Group Business Resilience Lead

Co-op; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 87,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus

Holidays 28 days + 4

Pension 10% employer

Car allowance

Company car

Private healthcare

Onsite gym

Career coaching

Stream app

Job summary

Co-op is seeking a Group Business Resilience Lead in Manchester to shape how we prepare for, respond to, and recover from disruption across our Food, Funeralcare, Legal Services, Insurance and Wholesale businesses. You’ll build and embed our resilience framework, combining crisis management, business continuity and operational resilience to safeguard colleagues, customers and communities.

In this hybrid role, you’ll work with senior leaders, lead a team of resilience experts, deliver training,

Qualifications

• Strong experience in business resilience, crisis management, and business continuity, ideally within complex organisations.
• Systems-thinking approach to spot risks, patterns, and opportunities.
• Ability to influence senior leaders and present ideas with impact.

Responsibilities

• Own the Group Business Resilience Framework and Policy, ensuring alignment with objectives, risk appetite and regulatory expectations.
• Advance and embed Co-op's Minimum Viable Company model, cataloguing critical services and resources.
• Lead and improve crisis management and business continuity programmes for effective response and recovery.
• Lead major incident responses, coordinate post-incident reviews and embed lessons learned.
• Lead and develop a team of resilience experts and champion resilience across the organisation.
• Design, deliver, and oversee resilience training and exercises to build capability.
• Report resilience insights, risks and trends to senior leaders and committees.

Skills

Business resilience

Crisis management

Business continuity

Systems thinking

Stakeholder influence

GRC tools

Tools

GRC tools

Job description

Group Business Resilience lead

£80,000 to £87,000 plus great benefits including a company car or £6,000 car allowance (Work Level 4)

Manchester city centre, in this role you’ll work in a hybrid way splitting your time between home and the office (find out more about our hybrid working policy at jobs.coop.co.uk/hybrid-working-policy).

We're looking for a Group Business Resilience Lead to join Co-op and help shape how we prepare for, respond to, and recover from disruption across our business. You'll play a key role in strengthening resilience across our Food, Funeralcare, Legal Services, Insurance and Wholesale businesses, helping us continue to support colleagues, customers and communities when it matters most.

Why this job matters

At Co-op, resilience is about more than managing risk. It's about protecting the services people rely on every day and creating the confidence to grow in a changing world. As our Group Business Resilience Lead, you'll work with senior leaders across the organisation to develop and embed our resilience framework, ensuring we're ready to respond to emerging challenges while keeping our purpose at the heart of what we do.

You’ll bring together operational resilience, business continuity and crisis management expertise to help safeguard our people, operations and customers. Through your work, you'll influence strategic decisions, strengthen critical services and help build a more resilient Co-op for the future.

What you’ll do

• Own the Group Business Resilience Framework and Policy, ensuring alignment with organisational objectives, risk appetite and regulatory expectations
• Advance and embed Co-op's Minimum Viable Company model, maintaining the catalogue of critical services and the people, technology, suppliers and assets that support them
• Lead and continuously improve our crisis management and business continuity programmes, ensuring effective response and recovery capability across the Co-op
• Take a lead role in responding to major incidents, coordinating post-incident reviews and embedding lessons learned to strengthen resilience
• Lead and develop a team of resilience experts, championing resilience across the organisation
• Design, deliver and oversee resilience training and exercising programmes to build capability and embed a culture of preparedness
• Report on resilience insights, risks and trends to senior leaders, the Group Board and Audit & Risk Committees
• Build strong relationships across the business as a trusted resilience subject matter expert, driving innovation, simplification and continuous improvement

What you’ll bring

We’re committed to making our roles as accessible as possible, so we only ask for the minimum criteria. To thrive here, you’ll need to bring:

• Strong experience in business resilience, crisis management, and business continuity, ideally within complex organisations
• A systems-thinking approach — you’re able to spot risks, patterns, and opportunities others might miss
• Confidence and charisma – you can influence senior leaders and present ideas with impact
• Experience with relevant tech (e.g. GRC tools or resilience platforms)
• A passion for making things better, safer, and more future-ready

Why Co-op?

At Co-op, we’re owned by our members. And because we’re owned by you, we can do right by you. So, when you join us, you’re not just taking a job, you’re joining a movement. We’re an organisation that puts people and communities first, and we’re powered by purpose. We want this to be a place where you can thrive, so you’ll also receive:

• An annual bonus (based on personal and business performance)
• 28 days holiday (rising to 32 with service) plus bank holidays
• A pension with up to 10% employer contributions
• £6,000 car allowance or a company car
• Private healthcare for you and your family
• Access to a subsidised onsite gym (at our Manchester HQ)
• Coaching and training to support your career development
• Stream app – giving you access to a percentage of your pay as you earn

A place you’ll belong

We’re building diverse and inclusive teams that reflect the communities we serve. We welcome applications from everyone and are committed to creating a workplace where colleagues can feel like they belong, supported by our inclusive policies and the ways we work.

We’re proud to be part of the Disability Confident scheme and offer interviews to disabled candidates who meet the minimum criteria for a job. If you need any adjustments during the recruitment process, we’ll support you.

Learn more about our recruitment process at jobs.coop.co.uk/apply-process and our inclusion commitments at jobs.coop.co.uk/diversity-inclusion

Please note that we may close applications for this role early