Sr Principal Data Protection and Cyber Recovery Engineer
Job Summary
About Northern Trust
As a global leader in innovative wealth management asset servicing asset management and banking services Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the worlds most successful individuals families corporations and institutions.
Since 1889 we have aligned our efforts with our three guiding Principles That Endure: Service Expertise and Integrity. Together they reflect the three cornerstones of business conduct which we strive to instill in our employees whom we call partners and to provide to our clients and the communities we serve worldwide.
With more than 135 years of financial experience and over 24000 partners we serve the worlds most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.
About the Role
We are looking for a Senior Data Resiliency Engineer to own the design implementation and assurance of our data protection and recovery capabilities across our hybrid cloud estate.
This is a high-trust high-accountability role. Our backup infrastructure is not just an operational concern it is a regulatory obligation a cyberdefenselayer and a corecomponentof our operational resilience framework. You will be the subject matter expert who ensures our ability to recover is proven not assumed and that our posture satisfies the expectations of regulators including the FCA PRA and the requirements of DORA.
You will work in close partnership with Information Security Technology Risk Business Continuity and SRE teams and willinterface directly withaudit and regulatory processes.
WhatYoullDo
Backup & Recovery Engineering
- Architect implement andoperatebackup and restore solutions across on-premises datacentersand cloud environments (AWS Azure and/or GCP) covering the full range of financial services workloads core banking systems trading platforms payment processing databases and unstructured data.
- Define own and continuouslyvalidateRTO and RPO targets in alignment with Important Business Service (IBS) mapping and impact tolerances as required under the PRA/FCA operational resilience framework.
- Own backup policy governance retention schedules legal hold processes data classification alignment and lifecycle rules ensuring consistency with data management and records retention obligations under GDPR and FCA COBS/SYSC requirements.
- Lead a structured restore testingprogramsincluding fullDRfailover BusinessService recoveryexercisesclean-room scenariobasedrecovery simulations and immutable backup integrity validation with evidence packages suitable for regulatory review.
- Own backupfailureinvestigation and resolution end-to-end conducting blameless post-incident reviews and feeding findings into the firms risk event process.
Cyber Recovery & Resilience
- Design andmaintainair-gapped and immutable backup tiers asa coreransomware andcyber-attackrecovery capability aligned to the firms Cyber Recovery Plan and wider BCBS 239 / DORA ICT resilience obligations.
- Participate in adversarial recovery exercises and cyber simulation scenarios (-room servicerestores under incident conditions) providing technical leadership on recoverability.
- Maintain alignment with NIST CSF ISO 27001 and DORA ICT risk management requirements as theyapply tobackup and recovery controls.
- Work with the Information Security team to ensure backup systems are hardened access-controlled andmonitoredfor anomalous activity treating backup infrastructure as a high-value target requiring its own threat model.
- Maintain audit trails and cryptographic integrity verification for backup data to support forensic and regulatory investigation requirements.
Infrastructure as Code & Automation
- Build andmaintainall backup infrastructure using Terraform and supportingIaCtooling (Ansible CloudFormation orPulumiwhere applicable) with all changes managed through version-controlled peer-reviewed CI/CD pipelines.
- Automate restore validationworkflowsso recovery confidence is continuously measuredevidenced and reportable not dependent on manual spot checks.
- Manage Terraform state module libraries and environment promotion across non-prod and production estates within a change-controlled audit-friendly delivery model.
- Contribute to shared platform engineering standards and championIaCbest practices across the wider infrastructure function.
Hybrid Environment Ownership
- Maintain deepexpertiseacross both on-premises (Cohesity Rubrik NetAppSnapVault DellData DomainIBMSafeguarded Copy)and cloud-native (AWS Backup Azure Backup snapshot-based recovery object storage immutability) paradigms.
- Design and manage data transfer replication and egress costoptimisationfor hybrid backup flows with particular attention to latency and bandwidth constraints on critical financial data paths.
- Ensure backup coverage extends tocontainerisedworkloads (Veleroor equivalent) as the firms Kubernetes adoption grows.
Governance Compliance & Audit
- Maintain a live andaccuratebackup estate inventory coverage map and gap register with regular reporting to Technology Risk and the CTOorganisation.
- Produce and own the Backup & Recovery Policy associated standards and operational runbooks ensuring they are reviewed annually and remain aligned with regulatory expectations.
- Serve as the primary technical contact for internal audit external audit (Big 4) and regulatory examination processes relating to backup recovery and operational resilience.
- Ensure the firms backup posture can satisfy requirements under DORA including ICT risk management resilience testing and third-party backup vendor oversight obligations.
- Support Technology Risk inmaintainingand evidencing compliance with SS2/21 (PRA operational resilience) PS6/21 FCA PS21/3 and relevant EBA/EIOPA guidelines as they touch recovery capabilities.
- Provide input to the firms ICAAP/ILAAP and recovery plan where ICT recoverability is a factor.
WhatYoullBring
Essential
- 15 Years professional 6 years in infrastructure or platform engineering with a significant focus on backup recovery and data protection with at least 3 years ina financialservices or other regulated environment.
- Hands-on production Terraform experience modules remote state workspaces policy-as-code and integration with enterprise CI/CD pipelines.
- Demonstrated hands-on experience across both on-premises infrastructure (VMwareDell CohesityRunrik Commvault NetApp or equivalent) and at least one major cloud provider.
- Working knowledge of the UK/EU regulatory landscape for operational resilience and ICT risk FCA/PRA SS2/21 DORA BCBS 239 and their practical implications for backup and recovery.
- Deep understanding of cyber-resilient backup design: immutability air-gap architecture encryption integrity verification and ransomware recovery patterns.
- Proven experience designing executing andevidencingRTO/RPO validation and DR testing for audit and regulatory purposes.
- Strong scripting capability in Python Bash or PowerShell for automation remediation and tooling.
Preferred
- Direct experience with DORA ICT resilience testing requirements (TLPT) and how backup systems are scoped within them.
- Familiarity with cyber recovery frameworks NIST CSF Recovery function NCSC guidance on offline backups SWIFT CSCF controls.
- Experience with Kubernetes workload backup (Veleroor equivalent) in a financial services context.
- Exposure to regulatory examination processes preparing evidence packs responding to findings and tracking remediation.
- Experience with data sovereignty cross-border data transfer controls and their implications for cloud backup architecture in a multi-jurisdictionfinancial institution.
- Relevant certifications: AWS/Azure backup and storage certificationsHashiCorpTerraform Associate or Professional CISSP CRISC or ISO 22301 Lead Implementer.
Behaviors& Ways of Working
- Treats recoverability as a provable property not a configuration setting if ithasntbeen tested under realistic conditions itdoesntcount.
- Communicates technical risk clearly and credibly to non-technical stakeholders including Risk Compliance and senior leadership.
- Comfortable operating in a high-governance environment where changes require documentation approval and audit trails.
- Raises standards through peer review runbook quality and enabling colleagues not just personal output.
- Maintains discretion and professionalism when handling sensitive data regulatory findings and security incidents.
Key Relationships
- Technology Risk & Information Security backup posture aligned to firm risk appetite and cyber recovery plan.
- Business Continuity & Operational Resilience recovery capabilities mapped to Important Business Services.
- Internal & External Audit evidence provision and finding remediation.
- Platform / SRE Teams IaCstandards incident response and day-2 operations.
- Third-party backup vendors contract oversight SLA assurance and DORA third-party ICT risk obligations.
Working with Us
As a Northern Trust partner you will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture which has a strong history of financial strength and stability. Movement within the organization is encouraged senior leaders are accessible and you can take pride in working for a company committed to an inclusive workplace and assisting the communities we serve.
Philanthropy is deeply rooted in Northern Trusts history and is an essential element of our culture. Employees around the world give their time and talent to work for the greater good of their communities.
Reasonable Accommodation
Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing adjustments to individuals with health conditions and disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process please email our HR Service Center at or alternatively you can discuss your individual requirements with the recruiter you are working with.
About Our Pune Office
The Northern Trust Pune office established in 2016 is now home to over 3000 employees. The office handles various functions including Operations for Asset Servicing and Wealth Management as well as delivering critical technology solutions that support business operations across the globe.
Our Pune team takes our commitment to service to 2024 they volunteered more than 10000 hours into the communities where they live and work. Learn more.
Required Experience:
Staff IC