Director, Operational Resilience Exercising

Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement; Greater London; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Director of Operational Resilience Exercising to join their Chief Operating Office. This pivotal role involves preparing the organization for disruptions, ensuring compliance with the Bank of England's requirements, and leading the development of scenario exercises. The ideal candidate will possess a deep understanding of operational resilience in financial services, strong stakeholder management skills, and a passion for innovative solutions. This dynamic position offers a unique opportunity to influence operational strategies and contribute to the resilience of critical national infrastructure.

Qualifications

• Deep understanding of Operational Resilience in financial services.
• Ability to handle ambiguity and complexity.

Responsibilities

• Develop and manage Response and Recovery playbooks.
• Agree on the Annual Scenario Test plan for Vocalink.
• Collaborate with Incident Management and Crisis Management Teams.

Skills

Operational Resilience

Incident Management

Stakeholder Management

Crisis Management

Communication Skills

Education

Undergraduate degree

Job description

Our Purpose

Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in 200+ countries and territories worldwide. Together with our customers, we're helping build a sustainable economy where everyone can prosper. We support a wide range of digital payments choices, making transactions secure, simple, smart, and accessible. Our technology and innovation, partnerships and networks combine to deliver a unique set of products and services that help people, businesses, and governments realize their greatest potential.

Title and Summary

Director, Operational Resilience Exercising

COO, Vocalink Limited

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of the Chief Operating Office in Vocalink Limited, a Mastercard business, which provides Critical National Infrastructure to the UK.

• Vocalink is the UK company that enables the payments of 90% of salaries, 70% of utility bills, most ATM transactions, and every cheque cleared in the UK.

• We provide services to over 60 million citizens, and the UK private, public, and third sectors.

• In 2024, we processed 14 billion transactions, with a value of more than £10 trillion.

• Vocalink products include Bacs Direct Credits, Bacs Direct Debits, Faster Payments, the LINK ATM network for cash withdrawals, and the Image Clearing Service (ICS) that supports cheque clearing.

Operational Resilience

Vocalink complies with the Bank of England's requirements on Operational Resilience. The Bank defines operational resilience as the ability of Financial Market Infrastructures (FMIs) and the sector as a whole to prevent, respond to, recover, and learn from operational disruptions, with a particular focus on protecting financial stability, preventing threats to the transfer of payments, and enabling the safety and efficiency of the Recognised Payment Service Operators.

In Vocalink, the Chief Operating Office has overall accountability for the Operational Resilience Framework, including policies and procedures, working closely with Important Business Services owners in the Product, Strategy, and Commercial Services teams, as well as Pillar owners across Technology, Security, Data, Facilities, People, and Third Parties.

The team also works closely with key stakeholders across the financial services industry, particularly Recognised Payment Service Operators.

Overview of Role

The Director, Operational Resilience Exercising, will play a critical role in preparing Vocalink for disruptions to its Important Business Services and ensuring Vocalink can meet its impact tolerances in Extreme but Plausible scenarios.

This role reports to the Vice President, Operational Resilience, responsible for the Operational Resilience Framework, policy, methodologies, and embedding the Target Operating Model across Vocalink.

Responsibilities include:

1. Agreeing on the Annual Scenario Test plan, ensuring testing of extreme but plausible scenarios based on the greatest risks to Vocalink.
2. Documenting Scenario Methodology, Risks, and Controls to ensure full understanding of the approach to scenario identification, development, and supporting controls.
3. Incorporating Operational Resilience Vulnerabilities within the Scenario Test plan, understanding critical assets (people, processes, technology, facilities, information, third parties).
4. Developing and managing Response and Recovery playbooks, including supporting processes and mechanisms for recovery post-incident.
5. Leading the development of Scenario Exercises with key injects, ensuring scenarios are extreme but plausible per Bank of England's definition.
6. Collaborating with Major Incident Management Team, Crisis Management Team, Vocalink Executive Committee, and Board to involve them in the Annual Scenario Test Plan.
7. Supporting industry exercising, ensuring Vocalink's appropriate input and representation.
8. Managing Lessons Learnt and actions from Scenario Tests, updating governance forums, and coordinating across business and external stakeholders.
9. Reporting on Scenario Exercises and Lessons Learnt in governance forums across all 3 Lines of Defense.
10. Deputising for the Vice President, Operational Resilience, and attending internal and external meetings and governance forums.

Required skills and experience:

• Close collaboration with Incident Management Teams and Technology, Security teams.
• Work with Risk team for oversight and challenge.
• Build effective relationships with stakeholders across Vocalink.

About You

• Undergraduate degree or higher.
• Deep understanding of Operational Resilience in financial services and Scenario Exercising.
• Passion for payments and solutions.
• Detail-oriented with process understanding.
• Influential leadership in a matrix environment.
• Ability to handle ambiguity, complexity, and priorities.
• Proactive, team-oriented, with strong communication skills.
• Commercial acumen and a role model for the Mastercard Way.

Corporate Security Responsibility

All activities involving access to Mastercard assets, information, and networks carry inherent risks. Employees are responsible for:

• Abiding by security policies and practices.
• Ensuring confidentiality and integrity of accessed information.
• Reporting security violations or breaches.
• Completing mandatory security trainings.