What the 2026 Compensation Data Tells Us About the Resilience Job Market

For more than two decades, I've studied compensation across the Resilience profession. And while salary data is always one of the most anticipated parts of our annual research, I've never believed compensation should be viewed in isolation.

What organizations are willing to pay tells us something about what they value. Where professionals are working tells us something about how the employment market is changing. Who is moving, who is staying, and which experiences command higher compensation can tell us even more.

The 24th Edition Global Compensation Report for Resiliency Professionals reflects a market that remains active, but has clearly become more selective. Organizations still need Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery, Crisis Management, Emergency Management, Operational Resilience, and related expertise. What is changing is how they hire, what they expect from individual roles, and where that work is performed.   

For candidates, that means understanding how to position their experience in a more competitive market. For hiring managers, it means recognizing that adding more requirements to a job description doesn't necessarily create a stronger candidate pool.

And for both sides, the data suggests that expectations and market realities need to become better aligned.

Compensation Is Still Growing, But More Slowly

Globally, full-time, permanently employed Resilience professionals reported average annual base compensation of $141,804 USD in 2026, an increase of 2.1% from 2025. That compares with a 5.7% increase reported the previous year.

I don't interpret slower wage growth as an indication that Resilience expertise is becoming less important. Instead, it reflects a more cautious employment environment in which organizations are controlling headcount and budgets more carefully and hiring selectively when there is a defined business need.

Our Resilience Trends research reinforces that point. Thirty-six percent of organizations indicated they plan to hire Resilience professionals within the next year. That is down slightly from 39% in 2023, but still represents more than one-third of organizations planning additional Resilience staffing. And while hiring expectations have moderated from their recent high, they remain substantially above the levels reported throughout much of our earlier research, when typically only 10% to 21% of organizations anticipated adding Resilience personnel. This suggests that today's more selective hiring environment should not necessarily be confused with a lack of demand for Resilience expertise.

Professionals are also staying put longer. In 2026, 76% reported no job change during the prior year, compared with 71% in 2025. Yet there is another finding I find particularly interesting: among those who did change jobs, 14% proactively moved to another organization, while internal promotions declined from approximately 6% in 2025 to only 2% in 2026.   

That may become increasingly important. If professionals don't see opportunities to advance internally, some of the industry's experienced talent may eventually look elsewhere for that growth.

The Hiring Process Has Become More Complicated, Not Necessarily Better

Technology has theoretically made recruiting easier for everyone. Employers have LinkedIn, internal Talent Acquisition teams, automated sourcing tools, and AI. Candidates have job alerts, AI-assisted applications, resume tools, and unprecedented access to open positions. Yet more access hasn't necessarily created better alignment.

Instead, employers can receive hundreds or even thousands of applications while still struggling to identify the right person. Candidates can apply to more jobs than ever while becoming increasingly frustrated by lengthy processes, limited communication, questionable postings, and uncertainty about whether some positions will ever be filled.

In the report, we describe this as a growing trust recession in hiring. Employers are questioning candidate authenticity and navigating AI-generated applications and overwhelming applicant volume. Candidates are questioning job postings, recruiter outreach, hiring timelines, and the process itself.

More technology hasn't eliminated the human element of hiring. If anything, it may be making that human connection even more important.

Hybrid Is Reshaping the Talent Pool

One of the clearest disconnects in today's market is between how Resilience professionals currently work and how employers are advertising new positions. Approximately 29% of Resilience professionals reported working fully remote, while nearly half work within some form of hybrid arrangement. Yet when we analyzed advertised Resilience positions, 59% were hybrid, 19% were onsite, 15% did not specify a work structure, and only 7% were fully remote.  

For candidates, this means fully remote opportunities are likely to remain highly competitive.

For employers, it means a three-day onsite requirement isn't simply a workplace policy. It becomes a recruiting variable. The more specialized or senior the position, the more a geographic requirement can shrink an already limited talent pool.

Neither side is necessarily wrong. But both need to understand the tradeoff.

Resilience Jobs Are Getting Broader

This may be one of the most important workforce trends we're seeing. Resilience roles increasingly cross Business Continuity, Crisis Management, Disaster Recovery, Operational Resilience, Emergency Management, Risk Management, Third-Party Resilience, Technology, and other disciplines. Employers are also looking for professionals who can communicate with executives, understand regulatory expectations, interpret Technology dependencies, and translate Resilience risk into business impact.  

AI, Automation, Data Analytics, and emerging technologies are also changing how work is performed. For Resilience professionals, this doesn't mean becoming a technologist. It means understanding how Technology affects organizational dependencies, workforce models, Crisis Response, business operations, Risk Management, and recovery strategies.

At the same time, our research continues to demonstrate the value of experience beyond traditional Resilience planning. Resilience professionals reported spending an average of 15 years working in other professions before transitioning into Resilience. Those earlier careers can bring highly transferable experience in areas such as Technology, Risk Management, Project Management, Operations, Audit, Security, and Consulting.   

This matters for candidates who may underestimate the value of experience gained outside of Resilience. It also matters for hiring managers who may unintentionally eliminate strong candidates by defining experience too narrowly.

So, what should each side take away from the data?

5 Tips for Resilience Professionals

1. Know your market value, but don't rely on one number.

Job title or geography alone doesn't determine what you're worth. Experience, scope, leadership responsibility, global exposure, program maturity, staff management, Crisis Management experience, industry, and other factors all contribute to compensation. Even identical titles can represent dramatically different levels of responsibility. The report found, for example, that professionals identifying at the Manager/Assistant Vice President/Program Manager level reported a global base compensation range of $18,000 to $272,300 USD.    

2. Show what you've actually done.

Credentials remain valuable, but real-world experience increasingly differentiates professionals. Have you built a program? Managed a crisis? Influenced executive leadership? Led global initiatives? Advanced program maturity? Managed people or budgets? Employers need to understand not simply what you know, but what you've accomplished. The report's outlook specifically identifies experience building programs, managing crises, influencing executives, and leading cross-functional initiatives as differentiators.    

3. Don't define yourself too narrowly.

The profession is converging. You don't need to be an expert in every Resilience discipline, but understanding how Business Continuity connects with Crisis Management, Disaster Recovery, Operational Resilience, Risk Management, Technology, Third-Party Resilience, and business operations can increase your marketability.

4. Be realistic about remote work.

If 100% remote is a requirement, understand that you're competing for a much smaller percentage of advertised opportunities. If career advancement is your priority, some flexibility around geography or hybrid work may substantially expand your options. The report specifically identifies geography and hybrid expectations as factors professionals may need to reconsider when pursuing career advancement.   

5. Keep evolving before you need your next job.

Technology fluency, AI, Automation, Data Analytics, executive communication, and business acumen are becoming increasingly relevant to Resilience. That doesn't mean every Resilience professional needs to become a technologist. It does mean we need to understand how Technology and emerging risks affect the organizations we're responsible for protecting.

5 Tips for Hiring Managers

1. Determine what you truly need before writing the job description.

As Resilience disciplines converge, it's easy for one job description to become a wish list. Separate the capabilities that are truly essential from those that would simply be nice to have. Every additional requirement can reduce your candidate pool.

2. Benchmark compensation against the actual role, not just the title.

A Program Manager at one organization may have very different responsibilities from a Program Manager at another. The Compensation Study intentionally uses standardized job descriptions because titles alone aren't reliable compensation benchmarks.    

3. Recognize the value of transferable experience.

The data shows that many Resilience professionals had substantial careers before entering the profession. Don't automatically discount candidates because every year of their experience wasn't labeled Business Continuity or Operational Resilience. Technology, Risk Management, Operations, Project Management, Audit, Security, Consulting, and other backgrounds can bring tremendous value to a Resilience program.

4. Understand the impact of your workplace requirements.

If you require a specialized Resilience leader onsite three days a week, your talent pool is primarily local. That doesn't mean you should eliminate the requirement if it serves a legitimate organizational need. It does mean compensation, candidate requirements, and recruiting timelines should reflect the smaller pool you're choosing to access.

5. Hire for influence, not simply technical expertise.

The strongest Resilience professional on paper isn't necessarily the person who can move a program forward. Increasingly, Resilience leaders need to gain executive support, navigate competing priorities, communicate business impact, build relationships, and influence people who don't report to them. Technical expertise matters, but the ability to engage leadership and champion a program throughout an organization can be equally important.

The Market Isn't Disappearing. It's Changing.

After more than 25 years of recruiting and researching this profession, I've watched Resilience evolve tremendously. Today's market is not necessarily easier for candidates or employers. Candidates are competing against larger applicant pools. Employers are sorting through more noise. Remote opportunities are fewer. Roles are broader. Compensation growth has moderated. Internal advancement appears to have slowed. But the need for Resilience hasn't gone away.

Economic uncertainty, geopolitical instability, Cyber and Technology disruption, regulatory requirements, Third-Party dependencies, and increasingly interconnected operations continue to reinforce why organizations need strong Resilience capabilities. What is changing is the type of professional organizations need and the way those professionals need to demonstrate their value.    

For candidates, the opportunity is to understand where your experience fits within that changing market and communicate your value more effectively.

For hiring managers, the opportunity is to clearly define what your organization truly needs, understand what the market can realistically provide, and create a hiring process capable of recognizing the right talent when you find it.

Better alignment on both sides may ultimately be one of the most important workforce strategies we have.

How Do You Compare?

The 24th Edition Global Compensation Report for Resiliency Professionals provides a broad view of compensation across the profession, but determining your own fair market value requires a more meaningful comparison.

A global average can provide perspective, but it doesn't account for the significant differences in responsibility, experience, leadership, geography, and career background that influence compensation. Two professionals working within the same Resilience discipline may have very different market values based on the scope and level of their roles.

That's why peer benchmarking matters.

Professionals who participate in our Compensation Study can benchmark their compensation against peers based on level of responsibility or years of Resilience experience, providing a much more relevant comparison than a broad industry average. The customized dashboard also provides deeper insight into compensation, bonuses, benefits, career experience, and other factors that may influence earning potential.

For professionals, this data can help determine whether compensation is reasonably aligned with comparable peers, establish a more informed compensation target when considering a new opportunity, and provide objective data when preparing for compensation discussions.

For organizations and hiring managers, this type of benchmarking can also provide important perspective when establishing compensation ranges, evaluating whether expectations are aligned with the market, and competing for experienced Resilience talent.

The 2026 Compensation Study remains open through December 31, 2026, giving additional professionals the opportunity to contribute their career and compensation data and receive a customized Resiliency Compensation Peer Benchmarking Data Dashboard.    

The report shows the market. Your customized dashboard shows where you fit within it.

About Resilience360 Advisory

At Resilience360 Advisory, we understand the resilience talent market from both sides of the hiring table. For more than 25 years, we've worked exclusively within the resilience profession, helping organizations identify the talent they need while helping professionals navigate their careers, understand their market value, and pursue opportunities aligned with their experience and goals.

For resilience professionals, we provide career coaching, resume and LinkedIn support, interview preparation, compensation benchmarking, job search strategy, and access to complimentary career resources and market intelligence.

For hiring managers and organizations, we provide specialized recruiting and strategic staffing support, compensation and workforce benchmarking, position scoping, and market intelligence to help define roles, establish realistic expectations, and attract qualified Resilience talent.

Our industry research connects both sides. Through our annual Compensation and Resilience Trends studies and customized peer benchmarking dashboards, we provide professionals and organizations with data to make more informed decisions about compensation, careers, staffing, and program advancement.

Explore our complimentary career resources, or learn more about Resilience360 Advisory and how we support Career Success, Program Excellence, and Strategic Staffing.