Staff Security Engineer, Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery

📋 Description

• • As a Staff Security Engineer specializing in Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery (BCP/DR) at AlphaSense, you will be instrumental in architecting, implementing, and continuously enhancing our organization's resilience capabilities. This senior individual contributor role reports directly to the Director of Event Response and is pivotal in translating strategic BCP/DR objectives into tangible operational realities.
• • You will own the day-to-day operational aspects of our continuity function, fostering close collaboration with cross-functional teams including Engineering, Infrastructure, Product, and Business Operations. Your efforts will ensure AlphaSense can maintain critical operations seamlessly, even in the face of unforeseen disruptions.
• • While the Director of Event Response sets the overarching strategy and direction for BCP/DR, your role is focused on the meticulous execution of this strategy. This involves developing actionable plans, robust procedures, rigorous testing protocols, and managing the ongoing operational execution.
• • You will partner closely with the Director of Event Response, the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), security leadership, and key stakeholders across the company. Together, you will operationalize a mature, thoroughly tested, and highly actionable continuity capability designed to safeguard our business operations and protect our valued customers.
• • **Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Strategy:**
• • Design, implement, and refine comprehensive BCP/DR programs that align with recognized industry frameworks such as ISO 22301, NIST SP 800-34, and ISO 27001.
• • Conduct thorough Business Impact Analyses (BIA) to meticulously identify critical business functions, understand interdependencies, and establish clear recovery priorities.
• • Define, document, and maintain precise Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) for all critical systems and services, ensuring alignment with business needs.
• • Develop and maintain detailed disaster recovery playbooks and runbooks tailored for a wide spectrum of potential incident scenarios, ensuring clear guidance for response teams.
• • Create and manage robust crisis communication frameworks to facilitate effective communication during security incidents and significant business disruptions.
• • Lead and facilitate comprehensive tabletop exercises and disaster recovery drills to rigorously validate the effectiveness and readiness of recovery procedures.
• • **Cloud Infrastructure & Backup Engineering:**
• • Design and implement state-of-the-art backup and recovery solutions, with a primary focus on AWS cloud infrastructure.
• • Build and deploy automated backup workflows for critical assets including databases, storage systems, applications, and system configurations.
• • Implement advanced immutable backup strategies and robust offsite replication mechanisms to enhance resilience against ransomware attacks.
• • Proactively monitor all backup operations, meticulously validate recovery procedures, and ensure the ongoing integrity of backup data.
• • Optimize backup windows, refine retention policies, and manage storage costs efficiently across our cloud environments.
• • Implement Infrastructure as Code (IaC) principles for the automated provisioning and configuration management of disaster recovery environments.
• • **Recovery Operations & Testing:**
• • Develop and refine automated failover and failback procedures for critical services, minimizing downtime during recovery.
• • Design and maintain resilient hot, warm, and cold standby environments, meticulously tailored to meet specific business requirements and recovery objectives.
• • Conduct regular, systematic disaster recovery testing, meticulously documenting test results and providing actionable recommendations for continuous improvement.
• • Build sophisticated monitoring and alerting systems to track backup health, replication lag, and overall recovery readiness.
• • Maintain detailed and up-to-date recovery documentation, including comprehensive network diagrams, dependency maps, and critical configuration details.
• • Coordinate closely with application teams to ensure application-consistent backups and streamlined recovery procedures.
• • **Compliance & Documentation:**
• • Ensure all BCP/DR programs meet stringent regulatory requirements and fulfill customer commitments regarding business continuity.
• • Maintain comprehensive and organized documentation of all recovery procedures, test outcomes, and capability assessments.
• • Track and report on key resilience metrics, including RTO/RPO achievement rates, test success rates, and the outcomes of recovery drills.
• • Actively participate in and support internal audit and compliance team assessments related to BCP/DR capabilities.
• • Engage in vendor risk assessments for third-party backup and recovery solutions, ensuring alignment with our security and continuity standards.