VP, Business Continuity - Crisis Management

Role Description

1. Incident Identification, Classification & Escalation

• Lead or support the classification of incidents using predefined severity criteria to determine whether an event constitutes an incident, major incident, or crisis.
• Assess potential impact to Important Business Services (IBS), customers, regulatory obligations, and the firm.
• Ensure timely escalation in line with the Crisis Management Policy, including activation of Incident Response Teams (IRT) or Crisis Management Committees when thresholds are met.

 

2. Crisis Response Coordination

• Act as a central coordinator for crisis response activities, ensuring relevant stakeholders, SMEs, business owners, and support functions are engaged.
• Chair or support incident and crisis calls, maintaining focus on priorities, decisions, and next actions.
• Coordinate across business, technology, cyber, third‑party, and resilience teams to enable a unified response.

 

3. Impact Assessment & Decision Support

• Oversee the ongoing assessment of impact as a crisis evolves, including service disruption, customer impact, and recovery timelines.
• Consolidate information from multiple sources to support informed, timely decision‑making by senior management and crisis committees.
• Track key risks, dependencies, and recovery actions throughout the lifecycle of the event.

 

4. Communication & Stakeholder Management

• Ensure accurate, consistent, and timely communication to senior management, crisis committees, and impacted stakeholders.
• Support coordination with internal and external parties, including regulators, where required, in partnership with designated communications and governance teams.
• Maintain situational awareness and ensure stakeholders remain informed as conditions change.

 

5. Governance, Documentation & Audit Trail

• Ensure all crisis‑related actions, decisions, and justifications are documented in incident logs, decision logs, and event records.
• Maintain records required for audit, regulatory review, and post‑incident governance.
• Ensure compliance with established Crisis Management and Business Continuity, Operational Resilience policies and procedures.

 

6. Post‑Incident Review & Continuous Improvement

• Lead or support post‑incident reviews to identify lessons learned, gaps, and areas for improvement.
• Track remediation actions and ensure follow‑through to strengthen future response capabilities.
• Feed insights into resilience, risk, and control enhancement initiatives.

 

7. Preparedness, Testing & Training

• Support the development, maintenance, and testing of crisis and incident management procedures.
• Participate in scenario testing and exercises to validate crisis readiness and escalation effectiveness.
• Promote crisis awareness and preparedness across the firm.

Experience & Background

 

• 8+ years of experience in Crisis Management, Incident Management, Business Continuity, Operational Resilience, or related risk/governance functions within a complex organization.
• Strong background leading major incidents, crises, or large‑scale operational disruptions, including direct experience managing executive‑level and cross‑functional response calls.
• Experience working in a highly regulated industry (financial services strongly preferred), with practical understanding of regulatory expectations for BCM/Resilience.
• Proven ability to coordinate across technology, cyber security, operations, third‑party risk, and business units during incidents or crises.
• Demonstrated experience conducting impact assessments, supporting senior‑level decision making, and synthesizing information from multiple sources under tight timeframes.
• Hands‑on experience maintaining incident logs, decision records, governance documentation, and audit/regulatory evidence.
• Experience conducting or leading post‑incident reviews, identifying root causes, and driving follow‑up remediation or process improvements.
• Background supporting or running crisis simulations, scenario exercises, and training programs.
• Experience with BCM or Resilience platforms/tools (e.g., Fusion, Everbridge) is preferred.
• Prior experience managing stakeholders, or crisis response groups in fast‑moving, high‑pressure environments.