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Salary: £88,403 - £101,223, with potential for further progression to £114,042 with our pay progression scheme.

Location: Hybrid

Contracted to our Wilmslow, London, Edinburgh, Cardiff or Belfast office, however, we offer flexible home and office-based working opportunities. There will be times when you will be expected to attend the office to collaborate with colleagues or travel due to business need. Please note, from Autumn 2026 our head office will relocate from Wilmslow to Manchester city centre.

Why work for the ICO?

• Hybrid and flexible working options.
• 25 days paid holiday per year, plus privilege and public holidays.
• Flexi leave (up to 26 additional days leave per year).
• Pension (employer contribution around 28.9%).
• Online discount scheme to save money at major supermarkets, retailers, gyms, restaurants, insurance providers and many more.
• Health Cash Plan.
• Fantastic development opportunities to learn and progress.

Further details can be found on the benefits section of ourwebsite.

Job summary

Data is at the centre of many organisations’ day to day business operations as well as their plans for growth. Helping organisations to use data, responsibly, has never been more important.

The ICO’s Director of Business Services provides strategic leadership to the teams delivering legal compliance advice, guidance, tools and support to UK businesses to do just that. The role is part of the ICO’s wider Customer Service function.

This is a high volume operational service focused on providing regulatory clarity and certainty to businesses across the whole of the UK economy. Services include:

• Developing and providing products and tools, including digital solutions, to enable businesses, and particularly small businesses, to use data responsibly to innovate and grow;
• Collecting statutory fees and charges from over a million businesses and organisations required to pay the data protection fee;
• Enabling businesses and organisations to report data breaches to the ICO, initially assessing the risk and impact of the breach and determining appropriate courses of action; and
• Providing real time advice to businesses through a range of channels helping them to understand their obligations under data protection and related legislation.

Providing senior level support and leadership, you will direct the activities of the multiple services within the directorate to achieve the ICO’s strategic objectives.

As a member of the ICO’s Senior Leadership Team, you will support and collaborate closely with other senior leaders to ensure the ICO is run, managed and governed in line with our corporate vision and values.

Key responsibilities:

• Lead a high volume customer service function, providing legal compliance advice on all matters of data protection and related legislation to UK businesses and organisations.
• Ensure the Business Services Directorate, and the ICO more generally, maintains high levels of awareness of and empathy towards the challenges and needs of businesses, and in particular small businesses, across the UK, developing and tailoring services in response to this insight.
• Ensure a range of products, tools and guidance are developed, including digital solutions, in line with customer demand, to support businesses to maximise their responsible use of data and enable them to plan, invest, innovate and grow.
• Ensure that statutory fees and charges payable by businesses and organisations to the ICO are collected as efficiently as possible, enabling those businesses to access ICO services of greatest relevance to their needs.
• Ensure the ICO maintains an effective data breach reporting service for businesses and organisations. This service should be quick and simple to use and enable the ICO to assess regulatory risk and harm, responding and following up accordingly.
• Ensure that matters of strategic significance to the ICO are identified and information shared with appropriate ICO directorates.
• Ensure Business Services objectives are clearly aligned to the ICO’s strategic priorities, maximising resource efficiency across the teams in the directorate and delivering value for money. This will involve the continual data and evidence led review of activities and their contribution to the ICO’s strategic priorities.
• Represent the ICO at events and through strategic stakeholder relationships with the UK small business sector, including leading on relationships with small business associations and representative bodies.
• Lead and inspire teams across multiple disciplines, communicating effectively to achieve staff engagement and being a visible and credible senior leader.
• Champion the development of staff, creating an inclusive environment which values diversity, encourages learning and development and identifies and acts where capabilities need to be improved.
• Ensure maximum effectiveness and equality of access to our services through benchmarking good practice, listening to customers and engaging staff.
• Use initiative, be innovative and seek opportunities for strategic change and digital transformation to deliver world class services. Seek, encourage and recognise ideas and have the courage to take risks and change how things are done, challenging the status quo appropriately.
• Represent ICO and its values effectively at senior level in engagements and presentations nationally and internationally.
• Support the wider Customer Service function, maintaining a strong insight and understanding of the work of other directorates, collaborating and supporting senior colleagues effectively.

Person specification

Essential criteria assessed at application stage:

• Significant experience relevant to the role requirements, as described in the role responsibilities and person specification, and accumulated through any combination of academic or vocational qualifications or experience.
• Substantial experience relevant to the role including leading large customer facing operational services.
• Experience at a senior level running a high volume customer complaints function.
• Experience of leading digital transformation in a customer service environment.
• Experience of leading teams providing guidance in areas of law and policy.
• Experience of leading and implementing process improvements.
• Experience of the management and deployment of resources, including budgets.

Essential criteria assessed during interview:

• Substantial experience relevant to the role including leading large customer facing operational services.
• Experience at a senior level running a high volume customer complaints function.
• Strong knowledge of the risks and opportunities faced by businesses in the UK economy.
• Ability to research and promote products and services to businesses in ways which build positive brand awareness and confidence in service channels and products.
• Excellent presentation, written and verbal communication skills.
• Excellent analytical and operational forecasting skills.
• Inclusive and supportive people leadership skills and ability to develop and lead high performing teams.
• Ability to seek out, manage and influence opportunities for continuous improvement and change.

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. Read more about our commitment on our website.

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.

If you are disabled or have an impairment and require an alternative application method, please email the HR team at recruitment@ico.org.uk

Closing Date

Please submit yourCV and cover letter detailing your suitability to the role by23:59,

We reserve the right to close this vacancy before this date should we receive sufficient applications. Please apply as soon as possible to ensure your application is considered.

Please note that post holders for this role will be required to receive security clearance to SC level. This requires the disclosure of spent and unspent convictions. Although convictions will be taken into account, any such information will not necessarily prevent you from obtaining a security clearance.

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Director

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Business Development and Sales

• Industries

  Law Enforcement

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