Operational Resilience Specialist

Work model: Remote (preference for candidates located near Jacksonville, FL, or Mechanicsburg, PA)
Compensation: $65,000 - $75,000

Overview:

The Business Continuity Specialist maintains and enhances Business Continuity (BC), Disaster Recovery (DR), and Continuity of Operations (COOP) programs supporting federal customer mission requirements. This role coordinates business impact analyses, develops continuity and recovery plans, leads exercises and testing, supports audits and assessments, and partners with technical and business teams to meet applicable federal continuity and contingency expectations. The role reports to the Manager, IT Risk & Compliance within the information security organization.

What will you do:

• Plan and lead exercises and testing
• Conduct tabletop exercises, functional tests, and communication drills
• Coordinate IT disaster recovery tests with infrastructure and application teams
• Produce after-action reports and track corrective actions through closure
• Manage program governance and documentation
• Maintain BC/DR/COOP policies, standards, and governance framework
• Keep program documentation, schedules, and reporting structures current
• Align program activities with federal continuity expectations and internal risk practices
• Conduct BIAs and define recovery requirements
• Lead and update business impact analyses for business processes and IT systems
• Identify mission-essential functions, dependencies, and recovery requirements
• Document RTO/RPO targets and continuity priorities
• Develop and maintain continuity, DR, and COOP plans
• Create and update plans to reflect current operations, staffing, and technology
• Partner with business and technical teams to validate plan accuracy and completeness
• Integrate with cybersecurity and incident response
• Align continuity planning with incident response procedures
• Participate in joint cyber-continuity exercises and major incident response efforts
• Ensure recovery strategies address cyber disruption scenarios
• Support vendor and third-party continuity oversight
• Assess continuity capabilities of critical vendors and service providers
• Review vendor plans, attestations, and recovery capabilities supporting mission operations
• Assist with tracking remediation of identified gaps
• Support audits, assessments, and reporting
• Provide evidence and documentation for internal audits, federal assessments, and customer reviews
• Maintain records of plan updates, test results, and corrective actions
• Produce dashboards and metrics for leadership and customer reporting
• Engage stakeholders and provide training
• Deliver continuity training, awareness, and guidance to staff and leaders
• Facilitate cross-functional collaboration for continuity planning and readiness
• Provide continuity SME input for new services or major changes

Required qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field (Risk Management, Compliance, Information Security, Operations, or similar)
• 5 to 7 years of related experience, including business continuity, disaster recovery, or federal continuity
• Experience leading BIAs, developing continuity plans, and conducting testing, training, and exercises (TT&E)
• Experience supporting internal and external audits, including federal agency audits or assessments
• Ability to partner with technical teams and translate federal continuity requirements into actionable controls
• Demonstrated problem-solving skills and ability to manage multiple priorities
• Strong communication and presentation skills across technical and non-technical audiences
• Ability to provide technical direction and stay current on industry trends
• Certification requirement: Possess or obtain within two years of start date:
• ABCP (DRI International), or
• Equivalent foundational business continuity credential from a recognized body (for example, BCI), including preferred certifications listed below

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience supporting CMS or similar federal HHS programs
• Working knowledge of:
• NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 (Contingency Planning controls)
• NIST SP 800-34 Rev. 1
• FPC 65
• FCD 1 and FCD 2
• CMS Risk Management Handbook Chapter 6 (Contingency Planning)
• FISMA High system requirements
• Experience with cloud-based disaster recovery (AWS GovCloud, Azure Government)
• Preferred certifications:
• MBCP (DRI International)
• CISSP ((ISC)²)
• CISM (ISACA)
• CRISC (ISACA)

Location:

This is a remote role. The hiring team prefers candidates located near Jacksonville, FL, or Mechanicsburg, PA.

Ascendo is a certified minority owned staffing firm, and we welcome and celebrate diversity. Ascendo is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, parental status, military service or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law.

Contact information

Christian Kincer