WHAT BUSINESSES ARE LOOKING FOR WHEN HIRING A DPO under the gdpr

​As part of our European privacy recruitment practice, we speak with hiring businesses and talented privacy pros every single day.
​While the GDPR does not reveal much about the ideal DPO profile, as in every corporate role,

• the tasks,
• the role’s positioning with the organization, and most importantly
• the specific business environment

help identify or fine-tune the ideal candidate's skill set.

​And that’s exactly what businesses are looking for when hiring a good DPO in Europe as part of their GDPR compliance exercise.
​
​​Let’s have a look these DPO qualities.

1 - The professional qualities relevant to WHAT must be done (the core tasks of a DPO)

The DPO core tasks are not dependent on the type of business, on its industry or how it structured its privacy program. Therefore, this first list indicate the by-default DPO qualities companies are looking for:
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2 - The professional qualities relevant to HOW the DPO job must be done (the DPO’s position and way of working, as described within the GDPR).

​This set of qualities is also required for any DPO role in any type of business.

Now, you have two sets of standard professional qualities which businesses look for when they are hiring a DPO.

In addition, they are seeking:

3- Professional qualities relevant to WHERE the DPO tasks are being performed.

In other words, these are the qualities relevant to their specific business environment.

While previous lists of professional qualities are valid for any company, this final set is business-driven (and non-exhaustive). As every company has a different reality, these qualities are different for each of them.

In this list, what comes into play are, just to list a few examples, the type of processing, level of reliance on third parties or technology, the geo scope of the DPO, how the privacy team is structured or the level of general awareness for privacy within the organization.
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​Following all of the above, it is observed that companies assess their environment and compliance needs very carefully before kicking off their search for a good DPO.

​One DPO may not fit all!

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