Job Summary

Leads and provides strategic direction for enterprise risk and disaster recovery across the Marriott IT Systems. This role is responsible for communicating, developing, implementing, maintaining, and managing risk mitigation strategies from cyber threats, ransomware, and natural Disasters. The objective of this program is to support timely operations and IT recovery following the occurrence of an outage or major disaster that may result in a partial or complete disruption of business and IT operations. This candidate will need to ensure that critical services and capabilities remain operational, appropriate communications to stakeholders are conducted, and financial and reputation loss is minimized. The Senior Director will plan and coordinate disaster recovery strategies that comply with applicable regulations, coordinated with Risk management, nd Cyber Security, and are directly aligned to organizational and IT objectives. The Senior Director will coordinate with the Senior Director - Business Continuity so that the Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery programs are well integrated.  He/She may provide insight and guidance that helps shape both the Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity programs.

Leads and builds a Disaster Recovery team and partners closely with Risk Management, Cyber Security and stakeholders across the organization to ensure policies and practices are adhered to and meets Cyber requirements and DR patterns provided by Enterprise Architecture. The role will align operations and IT to prevent, plan, and support these programs by utilizing an inclusive, cooperative, and consensus-building process.

Candidate Profile

Education And Experience

Required

• 10+ years of experience in either business continuity, disaster recovery, or Cyber Security
• 5+ years information technology leadership experience (including budget management)
• Undergraduate degree in computer sciences, Cyber Security or related major

Attributes And Preferred Skills/Experience

• IT operations experience; ServiceNow-CMDB, Fusion Framework, NIST Framework (Cyber Resiliency)
• Technology BCM certifications
• Lodging operations experience

• Broad technical acumen across multiple technical disciplines (Server, Middleware, Networks etc.) with a solid knowledge of current technologies
• Strong business acumen across multiple business disciplines (Sales and Marketing, Finance, etc.) and experience working with discipline leads
• Experience applying measurement processes/methods for assessing DR effectiveness outputs and outcomes or progress toward objectives.
• ITILv4 certification
• Thorough knowledge and understanding of current disaster recovery planning techniques and technologies as well as the methods used in performing risk analyses and business impact analyses
• Ability to work across organizational boundaries, including alignment with external organizations to help lead and influence change
• Ability to develop and deliver projects using leading edge technologies.
• Ability to align change management strategies with project.
• Skilled in conceptualizing creative solutions, documenting them, and presenting/selling them to senior management.
• Highly developed oral and written communication skills
• Extremely high level of analytical ability with complex problems.
• Very high level of interpersonal skills to work effectively with others, motivate employees, and elicit work output in a team environment.

Core Activities

• Provides leadership and strategy for managing Risk and Disaster Recovery (DR) program. Uses executive presence to establish credibility within the organization
• Builds and executes, and manages enterprise-wide DR including strategies, plan development, and related exercises
• Manages related IT budgets (capital and operational), annual program agendas, and recovery improvement metrics that align to the NIST Recovery framework
• Participates in assessments of the impact of potential disruptions in IT services (on premise and hosted), including declaring a disaster and activating the Enterprise Disaster Recovery Plan (EDRP)
• Manages the execution and completion of all DR test activities and identifies recommendations to improve process, plans, and procedures.
• Develops and maintains partnerships with discipline management, external partners, and key IT staff for all DR planning, testing, and execution
• Manages and enforces contracts, along with associated service-level agreements (SLAs), for external DR service providers, as required.
• Assumes management responsibility for DR, with a major focus on achieving all financial estimates, ensuring adequacy of end-state production recovery environments, meeting all strategic planning deliverables, and coordinating activities of technology resources with key business units and development groups, as required
• Initiates and manages DR capacity planning coordination with key IT technology groups in support of specific business unit initiatives (current, planned and new), focusing on proactively ensuring an adequate recovery network and processing environment, as well as predictive budgeting
• Conducts contingency planning including identifying potential business interruptions, developing safeguards against disruptions, and implementing recovery procedures that includes consideration for cloud delivered applications and services
• Manages risk through KRI’s, identifying and categorizing outage exposures that could cause a business disruption and understands insurance and vendor agreements to safeguard against a disaster event
• Oversees the execution of the Enterprise Disaster Recovery Plan when IT and/or major business operations disruptions occur
• Oversees the design, execution and continuous improvement of DR plans through rigorous exercising and annual tests
• Interfaces with the project leaders to ensure that new and ongoing projects sustain recoverability goals consistent with business objectives.
• Manages the creation of program status communications to senior leadership (e.g., board of directors, audit committee) and external stakeholders (e.g., regulators, auditors) regarding the status of the DR program, including annual reporting, audit report responses and customer requests.
• Develop and manage key performance indicators and Key Risk Indicators related to DR to ensure objectives are met.
• Strive to reduce costs and improve services through new technologies, automation, creative sourcing, and other innovative methods.
• Keep abreast of latest DR trends, best practices, and technologies.

Department Management

• Communicates frequently and transparently with team via regular staff meetings and 1:1 discussion
• Establishes monthly reporting, where necessary
• Manages department budget and follows corporate expense policies
• Develops a diverse team ensuring high levels of employee engagement, operations performance excellence, and appropriate succession planning.
• Balances both leading a team and engaging directly with the work needed to accomplish objectives.
• Creates and fosters career development for team members in alignment with company and personal objectives
• Assists direct reports with ongoing prioritization and resource allocation to ensure that the crucial business initiatives are delivered.  

This position requires proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 prior to the first date of employment, subject to applicable law. If you are offered employment, this requirement must be met by your date of hire, unless a reasonable accommodation request is received and approved.