IT Disaster Recovery Lead

At Banner Life Insurance Company, we lead with heart and ambition. Every day, we transform purpose into progress, guided by our unwavering commitment to be better for our customers, clients, and communities, not just today but long-term as well. Our people are the driving force behind everything we achieve. Their passion, purpose, and pursuit of innovation empower us to deliver cutting-edge solutions that support those we serve, ensuring we are here for you, here for good and striving for better.

We're a forward-thinking company energized by our work and how we show up for one another. Our culture is built on meaningful impact and genuine enjoyment, because we believe great work and great experiences should go hand in hand.

By offering career development opportunities, comprehensive benefits, and programs that support your wellbeing, we help you thrive personally and professionally. We are here for you, here for good and here for better.

The IT Disaster Recovery Lead will be responsible for ensuring the business continuity of IT systems and services by designing, implementing, testing, and maintaining disaster recovery (DR) plans and processes. The role requires a strong focus on risk management, business impact analysis, and ensuring rapid recovery of systems and applications in the event of an outage or disaster. The ideal candidate will possess a deep understanding of IT infrastructure, cloud technologies, and the ability to coordinate complex DR exercises across various teams and stakeholders.

This role partners closely with Cybersecurity, Infrastructure, Cloud Engineering, Application engineering teams and business leads to ensure end-to-end resilience across on-premises and cloud workloads.

It serves as the enterprise DR subject-matter expert, integrating with Crisis Management, Risk, and Compliance functions to meet NYDFS, NAIC, and Maryland Life regulatory standards.

Develop, implement, and manage IT disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity (BC) strategies for critical IT systems and services.
• Design, document, and regularly update disaster recovery plans, including backup and restoration procedures, incident management, and crisis communication.
• Conduct business impact analysis (BIA) to identify critical systems, applications, and dependencies to prioritize recovery efforts.
• Oversee the regular testing of DR and BC plans to ensure effective recovery in the event of an outage or disaster.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (IT, Security, Operations, Compliance) to ensure alignment of DR strategies with business requirements and regulatory compliance.
• Lead the identification and implementation of automation and tools to improve disaster recovery capabilities.
• Integrate DR planning with cloud, on-remise data center and hybrid environments, ensuring recovery coverage across IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS platforms.
• Ensure alignment of recovery point objectives (RPO) and recovery time objectives (RTO) with business requirements.
• Manage risk assessments and perform gap analyses to identify weaknesses in existing disaster recovery plans.
• Provide training and awareness to teams on disaster recovery policies, procedures, and best practices.
• Act as the primary point of contact during disaster recovery incidents, coordinating responses and ensuring rapid recovery actions.
• Continuously improve disaster recovery processes by staying updated on industry trends, technologies, and best practices.
• Support Crisis Management Committee with critical components of the plan in order that they can make critical decisions.
• Provide visibility and reporting to the Crisis Management Committee on the critical functions, individuals and infrastructure within the business plans.
• Collaborates with IT staff to develop and implement best practices to protect and restore data and systems in the event of natural disasters, viruses, and hackers.
• Identifies and implements recovery operations and methods to allow the company to function at limited or partial capacity in the event that part or all of the infrastructure is damaged or destroyed.
• Coordinate DR activities and evidence collection for audits, regulatory certifications, and Board reporting in partnership with the CISO and Risk teams.
• Ability to work nights and weekends during a crisis event.

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field.
• 8+ years of experience in IT disaster recovery, business continuity, or IT operations.
• Strong knowledge of disaster recovery frameworks, methodologies, and tools.
• Proven experience with DR/BC testing, incident management, and crisis communication.
• Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and hybrid IT infrastructure.
• Experience in IT governance, risk management, and compliance frameworks (ISO 22301, NIST, ITIL, etc.).
• Experience working within regulated industries (insurance, financial services, or healthcare) preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to partner with cybersecurity and infrastructure teams to build integrated resilience programs.

Technical Skills:

• Familiarity with disaster recovery tools and technologies (Veeam, Zerto, Commvault, etc.).
• Knowledge of backup and recovery solutions for virtualized and cloud environments.
• Strong understanding of data replication, fault tolerance, high availability, and failover mechanisms.
• Experience in running simulated disaster recovery exercises and incident response drills.
• Solid understanding of networking, server architecture, and storage systems.
• Proficiency in scripting/automation for recovery testing (PowerShell, Python, Terraform, etc.) desirable.
• Understanding of containerized workloads and DR approaches for Kubernetes and serverless environments.

Soft Skills:

• Strong leadership and project management skills.
• Excellent communication, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities.
• Ability to collaborate and coordinate efforts across multiple teams and departments.
• Attention to detail and a proactive approach to identifying and mitigating risks.
• Comfort operating under pressure during crisis events and guiding cross-functional teams through recovery.

Preferred Certifications:

• Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP) or similar.
• Disaster Recovery Institute International (DRII) certification.
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect or Azure Solutions Architect Expert.
• ITIL Foundation or similar IT Service Management certification.
• ISO 22301 Lead Implementer or Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) considered a plus.

Reports To:

VP, Infrastructure & Operations

What's in it for you?

The expected hiring compensation range for this position is $125,000 - $160,000 annually. This is a hybrid opportunity working in our Frederick, MD office.

The total compensation package for this position may include other elements, such as a sign-on bonus, long term incentives, and annual bonuses. This role is eligible to participate in the Annual Incentive Plan. The current target payment for the position is 20% of base salary, modified for corporate and individual performance. Bonuses are pro-rated based on start date. This role has 20 vacation days and 10 sick days that are accrued on a bi-weekly basis. Employees also have 9 paid holidays throughout the calendar year.

We have a competitive compensation and benefits package focused on your overall wellbeing. Employee benefits include health, life, and dental insurance; 401K with company match up to 6% as well as a pension package; generous time off; and wellbeing initiatives throughout the year (we like doing fun stuff). We're big on professional development and we'll support and mentor you in your career progression and expect you to help us pay it forward by helping us develop tomorrow's leaders and growth-focused professionals. We value our teams and our communities and believe in giving back. Enjoy time off to volunteer for those causes that matter most to you!

If hired, employee will be in an "at-will position" and the Company reserves the right to modify base salary (as well as any other discretionary payment or compensation program) at any time, including for reasons related to individual performance, Company or individual department/team performance, and market factors. The Company reserves the right to change benefits plans at any time.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, perform essential job functions, and receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.