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About Us

Our Experience

Engage Compliance is an outsourced Data Protection Officer (DPO) and privacy services consultancy with offices in Amsterdam and the US. We serve companies that handle personal data, across B2B and B2C and from Seed to enterprise, worldwide, working with EU, UK, and US personal data, with a focus on SaaS, FinTech, HealthTech, AI, HR Tech, and e-commerce sectors. Founded in 2021, we were built on a simple observation: growing companies need expert privacy support, but don’t need to pay for a full-time hire. We provide that expertise as an embedded part of your team. Our model is senior-led and team-delivered. Every engagement is led personally by a senior practitioner with deep in-house experience, supported by a named partner network for specialist work.

Amazon | Coinbase | Robinhood | AbbVie | Medtronic | Nestle | IKEA | Hopin | EY

Plus over 100 start-ups and scale-ups, from Pre-Seed to Series C, and legal firms.

What our clients say

“Working with Engage was a game changer for our ability to win deals. Their thorough understanding of data protection risks combined with a tailored approach to our unique needs gave us confidence in our compliance efforts, leading to increased commercial success.”

CTO, Health Tech Startup

“The Engage team is a fun, engaging, highly intelligent, and well informed expert in the area of data privacy compliance. Advice and suggestions are easy to follow and practical. I would definitely consider working again with Engage”

VP Product, Series C Scale-up

“They provided clear, actionable steps that seamlessly integrated into existing operations. Knowledgeable, approachable, and responsive, making for a smooth and stress-free partnership”

Head of Operations, E-commerce Platform

“One of the few vendors where you actually talk to someone senior who knows what they’re doing. No handoffs, no fluff.”

Head of Legal, Series B SaaS company

“During our fundraise, every investor privacy question just got handled. Huge weight off my shoulders as a founder.”

CEO, FinTech company

About the Founder

Julian Gage, founder of Engage Compliance

Julian Gage, Founder

15+ years in privacy program leadership.

Julian’s career has spanned the fastest-growing categories in tech: payments and crypto, e-commerce, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, retail, and consumer events. That breadth means Engage clients get privacy advice grounded in real product, engineering, and regulatory operating experience, not generic compliance theory.

Julian has served as Data Protection Officer (DPO) and privacy lead across 100+ organizations, from pre-seed startups to Fortune 10 and Fortune 500 companies. He has built and led privacy programs at Amazon (People/HR data), Coinbase, Robinhood, Medtronic (Global Privacy Lead across EMEA/US/APAC), AbbVie (EU GDPR readiness across 7 EU/UK offices), Hopin (built privacy program from scratch), and IKEA, along with dozens of Series A-D companies.

Before founding Engage Compliance, Julian spent years in internal audit and compliance at EY, Nestle, and AbbVie, working with Fortune 10 clients across multiple continents. That audit background is why Engage takes a controls-based, efficiency-focused approach to privacy, not just legal checkbox compliance.

Certifications: IAPP CIPP/E, CIPM, CIPP/US. AIGP (AI Governance Professional). Data Protocol Privacy Engineering Certification. OneTrust Elite Certification. Google Cloud AI Certification. MBA from University of Cincinnati. Former IAPP Netherlands Chapter Chair. Speaker at IAPP, and US-ASEAN Business Council events. OneTrust PrivacyConnect panelist on Big Data, Machine Learning, and AI.

Expertise spanning 30+ regulatory frameworks across EU, UK, US, Americas, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East, with local counsel support where jurisdiction-specific legal advice is required.

All engagements covered by professional indemnity insurance. We handle breach response directly, with 24/7 emergency support available to all DPO clients, backed by a network of internal and external partners for legal counsel and backfill coverage.

The Engage team

Engage is senior-led and team-delivered. Every client engagement is led personally by a senior practitioner, with specialist partners brought in where needed.

The Engage network

We bring in experts and specialists for areas outside our core scope which give you depth without paying for a full bench:

  • Legal counsel: external privacy law partners across EU, UK, and US jurisdictions
  • Surge capacity: cleared senior practitioners for enterprise deals, audits, M&A diligence
  • Cybersecurity coordination: vetted vCISO and pentest partners

What we do

  • DPO function under GDPR Articles 37 to 39 and equivalent obligations under UK GDPR
  • Privacy program build, audit, and remediation
  • Records of Processing Activities (RoPA), Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA), Data Processing Agreements (DPA)
  • Breach response and supervisory authority liaison
  • Enterprise vendor questionnaire support
  • EU AI Act, DORA, HIPAA, CCPA, CPRA, and 20 plus US state law coverage
  • M&A and investor due diligence support

Who we serve

Companies that handle personal data, across B2B and B2C and from Seed to enterprise, including:

  • SaaS platforms processing customer data at scale
  • FinTech and crypto companies handling KYC, AML, and transaction data
  • HealthTech companies processing health and biometric data
  • AI companies subject to the EU AI Act and GDPR jointly
  • HR Tech platforms processing employee data across borders
  • E-commerce platforms operating in multiple jurisdictions
  • Any data-driven B2B or B2C company with regulatory exposure, even where formal DPO appointment is not strictly required

Where we work

Offices in Amsterdam and the US. Active across EU, UK, US, APAC, LATAM, and Middle East jurisdictions through local counsel and partner relationships.

Trust and Credentials

  • Experience across 100+ companies including Amazon, Coinbase, and Robinhood
  • Every engagement covered by professional indemnity and cyber insurance
  • Senior practitioner on every account, no junior hand-offs
  • Transparent monthly pricing from €500

We work across all industries

Tech and SaaS
Fintech and Payments
HealthTech and Digital Health
Medical Devices
Pharma and Life Sciences
AI and Machine Learning
Crypto and Web3
E-commerce and Marketplaces
HRTech
PropTech
EdTech
AdTech and MarTech
Cybersecurity
Investment and Banking
Retail and Consumer
Legal and Consulting

Effortless data compliance: your competitive edge with expert support

Through expert guidance, innovative solutions, and bespoke support, we have your back on data compliance. We make sense of confusing rules and regulations, turning them from a headache into a competitive advantage for your business.

Aim for efficient, simple, and smart solutions and keep your focus on growing your business. Our goal is to help you spot and fix potential issues before they become problems and to improve customer and partner trust.

We blend into your team, offering expert advice without the extra costs or commitments of hiring an internal employee. It’s the support you need, minus the overhead.

Book a free intro call Free risk assessment

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a DPO?

Not all companies formally need one. You need a DPO if your core activities involve large-scale processing of personal data or systematic monitoring of individuals. But even if you don't technically need one, most companies we work with appoint a DPO because enterprise customers, investors, and regulators expect it. It comes up in almost every funding round and big deal.

How much does a DPO cost?

Depends on your company size, data complexity, and how many regulations you need to cover. We offer three tiers: Advisory (From €500 per month), DPO Essentials (From €2,000 per month), and DPO Premium (From €5,000 per month). Every engagement is tailored to only what you actually need.

What's the difference between a DPO and an EU Representative?
  • A DPO oversees your data protection compliance and is notified to the supervisory authority.
  • An EU Representative is for non-EU companies processing EU personal data, acting as a local contact for regulators and data subjects.

Not for the same client. The EDPB is clear that one provider cannot serve as both DPO and EU Representative for the same company, because the roles can conflict. We will help you structure both correctly.

What regulations do you cover?
  • EU GDPR, UK GDPR.
  • US state and federal privacy laws (CCPA/CPRA, HIPAA, GLBA, and others).
  • Brazil LGPD, Canada PIPEDA.
  • Thailand PDPA, China PIPL, India DPDPA, Japan APPI, South Korea PIPA.
  • UAE and Saudi Arabia data protection laws, the EU AI Act, NIS2, DORA.
  • Frameworks like ISO 27001, ISO 27701, SOC 2, and NIST.
How quickly can you start?

Most engagements start within a week. Month one is a focused privacy audit, building your core documentation, aligning priorities, and being notified to the supervisory authority as your DPO. From month two your DPO is fully embedded and handling ongoing compliance, enterprise questionnaires, and anything privacy-related.

What industries do you work with?

SaaS, HealthTech, Fintech, Crypto, HR Tech, e-Commerce, Retail, Investment and Banking, Healthcare, Medtech, and Pharma. Our senior team has led privacy programs at companies from pre-seed startups to Fortune 10 and Fortune 500 companies.

What about AI compliance: what's needed?
  • Have an internal AI policy and use it: this aligns your company's approved and non-approved uses of AI. This helps prevent confidential or personal data being used in AI tools and large-language-model training (not ideal).
  • Assess your product's usage of AI for data quality, system monitoring and logging, and meeting transparency requirements (can you show how you got your results?).
  • Certain uses of AI are prohibited, such as AI that can significantly distort a person's behavior to cause physical or psychological harm, real-time remote biometric identification systems (for law enforcement), and AI designed to exploit vulnerabilities of specific groups of people.
What about HR, Marketing, Product, CS teams?

Marketing

  • Only advertise or track B2C users or their devices when they have consented to this (some exceptions apply in B2B situations). Always allow people to opt-out.

Product

  • Generally don't use personal data for multiple purposes (i.e. using account data for marketing is not good, since you need consent). Some exceptions include product improvement and analytics.
  • Perform a privacy risk assessment to ensure the product's usage of data is compliant.

HR

  • Do not utilize employee data for secondary purposes (i.e. monitoring); ask for consent.

Customer Support

  • Keep customer notes professional: these may need to be provided to a customer if they ask for it for a copy of them.
Do US laws differ from the EU?

US and EU laws are similar but with slight differences. Some of which include:

  • California and EU/UK requirements only apply when you are offering services to (or processing data from) people who live there.
  • California requires some additional opt-out (selling or sharing data to third-parties), and allows 15 more days to fulfill data subject rights requests.
  • The US is mostly accepting of marketing to end-users without their prior consent (this is not compliant in the EU/UK).
  • Cookies: EU/UK requires individuals to opt-in before cookies process data. Otherwise, you can usually allow auto opt-into cookies as long as users can also opt-out.

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