Head of Business Continuity and Data Resilience

The Insolvency Service is a leading government agency which plays a crucial role in providing essential services to the public and to business. The work we do is important to the proper functioning of markets, the economy in general and support for thousands of people each year who are in financial difficulty. We have an exciting opportunity for a Head of Digital Resilience and Business Continuity to manage preparedness against major disruptions, ensuring essential public services continue during crises such as cyber-attacks, infrastructure failure, or pandemics. This role guarantees compliance with government security standards, manages risks to critical assets, and develops response strategies. If you would like to find out more about the role, the team and what it's like to work at the Insolvency Service, we are holding a Hiring Manager Q&A session for this role where you can virtually meet the team on the 5th October at 14:00 – 15:00. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/insolvency-service-qa-head-of-business-continuity-and-data-resilience-tickets-2001000346903

Change and Technology Services (CTS) is responsible for the delivery of all the agency's information and communications technology services. We are modernising our resilience posture and seek a G7 Head of BCDR to build and lead an agency-wide capability that extends current Azure backup strategies and delivers orchestrated recovery of public-facing services using Azure Site Recovery (ASR). You will own strategy, delivery and assurance of disaster recovery across multiple subscriptions and suppliers, embedding a sustainable programme of planning, testing and audit aligned to government standards. Responsibilities As the Head of Digital Resilience and Business Continuity, you will:

• Own the BCDR strategy and roadmap: integrate with ISMS incident processes and SIMP/Gold Command activation
• Design and deliver Azure-to-Azure DR using ASR (replication policies, target-region readiness, Recovery Plans/runbooks)
• Design and deliver DR-ready networking/identity in the secondary region (VNets/subnets, DNS, private endpoints, routing, firewalls)
• Establish a rolling test regime (table-tops, component tests, non-disruptive test failovers and full rehearsals) with auditable evidence
• Set and assure supplier and third-party BCDR requirements (immutability, Geo- Redundant Storage/ Cross-Region Restore, cadence of testing) across all managed subscriptions
• Maintain the BCDR risk register; quantify inherent vs residual risk; provide regular governance/ELT reporting
• Support business case development and investment options for resilience improvements
• The postholder will work closely with the Physical Security and Resilience Team (PSRT) to ensure effective alignment between cyber resilience, physical security, and wider business continuity arrangements
• The role will actively support joined up planning and testing, to identify synergies between cyber and physical resilience activities, and contribute to strengthening the agency's overall capability to prevent, respond to, and recover from disruptive incidents Essential Criteria: To be considered for this role you must:
• Cloud-based Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery experience.
• Strong cloud backup and recovery knowledge.
• Experience integrating BC activities with incident response.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and communication.
• Supplier/vendor management.
• Ability to operate strategically and technically. Desirable Criteria: It would be beneficial if you also have experience of one or more of the following:
• Azure Site Recovery experience.
• Azure recovery services knowledge.
• Cl SSP certification.
• IS027001 exposure.
• Experience with government BC audit requirements. Please note: This vacancy is advertised across 11 locations; however, Stratford and Croydon are only available to current Insolvency Service Staff. The advertised salary includes London weighting, which is only applicable to internal candidates. If you do not currently hold Security Check (SC) clearance, we will support you through the vetting process following a conditional offer of employment. As SC clearance is essential for this role, appointment is dependent of successfully obtaining and maintaining it. We will provide guidance and support through this process. Behaviours: We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions Technical skills We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
• Azure Site Recovery (ASR) end-to-end design (multi-subscription, public-facing services)
• secondary-region networking and identity readiness (making failover work)
• RTO/RPO, testing strategy, and audit-grade evidence (CAF / Govs 007 / ISO 27001) Benefits Alongside your salary of £57,367, Insolvency Service contributes £16,619 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.
• Flexible working arrangements and flexi-time
• 28.97% Employer pension contribution
• Full time new entrants to the Civil Service and those Civil Servants on modernised terms and conditions will be entitled to 25 days leave increasing on a sliding scale to 30 days after 5 years' service
• In addition to this you are entitled to 8 public/bank holidays plus an additional day of privilege leave
• Competitive maternity, paternity and parental leave
• 5 days paid leave for learning and development
• 5 days paid for volunteering
• A Cycle to work scheme
• Staff have access to an employee assistance programme, Workplace Wellness, for confidential, independent support and advice during difficult times in either their professional or personal life Selection process details This vacancy is using Success Profiles and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.
• CV Multi-Stage Screening Process As part of the application process, candidates will be asked to upload a CV outlining their experience, skills and suitability for the role, and complete a multi-stage screening process. Candidates who are longlisted will be invited to complete a short, pre-recorded video screening interview. Alternatively, written responses may be provided in place of the video interview. Our recruitment partner (Inspire People) will assess applications against the essential criteria to produce a shortlist, which will then be reviewed by Insolvency Service hiring managers. Successful candidates will be invited to interview. If successful at the sift stage, at interview, you will be assessed on the following: Behavioural Competencies
• assessed through: Behaviour 1 – Managing a Quality Service Behaviour 2 – Changing and Improving Technical Skills Expected timeline (subject to change) Sift – TBC Interview – TBC Location - MS Teams Your interview will either be conducted face to face or by video. You will be notified of this if you are selected for interview. Candidates are asked to note the above timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process. Artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use. Visa Applicants To sponsor a candidate under the Skilled Worker visa, a sponsorship licence is required. The Insolvency Service does not currently hold this licence and therefore cannot legally sponsor Skilled Worker visa applicants. Security Successful candidates must undergo a standard (or equivalent) criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard checks. Nationality requirements This job is broadly open to the following groups:
• UK nationals
• Nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• Nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• Nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• Nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• Individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
• Further information on nationality requirements Apply and further information Apply now to contact Inspire People in complete confidence.