Group Head of Business Continuity

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Group Head of Business Continuity

Reporting to: CFO

Operating Ratio: 40/60 Current / Future

Location: Bury Head Office

Key Objective: To embed and enhance the organization's resilience by overseeing and managing business continuity, including Incidents, across the company's global and regional entities through appropriate escalations and reporting.

Key Responsibilities:

• To develop and deliver a Group Business Continuity Strategy & Policy to Board Level
• Lead the business response in the event of a Serious Incident or Crisis that threatens business as usual
• To develop, deliver and manage the Group's Business Continuity Preparedness: Continuity Risks, Incident Reporting & Management, Crisis Management, Business Recovery and Travel Safety
• To provide Business Continuity expertise to our Stores, Head Offices, Sourcing Offices & Distribution Centres, Nationally & Internationally, on strategic/operational risks and threats
• To ensure that our Incident & Crisis Teams are fully trained through ongoing testing and exercising programmes
• To ensure the Group's Travel Safe Programme monitors and minimises the risks to the personal security of all Colleagues travelling overseas on business
• To ensure that the appropriate Business Impact Assessments (BIA) including IT Applications/Systems restoration, are carried out across key business functions on an annual basis
• To liaise and work closely with Government Departments, the Security Services, the Police and Counter Terrorist Agencies e.g. NaCTSO

Key Accountabilities & Measures:

• Be available at short notice to support & lead the business response to a Serious Incident or Crisis
• Maintain the Group BC Strategy & Policy in line with significant Threat, Risk & Organisational changes
• Engage and involve Senior Stakeholders in the Business Continuity Programme
• Ensure that BC operational processes procedures & plans are effective, up to date, rehearsed and meet Governance requirements in full
• Plan and respond successfully to foreseeable incidents that could significantly interrupt trade and operations across our business e.g. Adverse Weather
• Identify, assess and categorise the Business Continuity risks/threats to business as usual and report them to the Audit Committee via the Group BC Risk Register
• Assess & improve our BC Capability through an ongoing independent Assurance Programme (ISO22301) across our Stores, Offices & Supply Chain
• Ensure that our store management teams are provided with appropriate duty management training and support tools
• Ensure the delivery of BC Training Programmes across the Group through Exercising, Desktop Awareness & Training Tools e.g. E-Learning
• Ensure that all Colleagues have access to expert advice & assistance before, during and after travel meeting the business Duty of Care requirements in full via our Travel Safe Programme
• Ensure that all BIA's are completed annually alongside I.T Service Continuity, to determine business impact and I.T Applications/System restoration priorities/requirements and are in line with business requirements/risks
• Maintain close strategic and operational working relationships with Government Departments, the Security Services, the Police and Counter Terrorist Agencies e.g., NaCTSO
• Demonstrate leadership and benchmarking for Business Continuity in the Retail Sector
• Progress areas for personal & team development against industry standards

Additional Duties:

• Create and present detailed reports to senior leadership on crisis management, business continuity, and incidents, offering insights, recommendations, and updates on organizational changes
• Stay updated on relevant regulations and standards pertaining to crisis management, business continuity, incident response, and overall risk management to ensure compliance and adaptability

Teamwork:

• Reporting to the Chief Finance Officer
• Build a Business Continuity team
• Collaborate closely with all cross-functional teams, including IT, Legal, Compliance, Procurement, and Operational units, to ensure alignment and integration of crisis management, business continuity and incident response initiatives.

Skills/Experience Needed:

• In-depth and detailed knowledge of how the business operates
• In-depth understanding of all aspects of Business Continuity (Good Practise Guidelines & ISO22301)
• Strong stakeholder relationships and awareness
• Strong leadership across all areas of the business
• Strong and effective engagement, communication and influencing skills
• Ability to prioritise business-critical activities in crisis situations
• Ability to focus a team and manage through significant change and ambiguity
• Experience in planning and programme management
• Self-motivated and proactively acts without guidance to deliver progress
• Ability to act with integrity and provide leadership under pressure in complex, difficult and demanding situations
• Desirably, professional certifications in business continuity (e.g., CBCP, CBCI)

The Company:

The JD Group is a leading omnichannel retailer of Sports Fashion, Street & Premium Fashion, Outdoors and Gyms with over 60,000 colleagues over 3,400 stores across several retail fascia's in over 30 markets around the world.

We are an equal opportunities employer who embraces and values differences. We recognise the importance of an inclusive workplace culture in which everyone can thrive irrespective of their background or identity.

To be a part of this successful and continuously growing company, you will have the desire to ingrain our strategic goals of being a people first, a digital leader and customer focused organisation which provides operational excellence and is continuous with identifying new areas of growth into our day-to-day.

We know our employees work tirelessly to make JD Sports the success it is today and in turn, we offer them some amazing benefits:

• Incremental Holiday Allowance
• Staff Discount on qualifying purchases across Group retail stores and online
• Exclusive Colleague Bike Discount scheme
• Discounted Gym membership
• Personal development opportunities to learn and develop at work
• Access to Apprenticeships and accredited qualifications

Interested?

If you are interested in this position, then press the Apply Now button.

Due to the high volumes of applications our opportunities attract, it takes time to review them all. If you don't hear back within two weeks of your application, please consider your application to have been unsuccessful on this occasion.

Applications that meet the skills criteria will be contacted for a 1st stage meeting with the talent team. Shortlisted candidates will then be invited to interview with the hiring manager.

Thank you again for your time.