Volkswagen Financial Services (UK)
Head of Data Protection & Privacy
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LOCATION: Milton Keynes
HYBRID WORKING
Our current hybrid working policy requires a minimum of 60% of working time to be based in the Milton Keynes office however flexibility is expected to meet the needs of the business and the role.
HOURS / CONTRACT TYPE
Full time, permanent 35 hours
CLOSING DATE
23/07/26 We reserve the right to close the advert earlier If we receive a high volume of applications.
About the Role
We're looking for a Head of Data Protection (internally known as Data Protection Officer) to lead, guide and oversee all aspects of data protection within our organisation across three lines of defence. The purpose of this role is to ensure we handle personal data responsibly, lawfully and transparently, while supporting the business to operate compliantly in line with regulatory expectations.
This high-impact, compliance-focused and specialist role will be instrumental in delivering robust data governance, strengthening organisational accountability, reducing risk exposure and enabling safe, ethical use of data across the business. You'll have a broad scope of responsibilities across multiple VWFS entities.
In this senior role, you'll provide expert advice, independent oversight and constructive challenge to ensure we meet our legal obligations, uphold the rights of individuals, and maintain the trust of our customers, colleagues and partners.
What you’ll be doing
- Lead our approach to data protection compliance, ensuring all VWFS entities operate in line with UK Data Protection Laws, including the Data Protection Act, UK GDPR, relevant FCA requirements, ICO guidance and internal VW Group policies.
- Act as the primary data protection advisor on major business and departmental projects, providing expert guidance that supports safe, compliant and customer-centric outcomes.
- Serve as the dedicated point of contact on UK data protection matters for VWFS entities, VW AG, VWG UK, VWFS AG, VW Bank GmbH and their Legal and Compliance teams, as well as for the Information Commissioner’s Office when required.
- Monitor and interpret changes in data protection regulation, ensuring VWFS remains informed, prepared and able to influence regulatory discussions where appropriate.
- Prioritise data protection activities across the team, focusing resources on the areas presenting the greatest risk and ensuring a proactive, risk-based approach to compliance.
- Determine and maintain the tools, frameworks and information needed for effective monitoring of data protection compliance, including oversight of records of processing activities.
- Build and maintain a comprehensive register of processing activities, working collaboratively with business functions to ensure accurate, up-to-date information relating to personal data use.
- Develop, implement and maintain robust data protection policies and procedures, ensuring they are understood, embedded and consistently followed across VWFS.
- Champion privacy by design and default, ensuring new and existing products, services and processes meet data protection requirements throughout their lifecycle and uphold the highest privacy standards.
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What you’ll bring
- A knowledgeable and solutions-focused data protection professional, able to balance regulatory expectations with practical business needs.
- A passion for driving high standards of data governance, a focus on enabling the business to operate safely and compliantly, and have a delivery mindset that ensures meaningful and sustained improvements in how we manage personal data.
Essential experience & skills
- A demonstrable level of expertise in data protection across three lines of defence, aligned to the sensitivity, complexity and volume of personal data processed within VWFS.
- Strong planning and organisational skills, with the ability to anticipate needs, think ahead and establish efficient, well-structured plans for yourself and others.
- Excellent communication and influencing skills, able to present clear, well-reasoned arguments and adapt your approach to achieve understanding, agreement or behaviour change.
- The ability to build effective working relationships across a wide range of stakeholders, working collaboratively as part of cross-functional teams and large-scale projects.
- Experience providing practical, business-focused advice on how regulation and legislation operate in real-world scenarios.
- Significant knowledge of national and European data protection laws and practices, including their implications for the automotive and automotive finance sectors.
- A solid understanding of data processing activities, information systems, data security considerations and the specific data protection needs of VWFS.
- Experience managing a varied and demanding workload, often to tight deadlines, while maintaining accuracy and attention to detail.
- Knowledge of privacy regulations, the Freedom of Information Act and their practical impact on business operations.
- Previous experience in coaching and managing people to achieve their full potential.
What’s in it for you?
- Bonus: Discretionary 10% on-target bonus (based on personal and Group company performance)
- Pension: Employer pension contribution of 9% (based on employee contribution of 3%). VWFS will pay 6% if employee chooses a 2% employee contribution.
- Car schemes:
- Choice of Employee Car Ownership (ECO) scheme for petrol/diesel and hybrid vehicles plus car insurance and fuel card.
- OR Company Car scheme for Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) plus car insurance cover for you and a partner/eligible family member.
- Other benefits:
- From day 1 we provide income protection, life assurance (4x salary), retail discount vouchers, access to Care Concierge (a service to support carers of adults), along with other salary sacrifice options including a will writing service and cycle to work (subject to scheme restrictions).
- Following successful completion of probation, you will have access to private medical insurance for you (with the option to buy additional family cover), access to our loan car scheme for up to 2 cars for your partner or eligible family members (subject to scheme restrictions) and during our annual benefit window you can purchase critical illness cover and dental cover, so you can select the benefits that matter to you.
- We invest in our people and are passionate about driving development. You’ll have access to LinkedIn Learning via our Degreed platform as well as a host of professional development programmes and opportunities to build your technical and soft skills so you can further develop your career. We also offer mentoring schemes and reciprocal partnerships recognising that we can all learn from each other in the flow of work.
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Why join VWFS UK?
You’ll have the opportunity to make a difference by helping us to achieve our mission.
Our mission is straightforward; we want to be 'The Key to Mobility'. That means we make getting from A-to-B as easy and simple for as many people as possible. To truly meet the mobility needs of people in a changing world, our offering goes beyond traditional vehicle financing. We do this by providing a range of finance and aftersales products on Volkswagen Group vehicles, as well as developing innovative mobility products designed to solve real problems and support our customers.
No candidate will meet every single desired qualification. If your experience looks a little different from what we've identified and you think you can bring value to the role, we'd love to learn more about you!
VWFS is proud to be an inclusive employer and encourages applications from a diverse range of candidates. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion isn’t just a statement for us, we encourage and aspire for all our colleagues to be their 100% self. If you need any reasonable adjustments to assist you with the application and/or recruitment processes, please contact our Resourcing Team.
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