure resilience, public sector consulting, disaster recovery, hazard mitigation, flood risk management, planning, engineering, program management, or a related field.
• Bachelor's degree in engineering, planning, emergency management, public administration, environmental science, public policy, or a related field.
• Demonstrated success leading business development, client engagement, strategy development, and/or market growth in a public sector consulting environment.
• Experience working with local, regional, state, and/or federal clients involved in disaster preparedness, mitigation, response, recovery, infrastructure resilience, or public funding programs.
• Ability to translate complex policy, funding, technical, and operational issues into clear market strategies, client solutions, and actionable implementation plans.
• Strong executive presence with the ability to build trust with clients, internal stakeholders, technical leaders, teaming partners, and firm leadership.
• Demonstrated ability to lead through influence across practices, geographies, disciplines, and organizational structures.
• Strong understanding of the disaster lifecycle and the relationships among preparedness, mitigation, response, recovery, funding, infrastructure planning, and long-term resilience.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, writing, and presentation skills.

Preferred:

• Experience supporting disaster resilience, emergency management, hazard mitigation, disaster recovery, or infrastructure resilience programs for local, state, or federal agencies.
• Knowledge of federal and state funding programs, including FEMA, HUD CDBG-DR/CDBG-MIT, Hazard Mitigation Assistance, and similar resilience and recovery funding sources.
• Experience developing, managing, or supporting pre-disaster advisory contracts, on-call contracts, technical assistance programs, or disaster recovery engagements.
• Established relationships with public sector clients, emergency management organizations, funding agencies, and resilience stakeholders.
• Demonstrated success in business development, strategic planning, and executive-level client relationship management.
• Ability to translate complex technical, funding, and policy issues into actionable business strategies and client solutions.
• Experience leading cross-functional teams and influencing outcomes across multiple disciplines and organizational boundaries.
• Strong executive presence, communication skills, and ability to build trust with both clients and internal stakeholders.
• Professional registration or certification such as PE, CFM, AICP, PMP, or similar credentials.
• Active participation in relevant professional and industry organizations.

About Freese and Nichols

At the heart of our culture is our LEADS values (L earn continuously, E ngage as family, A ct with integrity, D eliver quality, and S erve always). Each year, our employee engagement survey confirms that our leaders and our employees live our values.

We strive to be the firm of choice for clients and employees through innovative approaches, practical results, and outstanding service. For more than 130 years, we have been planning and designing the infrastructure our communities need: developing water supplies, designing roadways and bridges, preparing for natural disasters, and much more.

Besides our comprehensive benefits package (see more at Benefits That Work for You), we offer paid overtime for salaried employees, an annual bonus, and access to company cabins in Red River, New Mexico and Banner Elk, North Carolina. We are proud of our flexible work environment which includes a hybrid schedule with up to 40% of remote work, and an alternative work schedule program which provides a day off every other Friday.

Join our team of 1,300+ employees as we grow from Virginia to Colorado. Learn more about working here at Working at Freese and Nichols.

Freese and Nichols is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and prohibits employment discrimination for employees and applicants based upon race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, pregnancy, genetic information, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other protected category under applicable federal, state, and local laws.