Senior Manager, Risk and Resilience

Full time, fixed term opportunity until 28th Jan 2028

Provide strategic leadership in strengthening the University’s enterprise risk and resilience landscape

Offering a competitive salary package including 17% superannuation

About the opportunity

The University of Sydney is seeking an experienced and highly motivated Senior Manager, Risk and Resilience to join our Risk Management team.

This is an exciting opportunity to lead and shape the University's organisational resilience, crisis management and business continuity capability at one of Australia's leading universities.

Working closely with senior leaders across the University, you will play a key role in helping the organisation anticipate, prepare for, respond to and recover from disruption. You will lead initiatives that strengthen business continuity, support critical incident and crisis management arrangements, design and deliver resilience exercises, and embed practical resilience capability across faculties, schools and portfolios.

No two days are the same. One day you may be facilitating a crisis exercise with senior executives, the next supporting an incident response, reviewing business continuity plans, preparing advice for governance committees or helping stakeholders navigate a complex emerging issue before it escalates.

You will also play an important role in identifying emerging risks, recognising patterns and themes across incidents, business continuity activities and operational issues, and translating local insights into strategic advice for senior leaders. By connecting what is happening across the University, you will help ensure significant issues, resilience vulnerabilities and emerging threats are appropriately escalated, understood and considered within the University's enterprise risk framework and governance processes.

Working across a broad network of stakeholders, you will act as a trusted adviser on organisational resilience, preparedness, crisis management and emerging risk issues, helping leaders make informed decisions in complex and often time-sensitive situations.

As part of a highly regarded and collaborative Risk Management team, you will have the opportunity to influence enterprise-wide decision-making, contribute to meaningful organisational change and help strengthen the University's ability to navigate uncertainty, disruption and emerging challenges.

Your key responsibilities will be to:

provide strategic leadership for the University’s organisational resilience arrangements, including the Organisational Resilience Framework, Crisis Management Plan, business continuity approach, scenario exercises and post-incident review requirements

lead business continuity and preparedness uplift across the University, including Faculty, School and portfolio Business Continuity Plans (BCPs), Crown Jewel business continuity planning, testing, monitoring and continuous improvement

coordinate and support the University’s critical incident and crisis management arrangements, including Critical Incident Response Teams and Crisis Management Committee preparedness, activation support, escalation pathways, action and decision records, stand-down arrangements and post-incident review activities

design, facilitate and evaluate crisis simulations, scenario exercises, preparedness activities and post-incident reviews to strengthen organisational capability and lessons learned

support emerging risk and cross functional preparedness groups by providing risk and resilience advice on complex issues before they escalate into formal critical incidents or crises

identify systemic risks, resilience gaps and themes from incidents, exercises, business continuity activity, emerging risks, and risk registers, and translate these into practical recommendations for senior leaders and governance forums

lead the integration of resilience insights into the University’s Risk Management Framework, including risk appetite, risk profiles, control effectiveness, governance reporting and enterprise-level risk advice

deliver high-quality risk analysis, briefings and reports to support senior leadership and governance decision-making on enterprise risk, organisational resilience, preparedness and emerging issues

coordinate and guide the broader risk and resilience community, including risk owners, BCP coordinators and key stakeholders, to support consistent practice and continuous improvement.

act as a trusted adviser during incidents and periods of disruption, helping leaders make informed decisions in complex and time-sensitive situations.

About you

postgraduate qualifications In a relevant field or an equivalent combination of relevant training and experience

excellent at interpreting data with highly developed problem solving and analytical techniques and the ability to translate complex data into high quality, succinct reports

extensive experience in risk management frameworks, including best practices, methodologies, and tools

extensive experience in strategic planning, analysis, decision-making support and advisory services

demonstrated professional experience and expertise in the application of risk identification and assessment and compliance and assurance techniques in an organisation operating in highly complex industry and environment

demonstrated adaptability and resourcefulness when meeting complex and conflicting demands, solving non-routine problems and priorities

superior written and oral communication and interpersonal skills including high level report writing, presentation and facilitation skills; understanding of a range of communication modes, including their suitability for different target audiences.

an interest in helping organisations prepare for uncertainty, strengthen resilience and continuously improve how they respond to disruption.

Sponsorship / work rights for Australia

You must have unrestricted work rights in Australia for the duration of this employment to be eligible to apply. Visa sponsorship is not available for this appointment.

Pre-employment checks and declarations

Your employment is conditional upon the successful completion of all pre-employment or background checks required for the role in terms satisfactory to the University. Also, to meet the University’s obligations under the National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Eliminate Gender-Based Violence you will be asked to declare if you have been investigated for, or found to engaged in, sexual harm or gender-based violence in the course of previous employment or in a legal process. Similarly, your ongoing employment is conditional upon the satisfactory maintenance of all relevant clearances and background check requirements. If you do not meet these conditions, the University may take any necessary step, including the termination of your employment.

EEO statement

At the University of Sydney, our shared values are trust, accountability and excellence and we strive to be a place where everyone can thrive. We are committed to creating a University community that thrives through diversity and reflects the wider community that we serve. We deliver on this through our commitment to diversity and inclusion , evidenced by our people and culture programs, as well as key strategies to increase participation and support the careers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People , women , people living with a disability , people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds , and those who identify as LGBTQIA+ . We welcome applications from candidates from all backgrounds.

We are proud to be recognised as an Australian Workplace Equality Index (AWEI) Platinum Employer. Find out more about our work on diversity and inclusion .

How to apply

Applications (including a cover letter, CV, and any additional supporting documentation) can be submitted via the Apply button at the top of the page.

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