What does a Emergency Management Director do?

Plan and direct disaster response or crisis management activities, provide disaster preparedness training, and prepare emergency plans and procedures for natural (e.g., hurricanes, floods, earthquakes), wartime, or technological (e.g., nuclear power plant emergencies or hazardous materials spills) disasters or hostage situations. Day to day that includes work like consult with officials of local and area governments, schools, hospitals, and other institutions to determine their needs and capabilities in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency and Develop and maintain liaisons with municipalities, county departments, and similar entities to facilitate plan development, response effort coordination, and exchanges of personnel and equipment.

What skills should a Emergency Management Director put on a resume?

O*NET rates Service Orientation, Complex Problem Solving, Speaking, Active Listening, and Coordination among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.

What software should a Emergency Management Director list?

Software recorded for this occupation includes Alert Technologies OpsCenter, Desktop publishing software, Digital Engineering Corporation E-MAPS, Emergency Managers Weather Information Network EMWIN, and Emergency Services Integrators ESi WebEOC. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.

What other job titles cover Emergency Management Director work?

O*NET records 19 titles for this occupation, including Emergency Management System Director, EMS Director, Emergency Planner, and Public Safety Director. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

What qualifications does a Emergency Management Director need?

In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 59% reported their level of education as "Bachelor's Degree". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

Will this resume pass an ATS for a Emergency Management Director role?

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Emergency Management Director resume example

A resume for a Emergency Management Director needs to show the work itself: plan and direct disaster response or crisis management activities, provide disaster preparedness training, and prepare emergency plans and procedures for natural (e.g., hurricanes, floods, earthquakes), wartime, or technological (e.g., nuclear power plant emergencies or hazardous materials spills) disasters or hostage situations. Day to day that means work like this: consult with officials of local and area governments, schools, hospitals, and other institutions to determine their needs and capabilities in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency; develop and maintain liaisons with municipalities, county departments, and similar entities to facilitate plan development, response effort coordination, and exchanges of personnel and equipment. Recruiters and applicant tracking systems both read for the tasks and tools this role actually involves, so the strongest resume names them in your own experience rather than describing the job in the abstract. Below are the tasks O*NET records for this occupation, the software and tools it uses, the titles it is advertised under, and the skills worth naming if they are genuinely yours.

Also advertised as

The same job is posted under many titles. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

Emergency Management System Director
EMS Director
Emergency Planner
Public Safety Director
911 Communications Manager
Emergency Management Coordinator
Emergency Manager
Emergency Preparedness Manager
Emergency Services Director
Emergency Services Program Coordinator
Change Management Specialist
Civil Defense Director
Civil Preparedness Officer
Disaster Response Director
Emergency Planning and Response Manager
Emergency Preparedness Coordinator
Emergency Response Coordinator
Production Controller

O*NET records 19 titles for this occupation in total.

What this work actually involves

Tasks recorded for this occupation, in O*NET's words. If your experience covers one of these, it belongs on your resume in your own words.

Consult with officials of local and area governments, schools, hospitals, and other institutions to determine their needs and capabilities in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency.
Develop and maintain liaisons with municipalities, county departments, and similar entities to facilitate plan development, response effort coordination, and exchanges of personnel and equipment.
Coordinate disaster response or crisis management activities, such as ordering evacuations, opening public shelters, and implementing special needs plans and programs.
Prepare emergency situation status reports that describe response and recovery efforts, needs, and preliminary damage assessments.
Maintain and update all resource materials associated with emergency preparedness plans.
Prepare plans that outline operating procedures to be used in response to disasters or emergencies, such as hurricanes, nuclear accidents, and terrorist attacks, and in recovery from these events.
Develop and perform tests and evaluations of emergency management plans in accordance with state and federal regulations.
Collaborate with other officials to prepare and analyze damage assessments following disasters or emergencies.
Design and administer emergency or disaster preparedness training courses that teach people how to effectively respond to major emergencies and disasters.
Keep informed of activities or changes that could affect the likelihood of an emergency, response efforts, or plan implementation.
Inspect facilities and equipment, such as emergency management centers and communications equipment, to determine their operational and functional capabilities in emergency situations.
Review emergency plans of individual organizations, such as medical facilities, to ensure their adequacy.

23 tasks are recorded in total; these are the most central.

Example bullets for this role

Built from this occupation's own tasks. The brackets stay empty on purpose: we will not invent a number for you, and a fabricated metric is the fastest way to lose an interview you had already won.

Consult with officials of local and area governments, schools, hospitals, and other institutions to determine their needs and capabilities in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Develop and maintain liaisons with municipalities, county departments, and similar entities to facilitate plan development, response effort coordination, and exchanges of personnel and equipment, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Coordinate disaster response or crisis management activities, such as ordering evacuations, opening public shelters, and implementing special needs plans and programs, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Prepare emergency situation status reports that describe response and recovery efforts, needs, and preliminary damage assessments, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].

Software used in this role

Recorded for this occupation by O*NET. An applicant tracking system matches the exact product name, so write the tool the way the posting writes it.

Alert Technologies OpsCenter
Desktop publishing software
Digital Engineering Corporation E-MAPS
Emergency Managers Weather Information Network EMWIN
Emergency Services Integrators ESi WebEOC
ESRI ArcGIS software
Federal Emergency Management Information System FEMIS
Geographic information system GIS software
Graphics software
IBM Lotus Notes
MapInfo Professional
McAfee
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Office software

24 software entries are recorded in total.

Tools and equipment

The physical equipment this occupation is recorded as using. Worth naming when a posting asks for it by name.

Chemical protective boots
Chemical protective clothing
Desktop computers
Emergency alert notification systems
Hard hats
Laptop computers
Personal computers
Protective hoods
Radiation detectors
Safety gloves
Self-contained breathing apparatus
Two way radios

What this job rates as most important

O*NET rates every skill for importance to this occupation. These are the highest rated, in order.

01Service Orientation
02Complex Problem Solving
03Speaking
04Active Listening
05Coordination
06Critical Thinking
07Judgment and Decision Making
08Monitoring
09Reading Comprehension
10Social Perceptiveness

Knowledge areas

The subject knowledge this occupation draws on, rated by importance.

Public Safety and Security
Administration and Management
Law and Government
Communications and Media
English Language
Customer and Personal Service
Telecommunications
Education and Training

What qualifications people in this job have

From O*NET's survey of people doing this work. This is what postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

59%Bachelor's Degree
14%Master's Degree
9%Some College Courses

What level this role is pitched at

O*NET places this occupation in “Considerable Preparation Needed”. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Common questions

What does a Emergency Management Director do?: Plan and direct disaster response or crisis management activities, provide disaster preparedness training, and prepare emergency plans and procedures for natural (e.g., hurricanes, floods, earthquakes), wartime, or technological (e.g., nuclear power plant emergencies or hazardous materials spills) disasters or hostage situations. Day to day that includes work like consult with officials of local and area governments, schools, hospitals, and other institutions to determine their needs and capabilities in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency and Develop and maintain liaisons with municipalities, county departments, and similar entities to facilitate plan development, response effort coordination, and exchanges of personnel and equipment.
What skills should a Emergency Management Director put on a resume?: O*NET rates Service Orientation, Complex Problem Solving, Speaking, Active Listening, and Coordination among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.
What software should a Emergency Management Director list?: Software recorded for this occupation includes Alert Technologies OpsCenter, Desktop publishing software, Digital Engineering Corporation E-MAPS, Emergency Managers Weather Information Network EMWIN, and Emergency Services Integrators ESi WebEOC. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.
What other job titles cover Emergency Management Director work?: O*NET records 19 titles for this occupation, including Emergency Management System Director, EMS Director, Emergency Planner, and Public Safety Director. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.
What qualifications does a Emergency Management Director need?: In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 59% reported their level of education as "Bachelor's Degree". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.
Will this resume pass an ATS for a Emergency Management Director role?: No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Related roles

Occupations O*NET records as closest to this one, and worth looking at if this search is not moving.

What this page cannot tell you

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer’s ATS is configured, including ours.
This page makes no claim about pay, demand or how many people hold this job. O*NET does not publish that here and we will not estimate it.
Keyword overlap is one input to a resume’s score, not a verdict on you. A resume that names skills you do not have is worse than one that names fewer.

If this is the job you are aiming at, the guide to tailoring a resume covers how to aim one posting properly, and building and exporting a resume here is free.

Occupation data from the O*NET 29.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under CC BY 4.0. O*NET is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. SpartanResume is not endorsed by USDOL/ETA.