Director, DUHS Business Continuity

Duke University Health System; Durham (NC); On-site; USD 140,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Duke Health in Durham seeks a Director of Business Continuity to lead the enterprise-wide BCMS, ensuring patient care continuity and resilient operations across hospitals, clinics, and support functions. You will establish strategy, governance, and execution with senior leaders and partner with IT, risk, and quality teams to meet regulatory standards.

The role requires a master's degree and 5 years of health administration experience, including 3+ years in emergency management.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in business, health administration, or related field.
• 5 years of experience in health administration or similar role with at least 3 years in Emergency Management.
• Expert knowledge of emergency preparedness and business continuity functions; strong communication and leadership skills.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain systemwide BCMS aligned to ISO 22301 and DUHS priorities.
• Develop policies, standards, and a multi-year resilience roadmap; governance forums and exec reporting.
• Lead BIAs for clinical and business functions and create COOP plans for hospitals and services.
• Coordinate BC with IT Disaster Recovery, risk, quality, and leadership for readiness and recovery.
• Engage with hospitals, clinics, IT, Supply Chain, Finance, HR, and Communications; train leaders.

Skills

Emergency management

Business continuity

Strategic leadership

Stakeholder management

Change management

Education

Master's degree in business, health administration, or related field

Job description

At Duke Health, we're driven by a commitment to compassionate care that changes the lives of patients, their loved ones, and the greater community. No matter where your talents lie, join us and discover how we can advance health together.

Work Arrangement - Onsite

Position Summary

The Director, Business Continuity leads DUHS’s enterprise-wide Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) to ensure continuity of patient care, clinical services, and critical business functions during and after disruptions. This role establishes strategy, governance, and program execution across hospitals, ambulatory clinics, revenue cycle, supply chain, IT, research, and academic partners. The Director is a key partner to Emergency Management, IT Disaster Recovery, Risk Management, Quality & Patient Safety, and Senior Operations leaders—driving readiness, mitigation, and rapid recovery while meeting regulatory and accreditation requirements.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy & Governance

• Build and maintain a systemwide BCMS aligned to ISO 22301 principles and DUHS strategic priorities.
• Develop policies, standards, and a multi-year roadmap for resilience, including governance forums and executive reporting.
• Define business continuity methodologies (e.g., Business Impact Analysis, dependency mapping) and ensure consistent adoption.
• Integrate BC with Enterprise Risk Management, Emergency Operations Plans (EOP), and IT Disaster Recovery.

Business Impact & Continuity Planning

• Lead and facilitate Business Impact Analyses (BIA) for all critical clinical and business functions—admissions, inpatient nursing, OR, ED, pharmacy, lab, radiology, EHR, supply chain, facilities, finance, HR, and communications.
• Create, maintain, and validate Continuity of Operations (COOP) plans for hospitals, service lines, and shared services.
• Identify and mitigate single points of failure; implement redundancy strategies.
• Align downtime procedures with clinical workflows and patient safety priorities.

Readiness, Exercises & After-Action

• Design and conduct systemwide and unit-level tabletop and functional exercises
• Lead after-action reviews, corrective action plans, and track closure through dashboards and metrics.
• Coordinate business continuity dependencies with IT Disaster Recovery (DR): recovery sequencing, data integrity, and application prioritization.

Incident Response & Recovery

• Serve on the DUHS Incident Management Team; coordinate BC activities during disruptions.
• Advise executives on operational workarounds, clinical prioritization, and service restoration paths.
• Support crisis communications for internal stakeholders and external partners as appropriate.

Regulatory, Accreditation & Risk

• Ensure alignment with The Joint Commission standards, CMS emergency preparedness requirements, and State/Federal guidance related to continuity and emergency management.
• Maintain documentation and evidence for audits and surveys.
• Partner with Legal/Compliance for risk mitigation and policy adherence.

Partnerships & Stakeholder Engagement

• Build strong relationships across hospitals, ambulatory practices, clinical departments, IT, Supply Chain, Facilities, Finance, HR, Communications, and Research.
• Engage with regional partners on resilience initiatives.
• Provide training, coaching, and change management for leaders and front-line teams.

Minimum Qualifications

Education

Work requires a Master's degree in business, health administration, or related field

Experience

5 years of experience in health administration or a similar role with a minimum of 3 years in Emergency Management.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

Expert knowledge of emergency preparedness and business continuity functions. Excellent organizational, oral and written communication skills, problem-solving, program development, computer skills, strong leadership, and team building skills. Ability to work with a variety of disciplines and levels of staff across departments and the health system, as well as personnel from outside organizations, is required. Ability to work with a variety of disciplines and levels of staff across departments and the health system is required.

Degrees, Licensures, Certifications

Hazardous materials operational certification preferred.

Duke is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing employment opportunity without regard to an individual's age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy and pregnancy related conditions), sexual orientation or military status.

Duke aspires to create a community built on collaboration, innovation, creativity, and belonging. Our collective success depends on the robust exchange of ideas—an exchange that is best when the rich diversity of our perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences flourishes. To achieve this exchange, it is essential that all members of the community feel secure and welcome, that the contributions of all individuals are respected, and that all voices are heard. All members of our community have a responsibility to uphold these values.

Essential Physical Job Functions:Certain jobs at Duke University and Duke University Health System may include essential job functions that require specific physical and/or mental abilities. Additional information and provision for requests for reasonable accommodation will be provided by each hiring department.