Emergency Management Directors
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.
- Median pay
- $93,330
- Doing it now
- 14,000
- By 2035
- Up 3.9%
- Usually needs
- Bachelor's degree
a year
across the country
1,100 openings a year
to get in
What the work involves
- Keep informed of activities or changes that could affect the likelihood of an emergency, response efforts, or plan implementation.
- 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.
- Propose alteration of emergency response procedures, based on regulatory changes, technological changes, or knowledge gained from outcomes of previous emergency situations.
- Maintain and update all resource materials associated with emergency preparedness plans.
- Coordinate disaster response or crisis management activities, such as ordering evacuations, opening public shelters, and implementing special needs plans and programs.
- Develop and maintain liaisons with municipalities, county departments, and similar entities to facilitate plan development, response effort coordination, and exchanges of personnel and equipment.
- Keep informed of federal, state, and local regulations affecting emergency plans, and ensure that plans adhere to those regulations.
What to study
The fields of study the Department of Education links to this occupation, most widely taught first.
- Criminal Justice and CorrectionsSee 956 colleges that teach it
- Homeland SecuritySee 124 colleges that teach it
Who it suits
O*NET scores every occupation on six interest dimensions. This one leans hardest on these three.
Leading and persuading
Organised and precise
Analytical and curious
Careers like this one
Where this comes from: the description and the task list are O*NET, which the Department of Labor maintains. Pay, workforce size, outlook and the education normally needed are the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections programme, 2025 wages and 2025 to 2035 projections. Half of them earn more than $93,330 a year, which means half earn less, and what you would earn depends on where you work and how long you have been doing it. The fields of study come from the National Center for Education Statistics crosswalk.