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 7 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 221 157 167
Rank change year-on-year -64 +10 -20
Contract jobs citing Data Protection Act 590 514 492
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.27% 1.84% 1.53%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 3.68% 5.05% 4.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 236 214 250
10th Percentile £250 £297 £214
25th Percentile £350 £400 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £431 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -9.21% -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £556 £588 £598
90th Percentile £638 £650 £713
UK median daily rate £425 £469 £488
% change year-on-year -9.33% -3.85% -7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 10 7
10th Percentile £12.83 £14.95 £17.94
25th Percentile £13.69 £15.13 £19.06
Median hourly rate £17.20 £15.25 £27.84
Median % change year-on-year +12.79% -45.22% -17.27%
75th Percentile £25.00 £34.19 £70.78
90th Percentile £27.40 £40.90 £71.88
UK median hourly rate £18.00 £15.25 £27.84
% change year-on-year +18.03% -45.22% -34.01%

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 16,028 10,176 9,907
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 34.43% 36.41% 30.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,641 6,374 5,981
10th Percentile £325 £300 £294
25th Percentile £425 £411 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £543
Median % change year-on-year - -3.23% -1.36%
75th Percentile £648 £645 £675
90th Percentile £750 £763 £825
UK median daily rate £525 £518 £526
% change year-on-year +1.32% -1.49% -4.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,170 529 364
10th Percentile £13.89 £15.13 £15.92
25th Percentile £17.52 £18.87 £24.42
Median hourly rate £33.99 £30.00 £56.93
Median % change year-on-year +13.30% -47.30% +23.67%
75th Percentile £67.84 £56.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £83.00 £73.75 £75.16
UK median hourly rate £36.00 £28.06 £48.50
% change year-on-year +28.29% -42.14% +8.38%

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 7 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 7 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 7 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 -86 255 £425 -15.00% 80
North of England -18 184 £475 +5.56% 25
Yorkshire +20 108 £475 -5.00% 12
North West -7 70 £463 +3.93% 12
South East -40 70 £375 -9.09% 24
Midlands -35 52 £425 -8.11% 30
West Midlands -47 43 £438 -5.41% 13
South West -46 14 £425 -10.53% 13
East Midlands - 9 £425 - 17
North East -61 6 - - 1
East of England -34 5 £300 -36.84% 6
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 18 (3.05%) Confluence
2 11 (1.86%) SharePoint
3 9 (1.53%) SAS
4 7 (1.19%) Apache
5 6 (1.02%) Apache Spark
6 5 (0.85%) Apache Airflow
6 5 (0.85%) Microsoft Exchange
7 3 (0.51%) CICS
7 3 (0.51%) CMS
7 3 (0.51%) nginx
8 1 (0.17%) Apache Superset
8 1 (0.17%) Camunda
8 1 (0.17%) IIS
8 1 (0.17%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.17%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.17%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.17%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.17%) WordPress
Applications
1 15 (2.54%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (2.03%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (0.85%) 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 (1.53%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (0.85%) Aladdin
3 2 (0.34%) Cloudability
3 2 (0.34%) ION MarketView
3 2 (0.34%) Oracle EBS
3 2 (0.34%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.17%) Actimize
4 1 (0.17%) Bloomberg TOMS
4 1 (0.17%) Eloqua
4 1 (0.17%) Oracle Applications
4 1 (0.17%) Oracle BRM
4 1 (0.17%) Oracle EBS R12
4 1 (0.17%) Sage 50
4 1 (0.17%) SAP BRIM
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 (16.44%) Azure
2 78 (13.22%) AWS
3 54 (9.15%) GCP
4 27 (4.58%) GitHub
5 23 (3.90%) SaaS
6 18 (3.05%) Power Platform
7 17 (2.88%) Azure DevOps
7 17 (2.88%) Microsoft 365
8 13 (2.20%) Serverless
9 10 (1.69%) GitHub Actions
10 9 (1.53%) Snowflake
11 7 (1.19%) Amazon EC2
11 7 (1.19%) Amazon EKS
11 7 (1.19%) Azure AKS
11 7 (1.19%) OpenShift
12 6 (1.02%) Amazon S3
12 6 (1.02%) Entra ID
12 6 (1.02%) IaaS
12 6 (1.02%) Microsoft Copilot
12 6 (1.02%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 22 (3.73%) Firewall
2 16 (2.71%) Network Security
3 12 (2.03%) LAN
4 11 (1.86%) WAN
5 10 (1.69%) MPLS
6 9 (1.53%) DNS
7 8 (1.36%) VoIP
8 7 (1.19%) Cisco IPT
8 7 (1.19%) Wi-Fi
9 6 (1.02%) Cisco Nexus
9 6 (1.02%) VPN
10 5 (0.85%) DHCP
10 5 (0.85%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
10 5 (0.85%) SDH
10 5 (0.85%) Unified Communications
11 4 (0.68%) BIG-IP
11 4 (0.68%) Cisco ISE
11 4 (0.68%) HSRP
11 4 (0.68%) Multicast
11 4 (0.68%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (3.05%) Metadata
2 17 (2.88%) PostgreSQL
2 17 (2.88%) Power BI
3 12 (2.03%) Data Warehouse
4 10 (1.69%) BigQuery
4 10 (1.69%) Relational Database
5 7 (1.19%) Oracle Database
5 7 (1.19%) SQL Server
6 6 (1.02%) Big Data
7 5 (0.85%) Data Lake
7 5 (0.85%) Elasticsearch
7 5 (0.85%) Redis
8 4 (0.68%) Amazon RDS
8 4 (0.68%) Db2
8 4 (0.68%) NoSQL
8 4 (0.68%) Tableau
9 3 (0.51%) Amazon Redshift
9 3 (0.51%) DynamoDB
9 3 (0.51%) MySQL
9 3 (0.51%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 37 (6.27%) JIRA
2 23 (3.90%) Jenkins
3 21 (3.56%) Git
4 7 (1.19%) 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%) Jaeger
9 1 (0.17%) Postman
9 1 (0.17%) Vite
General
1 245 (41.53%) Social Skills
2 175 (29.66%) Finance
3 85 (14.41%) Analytical Skills
4 82 (13.90%) Banking
5 34 (5.76%) Public Sector
6 29 (4.92%) Legal
7 27 (4.58%) Organisational Skills
8 22 (3.73%) Influencing Skills
9 21 (3.56%) 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
14 11 (1.86%) Presentation Skills
15 10 (1.69%) Marketing
16 9 (1.53%) Financial Institution
17 6 (1.02%) Publishing
18 5 (0.85%) Law
18 5 (0.85%) Police
Job Titles
1 81 (13.73%) Architect
2 66 (11.19%) Analyst
3 42 (7.12%) Lead
4 41 (6.95%) Business Analyst
5 39 (6.61%) Developer
6 31 (5.25%) Senior
7 29 (4.92%) Solutions Architect
8 28 (4.75%) Project Manager
9 25 (4.24%) Consultant
10 14 (2.37%) DevOps Engineer
10 14 (2.37%) Support Engineer
11 12 (2.03%) Java Developer
11 12 (2.03%) Software Engineer
12 10 (1.69%) Data Engineer
12 10 (1.69%) Data Protection Officer
12 10 (1.69%) Tester
13 9 (1.53%) Designer
13 9 (1.53%) Product Manager
13 9 (1.53%) Product Owner
14 8 (1.36%) Enterprise Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (6.44%) REST
1 38 (6.44%) Terraform
2 20 (3.39%) Kafka
3 15 (2.54%) Spring
4 14 (2.37%) React
4 14 (2.37%) Spring Boot
5 12 (2.03%) JSON
6 11 (1.86%) GraphQL
6 11 (1.86%) Node.js
7 10 (1.69%) .NET
7 10 (1.69%) YAML
8 9 (1.53%) Middleware
9 8 (1.36%) OAuth
9 8 (1.36%) Pandas
10 7 (1.19%) HTML
10 7 (1.19%) OAuth2
11 6 (1.02%) OpenID
11 6 (1.02%) RESTful
12 5 (0.85%) AngularJS
12 5 (0.85%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 38 (6.44%) Product Ownership
2 37 (6.27%) Cloud Native
3 29 (4.92%) Onboarding
4 26 (4.41%) Distributed Systems
5 22 (3.73%) Virtual Team
6 20 (3.39%) Management Information System
7 19 (3.22%) Data Centre
8 16 (2.71%) Legacy Systems
9 15 (2.54%) Data Structures
10 14 (2.37%) Freedom of Information
11 13 (2.20%) Mainframe
12 12 (2.03%) Mobile App
13 11 (1.86%) Derivative
14 10 (1.69%) Self-Motivation
15 9 (1.53%) Analytical Mindset
15 9 (1.53%) Enterprise Software
15 9 (1.53%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 9 (1.53%) Freedom of Information Act
16 8 (1.36%) AI Agents
16 8 (1.36%) Fixed Income
Operating Systems
1 33 (5.59%) Linux
2 30 (5.08%) Windows
3 12 (2.03%) Android
3 12 (2.03%) Unix
4 10 (1.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (1.53%) Apple iOS
6 8 (1.36%) zOS
7 6 (1.02%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.85%) Mac OS
9 3 (0.51%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.17%) CentOS
10 1 (0.17%) MVS
Processes & Methodologies
1 590 (100.00%) Data Protection
2 170 (28.81%) Stakeholder Management
3 117 (19.83%) Agile
4 107 (18.14%) Continuous Improvement
5 104 (17.63%) Problem-Solving
6 99 (16.78%) AI
7 91 (15.42%) Migration
8 87 (14.75%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 84 (14.24%) CI/CD
10 68 (11.53%) Decision-Making
11 63 (10.68%) Analytics
11 63 (10.68%) DevOps
12 61 (10.34%) Roadmaps
13 53 (8.98%) Risk Management
14 51 (8.64%) Software Engineering
15 49 (8.31%) Project Management
16 48 (8.14%) Data Modelling
17 45 (7.63%) Test Automation
18 44 (7.46%) Cybersecurity
19 41 (6.95%) Data Governance
Programming Languages
1 82 (13.90%) Python
2 63 (10.68%) SQL
3 50 (8.47%) Java
4 17 (2.88%) TypeScript
5 16 (2.71%) JavaScript
6 13 (2.20%) Go
7 12 (2.03%) Kotlin
7 12 (2.03%) PowerShell
8 11 (1.86%) Bash
9 9 (1.53%) C#
10 7 (1.19%) 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
13 2 (0.34%) REXX
13 2 (0.34%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.34%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 39 (6.61%) Security Cleared
2 36 (6.10%) SC Cleared
3 27 (4.58%) Degree
4 10 (1.69%) PMI Certification
4 10 (1.69%) PMP
5 7 (1.19%) AWS Certification
5 7 (1.19%) Azure Certification
5 7 (1.19%) CISSP
6 6 (1.02%) Cisco Certification
7 5 (0.85%) BPSS Clearance
8 4 (0.68%) CCNP
8 4 (0.68%) Computer Science Degree
8 4 (0.68%) CRISC
9 3 (0.51%) CISA
9 3 (0.51%) CISM
9 3 (0.51%) FFIEC
10 2 (0.34%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 2 (0.34%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 2 (0.34%) Master's Degree
10 2 (0.34%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (7.97%) Data Quality
2 43 (7.29%) GDPR
3 31 (5.25%) QA
4 9 (1.53%) PMO
5 7 (1.19%) 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 19 (3.22%) Active Directory
1 19 (3.22%) VMware Infrastructure
2 17 (2.88%) Docker
3 8 (1.36%) Virtual Desktop
3 8 (1.36%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (0.68%) NFS
5 2 (0.34%) GPFS
5 2 (0.34%) KVM
5 2 (0.34%) Virtual Servers
5 2 (0.34%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.34%) vSphere
6 1 (0.17%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.17%) Time Sharing Option
6 1 (0.17%) Varnish
6 1 (0.17%) XenApp
6 1 (0.17%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 45 (7.63%) Kubernetes
2 28 (4.75%) 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
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%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.34%) Tivoli Storage Manager
7 2 (0.34%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.17%) CA Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.17%) Tivoli NetView
Vendors
1 74 (12.54%) Microsoft
2 29 (4.92%) Cisco
3 26 (4.41%) Google
4 22 (3.73%) Databricks
5 21 (3.56%) ServiceNow
6 19 (3.22%) VMware
7 17 (2.88%) Oracle
7 17 (2.88%) SAP
8 12 (2.03%) IBM
8 12 (2.03%) Red Hat
9 11 (1.86%) F5
9 11 (1.86%) Salesforce
10 9 (1.53%) Citrix
11 6 (1.02%) CheckPoint
12 5 (0.85%) Murex
12 5 (0.85%) Palo Alto
13 4 (0.68%) Atlassian
13 4 (0.68%) SolarWinds
13 4 (0.68%) Sonatype
13 4 (0.68%) Splunk