About the Department
The San Mateo County San Mateo County Emergency Management (SMC EM) is not your typical government agency. We operate more like a startup within the public sector – building innovative programs, forging cross-sector partnerships, and redefining what modern emergency management looks like for a county of 775,000 residents across 20 cities and 18 unincorporated areas.
Our mission is to advance community resilience through a proactive and comprehensive approach to emergency management, involving the whole community in every phase of preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery.
To learn more about SMC EM, visit: https://www.smcgov.org/dem
About the Role
This is not a desk job. This is not a new position we are trying to figure out. And this is not a role where you sit behind a screen waiting for the next alert to go out.
For over a year, SMC EM has been deliberately building a countywide Alert and Warning (A&W) program that brings coherence, consistency, and credibility to how San Mateo County communicates with the public before, during, and after emergencies. We have developed training curricula, created frameworks, established partnerships, and advanced the conversation across the Operational Area. Now we need someone to carry that work forward – externally.
The Alert and Warning Coordinator is fundamentally an external-facing role. There are 32 agencies within the San Mateo County Operational Area that hold alerting authority and sending rights. Each has its own protocols, staffing models, and levels of experience with alert and warning systems. Your job is to be the connective tissue—socializing our approach to A&W with operational area partners, building alignment across jurisdictions, and ensuring that when an alert goes out in this county, it is timely, accurate, actionable, and drives protective action.
You will brief city councils, law and fire chiefs with equal confidence. You will sit with an Incident Commander during a fast-moving wildfire and translate urgency into a message that saves lives. You will train authorized users on alerting platforms and hold the line on quality when others want to cut corners. And you will do all of this while representing a department that is changing the culture of emergency management in one of the most complex operational areas in the state.
What This Role Actually Involves
Partnership and Coordination (Primary Focus)
- Serve as the primary liaison to the 32 agencies across the Operational Area on all matters related to alert and warning, building relationships and driving alignment toward consistent A&W practices countywide.
- Brief alert and warning programs, standards, and best practices to diverse audiences—from city councils and boards of supervisors to law and fire chiefs, emergency managers, and community organizations—adapting your message for each.
- Coordinate monthly and recurring touchpoints with Operational Area partners to advance shared A&W goals, identify gaps, and troubleshoot challenges collaboratively.
- Represent SMC EM at stakeholder meetings, advisory committees, work groups, tabling events, and public-facing engagements at all levels of government.
- Facilitate training seminars and hands-on workshops for authorized users across jurisdictions on alerting platforms, protocols, and message crafting.
Alert Crafting and Operational Readiness
- Develop, review, and issue emergency alerts that drive protective action – messages that are clear, accurate, geographically targeted, accessible across languages, and calibrated to the threat. This includes understanding what makes an alert effective, not just how to press “send.”
- Maintain fluency across multiple alerting platforms including IPAWS, Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), the Emergency Alert System (EAS), mass notification systems, and reverse 9-1-1.
- Participate in a weekly on-call rotation, maintaining 24-hour readiness and responding to the field or Emergency Operations Center (EOC) during emergencies or disasters.
- Conduct regular testing and evaluation of A&W systems to ensure functionality, reliability, and interoperability across jurisdictions.
- Participate in after-action reviews and improvement planning to refine protocols based on lessons learned from exercises and real-world incidents.
Program Development and Standards
- Advance the County’s A&W program by developing and refining emergency notification standards, protocols, templates, and processes that serve as a model for the Operational Area.
- Assess existing community alert and warning programs for effectiveness, identify service gaps, and recommend evidence-based improvements – incorporating research on protective action decision-making, message design, and crisis communications.
- Coordinate with local, state, and federal agencies to ensure A&W system integration and interoperability, including IPAWS compliance and alignment with emerging federal guidance.
- Manage vendor services and contracts related to alerting platforms and notification systems.
- Review and update Operational Area alert and warning plans on a regular basis.
- Prepare reports, briefing materials, presentation decks, and other professional documents as needed.
Who We Are Looking For
The right person for this role is not just technically proficient in alerting systems – they understand the weight of what an alert means and the responsibility that comes with it. They know that a poorly crafted message can erode public trust, cause unnecessary panic, or worse, fail to prompt the protective action that saves lives.
We are looking for someone who combines operational skill with judgment, presence, and the relational ability to be credible across a complex Operational Area.
Mindset and Character
- Growth mindset. You are insatiably curious, always learning, and never satisfied with “the way we’ve always done it.”
- Willingness to ask for help when uncertain and to verify information before acting. In this work, getting it right matters more than getting it fast.
- Thrives under pressure. You can pivot, adapt, verify, and make sound decisions in rapidly evolving, high-consequence situations.
- Comfort with ambiguity. Emergency management rarely offers a clear playbook. You can operate effectively when the situation is messy, the information is incomplete, and the stakes are high.
- Integrity and courage. If you believe an alert is inaccurate or could cause harm, you speak up – even when it’s uncomfortable.
Knowledge and Experience
- Strong knowledge of IPAWS protocols and the broader alert and warning ecosystem, including WEA, EAS, and mass notification platforms.
- Demonstrated fluency using alerting platforms—not just awareness of them, but hands-on operational experience issuing, testing, or managing alerts.
- Understanding what makes an effective emergency alert: message design principles, protective action messaging, audience considerations, and the science behind how people receive and act on warnings.
- Familiarity with local, state, and federal regulations governing public alerts and emergency communications.
- Experience engaging diverse stakeholders including elected officials, public safety leaders, community organizations and adapting communications to the audience.
- Excellent written communication skills, including experience with reports, briefings, proposals, and professional presentations.
- Familiarity with the five Emergency Management Sections (Management, Operations, Planning, Logistics, Finance/Admin) and the Incident Command System.
- Completion of ICS Courses 100, 200, 700, and 800, or ability to complete within first 90 days.
- Completion of IS-247.C (IPAWS for Alert Originators) and IS-248 (IPAWS for the American Public), or ability to complete within first 90 days.
- A valid California Driver’s License.
- Ability to work across a wide variety of settings (field, office, EOC) and disciplines (law enforcement, fire services, emergency medical personnel).
Preferred but Not Required
- Master’s degree in emergency management, public administration, public affairs, crisis communication, homeland security, or a related field.
- Experience working across multiple jurisdictions or within a complex multi-agency operational environment.
- Knowledge of information technology related to emergency management, including radio communication systems and interoperability standards.
- Experience with grant writing, program budgeting, or contract management related to emergency communication systems.
Minimum Qualifications
Any combination of education and experience that would likely provide the required knowledge, skills, and abilities is qualifying. A typical way to qualify:
- Education: Bachelors and Masters (preferred) degree from an accredited college or university in emergency management, public administration, communications, homeland security, or a related discipline.
- Experience: Minimum five (5) years of experience in alert and warning operations, emergency communications, or emergency/disaster planning and management in a public, military, or private organization.
