Director, DUHS Business Continuity

Duke Careers•Durham, NC

2d•Onsite

About The Position

The Director, Business Continuity leads DUHS’s enterprise-wide Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) to ensure continuity of patient care, clinical services, and critical business functions during and after disruptions. This role establishes strategy, governance, and program execution across hospitals, ambulatory clinics, revenue cycle, supply chain, IT, research, and academic partners. The Director is a key partner to Emergency Management, IT Disaster Recovery, Risk Management, Quality & Patient Safety, and Senior Operations leaders—driving readiness, mitigation, and rapid recovery while meeting regulatory and accreditation requirements.

Requirements

Master's degree in business, health administration, or related field
5 years of experience in health administration or a similar role
Minimum of 3 years in Emergency Management
Expert knowledge of emergency preparedness and business continuity functions
Excellent organizational, oral and written communication skills
Problem-solving skills
Program development skills
Computer skills
Strong leadership skills
Team building skills
Ability to work with a variety of disciplines and levels of staff across departments and the health system, as well as personnel from outside organizations, is required.
Ability to work with a variety of disciplines and levels of staff across departments and the health system is required.

Nice To Haves

Hazardous materials operational certification preferred.

Responsibilities

Build and maintain a systemwide BCMS aligned to ISO 22301 principles and DUHS strategic priorities.
Develop policies, standards, and a multi-year roadmap for resilience, including governance forums and executive reporting.
Define business continuity methodologies (e.g., Business Impact Analysis, dependency mapping) and ensure consistent adoption.
Integrate BC with Enterprise Risk Management, Emergency Operations Plans (EOP), and IT Disaster Recovery.
Lead and facilitate Business Impact Analyses (BIA) for all critical clinical and business functions—admissions, inpatient nursing, OR, ED, pharmacy, lab, radiology, EHR, supply chain, facilities, finance, HR, and communications.
Create, maintain, and validate Continuity of Operations (COOP) plans for hospitals, service lines, and shared services.
Identify and mitigate single points of failure; implement redundancy strategies.
Align downtime procedures with clinical workflows and patient safety priorities.
Design and conduct systemwide and unit-level tabletop and functional exercises
Lead after-action reviews, corrective action plans, and track closure through dashboards and metrics.
Coordinate business continuity dependencies with IT Disaster Recovery (DR): recovery sequencing, data integrity, and application prioritization.
Serve on the DUHS Incident Management Team; coordinate BC activities during disruptions.
Advise executives on operational workarounds, clinical prioritization, and service restoration paths.
Support crisis communications for internal stakeholders and external partners as appropriate.
Ensure alignment with The Joint Commission standards, CMS emergency preparedness requirements, and State/Federal guidance related to continuity and emergency management.
Maintain documentation and evidence for audits and surveys.
Partner with Legal/Compliance for risk mitigation and policy adherence.
Build strong relationships across hospitals, ambulatory practices, clinical departments, IT, Supply Chain, Facilities, Finance, HR, Communications, and Research.
Engage with regional partners on resilience initiatives.
Provide training, coaching, and change management for leaders and front-line teams.