About This Career

Emergency management officers evaluate potential and actual disasters, ensuring adequacy of warning systems, shelters, and disaster preparedness plans. Emergency management officers prepare and administer measures to cope with both natural disasters and chemical, nuclear weapon, reactor, and radiological incidents. They direct command and control centers during the development of situations and also participate in emergency response operations. These operations may involve responding to accidents.

This career is part of the Government and Public Administration cluster National Security pathway.

A person in this career:

• Organizes disaster preparedness functions and teams
• Plans, develops, and administers disaster preparedness programs, including chemical, nuclear weapon, reactor, and radiological accidents and incidents, and nuclear, biological, and chemical defense
• Tests contingency plans through exercise development, execution, after-action reporting, and improvement planning; utilizes modeling, simulations, and hazard prediction capabilities
• Serves as direct liaison to civil and federal authorities to plan, prepare for, coordinate, and execute civil disaster assistance programs pursuant to natural or manmade disasters, or other domestic emergencies
• Collaborates with other agencies to expedite traffic movement, airlift, and resource deployment
• Supervises the detection, location, isolation, and decontamination of nuclear, biological, and chemical hazards
• Serves as direct liaison to civil and federal authorities to plan, prepare for, coordinate, and execute civil disaster assistance programs pursuant to natural or manmade disasters
• Establishes test programs for equipment and ordnance systems
• Determines efficiency rating of ships by planning, organizing, conducting, or evaluating competitions and exercises
• Directs, coordinates, and supports search and rescue operations

Working Conditions and Physical Demands

People who do this job report that:

• You would often handle loads up to 10 lbs., sometimes up to 20 lbs. You might do a lot of walking or standing, or you might sit but use your arms and legs to control machines, equipment or tools.
• Exposed to conditions such as high voltage electricity, combustibles, explosives, and chemicals more than once a month
• Work in this occupation requires being inside most of the time
• Work in this occupation requires being outside most of the time

Working in this career involves (physical activities):

• Speaking clearly enough to be able to be understood by others
• Identifying and understanding the speech of another person

Work Hours and Travel

• Irregular hours