Data Protection Manager

As Data Protection Manager, you’ll be a senior member of the Data Protection and Information Rights team, delivering expert, practical guidance that helps UCL comply confidently with the UK GDPR and related legislation. You’ll get involved in the full range of advisory work - data breaches, data protection impact assessments, contracts, research data, and direct engagement with the Information Commissioner’s Office where needed.

It’s a role with real influence: you’ll deputise for the Head of Data Protection, supervise and develop junior colleagues, and help embed proportionate, workable data governance across a huge and varied institution.

What You’ll Be Doing

Management and leadership

• Work as an active member of the Data Protection and Information Rights team, aligned to the department’s strategy, deputising for the Head of Data Protection as required.

• Take on line management responsibilities where assigned - supervising junior colleagues and overseeing the quality of their work.
• Contribute to projects and working groups, with oversight of direct reports to ensure good delegation, quality control and timely escalation of risk.
• Work closely with the Head of Data Protection and the Data Protection Administrator/Web Editor to keep work allocated fairly, cover consistent, and the team running efficiently.
• Spot data protection issues early and escalate them proactively where needed.

Delivering expert data protection advice

• Lead on and support advisory services including DPIAs, data breach management, contractual and research-related data protection advice, and guidance and training for staff and students.
• Contribute to engagement with the Information Commissioner’s Office as required.
• Support horizon-scanning, reporting and briefings that keep UCL ahead of a fast-moving regulatory landscape.

Delivering expert data protection advice

• Partner with stakeholders across the Office of the General Counsel, UCL and its wider group, giving proportionate, practical advice that helps people get on with their work.
• Represent the Data Protection and Information Rights team on working groups where required.

• A degree or equivalent relevant experience, with significant experience in data protection roles, including operational advisory work.
• Strong working knowledge of UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, PECR and related legislation.
• Experience drafting and reviewing/assuring DPIAs, and advising on complex data processing and data-sharing arrangements.
• A track record producing guidance, tools and training for staff and students.
• Confidence handling a range of data protection issues independently, reacting quickly and calmly to emerging issues.
• Strong relationship-building skills, with excellent written and oral communication and the ability to present to varied audiences.Sound judgement, strong analytical skills, and the organisational rigour to manage competing, time-critical demands with accuracy.
• A high level of tact, diplomacy and regard for confidentiality.

Desirable

• A collaborative communication style - listening closely and speaking with clarity to colleagues, students and partners.
• A strong sense of ownership and accountability for your own decisions and actions.
• An appreciation of the dynamics of higher education, even without direct sector experience.

• Up to 41 days’ annual leave (27 days plus closure days and bank holidays), with the option to purchase additional leave.
• One of the most highly regarded pension schemes in the sector (USS).
• Hybrid and flexible working, genuinely supported in practice, not just on paper.
• A strong culture of professional development - training, mentoring and the chance to broaden your expertise across a wide-ranging advisory portfolio.
• Staff discounts, season ticket loans, an electric vehicle lease scheme, and access to UCL’s world-class museums, lectures and events.
• The chance to shape how a world-leading university handles data - work that genuinely matters, at real scale.

UCL is a global powerhouse: over 50,000 students, 16,000 staff and an annual turnover of £1.9bn, consistently ranked among the world’s top 10 universities. Behind that scale sits the Office of the General Counsel - led by the General Counsel, reporting directly to the President and Provost - bringing together Legal Services, Data Protection and Information Rights, Governance, Policy and Risk to keep UCL’s ambitions on a sound legal and governance footing.