IT and Computing Services
Head of IT Disaster Recovery & Continuity
Ref: ALC1629
Starting salary from £48,822 per annum, dependent on skills and experience, with an annual increment up to £56,535 per annum.
Make UEA more resilient, lead the recovery capability that keeps learning, teaching and research running.
We’re hiring a Head of IT Disaster Recovery & Continuity to build and lead our university‑wide ITDR capability: policy and governance, assured recovery plans, end‑to‑end testing, SaaS assurance, and the dashboards that give leaders confidence in our resilience. You’ll work across ITCS and the wider university, shaping roadmaps that align with business RTO/RPOs and our Digital Strategy.
The impact you’ll have
- Establish and chair the ITDR governance group, set policy & lifecycle, define roles, and maintain recovery dashboards/heatmaps and risk registers.
- Align IT recovery to business BIAs, validate RTO/RPOs, communicate capabilities/constraints, and drive risk acceptance or remediation where gaps exist.
- Define and socialise failure modes (incl. cyber and data‑centre scenarios), scope what we will/won’t recover from, and embed this into testing and plans.
- Orchestrate an ITDR testing programme and build recoverability into change, incident and risk processes.
Oversee SaaS recovery assurance and cloud concentration risk, integrating supplier evidence into continuity reporting.
What you’ll bring
- Significant enterprise‑scale experience across ITDR/BCM and broad technologies (applications, data, networks, infra, security, service management).
- Proven leadership: governance, stakeholder engagement, vendor management, ITIL best practice; ability to translate complex risk and recovery topics for non‑technical leaders.
- Strength in analysis, change and business case development; confident setting RTO/RPO with the business and evidencing them through testing.
- (Nice to have) ISO 22301, CBCP, CISSP, TOGAF/SABSA; HE sector familiarity.
Why UEA, why now
UEA’s Digital Strategy aims to optimise organisational development through digital enhancement (Aim 4) and strengthen our digital infrastructure & capabilities (Aim 5). This role is pivotal to secure‑by‑design operations and service excellence across a digitally connected campus.
This full-time post is available on an indefinite basis.
UEA offers a variety of flexible working options and although this role is advertised on a full-time basis, we encourage applications from individuals who would prefer a flexible working pattern including annualised hours, compressed working hours, part time, job share, term-time only and/or hybrid working. Details of preferred hours should be stated in the personal statement and will be discussed further at interview.
Benefits include:
- 44 days annual leave inclusive of Bank Holidays and University Customary days (pro rata for part-time).
- Family and Work-life balance policies including hybrid working and considerable maternity, paternity, shared parental leave and adoption leave.
- Generous pension scheme with life cover for dependants, plus incapacity cover.
- Health and Wellbeing: discounted access to Sportspark facilities, relaxation rooms, 320 acres of rolling parkland, wellbeing walks, Wellbeing Ambassador network, on-campus medical centre including NHS Dentist, Occupational Health and a 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme.
- Campus Facilities: Sportspark, library, nursery, supermarket, post office, bars and catering outlets.
- Exclusive shopping discounts to help cut the cost of household bills, childcare salary sacrifice scheme, Cycle to Work scheme and public transport discounts.
- Personal Development: unlimited access to LinkedIn Learning courses, specialist advice and training from our Organisational Development and Professional Learning Team.
Closing date: 16 February 2026
The University holds an Athena Swan Silver Institutional Award in recognition of our advancement towards gender equality.