VP, Business Continuity - Crisis Management

SMBC Group is a top-tier global financial group. Headquartered in Tokyo and with a 400-year history, SMBC Group offers a diverse range of financial services, including banking, leasing, securities, credit cards, and consumer finance. The Group has more than 130 offices and 80,000 employees worldwide in nearly 40 countries. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. (SMFG) is the holding company of SMBC Group, which is one of the three largest banking groups in Japan. SMFG’s shares trade on the Tokyo, Nagoya, and New York (NYSE: SMFG) stock exchanges.

In the Americas, SMBC Group has a presence in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. Backed by the capital strength of SMBC Group and the value of its relationships in Asia, the Group offers a range of commercial and investment banking services to its corporate, institutional, and municipal clients. It connects a diverse client base to local markets and the organization’s extensive global network. The Group’s operating companies in the Americas include Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. (SMBC), SMBC Nikko Securities America, Inc., SMBC Capital Markets, Inc., SMBC MANUBANK, JRI America, Inc., SMBC Leasing and Finance, Inc., Banco Sumitomo Mitsui Brasileiro S.A., and Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing Co., Ltd.

The anticipated salary range for this role is between $125,000.00 and $170,000.00. The specific salary offered to an applicant will be based on their individual qualifications, experiences, and an analysis of the current compensation paid in their geography and the market for similar roles at the time of hire. The role may also be eligible for an annual discretionary incentive award. In addition to cash compensation, SMBC offers a competitive portfolio of benefits to its employees.

Role Description

1. Incident Identification, Classification & Escalation

• Lead or support the classification of incidents using predefined severity criteria to determine whether an event constitutes an incident, major incident, or crisis.
• Assess potential impact to Important Business Services (IBS), customers, regulatory obligations, and the firm.
• Ensure timely escalation in line with the Crisis Management Policy, including activation of Incident Response Teams (IRT) or Crisis Management Committees when thresholds are met.

2. Crisis Response Coordination

• Act as a central coordinator for crisis response activities, ensuring relevant stakeholders, SMEs, business owners, and support functions are engaged.
• Chair or support incident and crisis calls, maintaining focus on priorities, decisions, and next actions.
• Coordinate across business, technology, cyber, third‑party, and resilience teams to enable a unified response.

3. Impact Assessment & Decision Support

• Oversee the ongoing assessment of impact as a crisis evolves, including service disruption, customer impact, and recovery timelines.
• Consolidate information from multiple sources to support informed, timely decision‑making by senior management and crisis committees.
• Track key risks, dependencies, and recovery actions throughout the lifecycle of the event.

4. Communication & Stakeholder Management

• Ensure accurate, consistent, and timely communication to senior management, crisis committees, and impacted stakeholders.
• Support coordination with internal and external parties, including regulators, where required, in partnership with designated communications and governance teams.
• Maintain situational awareness and ensure stakeholders remain informed as conditions change.

5. Governance, Documentation & Audit Trail

• Ensure all crisis‑related actions, decisions, and justifications are documented in incident logs, decision logs, and event records.
• Maintain records required for audit, regulatory review, and post‑incident governance.
• Ensure compliance with established Crisis Management and Business Continuity, Operational Resilience policies and procedures.

6. Post‑Incident Review & Continuous Improvement

• Lead or support post‑incident reviews to identify lessons learned, gaps, and areas for improvement.
• Track remediation actions and ensure follow‑through to strengthen future response capabilities.
• Feed insights into resilience, risk, and control enhancement initiatives.

7. Preparedness, Testing & Training

• Support the development, maintenance, and testing of crisis and incident management procedures.
• Participate in scenario testing and exercises to validate crisis readiness and escalation effectiveness.
• Promote crisis awareness and preparedness across the firm.

Experience & Background

• 8+ years of experience in Crisis Management, Incident Management, Business Continuity, Operational Resilience, or related risk/governance functions within a complex organization.
• Strong background leading major incidents, crises, or large‑scale operational disruptions, including direct experience managing executive‑level and cross‑functional response calls.
• Experience working in a highly regulated industry (financial services strongly preferred), with practical understanding of regulatory expectations for BCM/Resilience.
• Proven ability to coordinate across technology, cyber security, operations, third‑party risk, and business units during incidents or crises.
• Demonstrated experience conducting impact assessments, supporting senior‑level decision making, and synthesizing information from multiple sources under tight timeframes.
• Hands‑on experience maintaining incident logs, decision records, governance documentation, and audit/regulatory evidence.
• Experience conducting or leading post‑incident reviews, identifying root causes, and driving follow‑up remediation or process improvements.
• Background supporting or running crisis simulations, scenario exercises, and training programs.
• Experience with BCM or Resilience platforms/tools (e.g., Fusion, Everbridge) is preferred.
• Prior experience managing stakeholders, or crisis response groups in fast‑moving, high‑pressure environments.

SMBC’s employees participate in a Hybrid workforce model that provides employees with an opportunity to work from home, as well as, from an SMBC office. SMBC requires that employees live within a reasonable commuting distance of their office location. Prospective candidates will learn more about their specific hybrid work schedule during their interview process. Hybrid work may not be permitted for certain roles, including, for example, certain FINRA-registered roles for which in-office attendance for the entire workweek is required.

SMBC provides reasonable accommodations during candidacy for applicants with disabilities consistent with applicable federal, state, and local law. If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application process, please let us know at [email protected].