Lead Auditor

ico; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 35,000 - 39,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pay progression scheme

Hybrid and flexible working options

25 days paid holiday per year

Flexi leave (up to 26 days)

Employer pension contribution ~28.9%

Online discount scheme

Health Cash Plan

Development opportunities

Job summary

The ICO is seeking a Lead Auditor to join our Assurance team in Manchester. You will lead audits of organisations across sectors, identifying information rights risks, evaluating compliance and delivering practical recommendations that drive real improvement.

You will be the professional face of the ICO, engaging external stakeholders and collaborating with internal teams to promote best practice. This is a hybrid, full-time or part-time role contracted to the Manchester office.

Qualifications

• Lead audits of organisations to assess information rights and data protection compliance.
• Identify risks, evaluate controls and provide actionable recommendations.
• Engage with stakeholders to promote best practice and drive improvements.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage audits from planning to reporting.
• Review policies, interviewing staff, and testing controls.
• Produce risk-based audit reports with prioritized recommendations.
• Coordinate with ICO departments to share results and monitor actions.

Job description

Lead Auditor

Multiple roles available

Full time / Part time

Salary: £34,604- £39,200 with potential for further progression to £44,137 with our pay progression scheme.

Location: Hybrid

Contracted to our Manchester office. Through hybrid working we offer flexible home and office-based working opportunities and there will be times when you will be expected to attend the office to collaborate with colleagues or travel due to business need.

Why work for the ICO?

• Pay progression scheme.
• 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 our website .

Job summary

Join the ICO's Assurance team and help raise standards in information rights and data protection across the UK. As a Lead Auditor, you'll lead audits of organisations from a range of sectors, identifying risks, evaluating compliance, and delivering practical recommendations that drive real improvement. If you're passionate about assurance, stakeholder engagement and making a tangible impact, this is an opportunity to put your expertise to work where it matters most.

The Information Commission (ICO) is the independent regulator of information rights. In a data-driven world, we provide advice, guidance, and support to organisations enabling compliance with their obligations, as well as protecting individuals and their personal data.

As an employer, we are passionate about making a positive difference to the lives and careers of our people, and we empower you to be curious, impactful, collaborative and respectful.

Job description

The Assurance team conduct audit assessments on a wide range of organisations to help them implement best practice in their information rights and data protection practices. Our approach uses powers of audit and assessment, both consensual and compulsory, to recommend appropriate and effective operational measures to promote model information rights practice. The team supports the strategic direction of the ICO and its corporate plans.

Engaging directly with external stakeholders and organisations, as a Lead Auditor you will be responsible for taking the lead role across a range of audit activities, building strong working relationships in order to effectively evaluate an organisations' compliance. Specifically, you will review processes and policies, conduct interviews, identify information rights risks and then provide a quality audit report that makes prioritised operational recommendations in line with our documented audit processes and procedures. You will then have the opportunity to monitor and follow up on the actions and improvements made as a direct result of your work.

As a Lead Auditor you will be the 'face of the ICO' and will be expected to be professional with all stakeholders and fully responsive to the key deliverables of the audit. Also, you will often be working collaboratively with other ICO departments to promote good practice.

Key Responsibilities

• Undertake desk-based reviews of organisations' policies, procedures, guidance and training material, and assess their effectiveness in enabling compliance with information rights legislation.
• Conduct interviews, facilitate discussion, provide advice, conduct tests either remotely and/or, when circumstances permit, at organisations premises including physical reviews of records and processing activities to gather evidence to support compliance assessments.
• Operate at all levels within an organisation's hierarchy, to establish whether working practices are in compliance with information rights obligations and recognised best practice.
• Document findings to produce a working summary of document reviews and interviews (working papers). Using the working papers, consolidate the evidence and produce risk-based reports, which provide recommendations on, and opinion of, the processes and procedures implemented to deliver compliance with information rights obligations. This includes the production of sector or theme-based outcomes reports.
• Liaise clearly and confidently with all internal and external stakeholders to plan, agree, schedule and deliver Assurance audits as directed by line managers, and act as a key point of contact for these activities and any associated reporting.
• Support the Team Manager (Assurance) both before engagements to build business intelligence / background information, and after, to disseminate results and outcomes.
• Under guidance from line managers, develop questionnaires and checklists to ensure that Assurance activity (interviews and testing) adequately covers the scope of any engagement.
• Lead and support streams of further Ass