Governance, risk and compliance

SmartSuite for the IT Risk Manager

The IT Risk Manager coordinates technology and cyber risk within broader IT governance, operations and resilience programs. They maintain the IT risk register across assets and systems, link risks and incidents to mitigation owners and timelines and produce exposure analytics for leadership.

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Reports to:

Chief Information Security Officer

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What you own

The IT Risk Manager coordinates technology and cyber risk within broader IT governance, operations and resilience programs.

Maintain the IT and cyber risk register across assets and systems
Run technology risk assessments with asset and application owners
Link risks and incidents to mitigation actions, owners and timelines
Monitor key risk indicators for technology
Align IT risk with enterprise risk, resilience and compliance programs
Produce risk trends and exposure analytics for leadership reviews

At a glance

The GRC processes this role owns, touches and depends on.

Owns

accountable for the process

risk

Touches

contributes or approves

issues-actions, resilience, compliance, reporting

Depends on

consumes its output

third-party, audit

How the GRC processes connect

Three lines of defense set the frame; the chain shows where each process hands off to the next. Colors follow the role: navy is owned, blue is touched, gray is depended on.

Reporting lines

Who this role reports to, who reports to them, and the peers they work with most.

Reports to

Chief Information Security Officer

See the role

Direct reports

Works closely with

How SmartSuite supports this role

Lead

Risk management. Documents and assesses technology risks across assets and systems with risk scoring models and remediation tracking.

Issues and actions. Links risks and incidents to mitigation actions, owners and timelines.

Operational resilience. Connects technology risks to the IT services and recovery plans they affect.

Compliance management. Shares the control mapping used by IT compliance so risks and controls stay aligned.

Reporting. Produces risk trends and exposure analytics for leadership reviews.

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Products this role uses most

Cyber Threat Management

Identify and respond to cyber threats with real-time visibility, structured workflows, and integrated risk and incident management.

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Vulnerability Management (GRC)

Manage vulnerabilities based on business risk with asset context, real-time visibility, and structured remediation workflows across systems and applications.

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Enterprise Risk Management (ERM)

Centralize enterprise risk management with standardized assessments, dashboards, and linked workflows that align risk, controls, and mitigation across your organization.

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Issues Management

Track and remediate issues across audits, risk, and compliance with structured workflows, clear ownership, and real-time visibility into resolution status.

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IT Asset Management

Track and manage IT assets across their lifecycle with full visibility into inventory, ownership, usage, and performance.

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Industry reference

ISACA's CRISC job practice describes the role; NIST SP 800-30 and the NIST Risk Management Framework (SP 800-37) and ISO/IEC 27005:2022 define the assessment method. NIST CSF 2.0's Identify function and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 clause 6.1 require the risk assessment and treatment plan the manager owns.

Sector regulation prescribes it: the FFIEC IT Handbook and NYDFS 23 NYCRR 500.9 require periodic risk assessments at financial firms, and DORA requires an ICT risk management framework; the HIPAA Security Rule requires a risk analysis; FISMA and FedRAMP require NIST-based assessments for federal systems; NIS2 requires risk management measures across EU essential entities.

Related roles

Chief Information Security Officer

See the role

DEEPEN YOUR KNOWLEDGE

Explore Further

Guides and definitions from the GRC Knowledge Center and the What-is glossary, chosen for this role.

All articles

What's new

What Is a Cyber Risk Framework (e.g., NIST, ISO 27001)?

What is a Risk Register?

Risk Acceptance in GRC

RCSA vs Risk Assessment vs Control Testing

Risk Appetite vs Risk Tolerance vs Impact Tolerance

Enterprise Risk Management in a Connected GRC Program

Frequently asked questions

What is the IT Risk Manager accountable for?

The IT Risk Manager maintains the IT and cyber risk register across assets and systems and coordinates technology risk within the wider governance, operations and resilience programs. They run technology risk assessments with asset and application owners, link risks and incidents to mitigation actions, owners and timelines, monitor key risk indicators for technology, align IT risk with enterprise risk, resilience and compliance, and produce the risk trends and exposure analytics leadership reviews. ISACA's CRISC practice describes the work.

How does SmartSuite help an IT Risk Manager assess technology risks?

SmartSuite documents and assesses technology risks across assets and systems with risk scoring models and remediation tracking, so each risk is scored on a consistent model, tied to the assets and systems it concerns and carried through to the actions that reduce it. IT Asset Management supplies the asset list, Cyber Threat Management and Vulnerability Management (GRC) supply the threat and vulnerability picture, and Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is where the technology risks meet the enterprise register.

How are risks and incidents linked to mitigation owners and timelines?

Risks and incidents are linked in Issues Management to mitigation actions, owners and timelines, so an incident that realized a risk updates the exposure and creates the action, and a risk assessment that identified a gap assigns the owner and the date. The IT Risk Manager can see which mitigations are overdue by risk and by owner, and the Security Operations Manager and IT Operations Director see the actions that fall to their teams.

How does IT risk stay aligned with resilience and compliance?

Technology risks are connected to the IT services and recovery plans they affect, so a risk to a system shows which services and DR plans are exposed, and the control mapping used by IT compliance is shared, so risks and controls stay aligned rather than diverging in two registers. The IT Compliance Manager and IT Risk Manager work from the same controls, which is how a failed control test becomes a risk score change rather than a separate conversation.

How does this role report exposure to the CISO and Enterprise Risk Director?

SmartSuite produces risk trends and exposure analytics for leadership reviews from the register, assessments and actions as they stand. The IT Risk Manager can show the Chief Information Security Officer or Enterprise Risk Director how exposure is moving by system and category, which key risk indicators are outside tolerance and how much mitigation remains open. The periodic risk assessments that FFIEC, NYDFS 500.9, DORA and the HIPAA Security Rule require are the same records, with their dates.

What does a team need to get the IT risk register started?

A team needs its current risk register, however it is held, the asset or system list the risks attach to and the names of the owners. New customers can start with SmartSuite Onboarding, a guided four-week program around one or two priority workflows; for the IT Risk Manager the first workflow is the register and its scoring model. Open mitigations can be loaded with their dates so the first report shows what is overdue, and the Risk Manager and IT Asset Manager work from the same records from the start.

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