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Outsourced DPO services: a dedicated Data Protection Officer embedded in your team

Expert data protection leadership without the overhead of a full-time hire. You work directly with a senior DPO. Experience across 100+ startups and enterprises including Amazon, Coinbase, and Robinhood.

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You get a named, senior Data Protection Officer embedded in your team, notified to the supervisory authority, and ready the moment regulators, enterprise buyers, or investors start asking about privacy.

What you get:

  • A named senior DPO on your account, notified to the supervisory authority where required
  • GDPR, UK GDPR, US state law, EU AI Act, NIS2, and DORA covered by one team
  • DPIAs and privacy assessments, Records of Processing Activities (RoPA), and the full policy and documentation package built and maintained for you
  • Vendor and third-party due diligence, DPAs, and cross-border transfer assessments (SCCs and Transfer Impact Assessments)
  • Data protection and AI training for your team
  • Enterprise questionnaires, data subject requests, and breach response handled to deadline
  • Audit, risk reporting, and supervisory-authority liaison

Outsourced DPO services, in plain terms

Our outsourced DPO services give you a named, senior Data Protection Officer on a fixed monthly fee, notified to the supervisory authority where required, without the cost or lead time of a full-time hire. Outsourced DPO, external DPO, fractional DPO, virtual DPO, and DPO as a Service are all names for the same model: an experienced DPO provided by an external firm and embedded in your team.

An outsourced DPO service typically covers your full privacy program, from the policy and documentation package through DPIAs and RoPA, vendor and transfer assessments, data subject requests, breach response, enterprise deal support, and supervisory-authority liaison. Pricing is From €1,000 per month for a named DPO, with lighter Privacy Advisory From €600 per month. For a full price breakdown, see the outsourced DPO cost guide.

Key takeaways

  • You get a named senior Data Protection Officer embedded in your team, notified to the supervisory authority.
  • The role is built for growing tech companies facing regulator, buyer, or investor questions.
  • Onboarding is structured and covers the regulations that apply to you.
  • Pricing is scoped to your situation.
  • Engage Compliance delivers this service to tech companies from Seed to Series C, with the same DPO on the account throughout.

Built for growing tech companies

Our outsourced DPO service is built for tech companies that need real privacy compliance but aren’t ready (or don’t want) to make a full-time privacy hire. Your DPO is backed by a network of specialist advisors, including legal counsel, security auditors, and cross-border regulatory experts, ensuring continuity and deep expertise when complex issues arise. Every engagement is covered by professional indemnity & cyber insurance. This service is variously referred to as external DPO, virtual DPO, fractional DPO, or DPaaS (DPO as a Service).

See here for help specifically for startups.

You might need us if …

  • Deals require a compliance pre-assessment
  • Investors perform GDPR or US Privacy due diligence
  • Expanding into Europe and need a DPO
  • Privacy is handled ad hoc and needs formalising (before a breach)
  • Hiring VP Sales or CRO, enterprise pipeline will be growing
  • You are in a regulated industry or intake large amounts of data

What does an outsourced DPO do?

  • Designated DPO, notified to the supervisory authority under GDPR Article 37
  • The policy and documentation package: privacy notices, core policies, Records of Processing Activities (RoPA), DPIA and assessment templates, vendor due diligence, access management, and an AI policy
  • DPIAs and privacy assessments for new products, features, and higher-risk processing
  • Ongoing day-to-day advisory, privacy reviews for new products, features, markets, and partnerships
  • Vendor and third-party due diligence, including DPAs, cross-border transfer assessments (SCCs and Transfer Impact Assessments), and supplier risk management
  • Data protection and AI training for product, engineering, sales, and HR teams
  • Enterprise deal support, handling security and privacy questionnaires, due diligence packs, compliance attestations
  • M&A and investment readiness, privacy due diligence for funding rounds, acquisitions, and investor scrutiny
  • Data subject requests and breach management, handling DSRs, breaches, regulator communications, 24/7 emergency breach hotline
  • AI compliance, EU AI Act readiness, AI risk assessments, AI governance documentation
  • Audit, risk reporting, and supervisory-authority liaison
  • NIS2 and DORA compliance for companies in scope of EU cybersecurity and digital operational resilience requirements

Regulations

Europe GDPR, ePrivacy Directive, EU AI Act, NIS2, DORA

United Kingdom UK GDPR, Data Protection Act 2018, PECR (as amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025)

United States CCPA/CPRA, HIPAA, GLBA, Virginia VCDPA, Colorado CPA, Connecticut CTDPA, Texas TDPSA, and other US state privacy laws

Companies based outside the EU usually need a GDPR Article 27 representative in the EU as well, appointed through a separate provider.

Americas Brazil LGPD, Canada PIPEDA

Asia-Pacific Thailand PDPA, China PIPL, India DPDPA, Japan APPI, South Korea PIPA

Middle East UAE PDPL, Saudi Arabia PDPL, Bahrain PDPL

Frameworks ISO 27001, ISO 27701, SOC 2, NIST CSF, NIST 800-53/171

How does onboarding work?

Month 1

We appoint your named DPO and notify the supervisory authority where applicable, audit your current state, prioritize the highest-risk gaps, and stand up your core documentation.

Months 2 to 6

Remediation and full embedding continue. Your DPO is embedded into your team, closing the prioritized gaps and handling compliance, enterprise questionnaires, and anything privacy-related. You get a single point of contact.

How much does an outsourced DPO cost?

Privacy Advisory From €600 per month. Lighter-touch privacy advisory for earlier-stage companies. Policy reviews, ad-hoc guidance, consent advice, and documentation support on demand.

DPO Foundation From €1,000 per month. A dedicated, named DPO embedded in your team. Privacy framework, documentation, vendor management, enterprise deal support, breach handling, and ongoing compliance. A common fit for Seed to Series B teams.

DPO Partner From €2,500 per month. A named DPO working hands-on with you on a monthly cadence, driving reviews, assessments, and progress. For teams that want more than light-touch oversight.

DPO Complete From €4,500 per month. Full-scope DPO with multi-jurisdictional coverage, complex regulatory environments, advanced AI compliance, M&A due diligence support, and a priority 24/7 breach-response upgrade. For Series B+ and companies operating across multiple regions.

Enterprise Custom scope and pricing at enterprise scale, with a named DPO and bespoke terms.

Book a call and we’ll scope what you actually need. Every engagement is tailored.

Why Engage Compliance

You work directly with a senior DPO. Experience across 100+ startups and enterprises including Amazon, Coinbase, and Robinhood. Not a junior consultant or software dashboard with just a checklist.

Your DPO is formally notified to the supervisory authority and backed by a network of specialist advisors for complex cross-border, legal, and technical matters. Every engagement is covered by professional indemnity insurance.

We support companies from pre-seed through to enterprise, across SaaS, HealthTech, Fintech, e-Commerce, HR Tech, and regulated industries. Whether you need GDPR compliance for the EU market or multi-jurisdictional privacy coverage spanning the US, EU, UK, Brazil, APAC, and the Middle East, you get one point of contact who knows your business.

See our case studies, our broader data privacy solutions, and our resources.

  • Same-business-day response
  • Professional indemnity and cyber insurance
  • Named DPO notified to the supervisory authority
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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 four tiers: Privacy Advisory (From €600 per month), DPO Foundation (From €1,000 per month), DPO Partner (From €2,500 per month), and DPO Complete (From €4,500 per month), plus custom Enterprise scoping. 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 large enterprises.

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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