Business Continuity Manager, Operational Resilience

Principal Purpose of the Job: 

The BCM Manager is responsible for developing, enhancing, implementing, and maintaining an effective Business Continuity Management (BCM) and Operational Resilience framework across the bank. This role ensures the bank is resilient and prepared to respond to business disruptions, minimise impact on operations, customers, and ensure regulatory compliance with all applicable regulation.

Main Responsibilities & Accountabilities:

Business Continuity and Operational Resilience Planning:

Own, implement, enhance and maintain the Bank’s BCM & OR framework in line with regulatory requirements, the Parent Bank’s policy and industry best practices;

Own the Bank’s BCM & OR policy and regularly review and update Bank’s BCM & OR policy, procedures, and plans;

Co-ordinate with departments to conduct Business Impact Analysis (BIA) to identify critical processes, resources, recovery objectives and dependencies;

Work with departments to design, develop, and maintain department level Business Continuity Plans (BCP) and a Bank-wide Business Continuity Plan;

Support department in identifying appropriate recovery strategies taking into consideration their recovery objective, Bank’s recovery objectives, regulatory requirements and cost;

Communicate the business recovery objectives to the IT department and provide feedback into IT disaster recovery plan to ensure the plan aligns with the business requirements;

Ensure BCM & OR practices comply with UK regulatory requirements (e.g., FCA, PRA, Bank of England) and the Parent Bank’s requirements;

Provide periodic reports and dashboard to the Bank’s Senior Management on effectiveness of the BCM & OR framework, including any BCM & OR risks;

BCM & OR Risk Assessment:

Identify potential threats and assess risks to business continuity and develop mitigation strategies;

Conduct regular risk assessments and scenario analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of BCM & OR framework;

Collaborate with Risk & ALM and Compliance & Legal departments to integrate BCM & OR into the bank’s overall risk management framework and operational resilience framework.

Collaborate with HR & Admin department and provide feedback on Bank’s Communication Strategy;

Document Management:

Ensure all BCM & OR documentation is current, accessible, quality assured and easily understood by relevant stakeholders;

BCM & OR Testing, Training and Awareness:

Design and deliver BCM & OR training and awareness sessions to all staff;

Conduct regular BCM drills and simulation exercises to test the Bank’s practice;

Incident Management:

Serve as a key member of the Bank’s Crisis Management Team (CMT);

Support CMT in responding to business disruptions, ensuring effective communication and decision-making;

Conduct post-incident reviews to capture lessons learned and improve response strategies;

Continuous Improvement:

Prepare an annual business continuity lifecycle program of activities and support the completion of this annual program to sustain and enhance the BCM & OR capabilities of the Bank;

Provide business continuity SME support to outsourcing departments to ensure the Bank’s BCM requirements are included in all third party arrangements, including an exit strategy;

Monitor industry trends and emerging threats and continuously improve the Bank’s BCM & OR Framework; and

Foster a culture of resilience and continuous improvement across the bank.

This role will build upon the Bank’s existing policies and controls in respect of business continuity, crisis management and operational resilience, including Group-level guidance and directives. The role will include extensive interaction with all parts of the Bank’s operations and support functions in London and must liaise with all levels of seniority.

Regulated Activities:

This role is not defined as a Senior Management Function under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime.

Skills Required:

The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate the following skills: -

• Practical experience in a senior role in a similar European financial services organisation with responsibility for Business Continuity Management;
• An understanding of and / or experience / qualification of Business Continuity Management and operational resilience principles and best practices (Business Continuity Institute);
• In depth awareness of business continuity, operational resilience and risk management;
• Good understanding of UK regulatory requirements on operational resilience and outsourcing requirements;
• Excellent communication skills are critical to ensure risk and control understanding is embedded throughout the business.

Skills Desired:

• Basic project management capabilities including chairing working group meetings, managing work streams, scheduling project action plans, cost / benefit assessment, engagement with third party service providers, etc.;
• Experience across banking business lines (corporate / wholesale banking, traded and capital markets, settlement and clearing) will be of particular value to this role although deep skills and expertise in all business lines is not expected;
• Familiarity with cross-border aspects of current and incoming UK and European BCM & OR regulation would be extremely advantageous. The Bank’s London branch forms a component of the larger global banking group and liaison with the Parent Bank and other overseas business units;
• Strong presentation skills – providing one-to-one, structured training, and management reporting to staff at all levels of the Bank.

Other Factors:

In addition to strong interpersonal and presentation skills, this role will benefit from the following skills:

• Experience of working in international banking organisations will be of value.

For further information, please contact: 

Enrico Castagnetti, Wintermann Search & Selection Limited

Mobile:       +44 (0)7711 267500

Email:         enrico@wintermann.co.uk

Unfortunately, due to the high volume of applications, we are unable to respond to all candidates.  If you are successful, a member of the team will contact you directly.  If you do not hear from us, please assume that your application has been unsuccessful.