Business Continuity Planners

Law, Public Safety, Corrections and SecurityO*NET 13-1199.04United States

Develop, maintain, or implement business continuity and disaster recovery strategies and solutions, including risk assessments, business impact analyses, strategy selection, and documentation of business continuity and disaster recovery procedures. Plan, conduct, and debrief regular mock-disaster exercises to test the adequacy of existing plans and strategies, updating procedures and plans regularly.

COMING SOON See related ASU learning

Median annual earnings: $82,007
Projected change: +7.6%
Typical education: Bachelor's degree
Employment: 1.18M jobs

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Build the skills

ASU learning related to this career

These courses and certificates are connected through catalog career relationships and Lightcast skill tags.

The work

What business continuity planners do

Tasks reported for this occupation, ordered by how often they come up in the role.

Develop emergency management plans for recovery decision making and communications, continuity of critical departmental processes, or temporary shut-down of non-critical departments to ensure continuity of operation and governance.
Test documented disaster recovery strategies and plans.
Develop disaster recovery plans for physical locations with critical assets, such as data centers.
Maintain and update organization information technology applications and network systems blueprints.
Establish, maintain, or test call trees to ensure appropriate communication during disaster.
Identify opportunities for strategic improvement or mitigation of business interruption and other risks caused by business, regulatory, or industry-specific change initiatives.
Review existing disaster recovery, crisis management, or business continuity plans.
Analyze impact on, and risk to, essential business functions or information systems to identify acceptable recovery time periods and resource requirements.
Write reports to summarize testing activities, including descriptions of goals, planning, scheduling, execution, results, analysis, conclusions, and recommendations.
Create or administer training and awareness presentations or materials.
Design or implement products and services to mitigate risk or facilitate use of technology-based tools and methods.
Recommend or implement methods to monitor, evaluate, or enable resolution of safety, operations, or compliance interruptions.
Conduct or oversee contingency plan integration and operation.
Create business continuity and disaster recovery budgets.
Create scenarios to reestablish operations from various types of business disruptions.
Interpret government regulations and applicable codes to ensure compliance.
Prepare reports summarizing operational results, financial performance, or accomplishments of specified objectives, goals, or plans.
Analyze corporate intelligence data to identify trends, patterns, or warnings indicating threats to security of people, assets, information, or infrastructure.
Attend professional meetings, read literature, and participate in training or other educational offerings to keep abreast of new developments and technologies related to disaster recovery and business continuity.

Pay and outlook

What the job pays and where it is heading

Annual earnings range

Reported earnings by percentile, United States

10th percentile: $46,745
25th percentile: $61,460
50th percentile: $82,007
75th percentile: $113,551
90th percentile: $152,829

The gold marker shows the median. Half earn more than $82,007 and half earn less.

Employment outlook

2025 to 2035 projection

+7.6%faster than average

20251,180,498 jobs

2035 projected1,269,790 jobs

89,292 more positions over the decade, before replacement hiring.

Preparation

Education levels

What people currently working in the career hold. These are not entry requirements.

Bachelor's degree: 65.2%
Master's or Professional degree: 13%
Some college: 8.7%
High school diploma or less: 4.4%
Certificate: 4.4%
Associate degree: 4.4%

Skills

Skills employers ask for

Technical skills appearing most often in job postings for this occupation.

Change Management
Project Management
Organizational Change Management
Governance
Stakeholder Engagement
Continuous Improvement Process
Organizational Leadership
Workflow Management
Agile Methodology
Change Management Strategy
Stakeholder Management
Influencing Without Authority
Process Improvement
Organizational Development
Artificial Intelligence
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Auditing
Prosci ADKAR Model
Business Continuity Planning
Automation

How the work gets done

Core competencies

Broad capabilities associated with strong performance in this occupation.

Complex Problem Solving: Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
Critical Thinking: Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
Judgment and Decision Making: Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
Active Listening: Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
Writing: Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
Active Learning: Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
Systems Analysis: Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
Reading Comprehension: Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
Systems Evaluation: Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
Speaking: Talking to others to convey information effectively.
Coordination: Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
Monitoring: Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
Social Perceptiveness: Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
Learning Strategies: Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
Time Management: Managing one's own time and the time of others.
Instructing: Teaching others how to do something.
Persuasion: Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
Management of Personnel Resources: Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
Service Orientation: Actively looking for ways to help people.
Negotiation: Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.

In the market

Job titles and employers

Recent job postings in United States

Common job titles

01Change Management Managers918 postings
02Organizational Change Managers883 postings
03Change Managers880 postings
04Change Management Consultants878 postings
05Change Management Leads739 postings
06Change Management Specialists396 postings
07Change Management Analysts323 postings
08Organizational Change Management Leads261 postings
09Business Continuity Managers259 postings
10Problem Managers220 postings
11Release Managers215 postings
12Organizational Change Consultants203 postings
13Business Continuity Specialists183 postings
14Business Change Managers165 postings
15Organizational Change Management Analysts151 postings
16OCM Consultants143 postings
17Business Continuity Analysts129 postings
18Organizational Change Management Specialists122 postings
19Loop Coordinators119 postings
20Implementation Managers108 postings

Top employers

01Accenture1,151 postings
02Maximus232 postings
03Cardinal Health205 postings
04GE Aerospace201 postings
05Insight Global188 postings
06CVS Health182 postings
07UKG163 postings
08KPMG146 postings
09Prime Therapeutics125 postings
10PNC120 postings
11Zurich Insurance113 postings
12Cengage Learning107 postings
13Russell Tobin95 postings
14Robert Half94 postings
15TEKsystems92 postings
16Elevance Health90 postings
17Motion Recruitment81 postings
18Guidehouse71 postings
19Cognizant Technology Solutions70 postings
20Royal Bank of Canada68 postings

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