Data Privacy & Protection Lead in England

As a Data Protection Manager, you’ll play a key role in protecting our members, colleagues, and communities by ensuring Nationwide manages personal data lawfully, fairly, and transparently. You’ll provide expert data protection advice across change initiatives and day-to-day activity, review high‑risk privacy impact assessments, and help embed strong privacy standards across the organisation. Working closely with colleagues across Nationwide, you’ll help maintain trust with our members and regulators while supporting Nationwide’s purpose as a member‑owned mutual.

This role sits within Nationwide’s Data Protection Office, part of our wider risk and compliance environment. The team supports Nationwide to meet its obligations under the UK GDPR and related data protection law through advice, assurance, training, and oversight of privacy risks. You’ll act as a subject matter expert, supporting business teams to design and operate compliant data processing activities and ensuring privacy risks are identified and managed early. Your work will have a direct impact on protecting members’ information and maintaining Nationwide’s reputation for doing the right thing.

At Nationwide we offer hybrid working wherever possible. More rewarding relationships are supported through our hybrid approach, bringing colleagues together across our UK wide estate, whilst also supporting generous access to home working. We value our time in the office to solve problems, to learn, and to feel connected.

For this job you’ll be located at our nearest regional hub. There will be a need to regularly connect with colleagues for collaboration events in one of our office sites. This is anticipated to be quarterly, in London or Swindon. If your application is successful, your hiring manager will provide further details on how this works.

On a typical day, you’ll be advising colleagues across Nationwide on how to handle personal data responsibly, whether that’s supporting new change initiatives or responding to complex business‑as‑usual queries. You’ll review and challenge high‑risk privacy impact assessments, helping teams identify privacy risks early and providing constructive challenge and advice on proportionate risk mitigations. You’ll also carry out privacy‑focused assurance, contribute to reporting for senior stakeholders, and support the wider data protection incident and breach management processes.

For this role, you will have:

• Strong, practical experience applying the UK GDPR and related UK data protection and privacy law in a complex organisation
• Proven experience providing data protection advice and oversight for complex processing activities, including digital and technology‑enabled services
• Experience overseeing the review of high‑risk privacy impact assessments, providing independent challenge and forming clear, reasoned, risk‑based recommendations to support informed decision‑making
• Ability to undertake privacy assurance activities, and to produce clear, well‑evidenced privacy risk opinions, reports, and opinion papers for senior stakeholders
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the confidence to engage and challenge stakeholders at different levels

Our customer first behaviours put customers and members at the heart of how we work together. They are the set of behaviours that every colleague needs to display, in every role:

• Feel what customers feel - We step into our customers’ shoes, using their feedback and insights to empathise with them and to understand their needs, so that every decision we make starts and finishes with our customers in mind
• Say it straight - We are brave in speaking out and saying what we think – we’re honest and direct with good intent, openly sharing diverse perspectives to reach the best conclusions and using language everyone can understand
• Push for better - We don’t settle for mediocrity, we challenge the status quo, taking responsibility for continuous improvement and personal development
• Get it done - We prioritise what will have the greatest impact, we are decisive, and we take accountability for delivering brilliant customer outcomes

You can strengthen your application by showing how our customer first behaviours resonate with you, and where you may have already demonstrated these.

There are all sorts of employee benefits available at Nationwide, including:

• Access to private medical insurance
• A highly competitive pension to help you build a strong foundation for retirement
• Access to an annual performance related bonus
• Training and development to help you progress your career
• A great selection of additional benefits through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Life assurance to provide peace of mind for you and your loved ones in the event of your death
• Wellhub – access to a range of free and paid options for health and wellness
• Up to 2 days of paid volunteering a year

We forge our own path at Nationwide. As a mutual, we’re owned by our members - those customers who bank, save or have a mortgage with us. We challenge the financial sector status quo. We don’t see customers as the engine of our own profit. We share our profits with them and put their needs first. Always there when they need us. Supporting them and their lives.

If you’re inspired by fairer finances, passionate about making a meaningful impact, and truly care about our customers, you’re one of us. At Nationwide, you are challenged to grow and rewarded for doing so. Valued. Recognised. Inspired to be your best. As a community we want our working lives to count. As a team, we celebrate what we achieve. As a standard-setter, we work for the good of customers, communities, and broader society. We are purpose-driven. Uncompromisingly customer. Unstoppably Nationwide.

If this role is for you, please click the ‘Apply Now’ button. You’ll need to attach your up-to-date CV and answer a few quick questions for us. We respond to everyone, so we will be in contact shortly after the closing date to let you know the outcome of your application.