Job Description
Employment Type: Full-Time Experience Required: 17+ Years Industry: Banking and Financial Services
Job Summary:The Senior Program Manager – DC/DR Resiliency is responsible for planning, managing,and overseeing the bank’s enterprise-wide Data Centre (DC) and Disaster Recovery (DR)strategy, ensuring full compliance with regulatory and internal risk standards. The rolefocuses on strengthening the bank’s operational resilience by ensuring that critical systems,infrastructure, and services can recover and function seamlessly during system outages,natural disasters, or cyber incidents. This position requires strong expertise in data centre management, IT disaster recoveryplanning, business continuity, and program governance, combined with the ability toengage senior stakeholders across business and technology functions.
Key Responsibilities:Develop and implement the bank’s Data Centre (DC) and Disaster Recovery (DR)strategy, ensuring alignment with business continuity and resilience objectives. Lead end-to-end program management for DC/DR initiatives, including planning, riskassessment, testing, and post-implementation reviews. Ensure the bank& resilience programs align with and comply with relevant regulations,such as those from the UAE Central Bank. Develop and maintain business continuity plans, and ensure the bank can recovercritical services following an incident A strong understanding of banking operations, control assurance frameworks, andresilience methodologies is crucial. Define and monitor Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) for all critical systems. ensuring readiness and continuousimprovement of resilience capabilities. Collaborate with technology, operations, cybersecurity, and various business unitsto identify and mitigate potential risks and integrate resilience practices into dailyoperations. Drive infrastructure modernization and data centre migration projects to enhancescalability, performance, and redundancy. Prepare and present status reports, executive dashboards, and auditdocumentation for senior management and regulators. Manage vendors and service providers supporting DC/DR initiatives, ensuringcontractual and SLA adherence. Establish and maintain robust governance frameworks and escalation protocols for DRand resiliency operations. Promote a culture of resilience, ensuring awareness and training across teams on DC/DR processes and responsibilities.
Required Qualifications & Skills:17+ years of experience in IT Program/Project Management, with a strong focus on Data Centre Operations and Disaster Recovery within the Banking or Financial Services sector. Minimum 12 years of BFSI experience and 6-7 years of UAE Banking experience ispreferrable Proven track record in business continuity, operational risk, resilience planning,and regulatory compliance. Strong technical understanding of infrastructure, cloud platforms, virtualization, anddata replication technologies. In-depth knowledge of DC/DR architectures, failover mechanisms, backupstrategies, and recovery testing methodologies. Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability toinfluence senior leadership and cross-functional teams. Hands-on experience in managing multi-vendor and multi-site environments. Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities, with a focus on risk mitigation andoperational continuity. Professional certifications preferred: PMP, PRINCE2, ITIL, ISO 22301 (Business Continuity Management), or equivalent.
Preferred Attributes:Experience in large-scale DC migration, cloud adoption, or hybrid infrastructureprograms. Strong understanding of cyber resilience, IT security frameworks, and regulatoryexpectations. Ability to thrive in high-pressure environments and lead complex, cross-functionalprograms. Exceptional in coordination, communication, leadership, and analytical skills. Excellent documentation, presentation, and communication skills suitable for executiveand regulatory audiences.