Senior IT Service Continuity Manager

Defra is the UK government department responsible for safeguarding our natural environment, supporting our world-leading food and farming industry, and sustaining a thriving rural economy. Our broad remit means we play a major role in people’s day-to-day life, from the food we eat, and the air we breathe, to the water we drink., The Senior IT Service Continuity Manager is responsible for ensuring the organisation’s critical IT services can be recovered and restored in the event of disruption. This role provides strategic leadership across IT Service Continuity Management (ITSCM), developing and maintaining robust resilience capabilities, recovery plans, and governance frameworks.

The post holder will work closely with senior technology leaders, operational teams, suppliers, and business stakeholders to safeguard essential services and uphold agreed Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs). Through subject matter expertise and strong communication skills, this post influences and drives the ITSC operational design and improvement of new, existing and changed services., Strategic Leadership & Governance

• Lead the organisation’s IT Service Continuity strategy, ensuring alignment with business objectives and regulatory requirements. • Maintain and enhance the ITSCM framework, policies, standards, and assurance processes. • Provide expert guidance to senior stakeholders on service resilience, recovery risks, and mitigation strategies.

Service Continuity Planning

• Oversee the creation, maintenance, and validation of IT Service Continuity Plans and Disaster Recovery (DR) documentation. • Ensure RTO/RPO requirements are understood, documented, and met through effective architecture, design, and operational controls. • Coordinate impact assessments, dependency mapping, and risk evaluations across key services.

Testing & Validation

• Develop and lead an annual programme of DR and continuity testing, including scenario-based exercises, failovers, and tabletop simulations. • Analyse test results, identify gaps, and drive remediation actions to strengthen resilience and recovery capability. • Report findings, risks, and progress to senior leadership and governance boards.

Stakeholder Engagement & Collaboration

• Work closely with technical teams, architects, service managers, and suppliers to ensure end to end service resilience. • Engage with business continuity teams to ensure IT recovery plans support wider organisational continuity objectives. • Build strong relationships with internal and external partners to maintain cohesive, reliable recovery arrangements.

Continuous Improvement

• Monitor emerging risks, technologies, and industry trends to enhance organisational resilience. • Provide expert input into post-incident reviews, ensuring lessons learned are embedded into future planning. • Drive continuous improvement across the ITSCM lifecycle, promoting best practice and compliance with industry standards., Where the location is ‘National’ the successful appointee should discuss and agree an appropriate contractual location in line with both Defra’s location policy and site capacity, prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.

The agreed amount of time spent at a workplace for this post will reflect the requirement for Civil Servants to spend at least 60% of their working time in an organisation workplace with the option to work the remaining time flexibly from home. Working time spent at a workplace may include time spent at other organisational locations including field-based operational locations, together with supplier, customer or partner locations. This is a non-contractual agreement which is consistent with common Civil Service expectations.

Travel costs to non-contractual workplaces will be subject to departmental travel and subsistence policies. Travel costs to contractual workplaces are the responsibility of the employee.

The successful candidate is required to carry out all their duties from a UK location, and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time., If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes., Please be aware the levels of national security clearance are changing which may impact on the level needed for this role by the time of appointment. All efforts will be made to keep candidates informed of any changes and what that will mean in terms of vetting criteria. For more information please See our vetting charter.

Internal Fraud Database Check

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Feedback Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment., * UK nationals

• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Do you have experience in Presentation skills?, • Extensive experience leading IT Service Continuity or Disaster Recovery functions within a complex technology environment. • Strong understanding of infrastructure, cloud technologies, networking, and application service dependencies. • Proven track record of developing and delivering organisation wide continuity and recovery strategies. • Experience designing and conducting DR tests, simulations, and failover activities. • Excellent communication skills, with the ability to translate technical risks into business aligned insights. • Strong stakeholder management and leadership capabilities. • Knowledge of relevant standards (e.g., ISO 22301, ITIL)., Technical Skills, We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Changing and Improving
• Communicating and Influencing

Technical skills

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• IT Service Continuity - Service Continuity & Disaster Recovery.
• IT Service Continuity - Risk, Impact Assessment & Policy.
• IT Service Continuity - Testing & Exercising., This vacancy is using Success Profiles , and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills., Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Pulled from the full job description

• Childcare
• Employee discount
• Employee assistance programme
• Company pension
• Paid volunteer time
• Cycle to work scheme

• Season ticket loan, £56,375 - £69,105 Grade 7 National: £56,375 - £62,830 London: £62,000 - £69,105, plus industry leading pension and benefits. For details of our pay on appointment policy, please see below under the heading ‘Salary’. A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97% GBP, Alongside your salary of £56,375, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs contributes £16,331 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• 25 days leave (rising to 30 days over 5 years) plus bank holidays.
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%.
• A day off per year for the King’s birthday.
• Access to a range of retail discounts (these include supermarket, tech, gym, holiday, phone and more).
• Flexible working options such as condensed hours, part-time and flexi time.
• 3 paid volunteering days per year.
• Funding for professional membership of a recognised professional body.
• Learning and development tailored to your role and budget for training or qualifications.
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Health cash plan to help you manage health costs for a reduced monthly fee.
• Access to the Employee Assistance Programme open 24 hours, 7 days a week, that provides support to you during any times of stress or difficulty.
• Free access to Headspace for wellbeing.
• Season ticket loan for public transport., New entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band. The internal roles rules apply to existing Civil Servants, i.e. level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive 10% increase. Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.

We have around 1000 colleagues across DDTS and our ambition is to make it easier and faster than ever for people to interact with Defra. If you are ready to drive innovation and push boundaries, we want to hear from you. Join us and together we will create a great place for living, and a green and healthy future for all.