What do business continuity planners do?
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.
This describes a U.S. occupation, not a live vacancy. Individual employers may use different titles and requirements.
Job titles to recognize in your search
O*NET reports these titles for this occupation. Compare the responsibilities in each posting before treating titles as equivalent.
- Business Continuity Administrator (Business Continuity Admin)
- Business Continuity Analyst
- Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Consultant
- Business Continuity Consultant
- Business Continuity Coordinator
- Business Continuity Professional
- Business Continuity Specialist
- Business System Consultant
Core tasks to compare with a job posting
- 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.
Prepare an application for this occupation
- Check the employer’s requirements, location, schedule and any licenses against your situation.
- Choose two or three tasks above that match the posting and your actual experience.
- Build a resume evidence worksheet using the skills and software relevant to that employer.
- Practice explaining your contribution, decisions and results before an interview.
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