Critical Response Coordinator

westernalliancebank; Phoenix (AZ); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Western Alliance Bank invites an experienced Critical Response Coordinator to join our IT operations team in Phoenix. As Staff IT Analyst II, you will lead major incident response activities, review incident processes, and drive restoration timelines across IT, Product, NOC, and security teams.

You will develop incident artifacts, bridge notes, and executive communications, coordinating with cross-functional subject-matter experts to validate impact, track actions, and sustain continuous

Qualifications

• 5+ years in IT Operations, Major Incident Management, or related field.
• Bachelor's degree in a technical or business-technology discipline.
• Major Incident Management certification or equivalent practical experience preferred.
• ITIL Foundation certification preferred.
• Strong analytical and communication skills in high-pressure incidents.
• Familiarity with risk, compliance, or governance in financial services is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead activities that support incident response and restoration during major incidents and high-impact events.
• Develop and review incident artifacts describing state processes, ownership, timelines, and metrics.
• Facilitate bridge calls with IT, Product, NOC, engineering, observability, and security teams.
• Prepare executive communications, timelines, and post-incident documentation.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to drive incident resolution and post-incident improvements.

Skills

Incident management

Stakeholder engagement

Bridge calls facilitation

Communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/IT/IS/Business

Major Incident Management certification or equivalent

ITIL Foundation certification

Tools

MS Office

Visio

Lucidchart

Job description

Critical Response Coordinator

Location: CityScape

What you'll do:

As a Staff IT Analyst II serving as a Critical Response Coordinator, you'll lead activities that support operational effectiveness during major incidents and high-impact technology events. You'll review current incident response processes and metrics, identify constraints or opportunities that inhibit or accelerate restoration, and develop options to improve business outcomes. You'll lead development and review of incident artifacts to ensure they accurately describe current state processes, practices, impact, ownership, timelines, communications, and operational metrics. Additionally, you'll facilitate discussions with IT, Product, Business, NOC, engineering, observability, security, and vendor subject matter experts to understand the problem statement, validate impact, drive engagement, and capture relevant insights for incident resolution and follow-up improvement. Lead operational support activities with the expectation that incident response, service restoration, and stakeholder communication outcomes are achieved. Work to fully understand how active incidents, recurring service issues, and operational risks connect to business impact, response priorities, resolver engagement, escalation paths, and restoration timelines. Lead discussions with stakeholders and subject matter experts needed to validate impact, drive technical engagement, review incident artifacts, and resolve issues that impede timely recovery.

Develop and maintain critical incident documentation and operational artifacts needed to support major incident response, service restoration, post-incident review, and continuous improvement. Complete high-quality deliverables such as bridge notes, executive-ready communications, timelines, impact summaries, RCA inputs, handoff notes, and follow-up action tracking while effectively communicating findings, risks, ownership, and operational impacts with subject matter experts.

Leverage Risk Management experience from a large financial institution subject to heightened standards, specifically in risk, compliance, or corporate governance.

The capture and upkeep of KRIs, KPIs, & Operational Metrics, as necessary.

Manage and coordinate IT incidents, ensuring timely triage, proper resolver engagement, clear ownership, and disciplined progression across technical teams.

Lead and facilitate bridge calls during high-severity incidents, keeping the bridge focused on impact, scope, recovery actions, decision points, and next-step accountability.

Compose and distribute incident communications to stakeholders with accuracy, clarity, appropriate urgency, and consistent formatting aligned to incident communication standards.

Prepare root cause analysis inputs and post-incident documentation following incident resolution, including timeline validation, contributing factors, follow-up owners, and lessons learned.

Collaborate with cross-functional teams to drive incident resolution, process adherence, and post-incident improvement while maintaining clear handoffs between NOC, CRC, engineering, and service teams.

Maintain clear communication in high-pressure situations and dynamic team environments, including executive-ready summaries, bridge recaps, handoff notes, and stakeholder updates.

Identify recurring incident response friction points, escalation delays, communication gaps, monitoring opportunities, and documentation gaps; partner with process owners to drive practical improvements.

Support disaster recovery exercises, major incident readiness reviews, knowledge article improvements, and operational playbook updates.

What you'll need:

• 5+ years of related experience in IT Operations, Critical Response Coordination, Major Incident Management, IT Service Management, IT App Support, IT Development, IT Networking, or similar field.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Information Systems, Business Administration, or a related technical or business-technology field required.
• Major Incident Management certification, formal training, or equivalent practical experience preferred.
• ITIL Foundation certification preferred.
• Entry level to intermediate knowledge of general Financial Services or Banking is preferred.
• Entry level to intermediate knowledge of applicable regulatory and legal compliance obligations, rules and regulations, industry standards and practices.
• Intermediate to advance in process and data analysis within a specific domain or functional area utilizing critical thinking skills.
• Intermediate to advanced working in Microsoft Office & relevant Diagramming Software (e.g. Lucid, Visio, etc.), as well as technical aptitude & experience within a specific domain.
• Strong working knowledge of ITIL / ITSM practices including incident, major incident, problem, change, knowledge, service request, and post-incident review processes.
• Experience facilitating high-severity incident bri