Data Privacy Manager

Our Story   Hello there. We’re Zopa.   We started our journey back in 2005, building the first ever peer-to-peer lending company. Fast forward to 2020 and we launched Zopa Bank. A bank that listens to what our customers don’t like about finance and does the opposite. We’re redefining what it feels like to work in finance. Our vision for a new era of banking puts people front and centre — we’ve built a business that empowers everyone to aim high, every day, to move finance forward. Find out more about our fantastic offerings at Zopa.com!    We’re incredibly proud of our achievements and none of it would be possible without the amazing team here. It’s not just industry awards we’re winning, we’ve also been named in the top three UK’s Most Loved Workplaces.    If you embrace unconventional challenges, are unafraid to think differently and are driven to make an outsized impact, you’ll thrive here at Zopa, so join us, and make it count. Want to see us in action? Follow us on Instagram @zopalife

The Team

You will join Data Privacy within Zopa’s Operational Risk and Compliance function. We are building a more sophisticated, risk-based approach to privacy: one that protects customers, enables responsible use of data and helps teams make clear decisions in the grey areas. 

As Senior Data Privacy Manager, you will be the senior first-line privacy lead across the business. You will line-manage a Data Privacy Associate and partner with Engineering, Technology, Operations, Legal, Risk and Information Security on high-impact product, data and operational questions. 

A day in the life:

   

• Turn complex privacy questions into clear, proportionate recommendations that enable responsible progress. 

• Help to build and embed a risk-based framework for data privacy risk, including a usable view of risk appetite. 

• Partner with data and technology teams on complex data-use and data-governance decisions. 

• Lead the response to significant privacy issues and ensure decisions are well evidenced. 

• Develop our Data Privacy Associate, through mentoring, standards and exposure to complex problem-solving. 

• Create trusted relationships across the business so privacy is involved early, not at the last minute. 

• Identify manual privacy processes that can be simplified or automated. 

• Represent the first-line privacy perspective credibly with senior stakeholders. 

About You:

• Bring substantial practical data privacy experience, with strong working knowledge of UK GDPR and its enforcement context. 

• Use sound judgement to balance privacy rights, customer protection, business objectives and residual risk. 

• Explain complex privacy issues clearly to non-specialists and make credible, defensible recommendations. 

• Have led or materially shaped privacy frameworks, governance or operating models. 

• Are comfortable working through ambiguity and taking ownership of difficult problems independently. 

• Build constructive relationships with product, technology, operations, legal, risk and security partners. 

• Have managed, mentored or developed others and create an environment of clear standards and support. 

• Recognise data and technology risks without requiring expertise in a particular tool or platform. 

Added bonus:

• Experience in fintech, technology, banking or another regulated environment. 

• Experience of automated decision-making systems with significant or legal effects. 

• Knowledge of privacy considerations across AI model training, prompting and outputs. 

• Experience improving efficiency through automation of privacy processes. 

• Legal, operational-risk or dedicated data-protection qualifications. 

LI-AP1

At Zopa we value flexible ways of working.

We value face-to-face collaboration and a good work-life balance. This hybrid role requires you to come to our London office 2-3 days a week.

You'll also have the option of working from abroad for up to 120 days a year!* But no matter where you are, we’ll make sure you’ve got everything you need to thrive, both in your work and home life, from day one.

*Subject to having the right to work in the country of choice

Diversity Statement

Zopa is proud to offer a workplace free from discrimination. Diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds leads to better products for our customers and a unique company culture for our people. We are made up of nearly 50 nationalities, have a DE&I forum made up of Zopians wanting to make a difference and we are proud of our culture where everyone can bring their full self to work. Our approach to DE&I is reflected in our hiring process so please let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments. 

Our approach to AI in interviews

At Zopa, AI isn't something we're testing out — it's part of how we work every day. As a proud partner of Jobs 2030, we're committed to building AI fluency across our workforce, and we expect Zopians to use AI as part of how they do their jobs. 

Because of that, we want to be transparent about how we think about AI use during our hiring process. 

Behavioural and competency-based interviews: please don't use AI. These conversations are designed to understand you — your experiences, your judgment, and how you've approached real situations. An AI-generated answer can't tell us that. What it can do is get in the way of us finding out whether we're the right fit for each other. 

Technical interviews: it depends on the role. Some technical stages actively welcome AI use, others don't. Your Talent Partner will let you know what's expected at each stage. Where AI is part of the assessment, we'll be interested not just in the outcome, but in how you used it – the tools you chose, your reasoning, and the decisions you made along the way.