Business Continuity Planners

What the job really is

Develop, maintain, or implement business continuity and disaster recovery strategies and solutions, including risk assessments, business impact analyses, strategy selection, and documentation of business continuity and disaster recovery procedures. Plan, conduct, and debrief regular mock-disaster exercises to test the adequacy of existing plans and strategies, updating procedures and plans regularly. Act as a coordinator for continuity efforts after a disruption event.

At a glance

• Sector: Business & Financial
• O*NET-SOC code: 13-1199
• O*NET job zone: 4 — considerable preparation
• Work sample tasks on file: 12
• Tools and technologies listed: 12

What you actually do

Work sample tasks recorded for this occupation:

• Develop emergency management plans for recovery decision making and communications, continuity of critical departmental processes, or temporary shut-down of non-critical departments to ensure continuity of operation and governance.
• Test documented disaster recovery strategies and plans.
• Develop disaster recovery plans for physical locations with critical assets, such as data centers.
• Establish, maintain, or test call trees to ensure appropriate communication during disaster.
• Identify opportunities for strategic improvement or mitigation of business interruption and other risks caused by business, regulatory, or industry-specific change initiatives.
• Maintain and update organization information technology applications and network systems blueprints.
• Review existing disaster recovery, crisis management, or business continuity plans.
• Analyze impact on, and risk to, essential business functions or information systems to identify acceptable recovery time periods and resource requirements.
• Write reports to summarize testing activities, including descriptions of goals, planning, scheduling, execution, results, analysis, conclusions, and recommendations.
• Create or administer training and awareness presentations or materials.
• Design or implement products and services to mitigate risk or facilitate use of technology-based tools and methods.
• Recommend or implement methods to monitor, evaluate, or enable resolution of safety, operations, or compliance interruptions.

Tools and technology

Adobe Acrobat, Atlassian Confluence, Atlassian JIRA, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Office software, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Project, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Visio

What employers expect you to already be comfortable with.

Where this job leads

Related occupations — the usual moves up and sideways:

• Emergency Management Directors
• Project Management Specialists
• Information Technology Project Managers
• Financial Risk Specialists
• Compliance Managers
• Security Management Specialists
• Security Managers
• Information Security Analysts

Getting in

O*NET assigns this occupation job zone 4 (considerable preparation). The related occupations above are the realistic routes in and out.

Find openings

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Check this against the source

O*NET OnLine: Business Continuity Planners — the authoritative public-domain profile this page is derived from, including the full task list, reported skills and the wage estimates for your region.

Derived and rewritten from the public-domain O*NET database (U.S. Department of Labor / Employment and Training Administration). Figures are observations, not promises — always confirm salary, licensing and visa requirements with the employer and the relevant authority.