Data Protection Act Contract Job Trends in England

Data Protection Act (DPA)
UK > England

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Data Protection Act in contract job vacancies in England. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Data Protection Act over the 6 months leading up to 9 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 215 158 159
Rank change year-on-year -57 +1 -11
Contract jobs citing Data Protection Act 591 510 504
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.28% 1.82% 1.56%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 3.72% 4.99% 5.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 237 214 253
10th Percentile £250 £297 £214
25th Percentile £350 £400 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £438 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -7.89% -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £550 £588 £594
90th Percentile £638 £650 £713
UK median daily rate £425 £458 £488
% change year-on-year -7.10% -6.15% -7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 10 8
10th Percentile £12.83 £14.95 £18.14
25th Percentile £13.69 £15.13 £19.22
Median hourly rate £16.13 £15.25 £24.67
Median % change year-on-year +5.77% -38.18% -26.69%
75th Percentile £23.25 £34.19 £70.23
90th Percentile £27.10 £40.90 £71.88
UK median hourly rate £18.00 £15.25 £24.67
% change year-on-year +18.03% -38.18% -41.53%

All Generic Skills
England

Data Protection Act falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring generic IT skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 15,907 10,228 10,055
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 34.42% 36.40% 31.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,560 6,400 6,068
10th Percentile £325 £300 £294
25th Percentile £425 £411 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £541
Median % change year-on-year - -3.00% -1.59%
75th Percentile £645 £644 £675
90th Percentile £750 £763 £825
UK median daily rate £525 £515 £525
% change year-on-year +1.94% -1.90% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,168 533 364
10th Percentile £13.81 £15.13 £15.94
25th Percentile £17.45 £18.82 £24.18
Median hourly rate £33.99 £30.00 £54.00
Median % change year-on-year +13.30% -44.44% +17.31%
75th Percentile £67.84 £55.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £83.62 £73.75 £75.16
UK median hourly rate £36.00 £27.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year +30.91% -42.11% +6.15%

Data Protection Act
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Data Protection Act relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Data Protection Act job vacancy trend in England

Data Protection Act
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Data Protection Act.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Data Protection Act

Data Protection Act
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Data Protection Act in England over the 6 months to 9 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Data Protection Act in England

Data Protection Act
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Data Protection Act.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Data Protection Act

Data Protection Act
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Data Protection Act in England over the 6 months to 9 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Data Protection Act in England

Data Protection Act
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Data Protection Act within the England region over the 6 months to 9 October 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
London -95 250 £450 -10.00% 82
North of England -13 192 £475 +5.56% 34
Yorkshire +29 116 £495 -1.00% 18
North West -18 70 £475 +6.74% 15
South East -34 70 £375 -9.09% 19
Midlands -33 50 £425 -5.56% 27
West Midlands -44 41 £438 -2.78% 14
South West -34 14 £425 -10.53% 15
East Midlands - 9 £425 - 13
North East -61 6 - - 1
East of England -39 5 £300 -36.84% 9
Data Protection Act
UK

Data Protection Act
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 19 (3.21%) Confluence
2 13 (2.20%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.35%) Apache
3 8 (1.35%) SAS
4 7 (1.18%) Microsoft Exchange
5 6 (1.02%) Apache Spark
6 5 (0.85%) Apache Airflow
7 4 (0.68%) nginx
8 3 (0.51%) CICS
8 3 (0.51%) CMS
9 2 (0.34%) Tomcat
9 2 (0.34%) WebLogic
9 2 (0.34%) WebSphere
10 1 (0.17%) IBM HTTP Server
10 1 (0.17%) IIS
10 1 (0.17%) Oracle HTTP Server
10 1 (0.17%) WebLogic Portal
10 1 (0.17%) WebSphere Application Server
10 1 (0.17%) WebSphere Portal
10 1 (0.17%) WordPress
Applications
1 16 (2.71%) Microsoft Excel
2 15 (2.54%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (1.02%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.68%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.51%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.51%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.17%) Adobe Premiere
6 1 (0.17%) Maya
6 1 (0.17%) Zemax
Business Applications
1 9 (1.52%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (0.85%) Aladdin
3 2 (0.34%) Cloudability
3 2 (0.34%) ION MarketView
3 2 (0.34%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.17%) Actimize
4 1 (0.17%) Bloomberg TOMS
4 1 (0.17%) FIS Private Capital Suite
4 1 (0.17%) Oracle BRM
4 1 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.17%) Oracle EBS R12
4 1 (0.17%) Sage 50
4 1 (0.17%) SAP BRIM
4 1 (0.17%) SAP CX
4 1 (0.17%) SAP FI
4 1 (0.17%) SAP FI-CA
4 1 (0.17%) SAP FS
4 1 (0.17%) SAP HR
4 1 (0.17%) SAP MDG
4 1 (0.17%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 97 (16.41%) Azure
2 75 (12.69%) AWS
3 52 (8.80%) GCP
4 27 (4.57%) GitHub
5 23 (3.89%) Microsoft 365
6 21 (3.55%) SaaS
7 17 (2.88%) Azure DevOps
7 17 (2.88%) Power Platform
8 13 (2.20%) Serverless
9 10 (1.69%) GitHub Actions
10 9 (1.52%) Snowflake
11 8 (1.35%) OneDrive
12 7 (1.18%) Amazon EC2
12 7 (1.18%) Amazon EKS
12 7 (1.18%) Azure AKS
12 7 (1.18%) Entra ID
13 6 (1.02%) Amazon S3
13 6 (1.02%) Dynamics 365
13 6 (1.02%) IaaS
13 6 (1.02%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 21 (3.55%) Firewall
2 17 (2.88%) Network Security
3 12 (2.03%) LAN
4 11 (1.86%) WAN
5 10 (1.69%) MPLS
6 9 (1.52%) DNS
6 9 (1.52%) VoIP
7 7 (1.18%) Cisco IPT
7 7 (1.18%) Wi-Fi
8 6 (1.02%) Cisco Nexus
8 6 (1.02%) Unified Communications
8 6 (1.02%) VPN
9 5 (0.85%) DHCP
9 5 (0.85%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
9 5 (0.85%) SDH
9 5 (0.85%) TCP/IP
10 4 (0.68%) BGP
10 4 (0.68%) BIG-IP
10 4 (0.68%) EIGRP
10 4 (0.68%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (2.88%) Metadata
2 16 (2.71%) Power BI
3 14 (2.37%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (1.86%) Data Warehouse
5 10 (1.69%) BigQuery
6 8 (1.35%) Relational Database
7 7 (1.18%) SQL Server
8 6 (1.02%) Big Data
8 6 (1.02%) Oracle Database
9 5 (0.85%) Elasticsearch
9 5 (0.85%) Redis
10 4 (0.68%) Amazon RDS
10 4 (0.68%) Data Lake
10 4 (0.68%) Db2
10 4 (0.68%) NoSQL
10 4 (0.68%) Tableau
11 3 (0.51%) Amazon Redshift
11 3 (0.51%) DynamoDB
11 3 (0.51%) MySQL
11 3 (0.51%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 37 (6.26%) JIRA
2 23 (3.89%) Jenkins
3 22 (3.72%) Git
4 7 (1.18%) Maven
5 6 (1.02%) GitLab
6 4 (0.68%) SonarQube
7 3 (0.51%) Bitbucket
7 3 (0.51%) Selenium
7 3 (0.51%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (0.51%) Visual Studio
8 2 (0.34%) CMake
8 2 (0.34%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.34%) ER Studio
8 2 (0.34%) ERwin
8 2 (0.34%) Gradle
8 2 (0.34%) JUnit
8 2 (0.34%) SpecFlow
9 1 (0.17%) Postman
9 1 (0.17%) Vite
9 1 (0.17%) XCUITest
General
1 248 (41.96%) Social Skills
2 176 (29.78%) Finance
3 86 (14.55%) Analytical Skills
4 80 (13.54%) Banking
5 33 (5.58%) Legal
6 31 (5.25%) Public Sector
7 28 (4.74%) Organisational Skills
8 23 (3.89%) Influencing Skills
9 21 (3.55%) Documentation Skills
10 18 (3.05%) Front Office
11 16 (2.71%) Telecoms
12 14 (2.37%) Retail
13 12 (2.03%) Billing
13 12 (2.03%) Investment Banking
13 12 (2.03%) Marketing
14 11 (1.86%) Presentation Skills
15 9 (1.52%) Financial Institution
16 6 (1.02%) Publishing
17 5 (0.85%) Law
17 5 (0.85%) Police
Job Titles
1 81 (13.71%) Architect
2 65 (11.00%) Analyst
3 45 (7.61%) Lead
4 41 (6.94%) Business Analyst
5 38 (6.43%) Developer
6 30 (5.08%) Project Manager
7 29 (4.91%) Solutions Architect
8 27 (4.57%) Senior
9 23 (3.89%) Consultant
10 14 (2.37%) DevOps Engineer
11 13 (2.20%) Support Engineer
12 12 (2.03%) Software Engineer
13 11 (1.86%) Java Developer
13 11 (1.86%) Product Owner
14 10 (1.69%) Data Engineer
14 10 (1.69%) Product Manager
14 10 (1.69%) Tester
15 9 (1.52%) Designer
15 9 (1.52%) Technical Manager
16 8 (1.35%) Data Protection Officer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (6.43%) Terraform
2 36 (6.09%) REST
3 20 (3.38%) Kafka
4 14 (2.37%) React
4 14 (2.37%) Spring
5 13 (2.20%) Spring Boot
6 12 (2.03%) JSON
6 12 (2.03%) Node.js
7 10 (1.69%) .NET
7 10 (1.69%) Middleware
7 10 (1.69%) OAuth
7 10 (1.69%) YAML
8 9 (1.52%) GraphQL
9 8 (1.35%) OAuth2
9 8 (1.35%) Pandas
10 7 (1.18%) HTML
10 7 (1.18%) OpenID
10 7 (1.18%) RESTful
10 7 (1.18%) SAML
11 5 (0.85%) AngularJS
Miscellaneous
1 43 (7.28%) Product Ownership
2 39 (6.60%) Cloud Native
3 29 (4.91%) Onboarding
4 25 (4.23%) Distributed Systems
5 22 (3.72%) Virtual Team
6 21 (3.55%) Management Information System
7 19 (3.21%) Data Centre
8 16 (2.71%) Data Structures
9 15 (2.54%) Freedom of Information
9 15 (2.54%) Legacy Systems
10 13 (2.20%) Mainframe
11 12 (2.03%) Mobile App
12 11 (1.86%) Derivative
13 10 (1.69%) Freedom of Information Act
13 10 (1.69%) Self-Motivation
14 9 (1.52%) Analytical Mindset
14 9 (1.52%) Enterprise Software
14 9 (1.52%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 8 (1.35%) AI Agents
15 8 (1.35%) Fixed Income
Operating Systems
1 33 (5.58%) Linux
2 29 (4.91%) Windows
3 13 (2.20%) Unix
4 12 (2.03%) Android
5 10 (1.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (1.52%) Apple iOS
7 8 (1.35%) zOS
8 5 (0.85%) Mac OS
8 5 (0.85%) Windows Server
9 3 (0.51%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.17%) CentOS
10 1 (0.17%) MVS
10 1 (0.17%) SUSE
10 1 (0.17%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 591 (100.00%) Data Protection
2 177 (29.95%) Stakeholder Management
3 123 (20.81%) Agile
4 109 (18.44%) Continuous Improvement
5 108 (18.27%) Problem-Solving
6 97 (16.41%) AI
7 91 (15.40%) Migration
8 86 (14.55%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 84 (14.21%) CI/CD
10 70 (11.84%) Decision-Making
11 65 (11.00%) Roadmaps
12 62 (10.49%) Analytics
13 61 (10.32%) DevOps
14 55 (9.31%) Software Engineering
15 52 (8.80%) Risk Management
16 51 (8.63%) Project Management
17 47 (7.95%) Cybersecurity
17 47 (7.95%) Test Automation
18 46 (7.78%) Data Modelling
19 38 (6.43%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 79 (13.37%) Python
2 62 (10.49%) SQL
3 49 (8.29%) Java
4 17 (2.88%) JavaScript
5 15 (2.54%) TypeScript
6 13 (2.20%) Go
7 12 (2.03%) Kotlin
8 11 (1.86%) Bash
8 11 (1.86%) PowerShell
9 9 (1.52%) C#
10 7 (1.18%) C++
11 5 (0.85%) Bicep
11 5 (0.85%) COBOL
11 5 (0.85%) Perl
12 4 (0.68%) Apex Code
12 4 (0.68%) C
12 4 (0.68%) Groovy
12 4 (0.68%) Kusto Query Language
13 3 (0.51%) Shell Script
14 2 (0.34%) REXX
Qualifications
1 38 (6.43%) Security Cleared
2 35 (5.92%) SC Cleared
3 29 (4.91%) Degree
4 11 (1.86%) PMI Certification
4 11 (1.86%) PMP
5 9 (1.52%) CISSP
6 7 (1.18%) AWS Certification
7 6 (1.02%) Azure Certification
7 6 (1.02%) Cisco Certification
8 5 (0.85%) BPSS Clearance
9 4 (0.68%) CCNP
9 4 (0.68%) CISM
9 4 (0.68%) Computer Science Degree
9 4 (0.68%) CRISC
10 3 (0.51%) CISA
10 3 (0.51%) FFIEC
10 3 (0.51%) TOGAF Certification
11 2 (0.34%) CCIE
11 2 (0.34%) DV Cleared
11 2 (0.34%) PgMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (7.45%) Data Quality
2 41 (6.94%) GDPR
3 31 (5.25%) QA
4 9 (1.52%) PMO
5 7 (1.18%) NIST
6 6 (1.02%) Accessibility
6 6 (1.02%) PERC
7 4 (0.68%) Cyber Essentials
7 4 (0.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 4 (0.68%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 3 (0.51%) Actionable Recommendations
8 3 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 3 (0.51%) EMIR
8 3 (0.51%) MiFID
9 2 (0.34%) COBIT
9 2 (0.34%) GRC
9 2 (0.34%) NCSC
9 2 (0.34%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.34%) SEPA
9 2 (0.34%) SLA
System Software
1 20 (3.38%) Active Directory
2 17 (2.88%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (2.71%) Docker
4 9 (1.52%) Virtual Machines
5 7 (1.18%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (0.51%) NFS
7 2 (0.34%) GPFS
7 2 (0.34%) Virtual Servers
7 2 (0.34%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.34%) vSphere
8 1 (0.17%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.17%) KVM
8 1 (0.17%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 45 (7.61%) Kubernetes
2 28 (4.74%) Ansible
3 6 (1.02%) Grafana
3 6 (1.02%) Prometheus
4 5 (0.85%) Microsoft Intune
5 4 (0.68%) Cisco CUCM
6 3 (0.51%) Kustomize
6 3 (0.51%) Progress Chef
6 3 (0.51%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.34%) Argo
7 2 (0.34%) Control-M
7 2 (0.34%) Istio
7 2 (0.34%) Packer
7 2 (0.34%) Puppet
7 2 (0.34%) QRadar
7 2 (0.34%) SCCM
7 2 (0.34%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.17%) CA Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.17%) Tivoli NetView
8 1 (0.17%) Tivoli Storage Manager
Vendors
1 80 (13.54%) Microsoft
2 31 (5.25%) Cisco
3 26 (4.40%) Google
4 21 (3.55%) Databricks
5 20 (3.38%) ServiceNow
6 17 (2.88%) Oracle
6 17 (2.88%) SAP
6 17 (2.88%) VMware
7 13 (2.20%) IBM
8 11 (1.86%) F5
8 11 (1.86%) Red Hat
8 11 (1.86%) Salesforce
9 7 (1.18%) Citrix
10 6 (1.02%) CheckPoint
11 5 (0.85%) Murex
11 5 (0.85%) Palo Alto
12 4 (0.68%) Atlassian
12 4 (0.68%) Sage
12 4 (0.68%) SolarWinds
12 4 (0.68%) Sonatype