Resilience Manager

Area of work: Operational Resilience / Business Continuity / Risk & Compliance

Contract type: Fixed-Term (12 Month Contract)

Employment type: Full-time

Salary: £80,000 - £90,000

Location: London (Hybrid Working)

Annual leave: Competitive holiday entitlement plus bank holidays

Other benefits include: Private medical insurance and dental cover

Closing date: Friday 7th August

Overview

Hays is delighted to be working exclusively with a leading UK financial services organisation to recruit a Resilience Manager on a fixed-term contract basis. This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced Operational Resilience and Business Continuity professional to join a highly respected organisation operating within the regulated financial services sector. Reporting into the Head of Risk & Compliance, you will take ownership of the operational resilience and incident management framework, ensuring the organisation remains resilient in the face of a wide range of disruptions, from major operational incidents and cyber events through to third-party and business continuity challenges. The successful candidate will play a key role in shaping resilience strategy, delivering testing and exercising programmes, supporting incident response activity and providing expert advice to senior stakeholders across the business. This role offers significant visibility, exposure to executive-level decision-making and the opportunity to make a tangible impact within a collaborative and purpose-driven organisation.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the management and continuous improvement of operational resilience, business continuity and incident management frameworks.
• Partner with business leaders to provide expert guidance, support and challenge on resilience-related matters.
• Maintain Important Business Services, impact tolerances, dependency mapping and critical resource assessments.
• Design, deliver and report on resilience testing and exercising programmes, including large-scale scenarios and simulations.
• Lead and support incident management and crisis response activities during live events.
• Produce resilience reporting, governance updates and management information for senior stakeholders.
• Conduct horizon scanning and monitor evolving regulatory expectations, emerging risks and industry best practice.
• Manage key third-party resilience service providers and associated contracts.
• Represent the organisation at external industry and resilience forums.
• Line manage and develop a direct report within the resilience function.

Skills & Experience Required

Essential

• Experience in Operational Resilience, Business Continuity Management and Incident Management.
• Strong understanding of the Business Continuity Management lifecycle and supporting methodologies.
• Experience operating within regulated financial services or a similar regulatory environment.
• Good understanding of regulatory expectations relating to operational resilience.
• Experience designing and delivering resilience testing and exercising programmes.
• Proven experience managing incidents and supporting crisis response activities.
• Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence and challenge senior leaders.
• Excellent communication skills with experience preparing executive-level briefings and reports.
• Ability to work autonomously and provide immediate capability within an established resilience function.

Desirable

• Relevant professional accreditation such as DBCI.
• Experience working with FCA, PRA or wider financial services regulatory frameworks.
• Experience engaging with regulators, industry bodies and external resilience networks.
• Previous line management experience.

Person Specification

• Confident and credible resilience professional able to operate at senior level from day one.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to identify vulnerabilities and implement improvements.
• Comfortable leading during high-pressure incidents and crisis situations.
• Excellent planning and organisational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously.
• Pragmatic and commercially aware, able to translate regulatory requirements into practical business solutions.
• Collaborative and proactive approach to stakeholder engagement.

The Team

You will join a well-established Risk & Compliance function responsible for overseeing organisational resilience, governance and risk management activity. The resilience team works closely with stakeholders across the business and provides support and challenge at all levels of the organisation.

The organisation offers:

• The opportunity to play a leading role in a mature operational resilience function.
• Exposure to senior leadership, executive stakeholders and board-level discussions.
• A collaborative and supportive culture where individuals can see the direct impact of their work.
• Hybrid working with 40% office attendance per month and no prescribed office days.

Please note: Applicants must have the right to work in the UK. Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.