What is the Role of a Digital Operational Resilience Officer?

The DORO is emerging as a critical leadership role in regulated financial entities. Their mission? To ensure that digital operations — and the ICT systems supporting them — are resilient, secure, and compliant in the face of both evolving threats and regulatory scrutiny.

Here’s a breakdown of their core responsibilities:

🔹 1. Strategic Oversight of Digital Risk
Not just firefighting or gap analysis — DOROs develop and drive enterprise-wide strategies for digital operational resilience, aligning ICT risk with business objectives.

🔹 2. Compliance Leadership
DOROs are fluent in regulatory frameworks like EU DORA, UK Operational Resilience, and global standards. They ensure organisational alignment with supervisory expectations and evolving mandates.
🔹 3. Third-Party Risk Management
From cloud services to FinTech providers, DOROs assess, monitor, and govern critical third-party relationships—now explicitly required by DORA.

🔹 4. ICT Incident Response & Continuity Planning
A DORO ensures not only that response plans exist, but that they are tested, governed, and board-validated.

🔹 5. Boardroom Communication
They translate complex risk scenarios into strategic narratives for executives, audit committees, and the board—essential in today’s risk-conscious environment.


What Makes a Great DORO?


Not everyone is cut out for this pivotal role. Here's what distinguishes the best:

⭐ 1. Strategic Thinker
Great DOROs see the big picture—how technology, business continuity, and regulation intersect. They’re proactive, not reactive.

⭐ 2. Cross-Functional Communicator
They can speak the language of CISOs, CIOs, CROs, regulators—and the boardroom.

⭐ 3. Deep Governance Understanding
DOROs don’t just know frameworks—they live governance, ensuring effective oversight, controls, and auditability.

⭐ 4. Calm Under Pressure
They lead when things go wrong—during a breach, a service outage, or a regulatory inspection. Confidence and clarity are essential.

⭐ 5. Technically Grounded, Business Focused
They don’t need to configure firewalls—but they do need to understand technology well enough to assess its business impact.

📊 According to Deloitte, 74% of financial institutions plan to elevate operational resilience to a C-level or directorship function by 2026.