Operational Resilience Executive

iFAST Global Bank Ltd; London; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial institution is seeking an Operational Resilience Specialist to enhance its ability to withstand operational disruptions. The successful candidate will be instrumental in developing frameworks and ensuring compliance with regulations. They will lead testing exercises, collaborate across departments, and drive the resilience culture within the organization. This role requires strong expertise in business continuity and a proactive approach to risk management in a dynamic banking environment.

Benefits

25 days annual leave plus 8 bank holidays

Pension scheme with 4% employer contribution

Private Medical Insurance

Training and development opportunities

Free gym access in the building

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in operational resilience or business continuity management.
• Experience in financial services, preferably in a bank or regulated entity.
• Strong knowledge of PRA, FCA, and Bank of England regulations.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement the operational resilience framework.
• Coordinate operational resilience testing exercises and incidents management.
• Prepare reports on operational resilience to senior management.

Skills

Business Continuity Planning

Crisis Management

Risk Management

IT Disaster Recovery

Operational Resilience

Education

Degree in IT or Cybersecurity

Job description

We're looking for a skilled and proactive specialist in Operational Resilience to join our team and play a critical role in strengthening the bank's ability to withstand and recover from disruptions. This position is central to ensuring our compliance with the stringent operational resilience requirements set by the Bank of England, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).

You'll be instrumental in developing, implementing, and continually refining our operational resilience framework. Working closely with various business units, operations, and technology teams, you'll enhance our resilience posture, empowering the bank to effectively prevent, respond to, recover from, and learn from any operational disruption.

What You'll Do:

• Stay ahead of regulatory expectations and evolving resilience standards.
• Prepare and submit comprehensive reports on operational resilience, control effectiveness, and testing outcomes to senior management and key stakeholders.
• Support internal and external audits related to operational resilience.
• Lead the identification and definition of Important Business Services (IBS) in collaboration with cross-functional teams.
• Assess, review, and set robust impact tolerances for each IBS, ensuring alignment with both business and regulatory mandates.
• Regularly test and validate impact tolerances to confirm the bank's recovery capabilities within defined limits.
• Develop, test, and refine our overarching Operational Resilience Framework, including policies, procedures, and test plans.
• Enhance and manage our Business Continuity Management Framework, Crisis Management, and Incident Response Plans.
• Coordinate and execute various operational resilience testing exercises, including scenario testing, stress testing, and crisis simulations.
• Monitor and report on operational incidents, ensuring that valuable lessons learned are effectively implemented for continuous improvement.
• Assess and oversee the operational resilience of our third-party service providers, including crucial cloud and payment service providers.
• Collaborate closely with IT and cyber security teams to ensure technology resilience and cyber threat mitigation strategies are fully aligned with our operational resilience objectives.
• Support the resilience aspects of critical operations like cloud adoption, SWIFT payments, CHAPS, and FPS.
• Foster strong collaboration with stakeholders across risk, compliance, operations, IT, and other business functions to embed resilience principles throughout the organization.
• Develop and deliver operational resilience awareness training to staff at all levels.

3+ years of experience in managing business continuity, IT disaster recovery or operational resilience.

Experience within financial services sector, preferably in a bank or regulated entity.

Knowledge and understanding of PRA, FCA and Bank of England regulations on operational resilience, including SS1/21 and PS6/21.

Strong knowledge and experience in BCP, disaster recovery, incident management, and crisis response.

Strong risk management knowledge and experience in conducting risk assessments, impact tolerances, scenario testing and developing resilience metrics.

Degree in IT, Cybersecurity or equivalent and/or relevant and specialized skills and certification in business continuity, IT disaster recovery, operational resilience. Technology-centric training and certification is an advantage.

• 25 days annual leave entitlement plus 8 bank holidays
• Pension scheme, 4% employer contribution
• Private Medical Insurance
• 60-40 Hybrid working after successful probation period
• Training and development
• Free gym access in the building