Crisis Management & Scenario Testing Specialist

Willis Towers Watson; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days annual leave

Private healthcare

Life insurance

Group income protection

Hybrid working

Job summary

Willis Towers Watson is seeking an Associate Director for Crisis Management & Scenario Testing to drive the enterprise resilience program. You will coordinate crisis response, manage scenario testing, and partner with Technology, Information Security and Risk to strengthen regulatory readiness.

The role involves developing playbooks, coordinating incident timelines, and delivering reports to leadership. Hybrid working is available, with a focus on governance and continuous improvement.

Qualifications

• Experience in operational resilience and crisis management within a complex organisation.
• Knowledge of FCA, DORA, MAS or related frameworks preferred.
• Experience supporting major incidents and crisis response activities.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate crisis management activities and incident response across multiple teams.
• Plan, deliver and monitor exercises and scenario testing across the enterprise.
• Produce governance reporting and evidence for regulatory reviews.
• Support regulatory notifications and ensure readiness for events.

Skills

Operational resilience

Crisis management

Incident management

Regulatory awareness

Stakeholder coordination

Exercising/testing

Communication skills

Education

Experience in financial services

Job description

Description

At WTW, we believe difference makes us stronger. We want our workforce to reflect the different and varied markets we operate in and to build a culture of inclusivity that makes colleagues feel welcome, valued and empowered to bring their whole selves to work every day.We are an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive work environment throughout our organisation. We embrace all types of diversity.

The Enterprise Operational Resilience team is seeking an Associate Director, Crisis Management & Scenario Testing, to support the execution and continuous enhancement of WTW's global crisis management and scenario testing capabilities.

The successful candidate will play a critical role in maintaining operational readiness across the organisation by coordinating crisis management activities, supporting major incident response efforts, managing scenario testing programmes, and driving remediation and continuous improvement initiatives. The role will work closely with business, technology, cyber security, operational risk, business continuity and third-party management teams to strengthen WTW's resilience capabilities and support compliance with evolving regulatory expectations.

This individual will support the Director in the day-to-day operation of the crisis management framework and act as a key coordinator during significant disruption events, helping ensure effective response, communication, governance and recovery activities across the enterprise.

Crisis Management Framework Support

• Support the maintenance and ongoing enhancement of WTW's enterprise crisis management framework, including procedures, playbooks, escalation processes and governance artefacts.
• Coordinate annual reviews and updates of crisis management documentation, ensuring alignment with operational resilience requirements and regulatory expectations.
• Maintain crisis management contact databases (emergency notification and out of band communications tools), response team structures, escalation pathways and notification mechanisms.
• Coordinate and execute emergency notifications as driven by incidents that occur.
• Support the maintenance of incident classification criteria, response procedures and decision-support materials.
• Assist in the development of management information and reporting for operational resilience and crisis management governance forums.

Incident & Crisis Response Coordination

• Act as a crisis management coordinator support during significant disruption events as required, supporting command and control activities across multiple response teams.
• Coordinate incident bridge calls, action tracking, stakeholder communications and situation reporting where required.
• Maintain incident timelines, decision logs, action trackers and auditable evidence repositories.
• Monitor response actions through to closure and ensure appropriate documentation of lessons learned.
• Participate in on-call support arrangements for major incidents and crisis events.

Scenario Testing & Exercise Delivery

• Plan, coordinate and deliver operational resilience and crisis management exercises across the enterprise, partnering with risk domain specialists as required across Technology, Supplier Risk and Information Security.
• Develop exercise materials including scenarios, participant packs, facilitator guides, injects, supporting data and evaluation criteria.
• Coordinate logistics and stakeholder engagement for exercises, simulations, recovery tests, notification exercises and joint third-party exercises or industry led exercises where WTW participates.
• Support the evolution of testing methodologies to incorporate increasing levels of realism, sophistication and data-driven validation.
• Conduct exercise observations and produce post-exercise reports, lessons learned and improvement plans.
• Track remediation activities arising from testing and report progress through governance forums.

Operational Resilience & Regulatory Support

• Support the coordination of any regulatory mandated incident notifications during incidents (DORA, FCA, MAS etc), including engagement with business, compliance, legal and technology / information security teams as needed to ensure required timelines are met.
• Support the alignment of crisis management and testing activities with existing or upcoming / expected regulatory requirements and obligations.
• Assist with preparation of regulatory evidence packs and audit requests relating to crisis management and scenario testing activities.
• Support assessments of organisational readiness against regulatory and internal resilience requirements.
• Maintain inventories of testing activities, outcomes and evidence to support internal and external assurance reviews.

Stakeholder Engagement, Education and Training / Awareness

• Partner with business and functional stakeholders to enhance awareness and preparedness for disruption events.
• Support delivery of training, awareness campaigns and readiness programmes for crisis management with key stakeholders (including tooling related training).
• Build and maintain strong working relationships across global business units and corporate functions.
• Assist with communications and engagement activities designed to strengthen organisational resilience culture.

Continuous Improvement & Reporting

• Produce regular reporting and metrics covering incidents, exercises, remediation progress and capability maturity.
• Analyse incident and testing outcomes to identify trends, control gaps and opportunities for improvement.
• Maintain dashboards, reporting packs and executive materials for governance committees and leadership forums.

Qualifications

What you'll bring:

• Proven experience within operational resilience, crisis management, business continuity, incident management, operational risk or a related discipline.
• Good understanding of operational resilience regulations including FCA, DORA, CBI, MAS or equivalent frameworks and working in a regulated environment is preferred.
• Experience supporting major incident or crisis response activities within a complex global organisation.
• Strong understanding of crisis management related emergency notifications tools.
• Experience planning, coordinating or facilitating exercises, simulations or testing programmes.
• Experience within financial services preferred.
• Strong organisational skills with demonstrated ability to coordinate multiple stakeholders and priorities.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to prepare executive-ready reporting and materials.
• Ability to remain calm, organised and effective during high-pressure incidents and disruption events.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with attention to detail.
• Collaboration oriented – works across business, operations, functional teams and third parties developing relationships and partnering / supporting during disruption events.
• Certifications such as CBCP, MBCI, DRI or equivalent a plus

What we offer:

• 25 days of annual leave plus an extra WTW day to relax and recharge.
• private healthcare
• life insurance
• group income protection
• regular health assessments
• defined contribution pension scheme, featuring matched contributions up to 10% from the company
• hybrid working options
• access to an employee assistance programme
• a fully paid volunteer day to make a difference in your community.
• electric vehicle car scheme
• share scheme
• cycle-to-work programme
• dental cover
• optical cover
• critical illness protection
• and much more

Start making the most of your career and wellbeing with a range of benefits tailored for you.

Equal Opportunity Employer

We’re committed to equal employment opportunity and provide application, interview and workplace adjustments and accommodations to all applicants. If you foresee any barriers, from the application process through to joining WTW, please [e-mail]