Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Manager

First American Bank was founded in Chicago, and over the years has expanded throughout Wisconsin and Florida. As the largest privately held bank in Illinois, we now have over 60 locations and assets of $5+ billion. We are a community bank at heart with international expertise, traditional values, and a forward-looking philosophy. Our employees have the experience and vision to meet the needs of savers, borrowers, and businesses in the 21st century. First American Bank can offer employees a level of visibility, career growth, and stability that is difficult to find in many larger corporations.

The Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Manager is responsible for overseeing the crisis management, business continuity, and disaster recovery programs. This role involves managing the Incident Response/Enterprise Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Platform (BCP) and implementing process improvement initiatives. The manager coordinates continuity efforts after disruption events and plans regular mock disaster exercises to test the effectiveness of existing plans and strategies. Additionally, the position supports the Information Security Office in developing and maintaining enterprise security documents, including policies, standards, baselines, guidelines, and procedures. Overall, this role ensures the organization can effectively respond to and recover from disruptions, minimizing operational impact and safeguarding assets.

Duties & Responsibilities

Ensure Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery (BC/DR) plans are developed, implemented, updated, and maintained to meet the company's needs, ensuring the organization can continue critical operations during and after a disruption. Validate plan changes with live tests and tabletop exercises involving various business units.

• Conduct meetings with all departments on a rotational basis to determine BC/DR readiness. Interface with designated departmental Business Continuity representatives to assist them in BC/DR plan development. Maintain any tools associated with these duties.

• Identify enterprise-wide business process workflows and develop contingency plans to ensure minimal disruption during incidents.

• Participate in the creation of enterprise security documents (policies, standards, baselines, guidelines, and procedures) under the direction of the Information Security Officer and/or senior team members, where appropriate.

• Lead digital resiliency efforts and provide a clear understanding of the threat landscape, resulting in strengthened business processes and enhanced outcomes.

• Work with Senior Leaders to relay risk areas and the importance of BC/DR planning.

• Present findings and results of risk analysis, tests, and assessments to executive leadership.

• Responsible for all BC/DR training programs for all departments and locations, documenting any gaps discovered and facilitating closures as needed.

• Responsible for the Incident Response Plan that addresses disruption scenarios for the business.

• Serve as the senior enterprise advisor for all BC/DR functions and deliverables.

• Lead efforts in the development and delivery of emergency response programs.

• Translate strategic and operating plans into meaningful direction for projects, goals, priorities, and activities, delivering on strategy through quality execution and best practice adaptation.

• Capture, analyze, and understand the bank's internal environment, team dynamics, and talent capabilities to address organizational refinement, agility, and growth.

• Provide on-call support for end users for all in-place security solutions that are partially or wholly operated by the InfoSec team.

• Provide a structured and consistent approach to ensure that individual business unit development plans are in place, performance management is consistent, the performance management process is respected and followed, and coaching and feedback are provided on a regular and dynamic basis.

• Conduct and complete additional assignments/projects as designated by management.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience with emphasis on Computer Science required.

• Certification in Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery, such as Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP) from the Disaster Recovery Institute International (DRII), preferred.

• Certifications in security-related practices or technology a plus.

• Minimum five years of demonstrated experience managing Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery efforts and programs in medium sized companies required.

• Financial Services experience preferred.

• Prior BCP/BIA planning and leadership skills with a financial institution or financial services provider.

• Strong organizational and planning skills.

• Must be able to work both with a team and independently. Proven competencies in conflict resolution, leadership, adaptability, and coordination.

• Must be professional, comfortable speaking with external and internal contacts with a demonstrated ability to tailor the message appropriately to the audience and situation effectively.

• Demonstrated ability to convey thoughts and ideas effectively and succinctly via written formats, including emails, letters, and electronic platforms. Maintain professional standards relating to spelling and grammar.

• Maintain credibility through professional demeanor, appearance, and presence by modeling standards appropriate to our environment and industry.

• Maintain good working relationships with internal partners by exhibiting exemplary interpersonal skills, adopting a constructive, solutions-focused approach.

• Use sound professional judgment to balance the interests of the organization and customer, understanding and using available resources to mitigate risks.

• Ability to relay technical information to both technical and non-technical personnel.

• Proficiency with Microsoft 365 products and applications, including the ability to effectively prepare or review documents, procedures, and reports.

• Familiarity using Excel for ETL purposes to update data sets originating outside of the BIA/BCP solution tool.

• Familiarity with electronic banking technologies and applications a plus.

• Working knowledge/expertise with BIA/BCP platforms/tools like Fusion Risk Management or others is preferred.

• Occasional travel to other First American Bank locations, Bank functions, and training facilities may be required.

• Typical schedule is Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Additional hours may be required depending upon business need.

• Punctuality is required to maintain First American Bank's customer service standards.