Operational Resilience Manager – Testing
Location: Bristol or London
Hybrid Working Available
The Opportunity
Oliver James has partnered with a leading UK financial services organisation to recruit an Operational Resilience Manager – Testing. This is an exciting opportunity to play a key role in strengthening the organisation’s operational resilience framework, ensuring critical business services can respond to, adapt to and recover from disruption.
You’ll lead the end-to-end delivery of operational resilience testing, working closely with senior stakeholders across the business to develop testing methodologies, execute resilience exercises, and drive continuous improvement. This is a highly visible role offering exposure across technology, operations, risk and business functions, with the opportunity to influence resilience strategy in line with UK regulatory expectations.
Key Responsibilities
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Lead the planning, coordination and delivery of the annual Operational Resilience testing programme.
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Develop and continuously enhance scenario testing methodologies and maintain a comprehensive testing scenario library.
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Deliver Important Business Service (IBS) testing in collaboration with business and technology stakeholders.
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Support and oversee wider resilience exercises, including Business Continuity, IT Service Continuity, Cyber Resilience and Workplace Recovery testing.
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Produce post-exercise reports, identify lessons learned and drive resilience improvement initiatives.
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Contribute to Operational Resilience self-assessments, governance reporting and regulatory compliance activities.
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Work closely with operational resilience, risk, technology and business teams to ensure a joined-up approach across the resilience lifecycle.
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Support crisis and incident management activities, including participation in an out-of-hours on-call rota when required.
Skills & Experience Required
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Proven experience in an Operational Resilience role within Financial Services.
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Strong knowledge of Operational Resilience frameworks, scenario testing and regulatory expectations.
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Experience delivering resilience testing programmes across business and technology functions.
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Familiarity with Crisis Management, Incident Management and Business Continuity planning.
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Good understanding of UK regulatory requirements, including PRA/FCA Operational Resilience guidance. Exposure to DORA would be advantageous.
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Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence across multiple business areas.
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Excellent analytical, planning and problem-solving capabilities.
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Experience managing cross-functional initiatives and driving continuous improvement.
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Degree-qualified in Business, Risk, Finance or a related discipline is desirable.
