Business Continuity Specialist

The Role

The Business Continuity role is a senior specialist role responsible for crisis coordination and strengthening business continuity governance. The role sits in the Operational Resilience & BCM function and reporting into the Senior Manager, providing the authority, experience, and strategic capability required to meet rising regulatory and client expectations.

The successful candidate will be required to operate a 7am–3pm shift which provides essential early‑day coverage to ensure rapid response, improved cross‑regional coordination, and stronger incident readiness during high‑risk operational windows.

Key responsibilities

Crisis and Incident Leadership

• Lead and coordinate responses to major incidents across technology, operations, and critical third‑party providers

• Conduct rapid impact assessments to inform senior decision‑making and escalation

• Provide authoritative guidance, judgement, and control throughout live incidents

• Manage escalation paths, decision forums, and time‑critical communications

• Strengthen recovery decision‑making during early‑hours and high‑risk periods

Command, Control, and Readiness

• Own crisis readiness artefacts including playbooks, triggers, escalation thresholds, and early‑hours monitoring

• Drive continual improvements in incident preparedness, response speed, and coordination

• Act as a senior point of control during disruptions, ensuring clarity of roles and actions

Governance and Assurance

• Lead business continuity and crisis governance to ensure consistency, quality, and regulatory alignment

• Own and approve BIA and BCPs annual review programme, ensuring they are decision‑useful during incidents rather than purely compliance‑driven

• Oversee BC and DR frameworks, ensuring they support effective crisis response and recovery

Post‑Incident Recovery and Improvement

• Lead structured post‑incident reviews and root‑cause analysis

• Define, track, and drive remediation actions to prevent repeat incidents

• Provide senior‑level assurance on incident outcomes, recovery effectiveness, and residual risk

Stakeholder Engagement

• Represent the BCM and Operational Resilience function in crisis calls, governance forums, and readiness reviews

• Provide clear, concise senior‑level communications during and following incidents

• Strengthen alignment with the global BCM and crisis teams, ensuring UK and Europe responses remain consistent with global framework

What it takes

• Proven experience leading or coordinating major incidents, crises, or complex service disruptions

• Strong ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive decisions under pressure

• Deep understanding of crisis management, incident response, and recovery frameworks

• Excellent written and verbal communication in time‑critical situations

• High levels of judgement, authority, and situational awareness in fast‑moving environments 

Special Factors 

• This role requires early-day operational coverage meaning you will work 7am–3pm

• Vanguard is not offering visa sponsorship for this position

• This is a hybrid position and would require you to work in the office 3 days per week (Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday)  

Why Vanguard? 

Vanguard is a different kind of investment company. It was founded in the United States in 1975 on a simple but revolutionary idea: that an investment company should manage its funds solely in the interests of its clients. 

This is a philosophy that has helped millions of people around the world to achieve their goals with low-cost, uncomplicated investments. 

It's what we stand for: value to investors. 

Inclusion Statement  

Vanguard’s continued commitment to diversity and inclusion is firmly rooted in our culture. Every decision we make to best serve our clients, crew (internally employees are referred to as crew), and communities is guided by one simple statement: “Do the right thing.”  

We believe that a critical aspect of doing the right thing requires building diverse, inclusive, and highly effective teams of individuals who are as unique as the clients they serve. We empower our crew to contribute their distinct strengths to achieving Vanguard’s core purpose through our values. 

When all crew members feel valued and included, our ability to collaborate and innovate is amplified, and we are united in delivering on Vanguard's core purpose: to take a stand for all investors, to treat them fairly, and to give them the best chance for investment success.

Our commitment to equal employment opportunity 

Vanguard is an equal opportunity employer. Vanguard is committed to providing all crew members a working environment that is free from discrimination, prejudice and bias. Through this Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Policy, Vanguard reaffirms its commitment to equal employment opportunity for all applicants and crew members without regard to race, color, national origin or ancestry, religion, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, marital status, veteran or military status. In addition, Vanguard prohibits discrimination based on genetic information, as well as any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law.

Applicants with disabilities may be entitled to reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act and certain state or local laws. A reasonable accommodation is a change in the way things are normally done which will ensure an equal employment opportunity without imposing undue hardship on Vanguard. Please inform careers@vanguard.com if you need assistance completing this application or to otherwise participate in the application process.

How We Work

Vanguard has implemented a hybrid working model for the majority of our crew members, designed to capture the benefits of enhanced flexibility while enabling in-person learning, collaboration, and connection. We believe our mission-driven and highly collaborative culture is a critical enabler to support long-term client outcomes and enrich the employee experience.