Senior BCM & Resilience Leader

FHLBank; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 181,000 - 319,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus package

401(k) and pension

Five weeks vacation

11 paid holidays

Wellbeing program

Job summary

FHLBank Chicago is seeking a Sr. Business Continuity Manager to lead the BCM program and partner across IT, risk, and operations to ensure resilient plans, crisis guidance, disaster recovery coordination, training, testing, and documentation are current and actionable.

The role drives enterprise‑wide preparedness, manages incidents, and provides leadership during disruptions while aligning BCM activities to risk appetite and operating environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business, risk management, emergency management, information technology, operations or related field.
• 10+ years of relevant experience in business continuity, business resiliency, operational risk, crisis management, disaster recovery coordination, technology operations, or related field.
• Experience partnering with technology teams in organizations leveraging cloud platforms to assess business impacts, recovery requirements, operational dependencies, and resiliency strategies.
• CBCP (minimum) or MBCP (preferred) or related/equivalent certification.
• Experience in banking, financial services, regulated environments, or other highly operational and control‑oriented environments preferred.
• Experience with M365, visualization and planning tools, and ability to learn third‑party resiliency, risk notification, or governance systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead day‑to‑day execution and coordination of the BCM Program, including implementation of the Business Continuity Cycle and alignment of resiliency activities to Bank objectives and risk appetite.
• Coordinate activities during disruptions, including stakeholder mobilization, status updates, resource prioritization, and support for Crisis Management Team activation and response efforts.
• Maintain and enhance business continuity, crisis management, disaster recovery coordination, and related BCM documentation so plans remain achievable, consistent, complete, and responsive to the Bank’s needs.
• Coordinate with IT Disaster Recovery personnel and technology leaders to ensure business continuity expectations, application dependencies, recovery objectives, and disaster recovery exercise outcomes are understood and incorporated into BRM planning and meet the Bank’s risk appetite.
• Partner with departments, Department Managers, Information Technology, Communications, Legal, Risk, and other stakeholders to keep business continuity plans current and aligned to critical business processes.
• Oversee plan maintenance routines, including quarterly certifications, annual reviews, documentation refreshes, and updates following significant changes to Bank products, systems, processes, staffing, or operating environment.
• Coordinate and support risk assessments, Business Impact Analyses (BIA), dependency mapping, mitigation planning, and resiliency strategy development across Bank functions.
• Design, coordinate, and facilitate BCM training and testing, including tabletop exercises, new hire orientation training, emergency notification tests, continuity tests, technology asset resiliency and recovery activities, and post‑test/item tracking.
• Provide regular reporting and updates on BCM Program activities, testing results, plan readiness, open issues, lessons learned, and emerging risks to management and stakeholders.
• Monitor threats and events that may impact the Bank’s ability to operate, including system loss, location loss, people loss, severe weather, and other evolving threat scenarios.

Skills

Leadership

Project management

Communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Risk management

Cloud experience

Education

Bachelor’s degree in business, risk management, emergency management, information technology, operations

Tools

BRM tools (emergency notification)

Co‑Pilot AI tools

Microsoft M365

Riskonnect

Job description

FHLBank Chicago is seeking a Sr. Business Continuity Manager to lead the BCM program and partner across IT, risk, and operations to ensure resilient plans, crisis guidance, disaster recovery coordination, training, testing, and documentation are current and actionable.

The role drives enterprise‑wide preparedness, manages incidents, and provides leadership during disruptions while aligning BCM activities to risk appetite and operating environment.