Head Of Data Protection & DPO

Accurx
United Kingdom
Remote

Who this role is best for

A natural match if you have experience leading data protection in AI-driven healthcare environments.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with AI and data protection expertise in healthcare or NHS settings
    — “You know health and the NHS, or have a fast route to it”
  • Individuals who have shaped privacy frameworks for innovative products
    — “building the frameworks that let us move quickly and safely”
  • Leaders who have grown and managed privacy teams in fast-moving environments
    — “you've built and led privacy teams”

Things to consider

  • The role requires a deep understanding of UK GDPR and related legislation
    — “apply UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025”
  • The position involves external representation to regulators and NHS stakeholders
    — “you can represent the business to regulators, NHS organisations and partners”

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience with AI systems and embedding privacy into product design
    — “bring privacy into product design”
  • Emphasize your track record in leading privacy teams and fostering cross-functional trust
    — “you grow capability, bring your team into decisions”
  • Demonstrate familiarity with NHS-specific data protection frameworks and principles
    — “controller and processor roles in primary care, DSPT, DTAC”
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · Company

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • setting standards for AI deployment
  • ensuring compliance with UK GDPR
  • building privacy by design
Typical background
legal backgroundexperience in data protectionunderstanding of AI technologies

Skills & requirements

Required

Data ProtectionGDPR ComplianceAI EthicsLegal FrameworksRisk Management

Preferred

Healthcare RegulationsAI Governance

About the role

Original posting from Accurx via Ashby

💬 ACCURX IS SOLVING HEALTHCARE PRODUCTIVITY FOR THE NHS.

For decades, the NHS has struggled with fragmented systems that make simple tasks feel impossible. At Accurx, we’re changing that by building a single, system-wide platform that helps every patient get gold-standard, efficient, and joined-up care.

What started as a way for GPs to text a patient has now evolved into an all-in-one digital toolkit used by 98% of GP practices.

Our platform now powers Total Triage https://www.accurx.com/primary-care to manage patient demand, and Self-Book, https://www.accurx.com/booking which lets patients schedule their own appointments in seconds. We’ve automated routine care with Patient Questionnaires https://www.accurx.com/questionnaires for long-term conditions, while Accumail https://www.accurx.com/accumail finally allows staff-to-staff communication to happen instantly across different care settings. We’re now pushing the boundaries of the consultation itself with Accurx Scribe https://www.accurx.com/scribe, our AI-powered note-taker that drafts medical notes in real-time.

We’re not just shipping features. We’re giving clinicians their time back and ensuring every patient journey is as smooth as it should be.

THE OPPORTUNITY:

We're on a journey to steward AI into the NHS safely and responsibly. We've already deployed ambient voice technology to write up consultations, released our first AI triage products to help practices read and route hundreds of patient requests a day, and we're now working on deploying agents in healthcare settings.

The next few years will define how AI is used with patient data in the NHS. As Head of Data Protection and our in-house DPO, you'll help set that standard nationally: building the frameworks that let us move quickly and safely, and earning the trust of the patients, clinicians and organisations who rely on us.

This role is about building and shaping, not just running. You'll own data protection at Accurx end to end: the strategy, the statutory role, the team and the calls. You'll be a key leader in our Technology division, working as a trusted partner to our Chief Product Officer and Head of Legal.

CHALLENGES YOU'LL SOLVE...

  • Steward AI into the NHS: set Accurx's positions on how we build, deploy and monitor AI products at scale, from controllership and assistive vs automated, to retention of AI inputs and outputs, sub-processors and model hosting, without ever undermining the trust we've built with our users
  • Set guardrails, not gates: define clear guardrails so product teams can move fast inside them without asking permission each time, and make our positions public and credible so NHS DPOs can rely on them rather than starting from scratch
  • Bring privacy into product design: work with product, design and engineering to embed privacy by design. Much of what we're building hasn't been seen in the health system before, so you'll need to be unapologetically forward-looking and comfortable taking informed, calculated risks
  • Turn decisions into reusable patterns: with our in-house privacy team, build governance templates, pre-approved data flows and plain-English privacy notice wording that healthcare organisations can pick up and use, and shape how we responsibly use our data to improve products and patient outcomes
  • Hold the statutory DPO role with independence: inform, advise and monitor compliance under UK GDPR, including our record of processing, DPIAs, training and audits. You'll be our named contact for the ICO, NHS customers and data subjects, and lead testing, breach assessment and reporting
  • Run corporate privacy: own our core privacy obligations and registrations, keep the evidence current for regulators, customers and bids, lead privacy due diligence on suppliers, partners and corporate transactions, and oversee how we handle employee and corporate data as well as patient data
  • Build a function that moves at product speed: lead and grow a small, bar-raising privacy and data function, and make it easy for 200+ colleagues to get fast, consistent answers to privacy questions

YOU SHOULD APPLY IF...

  • You're product-minded about privacy: you've worked inside a product company and helped ship things, finding an approach that's both more private and better for the user. You've guided technology organisations through responsible innovation, especially where AI/ML meets sensitive data
  • You're AI-fluent with deep UK data protection expertise: you apply UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 and the common law duty of confidentiality in practice, understand how modern AI systems actually handle data, and have a view on ICO AI guidance and where regulation is heading
  • You've built and led privacy teams: you grow capability, bring your team into decisions, delegate real ownership and build trust across functions
  • You're confident externally: you can represent the business to regulators, NHS organisations and partners, and communicate complex positions clearly
  • You know health and the NHS, or have a fast route to it: controller and processor roles in primary care, DSPT, DTAC, the Caldicott Principles and the national data opt-out. You learn the NHS by going to see it
  • You challenge the status quo: you stay ahead of changes in digital health, AI and data ethics, and see privacy as something that enables the business to move at pace

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU?

You’ll join a high-performing team on a mission to solve healthcare productivity, building a platform used by around 300k NHS staff every week, supporting the care of over 50 million NHS patients every year. We set a high bar, move fast, and give people the ownership and support to do the best work of their careers

  • £110,000 - £140,000 salary, plus a discretionary recognition bonus for exceptional performance and impact, nominated by managers and awarded by our leadership team
  • Equity: £100,000 in equal share options, so you share in the value you help create
  • Benefits to suit you: adjust your healthcare cover, your pension or life insurance, whatever stage you’re at in life
  • Built for collaboration: We are an office-first culture and ask that you’re in our (dog-friendly) Shoreditch office for a minimum of 3 days a week
  • Close to our users: Regular hackathons, plus dedicated time to visit GP practices and other healthcare settings to see first-hand how our products are used
  • Time off: You’ll get 28 days of holiday (plus bank holidays) and up to 4 weeks to work from anywhere per year
  • Support at home: We offer enhanced parental leave, fertility support and parental loss support
  • We have our very own chefs: Free healthy breakfasts, snacks and lunches, plus a weekly sweet treat

Source: Accurx careers (Ashby)

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