IT Continuity Manager

Simmons & Simmons; West of England; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working (min 3 days in office)

Private medical insurance

Pension contribution

Job summary

Simmons & Simmons is recruiting an IT Continuity Manager for the Bristol office. You will lead the IT Operational Resilience framework, aligning with risk and governance to ensure continuity of critical legal services and cloud/SaaS dependencies.

You will map dependencies, run scenario tests, and oversee third‑party providers, incident response, and policy governance. The role requires strong stakeholder management and crisis leadership across a multi-jurisdictional environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in IT continuity, disaster recovery, resilience, or governance in a large organisation.
• Understanding of cloud services, enterprise networking, identity management, and SaaS dependencies.
• Strong knowledge of third‑party risk management, resilient architectures, and supplier assurance frameworks.
• Familiarity with ISO22301 or other recognised continuity frameworks (e.g. FCA resilience, DORA).
• Experience coordinating IT continuity or DR testing.
• Strong stakeholder‑management skills with senior leaders.
• Crisis leadership with calm, structured decision‑making under pressure.
• Ability to build processes, governance structures, and operating models from the ground up.

Responsibilities

• Develop, maintain and enhance the IT Operational Resilience framework to support critical legal service delivery.
• Define continuity requirements for systems supporting client-facing services including core DMS and cloud services.
• Lead detailed mapping of critical processes and IT dependencies; maintain service topology and single points of failure register.
• Design and run scenario tests to validate resilience and report outcomes to senior leadership.
• Support procurement and oversee third-party service providers to ensure resilience controls.
• Assist incident response during major IT incidents and coordinate cross‑functional response workflows.
• Own and update the IT Operational Resilience Policy and related DR/continuity playbooks.
• Prepare updates for executive committees on resilience posture and supplier risk.

Skills

IT continuity

disaster recovery

operational resilience

governance

cloud services

SaaS dependencies

third‑party risk

stakeholder management

crisis leadership

governance frameworks

Job description

The role:

We are looking to recruit a talented and experienced IT Continuity Manager to join our IT department in our Bristol office. The primary objective for the post holder is to work with other key senior stakeholders to ensure the resilience, continuity, and recoverability of the firm’s global IT services, particularly those supporting critical legal services. The position leads the design and oversight of the firm’s IT Operational Resilience framework, ensures alignment of the firm’s operational architecture, and supports governance of third‑party service providers delivering critical technology services (e.g. cloud platforms, DMS, collaboration and communication tools). This role ensures the firm can withstand, adapt to, respond to, and recover from operational disruptions, consistent with best‑practice resilience principles and standards.

What will you do:

IT Service Continuity Strategy & Framework

• Develop, maintain, and continuously enhance the firm’s IT Operational Resilience framework, ensuring it supports critical legal service delivery.
• Work with service owners to define continuity requirements for systems supporting critical client‑facing services, including core DMS platforms, collaboration tools, matter systems, and cloud services.
• Ensure alignment with broader operational resilience strategy, business continuity and cyber‑resilience initiatives.

Service Mapping & Dependency Analysis

• Lead detailed mapping of critical business processes and end‑to‑end IT dependencies: applications, infrastructure, networks, identity systems, data flows, and third‑party providers.
• Maintain a service topology documenting where critical services rely on external suppliers or cross‑office capabilities.
• Identify and maintain a register of single points of failure, resilience gaps, and risk concentrations.

Scenario Testing & Technology Resilience Exercises

• Design and run severe but plausible scenario tests (e.g., cloud outages, DMS unavailability, data‑centre disruption, major cyber incident) to validate resilience against impact tolerances.
• Report testing outcomes, lessons learned and required remediation to senior leadership.

Governance of Third‑Party Service Providers

• Support procurement and contract owners, ensuring structured oversight of vendors delivering critical IT services.
• Ensure resilience controls and monitoring extend to cloud, SaaS, and managed‑service environments.

Incident Response & Crisis Coordination

• Where required, support incident management during major IT incidents and outages.
• Work closely with Cybersecurity, Service Delivery, and Business Services on integrated response workflows.
• Review lessons‑learned from major incidents and outages to ensure any required changes are reflected in the IT Operational Resilience Policy.

Policy, Standards & Assurance

• Own and update the IT Operational Resilience Policy, collaborating with stakeholders to ensure alignment with other supporting policies and standards related to IT disaster recovery, continuity, backup resilience, supplier resilience, and recovery testing.
• Work with IT owners to ensure continuity and DR playbooks support overarching policies.
• Create an annual assurance programme covering DR tests, vendor reviews, continuity drills, and regulatory‑aligned gap assessments.

Stakeholder & Leadership Engagement

• Partner with Enterprise Risk, Legal Operations, IT and Practice Groups to align continuity objectives with legal‑service priorities.
• Prepare and deliver updates to International Executive Committee and Risk Committee on resilience posture, supplier risk, and capability maturity.
• Advise Partners on client‑specific requirements around continuity, resilience, and due diligence responses.

What we are looking for:

• Proven experience (5+ years) in IT continuity, disaster recovery, operational resilience, or technology governance in a large, complex organisation.
• Understanding of cloud services, enterprise networking, identity management, and SaaS operational dependencies.
• Strong knowledge of third‑party risk management, resilient architectures, and supplier assurance frameworks.
• Familiarity with ISO22301 or other recognised continuity frameworks (e.g. FCA operational resilience, DORA).
• Experience coordinating IT continuity or DR testing.
• Strong stakeholder‑management skills, capable of working with senior stakeholders in a multi‑jurisdictional partnership model.
• Effective communicator able to translate technical issues into business impact.
• Experience in crisis leadership with calm, structured decision‑making under pressure.
• Demonstrated ability to build processes, governance structures, and operating models from the ground up.

Career Level:

The career level assigned to this role is level 4. The career level framework provides a formal structure for the business services functions at the firm. The framework, which ranges from level 1 to level 7, clearly defines the responsibilities, skills and competencies required at each level.

Here at Simmons & Simmons:

At Simmons, we are proud of our collaborative, open and non-hierarchical culture, where everyone is treated with respect and dignity and the wellbeing of our people is paramount. Our dynamic minds work as one integrated team, partnering with leading organisations on inspirational and thought-provoking projects that matter. From day one, irrespective of job title, qualification or background, everyone’s voice is heard, and you are encouraged to have an enquiring mind and share ideas that drive the firm forward. Through innovative learning and development opportunities, you will have a platform to excel, exceed your career ambitions, and achieve things you never thought possible.

Some key information:

• We offer a competitive package including bonuses dependant on role/level, private medical insurance and pension contribution.
• Our global skills academy provides our people, regardless of their role and location, with excellent learning opportunities (including live workshops, podcasts, short videos and practical learning experiences).
• We have adopted a hybrid working approach with a requirement for a minimum of three days in the office with flexibility dependant on role/team/client demands.
• We are proud to rank as a Times Top 50 Employer for Gender Equality, a Stonewall Top Global Employer, and a Top 75 Employer for Social Mobility.
• We have a range of social and sports committees, summer and winter parties and monthly get togethers.
• We have a range of diversity networks to connect people and celebrate our differences which is integral to our inclusive culture.
• All UK offices have their own artwork collections – including Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin pieces in the London office. We have a long-standing history in supporting the art community especially up-and-coming artists.
• We have recently introduced a Strategic Advisory Council which is a mix of associates and business services who will propose strategic initiatives that align with our firm's mission and support the delivery of our business plan, shaping the future of our next‑generation law firm.
• Our in-house generative AI tool, Percy, won the ‘Innovation in Automation and AI Tools’ category at the 2024 FT Innovative Lawyers Europe Awards. This achievement highlights our commitment to technological innovation and client service.
• We have been commended in The Times Best Law Firms 2026 across three categories: construction, employment, and intellectual property. Our profile is highly positive, highlighting our sector specialisms and notable case and transactional work.

Equal opportunities:

• Upholding equal opportunities, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, belief, age, disability, sexual orientation, sex, gender reassignment, gender identity, marital status, or pregnancy, including maternity and paternity. This commitment extends to addressing any instances of perceived or associative discrimination and harassment. We also ensure fair treatment during recruitment and selection processes for those who are serving or have served in the armed forces, along with their families.
• Accommodating requests for flexible working arrangements whenever possible. We encourage you to discuss your needs with us if this is something you require.
• Making our roles accessible to individuals with diverse abilities. If you need any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know so we can meet your needs.
• We offer a range of employee networks to support our colleagues. More information about these networks can be found in the D&I Information booklet that candidates are sent when invited to interview.