Director of Safety & Emergency Response at Altezza Travel

Altezza Travel is one of East Africa’s fastest-growing adventure travel companies. We operate Mount Kilimanjaro climbs and wildlife safaris across the Serengeti, Ngorongoro, and other iconic Tanzanian parks. Every year, over 6,000 travellers explore the country with us across more than 800 expeditions.

We are looking for a Coordinator of Rescue and Emergency Services to join our team in Kilimanjaro. Our ideal candidate is calm under pressure, empathetic with people in difficult situations, steady by disposition, and comfortable taking responsibility when it matters most.

The standard we are working toward is the kind of safety culture you find in top-tier commercial aviation, such as Emirates, Qatar Airways, KLM. Organisations where nothing is left to chance, where every procedure is documented, every risk is anticipated, and every person on the team knows exactly what to do. We know we are an adventure travel company, not an airline, but the mindset is the same, and we are ready to invest in this: equipment, training infrastructure, facilities.

The role

Think of this as running an in-house 911 coordination centre, but embedded inside an adventure travel company.

Your job is to build, maintain, and operate the safety infrastructure that keeps our expeditions and operations running without serious incident. Over 12 years of operation, we have not had a single major safety failure, largely due to the culture and the safety systems we have built. Your job is to protect and strengthen it.

This is not a high-adrenaline crisis role. The emphasis here is on prevention: designing the protocols, running the training, and putting the systems in place so that emergencies either don’t happen or are handled cleanly when they do. If you’re used to working in emergency services, you’ll find this role significantly less reactive, and more focused on the organisational and training side of safety.

That said, when something does happen, you are the person who takes charge.

The role covers three operational areas:

1. Mountain expeditions

We run 800+ Kilimanjaro expeditions per year with a field team of over 140 mountain guides and 3000 porters. You will be responsible for the safety standards and emergency protocols across all routes and all teams.

Day to day: you will audit our safety protocols, identify gaps, write and revise manuals and standard operating procedures, and design and deliver training for guides and field staff.

When an incident occurs: you become the central coordinator. You manage communication between mountain guides, helicopter operators, medical personnel, insurance providers, company leadership, and any other relevant party. The safety of the client and the team is your responsibility, and so is the decision about what needs to happen to secure it.

2. Vehicle fleet and ground transfers

We operate a fleet of 70+ vehicles, with daily transfers running across the Kilimanjaro region and beyond. You will be responsible for the safety and emergency readiness of these operations.

Day to day: you will monitor vehicle movement protocols, ensure drivers and dispatch staff are trained for emergency situations, and maintain clear escalation procedures.

When an incident occurs: you coordinate with ambulance services, hospitals, paramedics, and our operational team to ensure a fast, organised response.

3. Safari operations

Our safari guides operate in remote environments, often far from immediate medical support. You will be responsible for their emergency preparedness.

Day to day: you will develop and deliver training that covers the full range of field emergencies our guides may encounter, from snakebites and anaphylaxis to problems with vehicles in remote areas. We don’t expect you to provide guidance on how to fix the car – we have a chief mechanic for that, but rather to make sure the guides know the right procedures and get proper support from the Altezza team members with relevant expertise, be it technical, medical or other.

When an incident occurs: you support the guide on the ground and coordinate the response from our operations base.

Who we’re looking for

We are looking for someone with a background in emergency operations or emergency services management — someone who knows how a 911 coordination centre works, or equivalent: civil emergency services, search and rescue coordination or pre-hospital emergency operations.

Experience in wilderness or expedition safety is equally welcome. What matters is that you have worked in environments where the stakes are real and you know how to build systems, not just respond to situations.

You are not starting from zero. We have a strong operational team with clear lines of responsibility, and safety has been a priority since day one.

On the mountain, our guides are equipped with comprehensive medical kits designed for high-altitude emergencies. We run regular Wilderness First Responder (WFR) training across the guide team, as well as deeper clinical training specifically on HAPE and HACE — the two conditions most likely to be life-threatening at altitude. Every safari vehicle carries a fully stocked first aid kit. Our drivers operate under strict time-check protocols, with scheduled position reporting built into every transfer.

Your job is to take this foundation and raise it – identify what's missing, fix what's inconsistent, and build what doesn't exist yet

For this role, you will need:

• Fluent English — all manuals, training, and coordination are conducted in English
• A solid foundation in emergency operations or safety management — through formal training, professional experience, or both
• Experience designing or delivering safety training in a professional context
• The ability to write clearly manuals, SOPs, and assessments that people actually read and follow. We encourage using AI to work faster, but every document you produce must be written for the people. Procedures need to reflect the actual skill level of our guides and the realities of the environments they work in, not just copy-pasted from the chatbot.
• Strong coordination skills — you will be working across teams, and organisations when things go wrong
• Composure under pressure and a calm, methodical approach to decision-making
• The disposition of a builder: you get more satisfaction from a system that prevents a crisis than from managing one

We are ready to consider candidates, who miss certain points from the description, but are genuinely motivated to learn, committed to growing expertise, and see this opportunity as a long-term role.

Preferred qualifications:

• ICS (Incident Command System) certification or equivalent emergency management credential
• A professional medical qualification — paramedic license, EMT certification, or equivalent.
• Wilderness First Responder (WFR) Instructor, Wilderness First Aid (WFA) Instructor, WEMS, or equivalent wilderness medicine certification. Instructor-level credentials are particularly valued, as training our guides is a core part of this job.

A genuine interest in high-altitude environments and expedition travel is important. This is not a city job, and we want someone who sees that as an advantage.

Where you’ll live and work

This position is based full-time at our operations base in rural Tanzania (20 minute ride from Moshi town), at the foot of Kilimanjaro. It is a beautiful place to live and work, but it is not a city, and it’s important that you know what that means.

The nearest town with shops, cafés, and basic amenities is Moshi, about 20 minutes away. Some items easily available in the West are either expensive or unavailable here. Healthcare is not at the standard you would find in Europe.

You will spend meaningful time in the field with our teams on the mountain and in the bush.

Though this is primarily an office-based role, you will spend a certain amount of time in the field with our teams, on the mountain and in the bush, particularly during training sessions.

We offer

• Accommodation and meals at our company base, fully covered
• A full-time, 2-year contract: 11 months on, 1 month vacation. However, we hope this contract will be the beginning of a long-term journey with Altezza. Most of our core team have been with us for five years or more, and this is exactly the kind of role we see growing with the company.
• Housekeeping and support staff, so your time stays focused on the job
• A skilled and serious team that takes safety and operations to a high standard
• A competitive salary for this position. The full package is discussed individually after CV review.

How to apply

Send your CV and a cover letter to [email protected], a strong cover letter makes a real difference and we read them carefully. Promising candidates go through two interviews. We review every application, but will only reach out to candidates we'd like to move forward with.