Senior Cyber Security Analyst - Governance (Disaster Recovery, Business Impact)

Role: Senior Cyber Security Analyst – Governance (Disaster Recovery, Business Impact)

Location: Minneapolis, MN - Hybrid

Rate: Depends on Experience

Job Description

The Senior Cyber Security Analyst – Governance (Disaster Recovery) is responsible for governing and overseeing the organization’s disaster recovery (DR) program to ensure the resilience and recoverability of critical IT systems. This role provides independent governance oversight across Business Impact Analyses (BIAs), disaster recovery planning, testing, risk management, and continuous improvement activities. The position partners with application owners, technology teams, and risk and audit stakeholders to ensure disaster recovery requirements are consistently implemented, tested, and maintained in alignment with enterprise standards and industry frameworks such as ISO 22301 and NIST SP 800-34. The role also serves as a trusted advisor to application owners, supporting the development and ongoing maintenance of application-level disaster recovery plans.

Disaster Recovery Governance

• Govern execution of the enterprise disaster recovery framework to ensure recoverability expectations are defined, implemented, and sustained for in-scope systems.
• Apply and enforce disaster recovery governance standards, processes, and controls across the organization.
• Maintain oversight of disaster recovery scope, critical system classifications, recovery objectives, and assurance requirements.

Business Impact Analysis (BIA) Oversight

• Govern the completion and ongoing maintenance of Business Impact Analyses (BIAs) to identify critical applications, recovery objectives, and system dependencies.
• Review and challenge BIAs for quality, consistency, and alignment with enterprise resilience requirements.
• Ensure BIAs remain current and reflect changes in business operations, technology, and risk.

Disaster Recovery Testing & Exercises

• Provide governance oversight of periodic disaster recovery simulations, tabletop exercises, and recovery tests.
• Evaluate testing outcomes to assess the organization’s ability to recover systems within defined recovery objectives.
• Identify testing gaps, trends, and weaknesses, and recommend improvements to testing practices.

Risk, Issues, and Corrective Action

• Maintain oversight of disaster recovery–related risks, findings, and corrective action plans.
• Ensure issues identified through BIAs, testing, or audits are documented, assigned, tracked, and remediated.
• Monitor remediation progress and elevate risks or delays as appropriate.

Audit & Continuous Improvement

• Support internal and external audits related to disaster recovery by coordinating evidence and preparing governance documentation.
• Ensure disaster recovery governance activities are audit-ready and defensible.
• Drive continuous improvement by identifying recurring issues and recommending process or control enhancements.

Advisory & Stakeholder Engagement

• Provide guidance and consultation to application owners on disaster recovery planning and alignment with enterprise standards.
• Act as an escalation point for complex disaster recovery planning or governance issues.
• Collaborate with IT, infrastructure, cloud, and business continuity teams to promote consistent implementation of disaster recovery requirements.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Cybersecurity, Risk Management, Business Continuity, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• 4–6 years of experience in cybersecurity governance, IT risk management, disaster recovery, business continuity, or technology audit.
• Experience governing or assessing BIAs, disaster recovery planning, recovery testing, and issue remediation.
• Working knowledge of disaster recovery and resilience frameworks such as ISO 22301 and NIST SP 800-34.
• Strong analytical, documentation, and stakeholder communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in a large, complex, or regulated enterprise environment.
• Familiarity with GRC tools, risk registers, or audit management platforms.

Relevant certifications (preferred but not required)

CBCP, CISA, CRISC, CISSP.

Key Competencies

• Governance judgment: ability to apply policy and standards pragmatically while maintaining control integrity.
• Risk-based thinking: ability to assess recoverability gaps in terms of business impact.
• Influence without authority: effectively challenging and guiding stakeholders to improve resilience outcomes.
• Program discipline: strong follow-through on tracking, issue management, and audit readiness.
• Clear communication: translating technical disaster recovery concepts into actionable governance expectations.