Data Governance Lead

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government. We are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.

Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:

• joining up public sector services
• harnessing the power of AI for the public good
• strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
• elevating leadership and investing in talent
• funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
• committing to transparency and driving accountability

We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.

The Data Governance Team, as part of the GDS Product, Strategy, Planning and Performance directorate, provides specialist expertise and leadership across the Government Digital Service. GDS has specialist data protection requirements and needs extensive data governance controls to be designed and incorporated into product development.

As a Data Governance Lead (Data Protection), you will:

• Lead on delivering data protection excellence across GDS products such as the GOV.UK web platform, App, GOV.UK One Login, data analytics and GOV.UK Chat.
• Line manage and play an active role in the Data Governance leadership team.
• Design and implement privacy and data protection controls for the products and processes GDS creates, including the delivery of Data Protection Impact Assessments.
• Lead and deliver high-quality Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs), Privacy Notices and Records of Processing Activities for new projects at pace.
• Oversee training to ensure GDS staff understand data protection obligations and best practices, fostering a culture of data privacy at all levels.
• Work closely with GDS colleagues to build trust and deliver high-quality written and verbal briefings to all levels.
• Work closely with external stakeholders such as the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and privacy groups to ensure compliance and address queries.
• Provide proactive support to the heads to manage and lead on compliance, identify risks, the development of data governance strategies and deliver strategic objectives.
• Prioritise your time effectively to manage a high volume, fast-paced and frequently evolving workload.
• Provide expert advice and direction on complex and novel forms of processing, especially on AI.

We're interested in people who:

• Have data protection & privacy qualifications - holding a relevant privacy qualification such as IAPP (CIPP/E, CIPM) or BCS (ISEB), or have relevant experience.
• Demonstrable experience of leading data protection teams to enable the organisation to achieve its strategic objectives.
• Experience at delivering at pace, meeting challenging and changing operational and legal deadlines.
• Strong communication, presentation and interpersonal skills to build effective working relationships in a flexible and fast-changing environment.
• A good understanding of new and emerging technologies and the opportunities they provide to improve the delivery of public services in the UK, including AI.
• Experience of risk management and the ability to balance risks against operational, technical and commercial requirements.

There are many benefits of working at GDS, including:

• Flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours.
• A Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%.
• 25 days of annual leave, increasing by a day each year up to a maximum of 30 days.
• An extra day off for the King’s birthday.
• An in-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance.
• Career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development.
• A focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme.
• Job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK.
• Advances on pay, including for travel season tickets.
• Death in service benefits.
• Cycle to work scheme and facilities.
• Access to an employee discounts scheme.
• 10 learning days per year.
• Volunteering opportunities (5 special leave days per year).
• Access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning.
• Access to children's holiday play schemes across different locations in central London.