Head – DR Orchestration & Testing

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ABOUT THE COMPANY

Equity Bank Kenya Limited, is a financial services provider headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. It is licensed as a commercial bank, by the Central Bank of Kenya, the central bank and national banking regulator.

JOB SUMMARY

 Required Qualifications & ExperienceEducation•        Bachelor’s in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field.•        Master’s in IT Management, Business Continuity/Resilience, or Operations is an advantage.Professional Experience•      10+ years in IT service continuity/operations/architecture with 5+ years leading DR/BCP programs in regulated, multi-entity environments              (BFSI preferred).•        Proven delivery of automated DR runbooks and end-to-end recovery exercises across hybrid/cloud and on‑prem estates.•       Hands-on familiarity with storage & DB replication (e.g.,Commvault, Data Guard/Always On), traffic management/DNS, messaging, container        platforms, identity, and observability.•        Experience coordinating vendors/partners and assuring third‑party recoverability.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategy, Policy & Governance•        Define and maintain the Group DR Orchestration & Testing Policy, Standards, and Playbooks aligned to ITIL v4, ISO 22301/27031, and NIST SP 800-34.•    Institutionalize governance anchored by the IT Steering Committee and the Service Continuity/DR Working Group as the mechanisms for cadence, accountability, and reporting.•        Establish decision rights, RACI, and acceptance criteria for “go-live” recoverability (RTO/RPO, data integrity, service dependencies).•        Embed DR impact assessment in Change, Release, and Architecture review gates.Orchestration & Automation •    Design and implement automated recovery runbooks (e.g., infra, platform, DB, app, network/DNS, identity) leveraging workflow/orchestration tools, Infrastructure-as-Code, and CI/CD.•        Engineer repeatable failover/failback patterns (active–active, active–standby, zonal/region/site) for on‑prem, hybrid, and cloud workloads.•        Integrate observability (APM, logs, synthetics) to validate service health during exercises and real events. Testing Program Management •  Own the Group DR Test Calendar (annual/quarterly/monthly) covering tabletop, technical component tests, integrated service tests, and full-scale exercises.•  Define test scenarios based on BIAs, risk scenarios (e.g., ransomware, DC outage, carrier failure, major release rollback), and regulatory expectations.•    Measure and certify recoverability per service; track defects, action owners, and closure SLAs.Data, Backup & Cyber Recovery Assurance •        Align backup/restore testing with application-level recovery (including immutable/air-gapped copies, vaulting, and key management).•        Validate data integrity, transaction reconciliation, and journal consistency post-recovery (e.g., core banking, card switch, channels).•        Coordinate with Cybersecurity on ransomware readiness, clean‑room recovery, and malware‑free restore procedures.Third-Party & Cloud Resilience •        Assess and test DR commitments of critical vendors/fintech partners; verify evidence of recoverability and exit/failover options.•        Govern SaaS and cloud region/zone strategies, data residency constraints, and cross‑border implications for subsidiaries.Service Mapping & Readiness •        Maintain service dependency maps (CMDB) linking business services to applications, platforms, data stores, integrations, and infrastructure.•        Define minimal viable service (MVS) configurations for recovery and ensure runbooks reflect current state.Metrics, Reporting & Continuous Improvement •        Define and report KPIs/KRIs: test coverage %, pass rate, RTO/RPO adherence, MTTR(exercises/incidents), % automated runbooks, restore success rate, findings aging, and resilience confidence score.•        Produce executive dashboards and Monthly/Quarterly Resilience Reports to Group CIO, CFO, Risk, and Executive Committees.•        Run post-exercise/post-incident reviews and drive structural fixes (automation, design changes, capacity).Subsidiary Coordination & Incident Readiness •     Coordinate DR readiness across Banking, Insurance, Fintech, Health, and Foundation; tailor scenarios to local contexts while enforcing Group standards.•        Lead or support technical recovery command during major incidents and planned DR events.Financial Planning & Value Optimization •        Quantify cost‑to‑recover vs. risk; recommend right‑sized patterns (active–active vs. warm/cold) by criticality.•        Support budgeting for resilience tooling, testing, and automation; demonstrate ROI through reduced downtime and faster recovery.Key Deliverables •        Group DR Orchestration & Testing Policy, Standards, and Runbook Library.•        Annual DR Test Calendar with scenario catalog and success criteria.•        Service-level Recovery Certificates (per critical service) and remediation tracker.•        Enterprise Resilience Dashboard (RTO/RPO, coverage, pass rate, MTTR, confidence score).•        Quarterly Executive Resilience Reports and Board-ready summaries.•        Post-Exercise/Incident Review reports with prioritized corrective actions.•    Up-to-date Service Dependency Maps and MVS definitions.

REQUIRED SKILLS

Research and development, Project monitoring and evaluation (M&E), Business intelligence, Regulatory reporting

REQUIRED EDUCATION

Bachelor's degree

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