Job Description
Business Continuity Manager
Position Overview:
The Business Continuity Manager is tasked with designing, executing, and overseeing strategies to safeguard the organization against disruptions, including cyberattacks, natural events, and operational failures. This role focuses on establishing robust continuity and recovery frameworks, assessing risks, training staff, and ensuring adherence to relevant industry standards such as ISO 22301, NIST frameworks, FedRAMP, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and others applicable to regulated sectors.
Core Duties
- Continuity and Recovery Framework Development
- Create and maintain comprehensive continuity and recovery strategies to address potential operational threats.
- Identify vulnerabilities and devise actionable mitigation plans for critical functions and systems.
- Partner with technical teams to implement backup, restoration, and redundancy solutions.
- Serve as the lead coordinator during incidents, guiding response and recovery efforts.
- Risk Evaluation and Process Analysis
- Perform detailed assessments to pinpoint essential operations, interdependencies, and recovery priorities.
- Analyze risks stemming from cybersecurity, environmental hazards, technology failures, or external partners.
- Present risk reduction recommendations to executive leadership for strategic decision-making.
- Crisis Preparedness and Response
- Establish organization-wide protocols for managing disruptions effectively.
- Participate actively in the incident response unit, driving coordinated action during emergencies.
- Design and facilitate simulations, drills, and scenario exercises to test readiness.
- Maintain clear and timely communication channels during crises.
- Standards and Compliance Oversight
- Align continuity practices with regulatory and industry benchmarks, including NIST standards, ISO 22301, and sector-specific requirements (e.g., HIPAA, FISMA).
- Collaborate with legal and audit teams to meet compliance obligations.
- Assist in preparing for and responding to internal reviews and external evaluations.
- Education and Preparedness Initiatives
- Develop and roll out training programs to equip staff for disruption scenarios.
- Promote awareness of individual roles in maintaining operational resilience.
- Conduct regular exercises to ensure preparedness and refine response capabilities.
- Supply Chain and Partner Resilience
- Evaluate the continuity and recovery readiness of third-party providers.
- Work with procurement to strengthen supply chain stability.
- Build fallback options for key external dependencies.
- Performance Tracking and Enhancement
- Deliver periodic updates on resilience efforts and risk status to leadership.
- Monitor incident patterns to improve response tactics.
- Lead ongoing refinements to continuity strategies based on insights gained.
- Assess and adjust plans to maintain their relevance and effectiveness.
Qualifications
Education and Background:
- Bachelor’s degree in Risk Management, Cybersecurity, Information Technology, or a comparable discipline.
- Minimum of 5 years in continuity planning, disaster recovery, or risk mitigation roles.
- Prior work in regulated fields (e.g., healthcare, finance, public sector) is advantageous.
Preferred Certifications:
- Business Continuity Certification (e.g., CBCP)
- Cybersecurity or Audit Credentials (e.g., CISSP, CISA, CISM)
- ISO 22301 Implementation or Auditing Certification
Skills and Expertise:
- Deep understanding of continuity standards like ISO 22301, NIST 800-34, and ITIL principles.
- Proficiency with risk analysis tools, continuity platforms, and recovery technologies.
- Analytical skills for interpreting risk and compliance data.
- Proven leadership, project oversight, and decision-making abilities.
- Strong interpersonal skills for engaging diverse stakeholders.
Success Metrics
- Rate of completion for risk and impact assessments (Business Impact Analysis).
- Effectiveness and timeliness of continuity/recovery testing.
- Adherence to compliance benchmarks.
- Recovery speed and data loss minimization (RTO/RPO targets).
- Employee training participation and preparedness levels.
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