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Recruitment privacy notice
Recruitment privacy
If you’re applying for a position, or being engaged to work with one of the entities that are part of Mott MacDonald, this privacy notice will help you understand what personal information we collect, why we need it, how we use it, who we share it with, and the rights you have over it.
In certain locations, there may be differences in the way that we collect and use personal information due to local legal requirements or the way that Mott MacDonald operates. If this is the case, we will notify you of this in supplementary privacy notice.
This privacy notice is aligned with our Group policies and Our Code. We have appointed a Group head of privacy and data protection, James Alexander, to monitor our compliance with privacy and data protection laws.
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During the recruitment process (and after that process comes to an end), we may need to collect, store, access, analyse, share, or use in some other way, the following types of personal information:
Personal identification information: full name, title, date of birth, nationality, immigration status, military/veteran status, government issued identifiers (where necessary and either permitted or required by law) including driver’s license and passport details.
Contact details: work/personal email addresses, phone numbers, and postal addresses.
Business and career development information: job title, membership with any professional bodies or institutes, CV/resume, professional certifications, educational certificates, employment status, employment history, assessment and/or test evaluations, interview notes, and application details.
Compensation and payroll information: bank account information (for payment), desired salary, current salary, and compensation and benefits.
Online tracking information: identification numbers, location, internet protocol (IP) address, browsing behaviour, unique device identifier, website or the social media platform where you applied from (for example, you applied through Indeed or LinkedIn), and language used.
Account login information: username, and other information used to access and/or secure systems and applications including our careers website. For more information about the personal information we collect when you visit our careers website or access our applications, please see our website privacy notice and online tracking technologies privacy notice.
Office visitor and surveillance camera data: security camera footage relating to office and restricted zone access. For more information about the personal information we collect when you visit one of our office locations during an in-person interview, please see our video surveillance and visitor privacy notice.
Health information: details of reasonable adjustments and accessibility requirements (including those related to your mobility, sight or hearing) when needed to facilitate your application and/or an interview with Mott MacDonald. Health information is particularly sensitive, so we will only process it if there is a clear legal justification for doing so.
Background screening and vetting information: employment references, education checks, and (where necessary and permitted by law) information about criminal convictions and/or alleged offences, the outcome of driver’s license and financial probity checks, and the outcome of national security vetting. Criminal conviction and/or alleged offence information is particularly sensitive, so we will only process it if there is a clear legal justification for doing so.
Inclusion information: (where necessary and either permitted or required by law in the jurisdiction where you reside) racial/ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, disability status, sexual orientation, biological sex, and gender identity. This information allows us to monitor workforce inclusion and equality of opportunity/outcomes. It will be used to comply with applicable legal obligations and (if necessary, in an aggregated and depersonalised form) for reporting purposes. This type of information is particularly sensitive, so we will only process it if there is a clear legal justification for doing so.
Other information:
- Your image (photographs and/or videos)
- Preferred work location and associated relocation information
- Information you provide about the languages in which you can communicate
- Relationship with the member of our workforce who referred you to us (for example, you and a member of our workforce are former colleagues)
- Feedback, opinions and information provided in emails
- Any interests that you provide directly to us (for example, you may indicate that you are interested in receiving digital communications from us relating to future employment opportunities)
- Any information we may derive indirectly from your interactions with us (for example, information we may gather using online tracking technologies to understand how you interact with our careers website)
- Any other information (including sensitive personal information such as medical condition) that you provide to us voluntarily, even if this has not been requested during the recruitment process. We recommend that you carefully consider the necessity of sharing this information and limit it to what is relevant and necessary
If you decide not to provide your personal information as part of the recruitment process, it could affect your ability to participate and result in your application having to be rejected.
We collect your personal information when you visit our careers website, engage with us directly (for example, through your interactions with representatives of Mott MacDonald during the interview process), or through other recruitment channels. There are also some occasions where we receive your personal information from third parties.
In-person job fair events and activities: we collect your personal information when you interact with a representative of Mott MacDonald at a job fair event (for example, if you share your contact information with us).
Careers marketing activities (website, digital communications and social media): we collect your personal information when you visit our careers website, login or register for one of our job opportunities, or when you agree to receive digital marketing communications from us. We may also use social media platforms that you actively use, such as LinkedIn, to send you information about job opportunities, which we think might interest you. In sending these communications, we respect all of the preferences that you have set on these platforms. Please see our marketing and events privacy notice for further information.
Online recruitment portal: we collect your personal information when you submit your application using our careers website and recruitment systems.
In-person, telephone or video conference interviews: we collect your personal information when you participate in any in-person, telephone, or video conference interviews with representatives of Mott MacDonald during the recruitment process.
Digital communications: we collect your personal information when you contact us or send us your enquiries through our recruitment channels.
Third parties: third parties may occasionally provide us with your personal information, for example, if we have partnered with a recruitment agency to help us find a suitable job candidate; or from individuals/organisations providing educational or employment references. We will always confirm with any third parties that you have agreed to the sharing of your personal information with Mott MacDonald.
Mott MacDonald is responsible for deciding how we collect, access, analyse or otherwise process personal information about you. We process personal information about you primarily for the purposes of making you aware of new job opportunities, evaluating your suitability for current vacancies in which you have expressed an interest, managing our relationship with you, and complying with our legal obligations.
We will only use personal information about you when the law allows us to do so. In some jurisdictions, the legal justifications we can rely upon to process your personal information may be slightly different to the ones outlined in this privacy notice. If that is the case, we will notify you of the differences in a supplementary privacy notice.
The purposes for which we may need to process your personal information (and the categories of personal information involved) include:
Recruiting new talent and carrying out background checks
- Identifying, evaluating, selecting, and hiring candidates
- Assessing skills, qualifications, and interests against Mott MacDonald career opportunities
- Setting up and conducting interviews and assessments
- Identifying and addressing accessibility requirements and reasonable adjustments
- Managing expenses and reimbursements
- Conducting background checks and assessments
- Verifying that you are permitted to work in a particular country or jurisdiction
- Contacting individuals and organisations to obtain or discuss educational/employment references used to evaluate your past conduct or performance (or as otherwise necessary in context of recruitment activities)
- Informing the Mott MacDonald employee that referred you (where applicable) about the status of the recruitment cycle
- Initiating the onboarding process (if your application is successful)
Categories of personal information used for this purpose include:
- Personal identification information
- Contact details
- Business and career development information
- Compensation and benefits information
- Health information
- Background screening and vetting information
- Your feedback, opinions, interests, preferences and other information
Managing our relationship with you
- Inform you of available vacancies
- Deliver communications to you about future vacancies
- Provide information relating to an application and to fulfil any requests made by you
- Offer suitable opportunities for employment within Mott MacDonald
- Respond to enquiries we receive from you
Categories of personal information used for this purpose include:
- Personal identification information
- Contact details
- Business and career development information
- Your feedback, opinions, interests, preferences and other information
Improving our recruitment and hiring processes
- Monitoring gender and ethnicity pay gap trends to ensure that our processes are fair (where permitted or required by law)
- Monitoring inclusion data and employment trends to ensure that our processes are fair (where permitted or required by law)
- Reviewing and managing any feedback we receive from you
Categories of personal information used for this purpose include:
- Personal identification information
- Inclusion information
- Your feedback, opinions, interests and preferences
Improving the effectiveness of our recruitment strategies
- Understand how you came to apply for a job with Mott MacDonald (for example, you applied through Indeed or you became aware of a job opportunity through LinkedIn)
- Reviewing statistical reports (we receive from third parties) to understand how many offers, hires and applications these third parties have influenced/have generated for us
Categories of personal information used for this purpose include:
- Personal identification information (name)
- Contact details (email address)
- Your feedback, opinions, interests and preferences
Improving the content of our careers website and marketing materials
- Online tracking information (your IP address, geographic location, and email address)
- Interests and preferences (if provided by you)
Complying with legal obligations
- Disclosing personal information to government agencies, regulatory authorities or law enforcement (this includes complying with subpoenas and court orders)
- Record keeping and reporting obligations
- Pursuing our legal rights and remedies
- Establishing, exercising or defending Mott MacDonald’s legal position
- Managing complaints and legal claims
- Conducting criminal record checks, driver’s license checks, and history checks (this will depend on applicable local law, client and role requirements)
- Conducting assessments to determine your employment status for tax purposes
- Verifying that you are permitted to work in a particular country or jurisdiction
- Monitoring and reporting on gender and ethnicity pay gaps (where required by law)
- Monitoring and reporting on inclusion and equality (where required by law)
Categories of personal information used for this purpose include:
- Personal identification information
- Contact details
- Business and career development information
- Compensation and payroll information
- Health information
- Background screening and vetting information
- Inclusion information
When using your personal information for the above purposes, we will generally rely on your consent or a legal obligation. In certain jurisdictions, such as the UK and EEA member states, we may also process this information based on our legitimate interests (if this is the case, then we will balance your rights and freedoms against our own interests, or those of any third party, to ensure that your rights are not infringed).
Automated decision-making is the process of making objective decisions by automated means, based on pre-defined criteria, without any human intervention. We will only use automated decision-making where permitted by law, for example: it is necessary for entering into a contract between you and Mott MacDonald; or we have your consent.
Where we expect a significant volume of applicants for a position, we may use it to help assess the eligibility of candidates. Your application may be automatically declined if your application does not meet the criteria specified in the job description, or you do not pass an assessment required for the role. Certain roles may also require specific prerequisites, for example the legal right to work in the country where the position is based. Applications that do not meet these requirements may be automatically rejected.
If you apply for a place on one of our graduate recruitment programmes, we may use third party online assessment tools. These assessments tell us whether you are likely to enjoy working with us and have the overall skills to be successful at Mott MacDonald. If you do not meet/exceed the required assessment score, you will be unable to progress any further in the process. Express consent to the use of automated decision-making (with the outcome determined by your assessment score) will be requested before you start the assessment.
If you object to our use of automated decision-making or withdraw your consent, we will stop processing your personal information using those techniques. If you ask us to manually review an automated decision by submitting a request through our individual rights request form or by contacting privacy@mottmac.com, we will manually review the automated decision and confirm whether or not it was correct.
Please note that Mott MacDonald is an inclusive employer. We ensure that our recruitment decisions are objective, free from bias, and based upon individual skills and potential. Our automated decisions never use sensitive personal information that could be used to discriminate against candidates because of their biological sex, gender identity, ethnicity, race, or religion.
If it is necessary and proportionate to do so, we may have to share your personal information with:
Different Mott MacDonald entities involved in managing our relationship with you and operating our business.
Our service providers and suppliers who help us communicate with you and deliver our recruitment campaigns, conduct background screening and vetting, conduct talent assessments and suitability testing, process visa and work permit applications, support our technology systems and infrastructure or manage access to our work premises and facilities. These include, Docusign (electronic agreement execution tool), Fortytwo Labs (interview scheduling tool), Korn Ferry (talent assessment tool) and Sterling (workforce screening and vetting).
Trusted business partners who assist us in finding suitable job candidates, assist us in assessing and enhancing the effectiveness of our recruitment strategies, and provide critical insights into recruitment success rates, such as providing us with statistical anonymised reports on how many offers, hires or applications these third-party business partners have influenced/generated for us. These include, Handshake (job marketplace in the USA), Indeed (job board), and LinkedIn (social media platform).
Our external legal or other professional advisers for advice on recruitment and employment matters, assessment of visa and work permit options, to determine tax obligations, and (when necessary) to investigate, pursue, or defend legal/insurance claims (or other claims of a similar nature).
Our clients and delivery partners when a role we’re recruiting for is contingent on the approval of the client and/or a joint venture partner.
Business transferees in the event of a corporate restructuring. For example, if we enter into, or intend to enter into, a transaction that alters the structure of our business, such as a merger, acquisition, sale, joint venture, consolidation, or other disposition of all or any portion of our business or assets.
Regulatory authorities or law enforcement agencies where necessary to facilitate the prevention, detection and investigation of suspected criminal activity, and if we need to comply with an official request for information (this includes complying with subpoenas and court orders).
When we need to share your personal information with these third parties, we use a combination of contractual, physical, and technical measures to keep it secure.
To protect personal information that is transferred internationally, we ensure that adequate and proportionate safeguards are in place and that your privacy and data protection rights are protected. This is because you may have fewer rights under local laws in some countries than you do in your country of residence.
Those safeguards will normally include data encryption, role-based access permissions, and legal agreements that facilitate the lawful cross-border transfer of personal information. Please refer to our Group policies for more information.
Please note that we will never sell your personal information to a third party for any purpose.
We work hard to maintain and improve security measures that prevent personal information from being accidentally lost, used, or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered, or disclosed. We limit access to personal information to individuals and organisations who have a legal right of access (for example, regulatory authorities or law enforcement agencies), or a legitimate business need to know (for example, recruitment specialists, hiring managers, and service providers). Our service providers and suppliers will only process personal information in accordance with our instructions, and we ensure that all third parties are subject to a legal duty of confidentiality.
All Mott MacDonald people who may be required to access your personal information when carrying out their duties are required to complete privacy and data protection training, and information security training, on an annual basis.
Please also see our Group policies for more information.
We will only retain your personal information for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy notice. When setting those retention periods we consider:
- Will we need it to respond to your queries or manage an ongoing relationship with you? For example, inform you of new job opportunities in the future.
- Do we need it to monitor and report on inclusion and employment trends, so that we can provide evidence that our recruitment processes are fair?
- How long do we need to retain the information to comply with our legal or regulatory obligations? For example: evidence required for an external tax, immigration, or financial audit; to comply with a specific provision in a particular law; or to respond to a legal claim or regulatory investigation.
- Do we need to keep it for another legitimate purpose, for example, to prevent harm to individuals or our business; or to protect our legal rights, property, or assets?
In some instances, and for specific reasons, we’ll keep information for an extended period of time. When your personal information is deleted or destroyed, we ensure that it is safely and permanently disposed of in accordance with any local legal requirements.
We respect your rights over your personal information, which are set out below:
- Right of access to your personal information. This enables you to request a copy of your personal information and to check that we are processing it lawfully.
- Right to correct the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to ask us to amend or update any incomplete or inaccurate personal information.
- Right to request erasure of personal information about you. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no valid reason for us to continue processing it.
- Right to object to the use of your personal information if you think we do not have a valid reason to process it and want us to stop processing it.
- Right to restrict further use of personal information about you. This enables you to ask us to limit or suspend the use of your personal information (for example, if you want us to confirm its accuracy or the reason why we are processing it).
- Right to transfer personal information about you to another party. You can ask us to send/port your personal information to another organisation.
- Right to withdraw consent to our processing of your personal information where the basis of our processing is your consent. This right may not apply if there are other legal justifications to continue processing or we need to retain certain personal information where required or permitted under applicable law. The consequences of withdrawing your consent will be communicated to you at the point when you tell us you would like to withdraw your consent.
You or an authorised nominee can exercise these rights at any time by submitting a request through our individual rights request form or by contacting privacy@mottmac.com. If you’re a resident of California, you may also submit a request by contacting us at 1-800-832-3272. There may be occasions where we need to collect personal information from you, such as your name and contact details, to verify your identity before responding to your request.
If you’ve asked someone else to exercise your rights on your behalf and that nominee does not provide written evidence of their authority to do so (for example, a power of attorney or a letter of authority signed by you), we will not be able to process or action their request.
If you choose to exercise any of your rights set out above, we are committed to treating you fairly and ensuring non-discriminatory treatment. We will respond to you within any applicable statutory deadline (for example, in the UK and EEA we will respond to you within one month from the date we receive your request; and in California we will respond to you within forty-five days from the date we receive your request). If there is a lawful reason to extend this deadline, then we will let you know as soon as possible.
Please also note that the extent to which you can exercise your rights may be limited by the rights and interests of others or a legal obligation (for example, where we are unable to delete all your personal information due to our regulatory obligations). If this is the case, we will let you know as quickly as possible.
If you have concerns about the way Mott MacDonald has processed your personal information, or you want to exercise your privacy rights, please complete our individual rights request form or contact privacy@mottmac.com. If you’re located in Singapore, you can also contact us by calling 6293 1900.
If you’re unhappy with our response after raising a concern or submitting an information rights request, you can register a complaint directly with the privacy and data protection regulator in the country, state, or province where you are located. If you aren’t sure which regulatory authority enforces privacy and data protection compliance in your jurisdiction, please contact privacy@mottmac.com to request the relevant contact details.
This privacy notice was issued in July 2025 and may need to be updated because of changes to our systems and processes or the law, so we recommend that you review this notice periodically. If changes materially affect your privacy rights, we will attempt to notify you and take any other steps required by applicable law.
California residents
If you’re a resident of the State of California, please see our California supplementary recruitment privacy notice to learn more about our collection and use of your personal information and your privacy rights as a California resident.