Disaster Recovery Program Leader - Children's National Medical Center : Job Details

The Disaster Recovery (DR) Program Leader is responsible for the strategic development, implementation, governance, and ongoing management of the Information Systems (IS) Disaster Recovery program at Children's National Hospital. This role ensures that IS systems are resilient, operational recovery is timely, and business continuity is maintained across all technology platforms. The DR Program Leader will work closely with the enterprise-wide disaster recovery team to ensure seamless integration of IS components into the overall disaster recovery strategy.

Key Responsibilities:

* Program Leadership & Governance: Oversee the IS disaster recovery program, ensuring effective communication, development, implementation, and governance. Maintain a proactive approach to improving disaster recovery capabilities.

* Collaboration: Work in close partnership with the enterprise disaster recovery team to align IS disaster recovery efforts with broader organizational goals, ensuring comprehensive protection across IT systems and services.

* Disaster Recovery Strategy: Lead the development of recovery strategies aimed at minimizing downtime and ensuring the availability of mission-critical applications and production data, with a primary focus on preventing operational impacts.

* Operational Resilience: Support the recovery of key IT infrastructure, assess damage, and ensure timely coordination with government agencies and third-party vendors. This includes working with DR staff to address recovery needs for business applications and data outside the data center, including services provided by third-party suppliers.

* Leadership & Stakeholder Management: Provide leadership, guidance, and direction to DR staff, while collaborating with senior leadership (e.g., CTO, CISO, CIO), business unit managers, and other stakeholders to define and prioritize recovery requirements and objectives.

* Business Continuity & Integration: Align IT recovery efforts with business continuity planning, ensuring that disaster recovery activities are proactive and meet organizational objectives. Translate business needs into actionable recovery plans, testing strategies, and infrastructure requirements.

* Crisis Communications & External Coordination: Lead crisis communications and coordination efforts during disaster recovery events. Work with external partners, government agencies, and vendors to ensure recovery efforts are coordinated and executed in a timely and effective manner.

* Continuous Improvement: Regularly assess and refine the disaster recovery program, implementing improvements based on lessons learned from drills, incidents, or changes in organizational needs. Ensure testing and simulations are regularly conducted to validate recovery processes.

Minimum Education

* Bachelor's Degree (Required)

* Master's Degree (Preferred)

Minimum Work Experience

* 10 years At least 10 years of experience in implementing DR plans, including creation of runbooks and other DR plan documentation. Experience providing oversight of systems that perform data backup and recovery. Experience with Vendor management of external DR service providers (Preferred)

* 5 years Healthcare industry experience preferred (Preferred)

* 5 years Minimum of five years of direct management experience and project management. (Preferred)

Required Skills/Knowledge

* Thorough knowledge and understanding of current DR planning techniques and technologies, as well as the methods used to perform risk analyses and business impact analyses

* Experience in defining, implementing and enforcing risk-based standards, processes and procedures for responding to disruptions in business or IT operations

* Proven strategic leadership and relationship management capabilities, including experience with internal stakeholders - particularly senior and LOB management, as well as customers, external business partners and third-party service providers

* Experience with Rubrik, Zerto, VMware and Dell Technologies preferred.

* Working knowledge of data and voice telecommunications to guide the preparation of related recovery procedures.

* Experience in creating and defining new operational models and procedures, and explaining complex problems or situations

* Strong oral communication and written communication skills

* Proven experience in the use and application of IT project and program management tools

* Policy, organization and architecture development

* Proven ability to work under stressful conditions, such as business-related crises

* Strong technical acumen

* Experience leading and managing high-performance multidisciplinary workgroups or teams to meet goals across multiple projects

* Proven competency in executing large projects, on time and within budget, with business and IT personnel

Functional Accountabilities

Building relationships

* Builds formal and informal professional networks, and extends these networks within, across and external to enterprise-wide boundaries

* Obtains and shares information, ideas and problems

* Solicits advice, support, championship, sponsorship and commitment for the success of DR initiatives

* Procures and maintains support from key stakeholders in the enterprise to develop and advance the DR capabilities

Business acumen and enterprise knowledge

* Solicits information on the enterprise's direction and goals, as well as the industry's competitive environment, to determine how the DR team needs to evolve to add value to the enterprise and to customer satisfaction

* Makes decisions and recommendations that are clearly linked to the enterprise's strategy and financial goals, reflecting an awareness of external dynamics

* Demonstrates awareness by providing clear explanations for actions taken, relative to customer requirements, needs and industry trends

Change advocate

* Identifies and acts on opportunities for continuous improvement and actions that improve enterprise resilience

* Encourages prudent risk taking, the exploration of alternative approaches and enterprise-wide learning

* Demonstrates a personal commitment to change through actions and words

* Mobilizes others to support change during periods of stress and uncertainty

* Mobilizes others inside and outside the DR team to support and enable change efforts within individual initiatives and inside business/operations units

Influencing others

* Communicates ideas or positions in a persuasive manner that builds support, agreement or commitment

* Takes actions that directly or indirectly influence others to create buy-in, gain trust and motivate actions in others, or win concessions without damaging relationships

* Facilitates win-win solutions when conflicts emerge

Innovation

* Improves enterprise resilience and performance through the application of original thinking to existing and emerging methods, processes, products and services

* Employs sound judgment in determining how innovations will be deployed to produce improved resilience

Results orientation

* Sets and accomplishes challenging goals

* Defines standards in terms of doing what is appropriate and doing it well

* Competes resourcefully, and takes calculated risks to achieve results

Strategic thinking

* Examines issues, and creates plans with a long-term perspective

* Generates ideas and critically evaluates future scenarios

* Applies external and internal factors to strategy development

* Considers long-term strategic impacts when making decisions or setting direction

* Ensures that short-term goals support long-term strategy

* Develops plans that meet the business recovery needs of the enterprise

* Incorporates business priorities, strategies, goals, emerging technologies, industry regulations and trends, external risks, and economic viability

Team leadership

* Develops, directs, coaches, mentors and reinforces team members in line with the mission, vision, values, goals and performance standards of formal and informal teams

* Encourages and facilitates cooperation and results

* Fosters an environment of collaboration

* Inspires, motivates and guides team members

* Fosters commitment, team spirit, pride and trust

* Allocates team roles and accountabilities

Versatility

* Ability to apply depth of expertise to a progressively wider scope of situations and experiences