Senior Business Continuity Manager

Who we are

Our mission at FHLBank Chicago: To partner with our members in Illinois and Wisconsin to provide them competitively priced funding, a reasonable return on their investment, and support for their community investment activities.

Simply said, we're a bank for banks and other financial institutions, focused on being a strategic partner for our members and working together to reinvest in our communities, from urban centers to rural areas. Created by Congress in 1932, FHLBank Chicago is one of 11 Federal Home Loan Banks, government sponsored in support of mortgage lending and community investment.

What it’s like to work here

At FHLBank Chicago, we bring people together. We are committed to a high performing, engaged workforce, and to supporting the communities we serve across Illinois and Wisconsin. Our Buddy Program pairs new hires with tenured employees to guide their onboarding. Our professional development and training opportunities through upskilling, mentorship programs, and tuition reimbursement allow employees to grow their career with us. Our collaborative, in-office operating model brings teams together to foster innovation, connection, and shared success. To support balance and flexibility, employees are provided with an allocation of remote days to use as needed throughout the year.

What you’ll do

The Sr. Business Continuity Manager executes, coordinates, and continuously improves the Bank’s Business Continuity Management (BCM) Program. This role partners across the Bank to ensure resiliency plans, crisis management guidance, disaster recovery coordination, training, testing, communications, and related documentation are current, cohesive, and executable. The Sr. Business Continuity Manager supports the Bank’s ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disruptive events while maintaining safe and sound operations, minimizing member disruption, and aligning the BCM Program to the Bank’s risk appetite and operating environment. 

How you'll make an impact

• Strengthen the Bank’s resilience by ensuring critical operations can continue and recover quickly during disruptions, minimizing risk and member impact.

• Drive enterprise-wide preparedness by partnering across departments to develop, test, and continuously improve business continuity and crisis management capabilities.

• Provide leadership during incidents and emerging threats, enabling informed decision-making, coordinated response efforts, and continuous improvement of the Bank’s resiliency posture.

What you can expect

• Lead day-to-day execution and coordination of the BCM Program, including implementation of the Business Continuity Cycle and alignment of resiliency activities to Bank objectives and risk appetite.

• Coordinate activities during disruptions, including stakeholder mobilization, status updates, resource prioritization, and support for Crisis Management Team activation and response efforts. Weekends and after-hours may be required in the management of incidents and tests.

• Maintain and enhance business continuity, crisis management, disaster recovery coordination, and related BCM documentation so plans remain achievable, consistent, complete, and responsive to the Bank’s needs.

• Coordinate with IT Disaster Recovery personnel and technology leaders to ensure business continuity expectations, application dependencies, recovery objectives, and disaster recovery exercise outcomes are understood and incorporated into BRM planning and meet the Bank’s risk appetite.

• Partner with departments, Department Managers, Information Technology, Communications, Legal, Risk, and other stakeholders to keep business continuity plans current and aligned to critical business processes.

• Oversee plan maintenance routines, including quarterly certifications, annual reviews, documentation refreshes, and updates following significant changes to Bank products, systems, processes, staffing, or operating environment.

• Coordinate and support risk assessments, Business Impact Analyses (BIA), dependency mapping, mitigation planning, and resiliency strategy development across Bank functions.

• Design, coordinate, and facilitate BCM training and testing, including but not limited to tabletop exercises, new hire orientation training, emergency notification tests, continuity tests, techology asset resiliency and recovery activities, and post-test/action item tracking.

• Provide regular reporting and updates on BCM Program activities, testing results, plan readiness, open issues, lessons learned, and emerging risks to management, the Executive Team, various operational and risk committees, and other stakeholders as required.

• Monitor threats and events that may impact the Bank’s ability to operate, including system loss, location loss, people loss/unavailability, severe weather, broader operational disruptions, and other evolving threat scenarios.

• Use BRM tools and platforms such as emergency notification systems, AI tools (Co-Pilot), Microsoft M365, Riskonnect or similar systems to administer program activities, maintain records, support communications, and track issues or remediation items.

• Serve as a key liaison with appropriate city, county, state, federal, industry, and emergency management organizations involved in threat monitoring, disaster planning, and recovery coordination.

• Maintain employee-facing BCM resources and guidance, including SharePoint content, procedures, playbooks, templates, training materials, and communications that support awareness of employee responsibilities during an event.

• Document incidents, exercises, decisions, and lessons learned, and partner with stakeholders to drive continuous improvement in resiliency practices, controls, and readiness.

• Perform other duties as assigned.

What you'll bring

• Bachelor’s degree in business, risk management, emergency management, information technology, operations, or related field; equivalent work experience may be considered.

• 10+ years of relevant experience in business continuity, business resiliency, operational risk, crisis management, disaster recovery coordination, technology operations, or related field.

• Experience partnering with technology teams in organizations leveraging cloud platforms to assess business impacts, recovery requirements, operational dependencies, and resiliency strategies.

• Current Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP - minimum) or Master Business Continuity Professional (MBCP - preferred) (or related/equivalent).

• Experience in banking, financial services, regulated environments, or other highly operational and control-oriented environments preferred. Experience with organizations utilizing cloud-

• Experience managing cross-functional initiatives and working across departments to align plans, dependencies, resources, and executive-level decision-making.

• Experience with M365, visualization and planning tools, and ability to learn third-party resiliency, risk, notification, or governance systems.

• Excellent verbal, written, listening, facilitation, and presentation skills, with the ability to communicate clearly during both steady-state operations and high-pressure disruption events. 

• Strong ability to influence without direct authority, build consensus, and bring together diverse perspectives to reach practical decisions. 

• Strong technical aptitude and ability to understand system dependencies, disaster recovery considerations, cloud/technology resiliency concepts, and how technology disruptions impact business processes. 

• Ability to break down complex issues, analyze root causes, develop workable solutions, and translate operational needs into clear plans, actions, and communications. 

• Strong project management and organizational skills, including ability to manage timelines, follow-ups, documentation, testing cycles, and competing priorities. 

• Detail-oriented and disciplined in documentation, records management, issue tracking, and controls-minded program execution. 

• Ability to interact effectively with all levels of the organization, including employees, people leaders, senior management, executive stakeholders, and external partners. 

• Sound judgment, calm presence under pressure, and ability to balance employee safety, member impact, operational continuity, risk, and regulatory expectations. 

• Curiosity and continuous improvement mindset, including ability to research trends, industry practices, regulatory expectations, and technology changes that may improve the Bank’s resiliency posture. 

• Professionalism, discretion, collaboration, accountability, and commitment to the Bank’s mission and safe and sound operations. 

The Perks

At FHLBank Chicago, we believe in rewarding our high performing workforce. We offer a highly competitive compensation and bonus package, and access to a comprehensive benefits program designed to meet the needs of our employees. Our retirement program includes a 401(k) and pension plan. Our wellbeing program supports employees at work and in their personal lives: Our PTO plan provides five weeks of vacation for new employees and 11 paid holidays per year; our Lifestyle Spending Account provides an annual stipend for employees to support wellbeing activities; and our central downtown location at the Old Post Office provides easy access to public transportation and breathtaking views from our award-winning rooftop. Visit FHLBCbenefits.com for additional details about our benefits. Step into a brighter future with us.

Salary Range:

The above represents the expected salary range for this job requisition.  Ultimately, in determining your pay, we may also consider your experience, and other job-related factors. In addition to the base salary, we offer a comprehensive benefits package which can be found here: https://hrportal.ehr.com/fhlbc