Director of Technology Regulation in Wilmslow

The Director of Technology Regulation leads the ICO’s centre for excellence on the interplay between technology and information rights. The role spans some of the most contested issues in the digital economy – AI and biometrics, children’s privacy, online tracking and digital innovation – areas that shape how people live and how businesses succeed. The postholder will provide senior leadership to the Technology directorate. This will involve leading and inspiring the directorate’s two technology-focused departments, setting the vision, allocating resources, and ensuring a high-performance culture.

The Departments Are

• Core Technology: The Technology Department is the ICO’s centre of technical and tech policy expertise. Our work is high impact, complex, and at the frontier of emerging technologies such as online tracking, biometrics, and privacy enhancing technologies. We work with colleagues across the organisation to support policy and operational interventions on the highest priority technology-based information rights issues.
• AI: The AI Policy team drives AI policy development and strategic influencing, leading the development of a statutory Code of Practice on AI and automated decision-making (ADM). The AI Compliance team aims to improve compliance with data protection law in the AI market by providing expert advice to inform a range of regulatory interventions.

The role requires intellectual authority, visible leadership and the ability to deliver at pace, representing the ICO credibly at the highest levels of government, industry and civil society. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to shape the UK’s regulatory approach to emerging technologies for the decade ahead.

Key responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership of the Technology directorate, ensuring delivery of the ICO’s strategic priorities and alignment with corporate objectives.
• Lead and inspire the directorate’s two technology-focused departments, setting vision, allocating resources and ensuring a high-performance culture.
• Oversee the delivery of high-profile regulatory interventions and complex policy projects in relation to organisational priorities such as online tracking, AI and biometrics, and children’s privacy, ensuring impact and value for money.
• Provide deep expertise in both technology and policy development to ensure the ICO’s tech policy outputs are robust and at the cutting edge.
• Provide authoritative advice and representation to senior government, parliamentary and industry stakeholders, securing trust and influence for the ICO on matters of technological risk and innovation.
• Manage risk across the directorate, ensuring effective governance, robust assurance and timely escalation to the Executive Team.
• Promote professional development, inclusion and wellbeing across the directorate, creating an environment that attracts and retains high-calibre staff.
• Contribute actively to the ICO’s Senior Leadership Team, supporting collective decision-making and corporate responsibilities.
• Represent the ICO nationally and internationally, building strategic partnerships and enhancing the organisation’s external profile.
• Adapt the directorate’s scope and structure as the ICO’s operating model evolves, leading organisational change with clarity and confidence.

Person specification / Essential Criteria

Education and Qualification

• Educated to degree level or equivalent, or significant (e.g. 3-5 years’) work experience demonstrating graduate-level ability.

Work Experience

• Substantial experience relevant to the role, including engaging with the interaction between information rights and technology and/or innovation.
• Experience of engaging and negotiating with senior external stakeholders.
• Substantial experience of the management and deployment of resources, including budgets.

Knowledge, skills and ability

• Deep familiarity with the use of technology to process personal data, and the promotion of, and engagement with, innovation.
• Excellent written, verbal communication, negotiation and presentation skills.
• Inclusive and supportive staff leadership skills.
• Personally effective – excellent organisational skills, and the ability to prioritise and delegate.
• Ability to seek out, manage and influence opportunities for continuous improvement and change.

Benefits

• Pay progression scheme – a career banding window opens up once per year allowing applications to move up the grade levels.
• Hybrid and flexible working options.
• 25 days paid holiday per year, plus 3 privilege days taken between Christmas and New Year, and public holidays.
• Flexi leave (up to 26 additional days leave per year).
• Pension (employer contribution of around 28.9%).
• Online discount scheme to save money at major supermarkets, retailers, gyms, restaurants, insurance providers and many more.
• Health Cash Plan.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

The ICO is committed to promoting and enhancing equality, diversity, and inclusion. We are focused on developing a workforce that is representative of the communities we serve and together we are building an inclusive workplace where all of our colleagues have the opportunity to make a real difference. We are championing this through our Equality Diversity and Inclusion Board, together with a number of staff networks. Candidates with a disability who meet the minimum criteria for this vacancy will be invited to interview as part of the ICO’s commitment to the Disability Confident Scheme.