Business Continuity Officer

Summary of the Position:

The Business Continuity Officers is responsible for the design, execution, and ongoing effectiveness of the organization’s enterprise-wide business continuity, disaster recovery, and incident management capabilities. This role ensures that critical business operations can withstand, respond to, and recover from disruptive events in a manner that protects clients, employees, financial soundness, and the firm’s reputation. As a senior leader within Operations, this role owns the first-line execution of business continuity and operational resilience programs, partnering closely with Technology, Facilities, Information Security, Risk Management, Compliance, and business leadership. The SVP provides clear leadership during incidents and exercises, sets enterprise standards, and ensures regulatory expectations are met across all applicable entities.

Primary Functions of the Position:

• Own and oversee the enterprise Business Continuity Management (BCM) and Disaster Recovery (DR) framework, ensuring it is comprehensive, current, and executable.
• Establish and maintain enterprise standards for Business Impact Analyses (BIAs), recovery strategies, recovery time objectives (RTOs), and recovery point objectives (RPOs).
• Ensure all critical business functions, applications, and third-party dependencies are appropriately identified, documented, and prioritized.
• Serve as a senior operational leader during material incidents, crises, and continuity events, providing structure, escalation, and decision support.
• Ensure incident response playbooks, escalation protocols, and communication processes are clearly defined, tested, and understood across the organization.
• Design and oversee an annual program of tabletop exercises, simulations, and live tests, and ensure lessons learned are documented and remediated.
• Partner with Third Party Risk Management and Procurement to validate continuity capabilities of critical suppliers and service providers.
• Provide executive and governance reporting and support regulatory examinations related to business continuity and operational resilience.
• Lead and develop a high-performing business continuity and resilience team and promote a culture of preparedness and accountability.
• Availability during both work hours, and off-hours (occasional weekends, evenings) as needed, to lead incident response when they arise

Education and Experience Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred.
• Minimum 10 years of experience in operations, business continuity, disaster recovery, operational resilience, or related disciplines within financial services or a regulated environment.
• Demonstrated experience leading enterprise-wide continuity and incident response programs.
• Strong understanding of regulatory expectations related to business continuity and operational resilience.

• Grow professionally and inspire others to do the same
• Work with and through others to achieve desired outcomes
• Make prompt, pragmatic choices and act with the client in mind
• Take ownership and hold themselves and others accountable for delivering results that matter
• Contribute to the continuous evolution of the firm