Senior Data Protection Specialist

This role offers a competitive salary, hybrid working, 28 days holiday a year plus Bank Holidays and 11% pension after one year of service. Salary £50,000 - £52,000 per annum. Location: London/Hybrid (1-2 days per week in the London office with Tuesday being mandatory and every other Thursday).

About the role

We are looking for a confident, knowledgeable and people-focused Senior Data Protection Specialist who is great at spotting risks early, cutting through complexity, building trusted relationships across the business, and helping us embed smart, risk-based decisions that balance regulatory compliance with organisational needs. This is not a tick-box role. You will act as a strategic partner to teams across Which? — advising on key projects, investigating incidents and assessing data risks quickly and practically, and helping colleagues across the business feel confident in their decisions. You will join a close-knit, friendly team who enjoy their work, support each other, and celebrate what we achieve together.

What you will be doing

• You will be at the heart of how we manage personal data. A trusted expert, you will work closely with teams across our charity to help them make the right decisions – quickly, confidently and in line with the law.
• Your day-to-day will include:

• Assessing complex privacy risks and advising on new projects, services and systems.
• Supporting major initiatives that involve personal data, ensuring privacy is built in from the start.
• Helping build a strong privacy culture, from training and communications to spotting compliance gaps and making improvements.
• Acting as a mentor to our data protection apprentice and overseeing external suppliers for overflow solutions, such as subject access requests.
• Responding to data subject rights requests and assessing incidents or breaches, working with colleagues to take the right actions quickly.
• Role-modelling GenAI experimentation, proactively looking for opportunities to streamline and make existing processes more user-friendly.

What we are looking for

You will have several years' recent experience in an in-house data protection role and an expert working knowledge of UK data protection regulations. But just as important is how you work – we need someone who is:

• Practical and decisive – you know how to balance privacy risk with real-world delivery.
• Confident in your advice – you can explain complex data protection matters in simple terms, sharing the why and helping people act on it.
• Naturally collaborative – you build trust quickly, enjoy working with others and ideally bring previous coaching or mentoring experience.
• Calm under pressure – you can switch gears and stay focused when priorities change.
• Forward-looking – you are able to quickly digest new and emerging data protection changes and bring a willingness to experiment with GenAI.

If you are someone who cares about doing things properly, enjoys variety, and thrives on making a difference through smart, people-centred advice – we would love to hear from you.

Interview process

Our interview process usually involves 2 stages:

• First stage: a chat with a member of the team by MS Teams (typically 30 minutes), if successful.
• An interview on MS Teams (approximately 45-90 minutes) consisting of values and experience-based competency questions and a role-related task on a laptop.

Benefits

• 35 hour working week.
• Generous 28 days holiday a year plus bank holidays and the option to buy additional holiday days.
• Excellent pension scheme – when you pay in 3%, Which? pays in 6% (rising to 11% after one year of service).
• Annual Award (depending on employee and company performance).
• Healthcare insurance & Private medical insurance and opportunity to participate in Vitality rewards programme (at 6 months).
• A discretionary death in service benefit provision equivalent to six times your annual salary.
• Free access to Which? member content and free access to Which? money & legal helplines.
• Free wills for all Which? employees, plus, partners of employees can make their will at cost price.
• Discount site Pluxee which offers large % off everyday shopping and holidays.
• Work from (almost) anywhere for 4 weeks of the year policy.
• A great work-life balance (all our roles are now hybrid), offering flexible working options e.g. part-time or job shares where possible.

If you wish to discuss any of these options, please contact the Resourcing team at recruitment@which.co.uk.

About Which?

Which? is the UK's consumer champion, here to make life simpler, fairer and safer for everyone. We are proud to be ranked 3rd in the ‘Top 25 Inclusive Employers' List 2024. We welcome applications from everyone, because we value diversity, and are committed to maintaining an inclusive culture where all can thrive and reach their full potential—because diverse perspectives help us better understand and positively impact consumers.

As a Disability Confident Leader, we ensure that everyone can apply and be part of our recruitment processes and we will make reasonable adjustments if you need them. For this or any other assistance you need with applying (i.e., would like to apply by phone or post), email recruitment@which.co.uk.

Important notes

• You must meet the essential criteria listed within the Role Profile, to have your application reviewed.
• We are unable to accept applications by email. Only candidates who apply by completing the online application via the careers site will be considered.
• We reserve the right to withdraw this advert at any given time due to the number of applications received.