Principal: Operational Resilience

The Principal: Operations Resilience is responsible for developing, implementing and maintain the DBSA’s business continuity management (BCM) governance framework to ensure the organisation can continue operating during and after disruptive incidents . The role ensures operational resilience, regulatory compliance, and effective crisis response across the DBSA.

Key Responsibilities

KEY PERFORMANCE AREAS

1. Business Continuity & Resilience

• Develop, implement, maintain, and monitor an effective Business Continuity Management (BCM) Framework & Policies consistently with the general regulatory requirements and industry best practices and standards
• Develop the BCM Capability Tool that measures the maturity and progress of the framework in accordance with the business requirements.
• Establish, execute, and continuously enhance the Business Continuity Management framework, including related policies, standards, and operating procedures.
• Facilitate and regularly update Business Impact Assessments and continuity-related risk evaluations across all business areas.
• Develop, document, and keep current business continuity and recovery plans, including disaster recovery approaches and defined recovery time targets.
• Integrate business continuity practices with IT disaster recovery, crisis response arrangements, and the broader operational risk framework.

2. Planning, Development and Maintenance

• Enhance and optimise existing business continuity programmes, tools and methodologies to strengthen management, minimise the impact of disruptions, and enable effective continuation or recovery operations.
• Lead continuity planning and incident management activities, including the design, development and facilitation of DBSA-wide business continuity and scenario based exercises.
• Work closely with ICT to develop, implement and maintain the ICT continuity plan and disaster recovery plans for critical systems and applications
• Develop and maintain the Business Continuity Portal and associated records in accordance with the National Archives and Records Management Standards
• Support divisions and business units in formalising and standardising and improving business continuity planning and implementing appropriate continuity strategies.
• Develop and maintain the Incident Management Plan and supporting structures across strategic, tactical, operational levels.

3. Training and Business Readiness

• Enable and coordinate of regular business continuity training, workshops and information/awarness sessions to ensure DBSA staff are prepared for disruptions and can resume operations as quickly as possible.
• Plan and coordinate Business Continuity Plan exercises in accordance with the approve annual testing and exercise schedule
• Work in partnershp with the Emergency Response Team to ensure ongoing readiness,compliance in terms of trained members and preparedness
• Oversee post-incident evaluations, including lessons-learned sessions, and monitor the implementation of corrective actions.
• Work with business units to ensure accountability and clarity regarding continuity and recovery responsibilities.

4. People Management

• Coordinate the trained Business Continuity Teams in the response, recovery, restoration, and resumption of all business operations in accordance with the business continuity plans, emergency response plans, crisis management plans and technology recovery plans.
• Provide direction and management to the Division, to enable the strategy execution
• Attract, retain, and develop talent and ensure succession planning and sufficient capacity and capability in all critical functions, supporting diversity strategies and initiatives as well.
• Promote DBSA values and a culture of high performance through implementing performance management in line with the planned strategic objectives, goals, quality standards and agreed key performance measures using sound performance management principles.

5. Governance, Reporting, Assurance and Stakeholder Management

• Monitor and support compliance with relevant regulatory requirements, standards, and best practices.
• Report the business continuity status of divisions / business units to management (Business Impact Analysis reports)
• Prepare reports and dashboards for Exco, Board, Audit & Risk Committees, and regulators.
• Support internal and external audits relating to business continuity and operational resilience.
• Assess and monitor the business continuity and resilience capabilities of third parties and suppliers, including verification that off-site disaster recovery arrangements are maintained and ready for activation in the event of an incident or disaster.

Key Measurements of Outputs

• Approved BCM Framework & Policies
• Effective response to disaster and critical incidents.
• Successful implementation of effective and high-quality governance frameworks in accordance with the relevant legislations, regulations, standards and best practices to ensure the risks are managed, and compliance is adhered to.
• Adequate levels of BCM capability are measured throughout the Bank.
• Up-to-date and effective Business Impact Analysis reports
• Up-to-date Business Continuity and Crisis Management Plans
• Test and exercise reports with improvement actions
• Management and Board-level BCM reports

KEY INTERNAL LIAISON RELATIONSHIPS (*The list is not exhaustive)

• Technical Specialists

• DBSA Internal Staff

KEY EXTERNAL LIAISON RELATIONSHIPS (*The list is not exhaustive)

• DBSA suppliers

• DBSA clients

• Other Stakeholders

Expertise & Technical Competencies

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

Minimum Qualifications

• A Postgraduate Degree in Risk Management or Equivalent.

Minimum Experience

• A minimum of 10 years of experience in Business Continuity and Risk Management, the experience must include a minimum of 6 years in Risk Management.

• A minimum of 5 years’ experience overseeing and managing business continuity for a medium to large size organisation.

• Demonstrated knowledge in developing, managing, coordinating, implementing, testing and reviewing of fullspectrum Business Continuity programmes,

• disaster recovery and emergency response.

• In-depth knowledge of Business Continuity Management/Assurance and Resilience Frameworks.

• Experience in writing organisation-wide strategies, policies, procedures and training materials will be advantageous

• Expert knowledge of Business Continuity Management and resilience, Enterprise Risk Management and

• Operational Risk Management Standards and Best Practice; as well as the risk-related control frameworks and practices (COSO, ISO, ITIL, CMM, COBIT, etc.)

• Proven understanding of the corporate-wide insurance in terms of Business Disruption Insurance.

• Experience in engaging senior leadership and writing and presenting reports to senior management.

• Extensive knowledge of the legislative requirements of the Data Protection Act and other information laws.

• Experience in the investigation and management of incidents and root cause analysis.

• Demonstrated expertise in incident and crisis management.

• Proven ability to assess commercial imperatives with a risk focus.

Desirable Requirements

• A membership of the Business Continuity Institute and/or an equivalent institution

• Experience in the financial services sector.

• A good understanding of how Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity, Crisis Management and Emergency Management are integrated under resilience.

• SharePoint or similar system experience.

• Experience in managing risk-related projects.

TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES

a) Governance and Framework

• Expert knowledge of industry standards (e.g., ISO 22301) and relevant regulatory requirements (e.g., financial sector, data protection) for business continuity and resilience.
• Ability to design, implement, and maintain the Enterprise Business Continuity Governance Framework, including policies, standards, and procedures
• Proficiency in using the organisation’s Risk Management Framework to identify, evaluate, and prioritise threats

b) Planning and Analysis

• Advanced skill in conducting comprehensive BIAs, including defining Maximum Tolerable Period of Disruption, Recovery Time Objectives, and Recovery Point
• Objectives for critical processes and resources
• Ability to design, evaluate, and select appropriate business continuity and recovery strategies
• Expert ability to draft, maintain, and structure various comprehensive plans such as Business Continuity Plans, Incident Management Plan and Emergency Response plans

c) Disaster Recovery

• Experience in working with IT teams to develop and maintain the IT Disaster Recovery Plan for critical systems, applications, and data
• Understanding of best practices for the protection of vital information assets and ensuring the availability and integrity of data

d) Exercising, Testing and Maintenance

• Skill in designing, scheduling, and facilitating a variety of testing and exercise scenarios, including tabletop exercises, walk-throughs, functional tests, and full-scale simulations
• Ability to manage post-exercise reviews, documenting lessons learned, and developing an action plan to address identified gaps and deficiencies
• Capability to use a BCM Capability Tool or methodology to measure the current state, progress, and maturity of the BCM program against business requirements and standards.

e) Incident Response

• Expertise in setting up and operating a Strategic, Tactical, and Operational Incident Management structure during a real event
• Proficiency in coordinating the full-scale activation of response teams to ensure timely response, recovery, and resumption of business
• Skill in rapidly assessing the scope and impact of an incident and continuously monitoring recovery progress.

f) Stakeholder Management

• Actively engages partners and encourages others to build relationships that support DBSA objectives
• Understands and recognises the contributions that staff at all levels make to delivering priorities
• Proactively manages partner relationships, preventing or resolving any conflict
• Adapts style to work effectively with partners, building consensus, trust, and respect
• Delivers objectives by bringing together diverse stakeholders to work effectively in partnership.

Required Personal Attributes

BEHAVIOURAL COMPETENCIES

a) Analytical Thinking

• Identifies multiple elements of a problem and breaks down each of those elements in detail, showing causal relationships between them
• Uses several analytical techniques to identify several solutions and weighs the value of each

b) Attention to Detail

• Monitors the quality of others' work
• Checks to see that procedures are followed by others
• Keeps clear details records of own and/or other activities

c) Integrity

• Willingness to end a business relationship because it was associated with unethical business practices
• Capability of challenging senior management (in an appropriate manner) to act on espoused values

d) Stakeholder Management

• Actively engages partners and encourages others to build relationships that support DBSA objectives
• Understands and recognises the contributions that staff at all levels make to delivering priorities
• Proactively manages partner relationships, preventing or resolving any conflict
• Adapts style to work effectively with partners, building consensus, trust, and respect
• Delivers objectives by bringing together diverse stakeholders to work effectively in partnership

e) Achievement Orientation

• Delivers work on time and quality and follows through on agreed commitments
• Views new work experiences as an opportunity for growth
• Reacts immediately to overcome setbacks or/and obstacles to meet goals
• Recognises and acts upon current opportunities

f) Teamwork & Cooperation

• Values and utilises the expertise of colleagues, asking for ideas and input and collaborates to form decisions and plans
• Willingly learns from others
• Creates opportunities for knowledge and expertise sharing between all members of the team

• The KPA’s, competencies and relationships listed in this document, are not exhaustive, and the incumbent will be expected to undertake additional duties within their capacity to meet the needs of business and/or the business unit.