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IT Disaster Recovery Manager
Who are we?
Howden is a global insurance group with employee ownership at its heart. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and a no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team of 24,000 employees spanning over 56 countries.
Each person joins Howden for different reasons, but they stay for one: our culture. It is what drives us and the reason employees have been turning down headhunters for years. Here, you can prioritise what matters most to you—whether it’s work/life balance, career progression, sustainability, or volunteering—but you will always have like-minded people driving meaningful change.
Role Overview
The IT Disaster Recovery (DR) Manager is responsible for defining, implementing, testing, and maintaining Howden’s organisation-wide IT Disaster Recovery (ITDR) strategies across a regulated, global insurance environment.
The role ensures that critical infrastructure, platforms, and applications meet agreed recovery objectives, regulatory expectations, and operational resilience requirements. You will work closely with Infrastructure Service Managers, Security, Technology Risk, Compliance, and third-party vendors, providing governance, oversight, and assurance that DR strategies, plans, testing, and documentation remain effective, current, and auditable.
This role is heavily vendor-dependent, requiring you to ensure outsourced providers uphold DR service delivery against contractual and regulatory obligations.
A key innovation at Howden is the development of new Technology Resilience frameworks, DR methods, and technical recovery standards, along with the implementation of a new recovery tool. As the IT DR Manager, you will drive and support the company’s broader operationalisation of these frameworks—collaborating closely with Technology Risk, On-net entities, Infrastructure, and Applications.
Key Responsibilities
1. DR Strategy & Framework
- Ensure that Howden Group Services (HGS) ITDR comply fully with the Group Technology Operational and Resilience Frameworks, updating them based on evolving requirements.
- Define end-to-end recovery objectives for infrastructure and technology services to support business-facing RTOs (Recovery Time Objectives) and RPOs (Recovery Point Objectives).
- Ensure business-facing service owners (entities, group infrastructure, and applications) are aligned with their recovery responsibilities under the Group Technology Resilience Framework and its supporting documentation.
2. DR Service Management & Vendor Oversight
- Govern and oversee outsourced DR vendors delivering services like backup, recovery, replication, and failover.
- Confirm third-party DR solutions meet resilience targets by ensuring designed DR plans and technical designs are configured and maintained properly.
- Review vendor deliverables (DR plans, technical designs, test results, and remediation actions) for compliance.
- Monitor service performance, risk exposure, and compliance against SLAs, KPIs, and contractual obligations.
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3. Recovery Capability Development & Maintenance
- Assess and implement DR recovery solutions for new services, ensuring alignment with RTOs and RPOs.
- Support M&A activities to ensure migrated applications integrate with the group’s end-to-end recovery capabilities and have appropriate DR levels.
- Collaborate with divisions, HGS applications, and entities to develop end-to-end recovery sequences for on-net hosted services while maintaining these in the Howden ITDR tool.
- Updates and projects recovery documentation (e.g., technical work instructions) to stay aligned with evolving environments and loads them into the recovery tool.
- Tracks updates of DR documentation for entities and HGS applications.
- Maintains inventories of recoverable systems, dependencies, recovery tiers, and criticality classifications, ensuring accuracy in the CMDB.
4. DR Testing & Assurance
- Plans, coordinates, and oversees regular DR testing exercises, including technical recovery testing, scenario-based exercises, and resilience simulations.
- Validates test results against recovery objectives and tracks remediation actions until closure.
- Provides assurance reporting to the Head of Service, Compliance, and governance forums.
5. Risk, Compliance & Audit
- Ensures compliance with regulatory requirements (e.g., FCA/PRA or equivalent global regulators) for operational resilience, outsourcing, and technology risk.
- Supports internal/external audits, regulatory reviews, and assurance activities related to DR.
- Identifies, assesses, and reports on DR-related risks and control gaps, ensuring mitigation plans are implemented.
6. Stakeholder Engagement & Reporting
- Acts as the primary point of contact for IT DR across Infrastructure & Operations, Entities/ Divisions, Enterprise Applications, and Business Systems.
- Collaborates with Infrastructure Service Managers, Architecture, Technology Risk, Security, and Business Continuity teams.
- Produces clear, concise reports on DR posture, testing outcomes, risks, and improvement plans.
7. Continuous Improvement
- Drives continuous improvement in DR resilience, tooling, testing maturity, and documentation quality.
- Identifies opportunities to enhance resilience via automation, modern cloud-based recovery solutions, and improved vendor practices.
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Qualifications and Experience
Essential
- Proven experience in IT Disaster Recovery and Technology Resilience, particularly in a regulated, high-complexity environment.
- Strong understanding of infrastructure and platform recovery across on-premise, hybrid, and cloud environments.
- Demonstrable experience managing outsourced DR services and third-party vendors.
- Comprehensive knowledge of DR, BCP, and operational resilience frameworks and best practices.
- Experience planning, executing, and auditing DR tests, including managing follow-up actions.
- Strong stakeholder management, communication, and documentation skills.
Desirable
- Experience within the insurance or financial services sector.
- Knowledge of regulatory expectations relevant to FCA, PRA, EBA, or equivalent global standards.
- Certifications in ITIL, ISO 22301, or operational resilience fields.
- Familiarity with cloud-native DR solutions (e.g., Azure resilience patterns).
- Experience with orchestration tools (e.g., Cutover).
Why join Howden?
A career you define: There is no single "Howden type"—we value diversity of thought, skills, and perspectives. Our shared values are proof that bravery, support, and misson-driven leadership strengthen each person.
We create environments where employees stay because they feel invested in, inspired, and empowered:
- Ownership mindset: We have built a business for our people first, ensure everyone benefits through collective success.
- Invested in progress: Opportunities for growth by fostering innovation and community support.
- Flexibility and adaptability: Permanent* roles may offer flexible working hours and hybrid models, with a commitment to reasonable adjustments that accommodate individual needs.
Not all roles accommodate changes in working hours or location. Inquire with your Recruitment Partner for further details.
Reasonable adjustments include software, technology, or office setup changes, hybrid flexible models, and other accommodations that enhance inclusivity.
About Us
Howden started as merely three people and a dog in 1994. Today, we are 24,000-strong, managing $37bn in premiums globally. Our model of employee ownership sets us apart, with a major shareholder group composed of our employees themselves (supported by minority, long-term equity partners).
This ownership mindset is at the core of our culture: decisions, actions, and outputs are driven by people who own their contributions. As a team, we face business challenges together—because when everyone drives forward, we achieve extraordinary results.
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