Interim Director — Cyber Recovery Readiness

Prove the restoration sequence

Identify the functions that must be restored first and the minimum capability each requires. Map identity, communications, applications, data and external providers. Challenge assumptions that depend on the same infrastructure or key person being available throughout an incident.

A restored application is not enough if access is unavailable, records are inconsistent or staff cannot safely resume the workflow. Exercises should test the sequence through to a usable service and identify who authorises the return to normal operation. Include a scenario in which ordinary communications fail or external support is delayed.

Own remediation and transfer readiness

Build and lead a prioritised readiness programme with technology and service owners. Establish exercise objectives, remediation ownership and decision routes for accepting residual gaps. Coordinate suppliers' participation and ensure their commitments can be tested. The director must make unresolved dependencies visible rather than allowing each team to report its own component as ready.

Provide exercised recovery arrangements, a clear account of remaining exposure and an internally owned improvement programme. Track whether findings have been retested rather than merely marked complete. Service leaders should understand the limits of current capability and the decisions they may face during disruption.

The interim director should leave an organisation that can maintain and rehearse its recovery processes without depending on one specialist's memory. No exercise can guarantee a particular incident outcome; the value is a more credible and demonstrable operating capability.

Qualified candidates

Candidates should have led operational resilience, major incident recovery or critical-service technology programmes. They need practical understanding of IT operations and the confidence to challenge recovery claims using evidence. Experience limited to policy production or audit coordination is insufficient for this delivery role.