IT Disaster Recovery Manager (Outside IR35 6 Month Contract)

Sharp Gaming; Manchester; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in the gaming sector is looking for a skilled Disaster Recovery specialist to establish a comprehensive DR capability. This interim role involves assessing current systems, developing strategies, and ensuring resilience across the company's infrastructure. Candidates must have a strong background in DR documentation, stakeholder engagement, and knowledge of industry standards. Join us to help shape our DR capabilities and contribute to a safer operational environment.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading Disaster Recovery strategy and documentation.
• Expertise in building governance frameworks and recovery plans.
• Strong understanding of modern infrastructure recovery methods.

Responsibilities

• Assess current DR posture across core systems and applications.
• Define and document a fit-for-purpose DR strategy.
• Run tabletop and practical DR tests, delivering training for BAU ownership.

Skills

Disaster Recovery strategy

Documentation

Stakeholder engagement

Governance frameworks

Risk assessment

Tools

Cohesity

Veeam

Azure Site Recovery

Job description

About Us

Our mission is to dominate the betting and gaming industry on a global scale and we need the very best Tech talent to help us achieve this.

We recently migrated all of our customers onto our very own proprietary platform - so it's an exciting time to join us. With the help of our new platform, we're able to pioneer new products and drive more advanced, creative technologies. The result? Unrivalled experiences for millions of customers worldwide.

Betfred's Technology department is driven by innovation, and you'll be at the heart of unlocking our new platform's potential. So, if you want to help shape the future of betting and gaming, then it's to time to join us.

Job purpose

We’re looking for an experienced and delivery-focused Disaster Recovery (DR) specialist to help establish and embed a fit-for-purpose DR capability across our business. This is an interim contract role to assess where we are today, mature our capabilities where required, and develop clear, documented disaster recovery plans for the future.

There is currently no formal DR strategy or framework in place. The successful candidate will be responsible for building this capability from the ground up – engaging with stakeholders across the business and technology, identifying gaps, documenting policies and procedures, and establishing a governance model that can be owned and run internally after handover.

You will play a critical role in reducing business risk and improving resilience across our infrastructure and applications. This is a hands-on, fast-paced role suited to a contractor who is comfortable driving outcomes, influencing across teams, and rolling up their sleeves to make things happen.

Job Duties:

• Assess the current DR posture across our core systems, infrastructure, applications, and business services.

• Identify risk areas and gaps against best practices, regulatory expectations, and business needs.

• Engage with senior business stakeholders to define RTO/RPO objectives and system tiering.

• Define and document a fit-for-purpose DR strategy and supporting invocation framework.

• Produce a complete suite of DR documentation, including:

  o Invocation procedures and recovery workflows

  o Runbooks and technical recovery plans

  o Communications templates

  o Escalation paths and contact trees

  o Testing and review schedules

• Design and implement a DR governance model, including a RACI matrix and process ownership.

• Run tabletop and practical DR test exercises to validate plans and readiness.

• Deliver training and knowledge transfer to internal teams for BAU ownership.

• Provide a clear and actionable roadmap for ongoing DR maturity.

• Ensure the Disaster Recovery strategy and all associated plans are secure by design, embedding appropriate access controls, data protection measures, and alignment with industry-recognised security standards (e.g. ISO 27001, NIST, CIS).

• Collaborate with the Information Security and Compliance teams to ensure DR aligns with the broader cybersecurity strategy and meets regulatory expectations.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

Essential

• Proven experience leading Disaster Recovery strategy, documentation, and implementation within enterprise-scale organisations.

• Hands-on expertise in building DR runbooks, governance frameworks, and recovery plans.

• Strong understanding of modern infrastructure and recovery methods, including hybrid cloud, backups, and virtualisation.

• Familiarity with business impact analysis and prioritisation of systems based on criticality.

• Excellent stakeholder engagement skills, including the ability to work across technical and non-technical teams.

• Experience running DR test scenarios, identifying issues, and refining documentation.

• ·Strong documentation and communication skills – able to produce professional, handover-ready assets.

• Comfortable working independently in a delivery-focused, time-bound contractor role.

Desirable

• Experience in the gambling sector or other regulated industries.

• Knowledge of relevant compliance frameworks (e.g. ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, Gambling Commission).

• Familiarity with business continuity frameworks and their relationship to DR.

• Exposure to tools like Cohesity, Veeam, Zerto, Azure Site Recovery, or equivalent.