Director, Global Journalist Safety

Who We Are

Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with editorial and operational bureaus in Taipei, Bangkok, and Seoul. A congressionally funded grantee of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), RFA operates with full editorial independence. Our mission is to provide accurate, uncensored news and information to people living in countries where a free press does not exist. We broadcast in nine languages and dialects - Mandarin, Cantonese, Tibetan, Uyghur, Burmese, Vietnamese, Lao, Khmer, and Korean - reaching audiences across China, North Korea, Vietnam, Burma, Cambodia, Laos and beyond via shortwave, satellite, and the internet. Our journalists work in some of the world's most difficult media environments, often at considerable personal risk, filling a critical gap in access to truthful, timely news for millions of people who would otherwise have very little of it. That reality shapes everything about how we work and who we hire to lead this organization.

Responsibilities

Radio Free Asia seeks a Director of Global Journalist Safety to lead its worldwide safety and security function. Reporting directly to the COO, this senior leadership role is responsible for protecting the journalists, freelancers, and staff who support RFA's mission across Asia's most authoritarian and high-risk media environments — including China, North Korea, Vietnam, and Burma. The Director oversees two Global Journalist Safety Officers and a distributed workforce operating from Bangkok, Seoul, and Taiwan, and across Asia through consultant and EOR arrangements. The Director leads RFA's preventative advocacy strategy with the U.S. Government, UN, and EU. Builds and owns the organizational crisis response architecture, and serves as RFA's principal expert on physical and psychosocial journalist safety and creates emergency response systems and protocols.

Leadership & Team Management

• Directly manage two Global Journalist Safety Officers. Provide clear objectives, regular performance reviews, and ongoing professional development support.
• Manage safety function budgets including third-party security providers and external consultants. Visibility of staff across RFA's offices in Bangkok, Seoul, and Taiwan, and consultants and EOR employees deployed across Asia.
• Report regularly to the COO on safety risks, active TNR cases, and strategic priorities. Brief the President and Board as required.
• Coordinate with HR on welfare, staffing, and workforce planning across all safety personnel globally.
• Coordinate with the external/communications division on advocacy efforts, media outreach, and external engagement with USG and organizations.

Strategy Development

• Lead a preventative advocacy strategy to reduce risk of arrest and journalists' exposure to TNR, rather than responding reactively to cases in crisis.
• Support the U.S. Government to engage national governments on journalists at risk before economic aid packages are agreed.
• Lead risk assessment for advocacy strategies, accounting for physical and psychosocial risks, with particular focus on trauma.
• Broaden USAGM's diplomatic engagement beyond USG to leverage the most effective missions for each case.
• Design a UN/EU advocacy strategy, targeting delegations in Brussels, Geneva, and New York — to raise individual cases and represent RFA's needs.
• Create and maintain RFA's Global Safety Strategy, a multi-year framework covering journalist safety objectives, TNR reduction targets, Asia-region risk assessments, and advocacy priorities. Updated annually and approved by the COO.
• Design and manage RFA's annual safety training program: plan, schedule, and track completion for all eligible staff.

Network Development

• Establish and maintain government, diplomatic, and civil society contacts to support advocacy for journalists at risk across Asia.
• Develop preventative measures through the U.S.-linked business community, raising journalist cases before business deals are finalised.
• Share information on specific cases with partner advocacy organisations — CPJ, RSF, INSI — for coordinated action across geographic contexts.
• Build peer relationships with safety directors at NPR, Reuters, AP, RFE/RL, and Middle East Broadcasting Network.
• Maintain a vetted roster of third-party security providers across RFA's Asia coverage region.

Crisis Management

• Design and manage confidentiality and media blackout protocols appropriate to each case.
• Own RFA's journalist safety crisis response framework: escalation protocols, incident command structure, and decision-making authorities at each level.
• Serve as senior crisis lead for all serious Asia-region incidents, detention, abduction, injury, death in the field, leading the internal Crisis Management Team across editorial, legal, HR, and the COO.
• Maintain 24/7/365 emergency response capability with defined on-call responsibilities across both Officers.
• Maintain a case management system for all active and historical TNR cases, including family liaison where appropriate.
• Conduct post-incident After Action Reviews (AARs) and embed lessons into protocols and training content.
• Develop and test country-level contingency and business continuity plans for all RFA operations across Asia.
• Regularly review the Crisis Management Team structure and update as necessary.

Office Safety

• Collaborates with COO and CTO on office security, including overseas bureaus.
• Oversees physical safety policy and architecture for all RFA offices (access control, visitor management, CCTV, evacuation, fire) with execution delivered by Country Operations Director at each bureau.
• Designs emergency communication procedures and protocols connecting staff, journalists, and the crisis response function, with underlying technology delivered by Chief TechOps.
• Digital security of RFA's devices, networks, or data is managed by the CTO. However, the Safety Director consults on digital-security policy where it affects journalist safety, and assumes crisis lead when a digital incident creates physical risk to a journalist or sources.

Conditions of Role

• Largely remote with significant travel in support of advocacy and operational oversight.
• Flexible hours required, including out-of-hours availability during active cases.
• 24/7 on-call responsibility during active crises, shared across the safety team and defined in the team operating model.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor's degree required in international relations, security studies, journalism, or related field. Master's degree preferred, or experience in lieu of degree.
• 10 years of crisis management experience, including real-time response to journalist safety incidents, including demonstrable lead (not supporting) experience across a minimum of three serious incidents (detention, abduction, serious injury, death in field, or forced exile). Documented experience operating against state-level adversaries, specifically state-sponsored surveillance, transnational repression, and diaspora targeting. Candidates must be able to describe (under NDA if needed) at least one case where they navigated hostile state intelligence interest in a journalist or source. Documented experience of at least two transnational repression (TNR) cases taken from detection through resolution, including family liaison and cross-jurisdiction coordination.
• 10 years of leadership including management of geographically dispersed international teams.
• 5 years experience in advocacy for incarcerated and other at-risk journalists.
• 5 years of knowledge and understanding of regional dynamics East and South East Asia and common risks and threats in Asia. Specifically working knowledge of the risk environment in one or more of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, North Korea, Vietnam, Burma, Thailand, or Cambodia. Short-term travel or project visits do not meet this requirement; extended in-region posting, cross-border casework, or sustained regional portfolio ownership does.
• Strong leadership and team development skills across geographically dispersed, multi-office teams.
• Excellent written and oral communicator.
• Confident briefing government interlocutors and executive leadership.

Preferred Qualifications And Experience

• 5+ years as a journalist is advantageous.
• Prior experience in media, international NGO, diplomatic service, or government security function.
• Asia-Pacific journalist safety experience strongly preferred.
• Bilingualism is advantageous.

Competencies

• Must have exceptional judgment and confidentiality, with the ability to recognise when to push and when not to.
• Integrity and the highest standards of professional ethics.

This is a full-time, exempt position based in Washington, DC. Some flexibility in work hours required to accommodate international time zones. Salary Range: $125,050 - $166,805 Annually