Business Continuity and
Disaster Recovery
Job Descriptions
Table of Contents
Business
Continuity Services Organization Chart
Director – Business
Continuity Services Group
Manager of Business
Recovery Services
Manager of Disaster
Recovery Services
Manager of Trading
Floor Recovery Services
Sr. Analyst –
Trading Floor Recovery Services.
Business Continuity
Coordinator
Business Continuity Services
Organization Chart
The following document contains job descriptions for the positions listed above. It is intended to assist managers responsible for
Director – Business
Continuity Services Group
Description:
Manage the implementation and day-to-day functions related to creating Business Continuity Plans and Procedures, while managing Disaster Recovery operations within the firm. Responsible for the interfacing with senior management and regulatory auditors, while also implementing and supporting the services listed below.
Contingency Planning – Identify potential Business Interruptions, develop safeguards against these interruptions, and implement recovery procedures in the event of a business interruption.
Disaster Recovery – Safeguard data processing operations by identifying potential problem areas and single points of failure that may result in interruptions to critical data processing operations. Develop and implement Disaster Recovery, Data Sensitivity, Library Management, Back-up and Recovery, and Disaster Recovery Plans and Procedures.
Business Recovery – Develop safeguards and Business Recovery Plans and Procedures governing the remote Business Offices and Operation associated with the organization. Insure that Corporate Asset Protection procedures cover critical Business Resources located at Business Offices.
Risk Management – Identify and Categorize outage exposures that could cause a business interruption, then obtain Insurance and Vendor agreements to safeguard against a disaster event. Responsible for insuring that Business and Regulatory Requirements are adhered to and that implemented recovery procedures and contracts are cost justifiable.
Manager of Business Recovery
Services
Business Continuity Services Group - Overview
The Business Continuity Services Group is chartered with providing the alternate facility, core computing systems equipment and support necessary to effect business continuance in the event of a disaster or some other emergency situation which would preclude normal operations at one of the company’s primary processing sites. The focus is on providing a comprehensive ability to recover systems and operations with minimal operating risk, positioning the company for future changes in geography, products and technology while minimizing expenses.
The group is also responsible for the development of and compliance with corporate guidelines for the company’s business contingency planning efforts. These responsibilities encompass all operational, trading floor and non-trading floor entities of the company. The group is to assure, in the event of a business interruption disrupting normal business processes or warranting relocation of any business unit, that the proper planning and testing have been accomplished to facilitate a timely restoration of business operations or relocation to an adequate alternate facility.
The Business Continuity Services Group is composed of three separate yet integrated functions designed to accomplish contingency planning goals on a firm-wide basis: Data Center Relocation, Trading Floor Recovery, and Business Recovery.
Position Description
The manager will provide leadership in coordinating, assessing, developing & communicating recovery environment requirements and contingency plans associated with the company’s Business Units to protect the firm in the event that facilities or technology resources are unavailable due to an unforeseen disruption. Provide very complex project leadership between the technology groups and other company business units, emphasizing regular direct communication with application support management.
This position will provide the incumbent with an opportunity to manage the team responsible for planning and implementation of the Business Unit contingency plans for providing manual / off-line procedures development to mitigate any risk associated with complete or partial failure of facilities, technology systems, or applications related to an unforeseen disruption.
With minimal supervision, coordinate and facilitate all business continuity planning activities. The person who fills this position is expected to interact with the critical business units and support groups for the purpose of planning, directing, controlling, and maintaining the contingency planning effort. A strong business continuity background is a necessary requirement. This background will enable the applicant to be more effective in a management role. It will enable the candidate to bring to bear the necessary knowledge to interact with the various business units to facilitate their plan development. The incumbent would be the
primary interface to the BCP Project Office, Disaster Recovery, and Trading Floor Recovery functions.
Responsibilities:
- Assume management responsibility for Business Contingency planning efforts with a major focus on assuring the adequacy of business unit contingency plans for critical business areas, functions and applications. To maintain continued operations, asset protection, and loss mitigation in the event of a disruption, coordinating activities of technology resources with the company’s business units and development groups, as required.
- Work with business unit management to enhance contingency plans, mitigating the effect of a technology system or application failure or problem. Key objectives are that business units can continue to manage the firm’s assets, satisfy our regulatory obligations, and maintain our presence in the market place.
- Provide direct communications between the BCP Project Office, Information technology Operations, Technology architecture and Engineering Systems, and Systems Application Program Management. Participate in appropriate business unit and development planning meetings and activities. Facilitate timely identification, escalation, resolution, and follow-up for all outstanding issues.
- Assist the department in enhancing, formalizing, and standardizing the business planning process, including forecasting and tracking mechanisms, across all business units, to facilitate timely accommodation of future company recovery requirements and opportunities.
- Assume leadership role in developing, coordinating, and maintaining comprehensive business contingency plans and validation methodology, to ensure the firm’s ability to recovery, in the event of an unforeseen disruption to facilities, technology systems, or applications.
- Perform all departmental administrative activities, including staff meeting attendance, monthly status reporting, budgeting, strategic planning, expense processing, documentation, and other activities, as assigned, in a timely manner.
Manager of Disaster Recovery
Services
Business Continuity Services Group
The Business Continuity Services Group is chartered with providing the alternate facility, core computing systems equipment and support necessary to effect business continuance in the event of a disaster or some other emergency situation which would preclude normal operations at one of the company’s primary processing sites. The focus is on providing a comprehensive ability to recover systems and operations with minimal operating risk, positioning the company for future changes in geography, products and technology while minimizing expenses.
The group is also responsible for the development of and compliance with corporate guidelines for the company’s business contingency planning efforts. These responsibilities encompass all operational, trading floor and non-trading floor entities of the company. The group is to assure, in the event of a business interruption disrupting normal business processes or warranting relocation of any business unit, that the proper planning and testing have been accomplished to facilitate a timely restoration of business operations or relocation to an adequate alternate facility.
The Business Continuity Services Group is composed of three separate yet integrated functions designed to accomplish contingency planning goals on a firm-wide basis: Data Center Relocation, Trading Floor Recovery, and Business Recovery.
Position Description
The manager will provide leadership in coordinating, assessing, developing & communicating recovery environment requirements and contingency plans associated with the company’s Data Center current, in plan, and new activities, to appropriate technology groups, resulting in recommendations to enable timely, effective decisions regarding hardware / software recovery planning. Provide very complex project leadership between the technology groups and other company business units, emphasizing regular direct communication with mainframe application support management.
This position will provide the incumbent with an opportunity to manage the department responsible for planning and implementation of a highly advanced mainframe disaster recovery program. The incumbent will be exposed to disk mirroring technology, wave division multiplexed networks using private, dark fiber services, and operational control strategies and other communications technology as implemented by the firm. The final implementation of the program will put the company in the industry forefront of recovery capabilities nationwide.
With minimal supervision, coordinate and facilitate all business continuity planning mainframe activities. The person who fills this position is expected to interact with the various mainframe support groups for the purpose of planning, directing, controlling, and maintaining the mainframe Disaster Recovery program. A strong MVS mainframe background is a necessary
requirement. This background will enable the applicant to be more effective in a management role. It will enable the candidate to bring to keep focus on the Mainframe Disaster Recovery process. The incumbent would be a primary interface to the BCP Project Office, Disaster Recovery, and Trading Floor Recovery functions.
Responsibilities:
- Assume management responsibility for Data Center Recovery planning efforts with a major focus on achieving all financial estimates, assuring adequacy of end-state production recovery environments, meeting all strategic planning deliverables, coordinating activities of technology resources with other company business units and development groups, as required.
- Lead in performing data center recovery capacity planning coordination with company technology groups in support of specific business unit current, in plan, and new initiatives, with a major focus on proactively assuring an adequate recovery network and processing environment, as well as, accurate, predictive budgeting.
- Provide direct communications between the BCP Project Office, Information technology Operations, Technology architecture and Engineering Systems, and Systems Application Program Management. Participate in appropriate business unit and development planning meetings and activities. Facilitate timely identification, escalation, resolution, and follow-up for all outstanding issues.
- Assist the department in enhancing, formalizing, and standardizing the business planning process, including forecasting and tracking mechanisms, across all business units, to facilitate timely accommodation of future company recovery requirements and opportunities.
- Assume leadership role in developing, coordinating, and maintaining comprehensive data center recovery plans and a testing program, to ensure the ability to recovery, in the event of an unforeseen disruption to facilities, technology systems, or applications.
- Perform all departmental administrative activities, including staff meeting attendance, monthly status reporting, budgeting, strategic planning, expense processing, documentation, and other activities, as assigned, in a timely fashion.
Manager of Trading Floor
Recovery Services
Business Continuity Services Group
The Business Continuity Services Group is chartered with providing the alternate facility, core computing systems equipment and support necessary to effect business continuance in the event of a disaster or some other emergency situation which would preclude normal operations at one of the company’s primary processing sites. The focus is on providing a comprehensive ability to recover systems and operations with minimal operating risk, positioning the company for future changes in geography, products and technology while minimizing expenses.
The group is also responsible for the development of and compliance with corporate guidelines for the company’s business contingency planning efforts. These responsibilities encompass all operational, trading floor and non-trading floor entities of the company. The group is to assure, in the event of a business interruption disrupting normal business processes or warranting relocation of any business unit, that the proper planning and testing have been accomplished to facilitate a timely restoration of business operations or relocation to an adequate alternate facility.
The Business Continuity Services Group is composed of three separate yet integrated functions designed to accomplish contingency planning goals on a firm-wide basis: Data Center Relocation, Trading Floor Recovery, and Business Recovery.
Position Description
The manager will provide leadership in coordinating, assessing, developing and communicating recovery environment requirements associated with the company’s Trading Floor Business Unit current, in plan, and new activities, to appropriate technology groups, resulting in recommendations to enable timely, effective decisions regarding hardware / software recovery planning. Provide very complex project leadership between the technology groups and other company business units, emphasizing regular direct communication with Trading Floor Business Unit Planning and Systems Programming Management.
This position will provide the incumbent with an opportunity to manage the team responsible for planning and implementation of the Trading Floor contingency plans for providing manual / off-line procedures development to mitigate any risk associated with complete or partial failure of facilities, technology systems, or applications related to an unforeseen disruption.
With minimal supervision, coordinate and facilitate all business continuity planning activities. The person who fills this position is expected to interact with the critical business units and support groups for the purpose of planning, directing, controlling, and maintaining the contingency planning effort. A strong business continuity background is a necessary requirement. This background will enable the applicant to be more effective in a management
role. It will enable the candidate to bring to bear the necessary knowledge to interact with the various business units to facilitate their plan development. The incumbent would be the primary interface to the BCP Project Office, Disaster Recovery, and Business Recovery functions.
Responsibilities:
- Assume management responsibility for the Trading Floor Business Units with a focus on achieving all financial estimates, assuring the adequacy of end-state production recovery environments, meeting all strategic planning deliverables, coordinating activities of technology resources with the company business units and developing groups, as required.
- Lead in performing Trading Floor recovery capacity planning coordination with company technology groups in support of specific trading floor business unit current, in plan, and new initiatives, with a major focus on proactively assuring adequate recovery network and processing environment, as well as accurate, predictive budgeting..
- Provide direct communications between the Trading Floor Business Unit, and Systems Programming Management. Participate in appropriate business unit and development planning meetings and activities. Facilitate timely identification, escalation, resolution, and follow-up for all outstanding issues.
- Assist the department in enhancing, formalizing, and standardizing the business planning process, including forecasting and tracking mechanisms, across all business units, to facilitate timely accommodation of future company recovery requirements and opportunities.
- Assume leadership role in developing, coordinating, and maintaining comprehensive Trading Floor Recovery and Testing plans and validation methodology, to ensure the firm’s ability to recovery, in the event of an unforeseen disruption to facilities, technology systems, or applications.
- Perform all departmental administrative activities, including staff meeting attendance, monthly status reporting, budgeting, strategic planning, expense processing, documentation, and other activities, as assigned, in a timely fashion.
Sr. Analyst – Trading Floor
Recovery Services
Business Continuity Services Group
The Business Continuity Services Group is chartered with providing the alternate facility, core computing systems equipment and support necessary to effect business continuance in the event of a disaster or some other emergency situation which would preclude normal operations at one of the company’s primary processing sites. The focus is on providing a comprehensive ability to recover systems and operations with minimal operating risk, positioning the company for future changes in geography, products and technology while minimizing expenses.
The group is also responsible for the development of and compliance with corporate guidelines for the company’s business contingency planning efforts. These responsibilities encompass all operational, trading floor and non-trading floor entities of the company. The group is to assure, in the event of a business interruption disrupting normal business processes or warranting relocation of any business unit, that the proper planning and testing have been accomplished to facilitate a timely restoration of business operations or relocation to an adequate alternate facility.
The Business Continuity Services Group is composed of three separate yet integrated functions designed to accomplish contingency planning goals on a firm-wide basis: Data Center Relocation, Trading Floor Recovery, and Business Recovery.
Position Description
Provide leadership in coordinating, assessing and communicating recovery management requirements associated with the company’s Trading Floor Business Unit’s current, in plan, and new initiatives, to appropriate technology groups, resulting in recommendations to enable timely, effective decisions regarding hardware / software recovery planning. Provide very complex project leadership between the technology groups and other company business units, emphasizing regular direct communication with Trading Floor Business Unit, Application and Technology Management and Support personnel.
The incumbent will provide project management leadership in coordinating, assessing, and communicating recovery environment requirements associated with the company’s Trading Floor Business Unit’s current, in plan, and new activities, to appropriate technology groups, resulting in recommendations to enable timely, effective decisions regarding hardware / software recovery planning. Provide very complex project leadership between the technology groups and other company business units, emphasizing regular, direct communications with Trading Floor Business Unit Planning and Systems Programming Management. The incumbent will have the opportunity to interface with senior Trading Floor business management.
Under minimal direction, coordinate and facilitate trading floor business continuity planning activities. Specific trading floor (Fixed Income, Equities, Muni’s, Commodities, and/or
Derivatives) experience and knowledge is a requirement. The incumbent will be expected to interact with various application, distributed systems, and mainframe support groups for the purpose of planning, directing, controlling, and enhancing the Trading floor Recovery Process and Plans. The incumbent will act as the primary interface to the Business Unit Recovery and Data Center Recovery Groups.
Responsibilities:
- Assume high level project management responsibility for the assigned trading floor business unit(s) with a major focus on assuring the adequacy of the end-state production recovery environments meeting all strategic planning deliverables, coordinating activities of technical resources with the other company business units and development groups, as required.
- Lead in performing recovery capacity planning coordination with company technology groups in support of specific trading floor business unit current, in plan, and new initiatives, with a major focus on proactively assuring an adequate recovery network and processing environment, as well as, accurate, predictive budgeting.
- Provide direct communications between the trading floor business unit, planning and technology management and support personnel. Participate in appropriate business unit and development planning meetings and activities. Facilitate timely identification, escalation, resolution, and follow-up for all outstanding issues.
- Assist the department in enhancing, formalizing, and standardizing the business planning process, including forecasting and tracking mechanisms, across all business units, to facilitate timely accommodation of future company recovery requirements and opportunities.
- Assume leadership role in developing, coordinating, and maintaining comprehensive trading floor recovery and testing plans and validation methodology, to ensure the firm’s ability to recovery, in the event of an unforeseen disruption to facilities, technology systems, or applications.
- Perform all departmental administrative activities, including staff meeting attendance, monthly status reporting, budgeting, strategic planning, expense processing, documentation, and other activities, as assigned, in a timely manner.
- Travel flexibility may be required.
Required Skills:
- Leadership and supervision skills capable of performing complex scheduling, control, planning, and influencing with a minimal amount of supervision. Ability to work with people bot individually and within groups.
- Understanding of Securities Industry, Fixed Income and / or Equities trading business activities, processes, and policies.
- Advanced project management capability with strong analytical and independent reasoning abilities (Microsoft Project software or equivalent).
- Advanced verbal and written communications skills, with the ability to emphasize a desire to provide high quality, customer service (Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Office, etc.).
- Strong financial skills with the ability to develop precise, thorough cost – benefit analysis, in addition to general accounting proficiency (Microsoft Excel, etc.).
- Operational knowledge of personal computing, distributed processing, midrange, and/or mainframe platforms. Understanding of LAN ./ WAN network system inter-connectivity a plus.
- Knowledge regarding systems development life cycle, data center operations, trading floor business unit and firm processing, would be beneficial.
- 7+ years Business Continuity, Data Processing, Trading floor or equivalent experience.
Business Continuity Planner
Provides professional, specialized skills, including: business continuity planning, project management, and problem analysis and resolution.
Participates in major project assignments to:
- Assist business partners in resolving business issues related to work area (business function) recovery planning and recovery plan development / enhancements.
- Capitalize on business opportunities to refine production processes to mitigate exposure during disruptions of service, and, possibly, improve day-to-day operations.
Facilitates and coordinates the development of work area (business function) business continuity plans for all Consumer & Commercial business units.
Responsibilities
include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Assist business units with:
- Assessment of potential business impact (Business Impact Analysis),
- Definition of Critical, time-sensitive functions,
- Design, development, and documentation of work area (business function) business continuity plans.
- Recommend recovery strategies and options, and assist with the implementation of recovery solutions.
- Coordinate business continuity plan exercises.
- Develop schedules for training / awareness for business partner associates.
- Coordinate development of business unit schedules for annual business continuity documentation maintenance and update, exercises, and independent review and validation.
- Report the business continuity status of business units to senior management.
- Provide expertise and support to management and business functional areas, as requrested, when a business disruption occurs.
Qualification include:
- 2-3 years experience in banking, business continuity, or related fields,
- Strong analytical, organizational, and decision-making skills,
- Strong verbal / written communications. Must be able to interface and coordinate work efficiently and effectively with business partners in remote locations,
- Strong administrative skills, with effectiveness in developing tasks and managing resources ti achieve target dates,
- Must be a leader and a productive team player,
- Strong PC skills (Microsoft Office, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.),
- Travel and off-hour on-call support required.
Business Continuity
Coordinator
The position of Business Continuity Coordinator may entail any, or all, of the following responsibilities:
- Development – Directing or assisting in the development of Business Continuity Plans and Procedures, and providing regular status updates to the Business Continuity Steering Committee.
- Change Management – Assessing the Business Continuity implications of proposed technological or organizational changes, and coordinating any revisions to existing Business Continuity Plans and Procedures necessitated by such changes.
- Administration – Coordinating routine updates to the detailed information supporting the Business Continuity Procedures (e.g., contact lists, personnel assignments, hardware and software specifications, network diagrams, vital records management and inventory lists, off-site back-up schedules, etc.). Coordinating electronic access to, and hard copy distribution of, the Business Continuity Plans and Procedures. Administering contracts and service agreements with Business Continuity service providers.
- Training and Awareness – Ensuring all personnel with specific Business Continuity responsibilities are adequately trained to fulfill their assigned responsibilities. Ensuring all employees are familiar with the relevant provisions of the Business Continuity Plans.
- Testing and Exercising – Ensuring that all technical components of the Business Continuity Plans are successfully tested at least annually, or whenever significant changes are made to those components. Planning and coordinating at least one simulation exercise a year, involving all critical business units. Documenting the results of all tests and exercises, and identifying any recommended enhancements to the Business Continuity Plans and Procedures.
- Execution – Providing 7x24 on-call support for any emergency which may require activation of all or part of the Business Continuity Plans. In the event that activation is required, serving as liaison between the Crisis Management Team (i.e., senior management) and the Business Continuity Teams (i.e., the teams recovering operations at the alternate facilities and the teams restoring operations at the home facility).