Director - DSO - UK Data Incident Investigations Strategic Lead - Permanent

At EY, we are committed to building a better working world. EY is looking to strengthen its enterprise data incident handling and investigation capability to improve consistency, speed and governance in suspected data incident triage and investigation. Join us and be part of a global team of over 13,000 professionals dedicated to delivering cutting-edge security transformation programs and services.

The opportunity: As a director, you will lead, execute and continuously evolve the Data Incident & Investigation capability, setting the operating model, standards and ways of working that underpin effective incident triage and investigation. You will continually improve and mature the capability end-to-end from classification and prioritisation to escalation thresholds, governance routines and MI while providing senior oversight on complex and high severity incidents. The Data Incident Capability Architect & Strategic Lead holds ongoing operational accountability for the quality, consistency and discipline of data incident handling, ensuring the capability operates effectively day-to-day while embedding continuous improvement as part of business-as-usual operations.

Location – London, Manchester or Scotland

Key Responsibilities:

• Own and lead the triage operating model to ensure consistent validation, classification, prioritisation and escalation across all suspected data incidents, including any significant data incidents, operating in a confidential environment.
• Provide senior oversight on complex or high-severity incidents, ensuring early assessment quality is sufficient to inform governance and downstream investigation.
• Set expectations and quality standards for triage execution (minimum information standards, MI integrity and hand-off requirements).
• Ensure coordinated incident response through clear engagement pathways and structured hand-offs with relevant stakeholder groups including Privacy, InfoSec, Forensics, Legal, Talent, and Leadership.
• Act as the senior escalation authority for complex triage and severity decisions, directly making or arbitrating prioritisation, classification and response decisions and engaging senior stakeholders where required to resolve risk, timing or ownership trade-offs.
• Own, operate and evolve incident MI reporting as a core capability, setting the data model and standards, chairing governance routines and using MI directly to challenge performance, drive decisions and prioritise actions across the incident portfolio.
• Identify and act on systemic weaknesses observed during live incidents, directly driving changes to standards, controls and ways of working to improve response quality, speed and discipline.
• Lead engagement with senior executives and governance forums on data incidents, presenting insights, trends and recommendations, escalating material risks and securing decisions on risk acceptance, remediation priorities and control changes.
• Represent the Data Incident function in senior forums, contributing insights, trend analysis and recommendations to influence organisational risk posture.

Skills and attributes for success:

• Strong leadership and experience in incident triage/operational risk delivery: able to set standards, drive consistency and lead through ambiguity under time pressure.
• Senior stakeholder management capability across technical and risk functions, enabling coordinated response and effective escalation.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, able to produce executive-ready briefings and high-quality MI outputs.
• Strong operational rigour with a continuous improvement mindset, able to improve processes, templates, standards and reporting routines.

To qualify, you must have:

• Professional experience delivering triage, incident management or comparable risk-based workflow delivery.
• Experience interviewing insider risk actors, witnesses and impacted individuals across both digital and human domains.
• An incident investigation professional training or certification, e.g., GIAC Incident Handler.
• Expertise in producing structured reporting/MI outputs and maintaining disciplined documentation standards.
• Experience of working in a professional services firm or partnership would be beneficial, e.g., understanding of complex matrix organisations, working with colleagues in other functions/organisations or indirect relationships.
• A passion for security and technology and identifying and solving problems.
• Motivation, commitment and the desire to continue to learn and develop.

Please note: The successful candidate must undergo and pass checks in line with SC (Security Check) clearance standards after joining EY. These checks may include, but are not limited to, verification of identity, right to work in the UK, employment history, proof of address may be required and unspent criminal convictions. Candidates must be a UK national or have been a resident in the UK for a minimum of five years and ensure that they have not spent more than six months outside the UK.

Join Us: At EY, you’ll have the chance to build a meaningful and fulfilling career, supported by an inclusive culture and cutting-edge technology. Together, we can create a better working world for all.

What we look for: We’re interested in people with integrity who can collaborate with people from a diverse range of backgrounds and crucially a growth mindset.

What we offer: We offer a competitive remuneration package where you’ll be rewarded for your individual and team performance. Our comprehensive Total Rewards package includes support for flexible working and career development, and with FlexEY you can select benefits that suit your needs, covering holidays, health and well-being, insurance, savings and a wide range of discounts, offers and promotions.

Plus, we offer:

• Success as defined by you: The opportunity to build and shape a new UK&I Incident & Investigations capability with firm-level impact focused on improving consistency, speed and governance in suspected data incident triage.
• Transformative leadership: We’ll give you the insights, coaching and confidence to be the leader the world needs.
• Continuous learning: You’ll develop the mindset and skills to navigate whatever comes next.
• Diverse and inclusive culture: You’ll be embraced for who you are and empowered to use your voice to help others find theirs.

If you can demonstrate the skills described above and are excited to operate at the centre of a high impact Risk Management capability, we encourage you to apply.