Associate Director - Privacy

Grant Thornton; Ireland; On-site; EUR 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Grant Thornton Ireland is seeking an Assistant Director - Privacy to embed privacy principles into the design, development and deployment of GT technologies. This role sits in Global Risk and Compliance within Legal and reports to the Sr.

Director of Privacy, partnering with global business units, technology and data governance teams to identify and mitigate privacy risks. Key duties include leading privacy programs for global (EMEA) operations, developing and maintaining policies and governance

Qualifications

• 8-12+ years in privacy, data governance, data science or technology roles.
• Experience with ISO 27001, 27701, 42001, 27559.
• Strong data ecosystems and privacy engineering knowledge.
• Experience in a global professional services or regulated environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead privacy program activities across global (EMEA) operations.
• Develop, implement and maintain privacy policies and governance.
• Create policy-based controls and training content for Privacy team.
• Identify privacy risks in GT technologies and direct mitigations.
• Audit privacy risk mitigation technologies for effectiveness.
• Direct teams to embed privacy-by-design in enterprise platforms.
• Collaborate with developers to implement data solutions while protecting data.
• Address privacy risks in AI, ML and GenAI deployments.
• Develop dashboards and metrics for leadership.
• Identify efficiency improvements across workflows and systems.

Job description

Assistant Director - Privacy

Role Overview

The Assistant Director role will embed privacy principles into the design, development and deployment of Grant Thornton Advisors LLC technologies and initiatives. Activities include global privacy program management activities, identifying and mitigating privacy risks in built or bought technologies, directing the implementation of privacy controls into all technologies, as well as identifying, recommending and directing the development and implementation of technical safeguards, policy changes and relevant training. This Privacy Team role sits in Global Risk and Compliance group in the Legal vertical and is led by the Chief Risk and Compliance Officer. The Associate Director reports to the Sr. Director of Privacy and partners closely with global business units, technology and data governance teams to identify and mitigate privacy and data risks generally and specifically associated with regulatory compliance, certifications held by the business (e.g. ISO) client obligations, and strategic initiatives (including AI, data migration, and advanced analytics). This role will also audit the implementation and performance of risk mitigation technologies for effectiveness.

Key Responsibilities

• Experienced Privacy program generalist in global (EMEA) Privacy operations.
• Develop, implement, and maintain privacy policies, procedures and governance frameworks aligned to legal requirements.
• Create or modify required policy-based controls and assist in providing training content for the Privacy team.
• Identifying privacy risks in GT technologies and articulating and directing configuration of data platforms and tools to mitigate identified risks, support compliance with applicable privacy laws and other obligations. May define and execute standardised frameworks and controls.
• Audit implementation and performance of privacy risk mitigation technologies for effectiveness.
• Direct appropriate teams to enable controls that embed privacy-by-design controls (data minimisation, purpose controls, access limitations, audit and logging capabilities) into enterprise platforms (e.g., data lakes, data warehouses, analytics environments, AI/GenAI tools) and projects.
• Interface with developers and architects in implementing data solutions that enable the business to be data driven while protecting the data assets.
• Identify and minimise privacy risks involved when using artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning. Direct implementation of controls for safe deployment of AI.
• Develop reporting dashboards and metrics for leadership.
• Identify and implement efficiency improvements across workflows and systems.

Qualifications And Experience

• 8-12+ years in privacy, data governance, data science or technology roles within a professional services or regulated environment.
• Azure Foundry (and similar), RAG model, agent workflows.
• ML/GENAI models and LLM.
• Privacy enhancing technologies implementation (anonymization, differential privacy, IAM).

Technical & Functional Expertise

• Strong understanding of:
• Data ecosystems (data lakes, warehouses, analytics platforms)
• Data discovery, classification, and lineage tools
• Privacy engineering and control implementation
• Information security frameworks
• Familiarity with responsible AI controls and emerging technologies.
• Experience or understanding of software applications design tools and languages.
• Understanding of design for software applications running on multiple platforms.
• Data literacy: finding and managing data, cleansing data, manipulating data.

Regulatory & Risk Knowledge

• Deep understanding of the technical and policy controls needed to meet the requirements of federal, state and global privacy laws (e.g., HIPAA, CCPA/CPRA, GDPR).
• Experience with ISO 27001, 27701, 42001, 27559 implementation and audit.
• Awareness of emerging AI governance and regulatory expectations.

Leadership & Professional Skills

• Ability to translate legal/regulatory requirements into practical, scalable technical solutions.
• Strong stakeholder management across a matrixed, global organisation.
• Experience influencing leadership and driving cross-functional initiatives.
• Strong communication skills.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication skills (verbal and written)
• Demonstrated teamwork and collaboration skills, in particular leading or contributing to global and multi-functional teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Certifications: CIPP/E, CIPM, CIPT or equivalent
• Experience within a global professional services network (e.g., Big Four or similar)
• Familiarity with enterprise tools and platforms commonly used in GT environments (e.g., data exchange platforms, analytics environments, compliance tools

About Us

We are Grant Thornton

Grant Thornton Ireland is rapidly approaching 3,000 people, in 9 offices across Ireland, Isle of Man, Gibraltar and Bermuda. With a presence in over 149 countries around the world and a global network of 73,000 people, we bring our clients the local knowledge, national expertise and global presence to help them succeed - wherever they're located.

At GT, we work as trusted advisors, bringing local knowledge and national expertise, with a global presence, to help businesses succeed - wherever they are located. We make business more personal by investing in building relationships and empowering our clients to make the right decisions for their organisation now and for the future. Whether that is working with the public sector to build thriving communities, with regulators and financial institutions to build trust, or with a diverse range of businesses to help them achieve their goals, Grant Thornton Ireland work hard to support clients to act on the issues that matter.

At GT Ireland we don't just predict your future, we build it.

A Career at GT

Looking for a more fulfilling role in professional services? One where fresh thinking, collaboration and diversity are valued? At Grant Thornton we do things differently.

What does this mean for you?

A career in a more inclusive working environment, a more collaborative work culture, a more supported, flexible working role, more possibilities to grow and more opportunities to help shape the future for your clients. We respect and value your experience. And we want you to bring your authentic self to work and be at your best. It is how it should be.

Grow with us

At Grant Thornton, we care about our people and work hard to make you feel valued. If you are looking to deepen and develop your skills, knowledge, and experience throughout your career, then that is what you will get, and more.

Our Benefits

Please follow this link ( for information on our generous benefits package.

About the Team

Equity, diversity and inclusion

At Grant Thornton, we provide equitable opportunities for all our colleagues. We are a responsible, sustainable business where equity, diversity and inclusion (ED&I) is at the forefront of our workplace culture agenda, and today, we continue to build and develop on our existing ED&I structure and strategy to meet our workplace culture needs. People are at the heart of our business and teams built with varied individuals present diverse viewpoints, which need to be heard and valued.

We are all at our best when we are able to be ourselves and we view integrity and authenticity as integral values to bring to our day-to-day work-life at the firm. We are excited to see the personality and perspectives you will bring to our team because we know we will all benefit from them. Diversity of thought, background and experience enables better decision-making, improves the quality of our delivery, and helps us to meet the needs of our clients. Our firm is built on people and their ideas, so we want to hear all the new perspectives and fresh thinking you have to offer. You form the bedrock of our firm's best-practice principles and we will champion you as leaders from day one.

Reward and benefits

Our reward and benefits are designed to create an environment where our people can flourish. We are committed to building a culture where our people have access to the necessary benefits to help promote a healthy lifestyle and thrive.

Recognition

We want to create a culture of recognition and celebrating success, by saying thank you to people who surpass our expectations and recognising the right values and behaviours. Our Shout Out recognition scheme is our way of highlighting and promoting achievements. Whether you simply want to say thank you, celebrate a special occasion or give an award for doing something exceptional, you can do all of this and more through the scheme.