Director of Crisis Management and Scenario Testing

The Enterprise Operational Resilience team is looking to hire Director of Crisis Management & Scenario testing to help drive the continuous enhancement of the crisis event management response structure and play a lead role in facilitating and coordinating large scale disruption events to ensure the organisation maintains operational resilience and can effectively respond and mitigate any potential incidents that occur successfully.

The individual will be required to create the maturity strategy and plan to ensure implementation of an enhanced framework across the globe, partnering with business and functional leads to ensure effective embedding of roles and responsibilities. They will lead on coordinating disruption events with stakeholders, to ensure adequate response and communications during incidents. They will also help to ensure robust and continuous testing of the response and recovery capabilities via further sophistication of a scenario testing program, as well as lead post incident continuous enhancement projects and reporting activities. 

At WTW, we believe difference makes us stronger. We want our workforce to reflect the different and varied markets we operate in and to build a culture of inclusivity that makes colleagues feel welcome, valued and empowered to bring their whole selves to work every day. We are an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive work environment throughout our organisation. We embrace all types of diversity.

The Role

Strategic Design & Framework Development

• Define and own the enterprise crisis management strategy, including roles / responsibilities, governance, policies, classification criteria, escalation thresholds, decision rights, and command/control protocols
• Interlock the business operational response framework with technology / cyber incident response to ensure a framework that covers response and recovery for all-hazards and disruption events.
• Design and implement an enhanced regulatory and client communication framework and approach (aligned to global operational resilience and third-party regulatory requirements)
• Align the framework to global regulatory operational resilience rules (e.g. FCA, DORA, MAS etc.) and sector expectations applicable to the insurance industry, aligned to key relevant international standards and control frameworks (e.g. ISO, NIST etc.)

Scenario Testing & Exercising Program

• Design and deliver a scenario testing approach to ensure sophistication over time to incorporate testing of WTW’s Essential Services via a blend of testing including executive tabletop exercises, functional drills, joint supplier exercises, and notification / communications tests to cover disruption events including cyber, global technology outages, physical hazards, third party disruption and systemic market wide incidents.
• Develop leading practice content library and appropriate severe but plausible scenarios, participant packs and agendas as part of facilitation and execution of relevant exercises. 
• Evolve exercises from discussion based to data driven and empirically validated scenarios aligned to regulatory expectations for sophistication over time.
• Partner with Risk function to connect operational resilience scenario and crisis management testing approach with financial stress testing to ensure appropriate appetite, capital planning and liquidity management for relevant entities.
• Execute structured After-Action reviews and remediation plans, monitoring progress of assigned actions through to completion.

Incident & Crisis Management

• Manage and facilitate business response to major disruption events (e.g., global technology outages, cyber-attacks, geopolitical issues etc), chairing calls and providing executive support and command / control across all layers of the response team framework.
• Coordinate cross-functional response team engagement to ensure timely update provision to business crisis management leads 
• Facilitate and support effective design, approval and dissemination of client and regulatory notifications in line with prescribed timeframes
• Maintain role clarity, decision logs, and an auditable trail consistent with major incident best practice.
• Ensure internal response team updates and communications across the response levels and teams during emerging or actual incidents.
• Develop, maintain and continuously improve global incident / crisis response playbooks and escalation procedures.

Stakeholder Engagement, Education and Training / Awareness

• Partner with internal teams and stakeholder groups to monitor global risk landscape and emerging threats to proactively adjust crisis response capabilities and ensure readiness for emerging events.
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior leadership during crisis events, providing clear, concise, and actionable updates.
• Build strong relationships across business units, technology, supplier and information security teams to ensure alignment and readiness.
• Design and implement training programs and scenario testing capabilities to ensure organizational crisis readiness, aligned to roles including executives, leaders, incident managers and on call roles
• Run awareness campaigns and micro-drills to embed readiness and decision-making disciplines. 
• Participate in industry forums and coordinate internal projects related to industry level scenario testing.

Operational Readiness, Reporting & Continuous Improvement

• Develop and deliver executive-level reporting and insights on crisis trends, lessons learned, and risk mitigation strategies.
• Design and maintain crisis management policy suite, management information / reporting for all levels of leadership (up to Board)
• Perform regular benchmarking to ensure maturity and continuous enhancements aligned to relevant matrices and industry frameworks

The Requirements 

• Proven leadership of enterprise-wide crisis management frameworks with extensive experience in a organisation with an extended global presence (in large number of regions, countries and cities)

• Must be available for on call 24/7/365 to lead global disruption events with ability to remain calm and decisive under pressure.

• Deep understanding of global operational resilience related regulatory requirements and industry standards / frameworks including FCA, EU (DORA), FFIEC, CBI and NIST.

• Design thinking and data literacy – able to translate threat intelligence and incident metrics into updated scenarios.

• Proven track record of leading and facilitating global crisis events across multiple time zones and business units covering a range of disruption scenarios (including technology, third party, cyber and physical risk events).

• Exceptional communication and stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to influence at all levels – able to brief Executives, Boards and regulators if required succinctly.

• Collaboration oriented – works across business, operations, functional teams and third parties developing relationships and partnering / supporting during disruption events.

• Certifications such as CBCP, MBCI, DRI or equivalent a plus

• Experience in financial services required; insurance sector experience is a distinct advantage

• Strong written and verbal communication and presentation skills

What we can offer you:

Enjoy a benefits package designed to help you thrive, both professionally and personally. You'll receive 25 days of annual leave plus an extra WTW day to relax and recharge. Our comprehensive health and wellbeing offering includes private healthcare, life insurance, group income protection, and regular health assessments, all giving you peace of mind. Secure your future with our defined contribution pension scheme, featuring matched contributions up to 10% from the company.

We support your growth and balance with hybrid working options, access to an employee assistance programme, and a fully paid volunteer day to make a difference in your community. On top of these, you can opt into a variety of additional perks including an electric vehicle car scheme, share scheme, cycle-to-work programme, dental and optical cover, critical illness protection, and much more. Start making the most of your career and wellbeing with a range of benefits tailored for you.

We’re committed to equal employment opportunity and provide application, interview and workplace adjustments and accommodations to all applicants. If you foresee any barriers, from the application process through to joining WTW, please email candidate.helpdesk@willistowerswatson.com.