Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Lead - KSA

The BCDR & DR Automation Lead is responsible for defining, governing, and executing the organization’s Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery strategy, with a strong focus on automation. The role ensures resilience of critical business services through structured planning, risk management, and advanced recovery orchestration aligned with business and regulatory requirements.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategy, Governance & Framework

• Define and drive the enterprise BCDR and DR Automation strategy and roadmap, aligned with business continuity objectives and resilience goals.
• Establish and maintain standardized frameworks, methodologies, and best practices for BCP, DR, and automation.
• Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and industry standards (ISO 22301, ISO 27001, NIST, ITIL).
• Govern adherence to a consistent and integrated DR automation framework across all teams.

1. Business Impact, Risk & Planning

• Lead Business Impact Analysis (BIA) to identify critical services, dependencies, and recovery priorities.
• Conduct risk assessments to evaluate threats, vulnerabilities, and operational impacts.
• Define and validate Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO).
• Develop and maintain Business Continuity Plans (BCP) and Disaster Recovery Plans (DRP).

1. DR Automation & Solution Integration

• Design and oversee end-to-end DR automation lifecycle (scope, validation, execution, testing).
• Collaborate with automation teams to:

• o Implement and enhance automation workflows and orchestration
• o Manage changes to existing automated applications
• o Ensure accurate capture of application and inter-application dependencies

• Continuously identify opportunities to increase automation, reduce manual effort, and minimize downtime and risk.
• Ensure automation solutions support achievement of RTO/RPO targets.

1. Cross-Functional Coordination

• Lead and coordinate efforts across Application, Infrastructure, Network, Database, Security, and Business SMEs.
• Ensure alignment between business and IT stakeholders on DR priorities and execution approach.
• Orchestrate communication across technical teams, internal leadership, and customer stakeholders to enable real-time decision-making.

1. Testing, Validation & Execution

• Plan and lead DR testing activities, including:

• o Control tests and sequential automation testing
• o Dry runs and technical rehearsals
• o Full-scale DR simulation and live failover exercises

• Lead coordination for UAT and DR testing processes, including approvals and stakeholder alignment.
• Validate recovery strategies through structured testing and ensure operational readiness.
• Lead coordinated recovery execution to ensure timely restoration of services and business continuity.

1. Monitoring, Reporting & Governance

• Ensure implementation of DR dashboards, monitoring, and alerting tools to provide visibility into recovery readiness.
• Provide executive-level reporting on:

• o DR test results
• o Risks and gaps
• o Remediation plans and progress

• Contribute to Steering Committee (SteerCo) updates and lead discussions when required.

1. Risk Management & Continuous Improvement

• Identify, track, and drive timely mitigation of risks across BCDR and DR automation initiatives.
• Analyze test outcomes and incidents to drive continuous improvement and optimization.
• Enhance overall resilience posture while optimizing cost and operational efficiency.
• Strong expertise in BCDR strategy, planning, and execution.
• Hands-on experience in DR automation and orchestration platforms.
• Deep understanding of enterprise IT environments (applications, infrastructure, cloud, security).
• Proven experience in BIA, risk assessment, and recovery design.
• Strong stakeholder management, leadership, and communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Certifications such as CBCP, ISO 22301 Lead Implementer/Auditor or ITIL
• Experience delivering large-scale enterprise BCDR and DR Automation programs.