Incident Response Lead

Position Title : Major Incident Manager

Grade : SA / M

Job Overview

The Major Incident Manager leads the response to high-impact incidents that significantly affect business operations. This role acts as the command center during major disruptions, ensuring rapid resolution, clear communication, and effective coordination across teams.

Key Responsibilities

Major Incident Command

Lead the end-to-end response for major incidents, ensuring rapid service restoration and minimal business impact through decisive action and structured coordination.

Activate and manage cross-functional incident response teams, assigning roles, setting priorities, and maintaining control throughout the incident lifecycle.

Establish command protocols and escalation paths to ensure high-impact incidents are handled with urgency and precision.

Stakeholder Communication

Provide timely, accurate, and context-sensitive updates to executives, business stakeholders, and affected users during major incidents.

Ensure transparency and clarity in communications, including incident status, impact assessments, estimated resolution times, and post-resolution summaries.

Serve as the primary communication bridge between technical teams and business leadership during critical events.

Root Cause & Post-Incident Review

Facilitate structured root cause analysis (RCA) sessions to identify underlying issues and contributing factors.

Document findings, lessons learned, and corrective actions, and ensure they are shared across relevant teams to prevent recurrence.

Lead post-incident review meetings and drive follow-up initiatives that enhance resilience and service reliability.

Process Governance

Ensure major incident management processes are consistently followed, documented, and aligned with ITIL and organizational standards.

Continuously improve incident response procedures by incorporating feedback, performance metrics, and best practices.

Maintain readiness for critical incident scenarios through simulations, training, and process audits.

Required Qualifications

Education : Bachelor’s degree in IT, Engineering, or a related field.

Experience : Minimum 6 years in IT operations or service management, with 3+ years in major incident handling.

Certifications : ITIL Foundation certification required.

Skills :

Strong leadership and crisis management skills

Excellent communication under pressure

Experience with incident coordination tools

Ability to manage executive-level communications

Preferred Qualifications

Experience With :

Business continuity and disaster recovery planning

High-availability systems and critical infrastructure

Executive stakeholder engagement

Advanced Certifications :

ITIL 4 Managing Professional

Certified Major Incident Manager (HDI)

ISO 22301 Business Continuity certification