Head Of Data Protection & DPO

Accurx; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity options

Healthcare benefits

Office in Shoreditch (dog-friendly)

Generous annual leave

Job summary

Accurx is seeking a Head of Data Protection to lead privacy at scale within the NHS-focused platform. You’ll own strategy, governance, DPIAs, and regulatory engagement, reporting to the Chief Product Officer and Head of Legal.

You’ll build a privacy function, set guardrails for AI use, and partner with product, design and engineering to embed privacy by design across 200+ colleagues. The role offers £110,000 - £140,000 salary, discretionary bonus, equity options and a dog-friendly Shoreditch

Qualifications

• Strong experience with UK GDPR, Data Protection Act 2018 and health data regimes.
• Ability to lead privacy by design across product and operations.
• Proven track record building privacy governance in fast-moving tech environments.

Responsibilities

• Own data protection strategy, governance, DPIAs and audits.
• Advise and monitor compliance, act as DPO/AP role with independence.
• Lead privacy team growth and collaboration with product, design and engineering.

Skills

UK GDPR expertise

Privacy by design

Regulatory liaison

Data protection strategy

Leadership

Job description

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 to manage patient demand, and Self-Book,which lets patients schedule their own appointments in seconds. We’ve automated routine care with Patient Questionnaires for long‑term conditions, while 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, 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