Head of Resilience and Major Incident Management

Head of Resilience and Major Incident Management Assurance Directorate

The University of Oxford seek a new Head of Resilience and Major Incident Management a position where you will have significant scope to shape resilience across a large and complex institution Building the University's ability to anticipate disruption, identify critical vulnerabilities and recover effectively from major incidents is central to protecting its teaching, research and professional services. This senior role will lead a cross-University approach to organisational resilience, bringing together insight on critical risks and dependencies with rigorous exercising, testing and continuous improvement to strengthen institutional preparedness

Location: University Offices, Wellington Square, Oxford

Contract: Full Time, Permanent

About Us

Spanning the historic streets of the "city of dreaming spires", the University of Oxford has been ranked the world's leading university for ten consecutive years. A place where centuries of tradition meet world-changing innovation, we offer you the chance to shape the future while working in an inspiring environment that promotes excellence. Here, you'll contribute to an organisation which delivers ground-breaking research that tackles global challenges - from advancing sustainability to pioneering healthcare solutions - and join a diverse, inclusive community that champions your wellbeing, development, and aspirations.

The Assurance Directorate is here to help the University navigate risk, compliance, data and business continuity issues. We are a centre of expertise that offers advice, practical guidance and responsive support.

What We Offer

• 38 days of annual leave (inclusive of public holidays) to support your wellbeing, with the option to purchase up to 10 extra days and additional leave after long service.
• One of the most generous family leave schemes in UK higher education, offering up to 26 weeks of full-pay maternity and adoption leave, plus 12 weeks of full-pay paternity/partner leave.
• A commitment to hybrid and flexible working to suit your lifestyle.
• An excellent contributory pension scheme.
• Affordable and sustainable commuting options, including a cycle loan scheme, discounted bus travel, and season ticket loans.
• Access to a vibrant community through our social, cultural, and sports clubs.

About the Role

As the University's lead for organisational resilience, business continuity and major incident preparedness, you will shape a risk-based approach that enables Oxford to anticipate, withstand, respond to and recover from significant disruption. A central priority will be identifying critical activities, dependencies, strategic vulnerabilities and single points of failure across the institution, using this insight to strengthen preparedness and provide assurance that essential teaching, research and professional services can continue or be restored within appropriate timescales.

Working across a highly devolved organisation, you will bring together resilience activity spanning business continuity, cyber resilience, IT continuity, physical security and operational services, while respecting established areas of responsibility. You will lead the development and continuous improvement of the University's resilience frameworks and use exercising, simulation and testing to challenge assumptions, expose gaps and translate lessons into measurable improvements. Local business continuity planning remains an important part of this work: you will enable divisions, departments and professional services to develop proportionate arrangements that contribute to a coherent institutional picture of resilience.

Preparing the University to respond and recover effectively when significant incidents occur will be fundamental to your impact. You will strengthen Gold and Silver capability, develop recovery arrangements and provide senior leaders with authoritative advice during major incidents when required. Success will be demonstrated not simply by the University's response to individual events, but by stronger preparedness beforehand: a clearer understanding of its most significant vulnerabilities, tested response and recovery arrangements, stronger connections across critical services and sustained improvements in institutional resilience.

About You

You will bring:

• Significant experience of leading organisational resilience, business continuity, emergency planning or a related discipline, supported by a degree or equivalent professional experience.
• Experience of designing, implementing and continuously improving resilience frameworks within a large, complex organisation.
• Strong experience of identifying strategic risks, critical dependencies, vulnerabilities and single points of failure and translating these into proportionate resilience improvements.
• Demonstrable experience of designing and leading exercises, simulations or testing programmes that assess preparedness and drive continuous improvement.
• Experience of advising senior leaders during significant incidents or crises, with the judgement and credibility to provide clear advice in complex circumstances.
• A strong record of influencing and building effective relationships across complex or devolved organisations where responsibility is distributed across multiple stakeholders.
• Strong programme and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to coordinate cross-cutting activity and turn strategic priorities into deliverable improvements.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex resilience issues clearly and effectively to senior audiences.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, together with a commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.

The closing date for applications is 12 noon on 11 September 2026.

Interviews will take place on Monday 21 September 2026, and will be held face-to-face.