Programme Officer, Climate Resilience

WWF-Malaysia; Kudat Division; On-site; MYR 33,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

WWF-Malaysia is seeking a focal person for coral reef resilience and community adaptive capacity in Kudat–Pitas, East Coast Sabah, to lead reef resilience initiatives and CBDRM activities with partners and communities. You will work with Sabah Parks, DOFS, and universities to deliver climate-smart reef restoration and evidence-based planning.

The role emphasizes collaboration across ecologists, communities, and authorities, ensuring inclusive participation and adherence to environmental

Qualifications

• Bachelor degree in Marine Biology or Marine Science, Climate Change and Sustainability, Conservation Biology.
• At least 3 years of experience with coastal communities and stakeholders in marine resource management or climate adaptation.
• Willing to travel and work flexible hours to accommodate field conditions.
• Strong communication in English and Bahasa Malaysia; Sabah dialects beneficial.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate and implement baseline assessments including participatory EVCA and vulnerability mapping.
• Facilitate validation of resilience findings with Sabah Parks and DOFS for uptake into management decisions.
• Coordinate bi-annual resilience assessment and annual reef condition monitoring.
• Support climate-smart reef restoration planning and monitoring of restoration effectiveness.
• Contribute to climate-informed planning processes and SCAP development.
• Build community capacity on disaster preparedness and early warning systems.
• Establish and strengthen CBDRR governance and community engagement structures.
• Ensure GEDSI-disaggregated data collection and inclusive participation across interventions.

Skills

Field surveys

Community engagement

Report writing

English/Bahasa Malaysia

Education

Bachelor degree in Marine Biology or Marine Science, Climate Change and Sustainability, Conservation Biology

Tools

MS Office

Data collection tools

Job description

This position is responsible for coordinating and implementing Strategy S2.1: Strengthen coral reef resilience in priority seascapes while achieving measurable resilience improvement across 8 WWF-supported sites in East Coast Sabah (ECS) and Strategy S2.9: 9: Strengthen climate resilience capacity across at least 2 coastal communities in East Coast Sabah under WWF-Malaysia Marine Programme Phase 4 for the ECS with primary focus on Kudat Pitas (KP) under the direct supervision of the Team Lead, Kudat-Pitas.

Strategy S2.1 focuses on establishing a scientifically robust and institutionally validated system for reef resilience and community adaptive capacity. This includes generating Reef Resilience (RRI) baselines, conducting coral reef vulnerability assessments, performing Enhanced Vulnerability Capacity Assessment (EVCA) at identified WWF-supported sites and supporting climate-smart coral reef restoration to inform management and policy decisions contributing to Sabah Climate Adaptation Plan.

Strategy S2.9 focuses on strengthening climate resilience and disaster preparedness among coastal communities in Kudat-Pitas through LEAP-CCA implementation and Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (CBDRM) systems. The strategy aims to develop functional, community-led disaster preparedness frameworks, integrating hazard mapping, early warning systems, and response mechanisms that can be institutionalised and replicated across Sabah.

The incumbent serves as the focal person for coral reef resilience, community adaptive capacity, and community-based disaster preparedness in Kudat-Pitas, while providing technical support to reef resilience initiatives across ECS. The role ensures strong integration between ecosystem resilience and community resilience, recognising that long-term marine conservation outcomes depend on both healthy ecosystems and resilient coastal communities.

The incumbent will work closely with coastal communities, Sabah Parks, Department of Fisheries Sabah (DOFS), district authorities, Malaysian Red Crescent, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), and other partners to ensure effective implementation, institutional alignment, and policy integration.

The incumbent will work in close collaboration with relevant Project Teams, Strategy Leads, Team Leads, and Programme Heads to ensure integrated delivery of objectives and results across all areas of responsibility. All work is guided by and contributes to the WWF Network Roadmap 2030, WWF-Malaysia Strategy 2021–2030, National Plan of Action, the Global Biodiversity Framework, and the Marine Programme Phase 4 priorities.

The expected outputs are:

• Effective implementation and progression of Strategy S2.1 and S2.9, with implementation plans, budgets, technical reports and monitoring records demonstrating progress against Planned Intermediate Results (PIRs), indicators and annual targets, including timely identification and management of implementation risks.
• Standardised reef and community climate resilience assessment methodologies established and applied, including the Relative Resilience framework and EVCA-based resilience assessment module, with baseline assessments completed for WWF-supported priority sites.
• Climate-smart coral reef restoration evidence base established, including documentation of the MARRS pilot methodology and development of a targeted climate-smart coral reef restoration plan informed by reef resilience findings.
• Reef resilience and climate evidence integrated into management and planning, contributing to relevant management decisions and state-level processes.
• Updated multi-hazard risk profiles and preparedness gap analyses completed for target LEAP-CCA communities in Kudat–Pitas, informed by EVCA findings and socialised with relevant district agencies.
• Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction (CBDRR) frameworks developed and adopted in target LEAP-CCA communities, incorporating priority risk reduction, preparedness and community governance measures.

Major Activities

The incumbent will be responsible for implementing the following activities:

• Coordinate and implement reef resilience and community vulnerability baseline assessments, including participatory EVCA, coral reef vulnerability mapping, and identification of climate refugia.
• Facilitate technical validation of resilience findings with Sabah Parks, DOFS, and relevant agencies to support uptake into management decisions.
• Coordinate bi-annual reef resilience assessment and supporting the annual reef condition monitoring.
• Support development and implementation of climate-smart coral reef restoration, including MARRS methodology adaptation, site prioritisation, and monitoring of restoration effectiveness.
• Contribute technical inputs to climate-informed planning processes, including Sabah Climate Adaptation Plan (SCAP) development under Natural Resources Office.
• Coordinate and implement participatory EVCA and hazard mapping assessments in target LEAP-CCA communities in Kudat-Pitas, producing community risk profiles and vulnerability analyses.
• Build community capacity on disaster preparedness, early warning systems, and emergency response through training, drills, and simulation exercises.
• Establish and strengthen Community-Based Disaster Risk Management committees, including governance strengthening and coordination mechanisms.
• Develop and facilitate adoption of Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction frameworks, including preparedness plans, response protocols, and community governance structures.
• Ensure compliance with ESSF and FPIC requirements across all activities, while contributing to IMPAC implementation through required data collection and reporting, and ensuring GEDSI-disaggregated data collection and inclusive participation across interventions.
• Contribute to fundraising and thought leadership by providing technical inputs to concept notes, proposals and resource mobilisation initiatives, while developing and sharing technical knowledge, evidence, lessons and innovative approaches on coral reef resilience, climate adaptation and community resilience.
• Participate in relevant WWF-Malaysia organisational activities and engage and collaborate with key partners to strengthen coordinated implementation, policy alignment, knowledge exchange, and application of emerging approaches related to Marine Phase 4

Specifications

• Bachelor degree in Marine Biology or Marine Science, Climate Change and Sustainability, Conservation Biology,
• At least 3 years of experience working with coastal communities and stakeholders, preferably in marine resource management or coral reef conservation, or community-based climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction, is highly preferable.
• Experience in conducting field surveys/search, data collection and analysis, and technical/scientific report writing, especially related to marine conservation, and/or climate vulnerability assessment would be an added advantage.
• Willing to travel and work flexible hours to accommodate physically challenging marine field conditions.
• Competent in Microsoft Office (specifically Word and Excel), and able to use appropriate technology for presentations to partners, stakeholders and potential donors.
• Good communication skills (spoken and written) in English and Bahasa Malaysia. Local Sabah dialects would be an added advantage.
• Strong organizational and interpersonal skills with ability to work efficiently both independently and as part of a team, in the field and in the office.
• Possess SCUBA diving skills with an Advanced Open Water certification or at least 50 logged dives as Open Water diver.
• Good understanding of current environmental and conservation issues, and passionate about conservation.
• Proactive and self-motivated individual with persuasive communication skills needed to engage a wide range of audiences.
• Possess a valid driver’s license.
• Historical background is clear from any criminal records, fraud, and corruption cases.

Salary Range

RM3,000 - RM3,600