Safeguarding Lancaster’s future through strategic resilience and assurance.

Interim Risk and Resilience Manager – Lancaster University

As Interim Risk and Resilience Manager, you will serve as the University’s professional lead for risk management, business continuity, and emergency planning — ensuring that Lancaster remains prepared, responsive, and resilient in an evolving operating environment. Reporting to the Head of Governance Services within the Division of Strategic Planning and Governance, you will work closely with senior leaders and operational teams across the University to deliver a coherent and forward-looking approach to institutional resilience.

Your primary remit will be to lead the management, review, and implementation of Lancaster’s Resilience at Lancaster framework, encompassing emergency planning, business continuity, and risk management. You will oversee the development of policies, procedures, and training that ensure compliance with legal, regulatory, and statutory requirements, while embedding a culture of proactive risk awareness and preparedness throughout the University.

You will provide professional advice and support to the Executive, Audit and Risk Committee, and senior leadership groups on risk-related matters, ensuring that emerging risks are identified, assessed, and reported effectively. Working collaboratively with internal and external partners, you will coordinate the testing and exercising of emergency and continuity plans, advise on incident response, and ensure the University’s Gold, Silver, and Bronze response teams are equipped to act swiftly and effectively.

In addition, you will undertake the role of Prevent Lead for the University, ensuring compliance with the Prevent Duty and supporting wider safeguarding frameworks. You will develop and deliver associated training, provide professional advice on external speakers and freedom of speech, and liaise with external agencies including local emergency services and national counter-terrorism networks.

This role is about ensuring the effective governance and reporting of institutional risk and resilience activity. You will contribute to strategic planning discussions, represent Lancaster externally through the Local Resilience Forum and similar networks, and act as an ambassador for best practice in organisational resilience.

As Interim Risk and Resilience Manager, you will play a critical role in protecting the University’s people, reputation, and operations — enabling Lancaster to remain confident, compliant, and agile in the face of emerging challenges.

Person specification

We are seeking a confident and capable professional who brings sound judgement, analytical strength, and a collaborative ethos to this vital interim role. You will combine technical expertise in risk and resilience management with the ability to influence, engage, and inspire confidence across the University community. Specifically, we are looking for someone who can demonstrate:

• Proven experience in risk management, business continuity, and/or incident response within a large, complex organisation — ideally one with multiple sites or diverse operational environments.

• A strong track record in developing and implementing risk frameworks, policies, and procedures that enhance organisational resilience and ensure compliance with relevant standards and regulations.

• Credibility and assurance when advising senior leaders, boards, or committees — with the ability to prepare clear, succinct reports and present complex information effectively to support decision-making.

• Strategic and analytical capability, with a proven ability to assess complex risks, evaluate interdependencies, and design effective mitigation and contingency strategies.

• Excellent communication and influencing skills, enabling constructive engagement with a wide range of stakeholders and the capacity to build partnerships internally and externally.

• A relevant degree or professional qualification in risk management, business continuity, emergency planning, or a related discipline (or equivalent professional experience).

• Desirable: experience in delivering training or workshops that promote awareness, preparedness, and confidence in risk and resilience practices.

• Desirable: understanding of regulatory and compliance frameworks relevant to the UK higher education sector, including those governing governance, safety, and statutory duties such as Prevent.

This is a pivotal opportunity for a skilled professional to apply their expertise within a world-class university, ensuring Lancaster remains resilient, responsive, and ready to meet future challenges.

A full job description and person specification is available on the Lancaster University recruitment portal.

Recruitment statement

We want to provide you with full information at an early stage to enable you to make an informed decision as to whether you are committed to pursuing this position and to outline the University’s expectations of all candidates taking part in our recruitment process.

Once you have reviewed the information below, and in fairness to everyone concerned, we would ask that you give serious consideration to proceeding further with this process if you think you may not accept the position should it be offered to you.

The role which is an interim fixed term position until July 2026 will be located on the Lancaster University main Bailrigg Campus based in North Lancashire and there is a requirement that the successful candidate will live within reasonable commuting distance of the campus. If this might involve a re-location for you, it is of course important that you consider how the move might affect anyone who may accompany you (for example, early consideration may need to be given to local schooling, housing and other employment opportunities where other family members are involved, as early as possible). We will support you as much as possible with this and are happy to discuss any concerns you may have.

We would ask you to agree to undertaking a positive, open, and transparent dialogue with us throughout the recruitment process, raising questions and any concerns as early as possible.

Contract and contact:
If you are happy to continue in your application for the position in light of the above expectations, we would very much look forward to hearing from you. For an informal discussion about the role - please contact Claire Geddes - Head of Governance Services and Interim Deputy Secretary by email c.geddes@lancaster.ac.uk to arrange a call.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

Our employee community across the UK and the world comprises people from 85 nationalities. They practise different faiths, have different lifestyles and are at different stages in their lives. It is this mixture of life experience that adds diversity of thought and approach to make Lancaster University a force for good.

We are committed to creating an environment where everyone can feel welcome, thrive and fulfil their potential. Our equality, diversity and inclusion leaders are involved with everything from policy creation to celebratory events to help us be a fairer and more inclusive employer.