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 28 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 160 192 174
Rank change year-on-year +32 -18 0
Contract jobs citing Data Protection Act 591 353 514
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.66% 1.37% 1.36%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 4.91% 4.12% 4.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 251 162 259
10th Percentile £213 £276 £225
25th Percentile £331 £363 £344
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £650 £675 £725
UK median daily rate £450 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 9 14
10th Percentile - £20.45 £11.95
25th Percentile £25.50 £24.25 £14.59
Median hourly rate £26.50 £24.50 £26.31
Median % change year-on-year +8.16% -6.87% +17.58%
75th Percentile £28.56 £31.76 £42.63
90th Percentile £36.78 £32.09 £57.11
UK median hourly rate £26.50 £24.50 £25.12
% change year-on-year +8.16% -2.45% +12.88%

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 12,048 8,560 11,722
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 33.91% 33.33% 31.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,666 5,312 7,665
10th Percentile £285 £275 £256
25th Percentile £410 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £541 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.31% -1.59% -4.35%
75th Percentile £626 £670 £658
90th Percentile £738 £775 £775
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 591 272 756
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.01 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.87 £23.75 £16.54
Median hourly rate £33.50 £37.00 £32.06
Median % change year-on-year -9.46% +15.42% +42.48%
75th Percentile £65.00 £68.19 £57.50
90th Percentile £79.00 £83.39 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £33.09 £32.91 £31.25
% change year-on-year +0.55% +5.30% +38.98%

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 28 February 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 28 February 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 28 February 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 +46 307 £500 +7.53% 6
North of England -17 142 £475 -5.00% 5
Yorkshire -23 80 £475 -13.64% 2
South East -17 66 £350 -22.22% 5
North West -18 51 £425 -15.00% 2
Midlands -38 37 £436 +2.65% 3
West Midlands -39 26 £463 -5.13% 1
South West -16 17 £525 +7.69% 5
East of England -19 15 £413 -12.00% 2
East Midlands -14 11 £336 -10.33% 2
North East -21 11 £250 -44.44% 1
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 26 (4.40%) Confluence
2 12 (2.03%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (1.52%) SharePoint
4 7 (1.18%) Apache Airflow
5 5 (0.85%) Apache
5 5 (0.85%) Apache Spark
6 4 (0.68%) Palantir Foundry
7 3 (0.51%) CMS
8 2 (0.34%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 2 (0.34%) Drupal
8 2 (0.34%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 2 (0.34%) SAS
8 2 (0.34%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.17%) Camunda
9 1 (0.17%) Oracle Workflow
9 1 (0.17%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 18 (3.05%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (2.20%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (1.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.68%) Chatbot
4 4 (0.68%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.68%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.51%) AutoCAD
5 3 (0.51%) Sketch
5 3 (0.51%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.34%) Adobe After Effects
6 2 (0.34%) Adobe Illustrator
6 2 (0.34%) InVision
6 2 (0.34%) Photoshop
7 1 (0.17%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.17%) Adobe Premiere
7 1 (0.17%) Blender
7 1 (0.17%) CINEMA 4D
7 1 (0.17%) Final Cut Pro
Business Applications
1 10 (1.69%) Aladdin
2 5 (0.85%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (0.51%) Dynamics CRM
3 3 (0.51%) Fidessa
3 3 (0.51%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
4 2 (0.34%) ION MarketView
4 2 (0.34%) Oracle General Ledger
4 2 (0.34%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 2 (0.34%) Oracle Receivables
4 2 (0.34%) Salesforce CRM
4 2 (0.34%) SAP GRC
4 2 (0.34%) Workfront
5 1 (0.17%) Adobe Campaign
5 1 (0.17%) Loan IQ
5 1 (0.17%) Oracle EBS R12
5 1 (0.17%) Oracle FAH
5 1 (0.17%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.17%) Remedy ITSM
5 1 (0.17%) SAP MDG
5 1 (0.17%) Veritas eDiscovery
Cloud Services
1 63 (10.66%) AWS
2 60 (10.15%) Azure
3 26 (4.40%) GCP
3 26 (4.40%) Power Platform
4 24 (4.06%) Snowflake
5 21 (3.55%) Microsoft 365
6 17 (2.88%) Amazon S3
6 17 (2.88%) GitHub
7 16 (2.71%) AWS Lambda
7 16 (2.71%) Serverless
8 14 (2.37%) SaaS
9 12 (2.03%) Amazon EC2
10 11 (1.86%) Entra ID
11 9 (1.52%) GitHub Actions
12 8 (1.35%) Dynamics 365
12 8 (1.35%) Figma
12 8 (1.35%) OpenShift
13 7 (1.18%) Power Automate
14 6 (1.02%) Amazon EKS
14 6 (1.02%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 18 (3.05%) Firewall
2 15 (2.54%) MPLS
3 11 (1.86%) LAN
4 9 (1.52%) Network Security
5 8 (1.35%) WAN
5 8 (1.35%) Wi-Fi
6 7 (1.18%) VPN
7 6 (1.02%) BGP
7 6 (1.02%) Ethernet
8 5 (0.85%) TCP/IP
8 5 (0.85%) Wireshark
9 4 (0.68%) DNS
9 4 (0.68%) HTTP
9 4 (0.68%) Kerberos
9 4 (0.68%) NetScaler
9 4 (0.68%) SD-WAN
9 4 (0.68%) SSH
9 4 (0.68%) VLAN
10 3 (0.51%) Cisco Nexus
10 3 (0.51%) DWDM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (4.23%) Power BI
2 18 (3.05%) PostgreSQL
3 11 (1.86%) Tableau
4 9 (1.52%) Metadata
4 9 (1.52%) SQL Server
5 7 (1.18%) Amazon RDS
5 7 (1.18%) Data Lake
5 7 (1.18%) Hadoop
5 7 (1.18%) MongoDB
5 7 (1.18%) NoSQL
6 6 (1.02%) Data Warehouse
7 5 (0.85%) Amazon Aurora
7 5 (0.85%) Relational Database
8 4 (0.68%) DynamoDB
9 3 (0.51%) Apache Iceberg
9 3 (0.51%) Big Data
9 3 (0.51%) Oracle Database
10 2 (0.34%) Delta Lake
10 2 (0.34%) SAP HANA
10 2 (0.34%) Tick Data
Development Applications
1 46 (7.78%) JIRA
2 16 (2.71%) Git
3 12 (2.03%) Jenkins
4 11 (1.86%) SpecFlow
5 7 (1.18%) GitLab
5 7 (1.18%) Gradle
5 7 (1.18%) JUnit
5 7 (1.18%) Maven
5 7 (1.18%) Sonatype Nexus
6 5 (0.85%) Postman
7 4 (0.68%) Bitbucket
7 4 (0.68%) Fiddler
8 3 (0.51%) CircleCI
8 3 (0.51%) IntelliJ
8 3 (0.51%) TestNG
8 3 (0.51%) webpack
9 2 (0.34%) DBeaver
9 2 (0.34%) JMeter
9 2 (0.34%) Liquibase
9 2 (0.34%) Visual Studio
General
1 159 (26.90%) Social Skills
2 126 (21.32%) Finance
3 78 (13.20%) Banking
4 61 (10.32%) Analytical Skills
5 31 (5.25%) Telecoms
6 23 (3.89%) Documentation Skills
7 20 (3.38%) Front Office
8 18 (3.05%) Legal
9 16 (2.71%) Organisational Skills
9 16 (2.71%) Public Sector
10 15 (2.54%) Marketing
11 13 (2.20%) Presentation Skills
12 10 (1.69%) Investment Banking
13 7 (1.18%) Publishing
14 6 (1.02%) Financial Institution
14 6 (1.02%) Manufacturing
15 5 (0.85%) Influencing Skills
15 5 (0.85%) Private Banking
16 4 (0.68%) General Ledger
16 4 (0.68%) Police
Job Titles
1 77 (13.03%) Analyst
2 65 (11.00%) Developer
3 52 (8.80%) Architect
4 42 (7.11%) Business Analyst
5 38 (6.43%) Lead
6 33 (5.58%) Project Manager
7 32 (5.41%) Consultant
8 27 (4.57%) Senior
9 21 (3.55%) Network Engineer
10 19 (3.21%) Solutions Architect
11 17 (2.88%) Java Developer
11 17 (2.88%) Software Engineer
12 14 (2.37%) Support Engineer
13 13 (2.20%) Data Analyst
13 13 (2.20%) Data Engineer
13 13 (2.20%) Full-Stack Engineer
13 13 (2.20%) Tester
14 12 (2.03%) Python Developer
15 10 (1.69%) Automation Tester
15 10 (1.69%) Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (5.75%) React
2 21 (3.55%) REST
3 15 (2.54%) Playwright
4 12 (2.03%) Kafka
5 11 (1.86%) PySpark
6 10 (1.69%) .NET
6 10 (1.69%) OAuth
6 10 (1.69%) RESTful
6 10 (1.69%) Spring
7 9 (1.52%) SAML
8 8 (1.35%) AngularJS
8 8 (1.35%) HTML
8 8 (1.35%) LangChain
8 8 (1.35%) OpenTelemetry
8 8 (1.35%) Oracle Fusion
8 8 (1.35%) Spring Boot
8 8 (1.35%) XML
9 7 (1.18%) Middleware
9 7 (1.18%) Model Context Protocol
10 6 (1.02%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 25 (4.23%) Onboarding
2 23 (3.89%) Product Ownership
3 19 (3.21%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 17 (2.88%) Cloud Native
5 12 (2.03%) Derivative
6 10 (1.69%) Data Centre
6 10 (1.69%) Distributed Systems
6 10 (1.69%) Management Information System
7 9 (1.52%) Equities
7 9 (1.52%) Freedom of Information
8 8 (1.35%) AI Agents
8 8 (1.35%) Algorithms
8 8 (1.35%) Fixed Income
9 6 (1.02%) Mobile App
9 6 (1.02%) Replication
10 5 (0.85%) Hedge funds
10 5 (0.85%) Virtual Team
11 4 (0.68%) BYOD
11 4 (0.68%) Data Structures
11 4 (0.68%) Equity Derivative
Operating Systems
1 27 (4.57%) Windows
2 25 (4.23%) Linux
3 6 (1.02%) Unix
4 5 (0.85%) Android
5 4 (0.68%) AIX
5 4 (0.68%) Solaris
5 4 (0.68%) Windows 10
5 4 (0.68%) zOS
6 3 (0.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (0.51%) Windows Server
7 2 (0.34%) Apple iOS
7 2 (0.34%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 591 (100.00%) Data Protection
2 110 (18.61%) Stakeholder Management
3 102 (17.26%) Problem-Solving
4 89 (15.06%) Agile
5 73 (12.35%) Migration
6 64 (10.83%) AI
7 57 (9.64%) CI/CD
8 54 (9.14%) Project Management
9 53 (8.97%) Roadmaps
10 49 (8.29%) Analytics
10 49 (8.29%) DevOps
11 45 (7.61%) Continuous Improvement
12 41 (6.94%) Software Engineering
13 38 (6.43%) Decision-Making
14 36 (6.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 33 (5.58%) Machine Learning
15 33 (5.58%) Test Automation
16 31 (5.25%) Business Intelligence
16 31 (5.25%) Risk Management
17 29 (4.91%) Business Analysis
Programming Languages
1 109 (18.44%) Python
2 74 (12.52%) SQL
3 49 (8.29%) Java
4 35 (5.92%) C#
5 34 (5.75%) JavaScript
6 22 (3.72%) TypeScript
7 19 (3.21%) PowerShell
8 11 (1.86%) C++
9 10 (1.69%) Bash
10 6 (1.02%) Shell Script
11 4 (0.68%) Go
11 4 (0.68%) PHP
11 4 (0.68%) Scala
12 3 (0.51%) Groovy
12 3 (0.51%) Kusto Query Language
13 2 (0.34%) Bicep
13 2 (0.34%) Kotlin
13 2 (0.34%) PL/SQL
14 1 (0.17%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 1 (0.17%) SPARQL
Qualifications
1 51 (8.63%) Degree
2 44 (7.45%) Security Cleared
3 37 (6.26%) SC Cleared
4 18 (3.05%) Computer Science Degree
5 10 (1.69%) AWS Certification
5 10 (1.69%) Master's Degree
6 7 (1.18%) PMI Certification
6 7 (1.18%) PMP
7 6 (1.02%) CISSP
8 5 (0.85%) Cisco Certification
8 5 (0.85%) DV Cleared
9 4 (0.68%) CCNP
10 3 (0.51%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 3 (0.51%) Azure Certification
10 3 (0.51%) BPSS Clearance
10 3 (0.51%) Microsoft Certification
10 3 (0.51%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 3 (0.51%) PhD
11 2 (0.34%) CCNA
11 2 (0.34%) ISEB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (5.58%) QA
2 28 (4.74%) GDPR
3 19 (3.21%) Data Quality
4 14 (2.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 12 (2.03%) NIST
5 12 (2.03%) PMO
6 8 (1.35%) Accessibility
7 7 (1.18%) SLA
8 6 (1.02%) GRC
9 3 (0.51%) IFRS
9 3 (0.51%) PCI DSS
9 3 (0.51%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 2 (0.34%) Basel III
10 2 (0.34%) GAAP
10 2 (0.34%) IFRS 17
10 2 (0.34%) IFRS 9
10 2 (0.34%) ISO 20022
10 2 (0.34%) SEPA
10 2 (0.34%) SOC 2
10 2 (0.34%) WCAG
System Software
1 28 (4.74%) Docker
2 17 (2.88%) Active Directory
3 12 (2.03%) Virtual Desktop
4 10 (1.69%) VMware Infrastructure
5 4 (0.68%) KVM
6 3 (0.51%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.51%) Virtual Servers
6 3 (0.51%) vSphere
7 2 (0.34%) IAG
7 2 (0.34%) NFS
7 2 (0.34%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.17%) Firmware
8 1 (0.17%) HDFS
8 1 (0.17%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.17%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 37 (6.26%) Kubernetes
2 24 (4.06%) Terraform
3 15 (2.54%) Ansible
4 8 (1.35%) Grafana
5 6 (1.02%) Microsoft Intune
6 5 (0.85%) Control-M
6 5 (0.85%) Prometheus
7 4 (0.68%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 3 (0.51%) PingFederate
8 3 (0.51%) Puppet
8 3 (0.51%) Single Sign-On
8 3 (0.51%) vCenter Server
9 2 (0.34%) IBM Guardium
9 2 (0.34%) Nessus
9 2 (0.34%) Progress Chef
9 2 (0.34%) SCCM
10 1 (0.17%) Argo
10 1 (0.17%) Data Guard
10 1 (0.17%) Istio
10 1 (0.17%) SCOM
Vendors
1 51 (8.63%) Microsoft
2 26 (4.40%) Cisco
3 23 (3.89%) Databricks
4 19 (3.21%) Oracle
5 17 (2.88%) ServiceNow
6 14 (2.37%) SAP
7 13 (2.20%) Adobe
8 12 (2.03%) Salesforce
9 10 (1.69%) VMware
10 9 (1.52%) Google
10 9 (1.52%) Nokia
11 8 (1.35%) Citrix
12 7 (1.18%) ADVA
12 7 (1.18%) CyberArk
12 7 (1.18%) F5
13 6 (1.02%) Informatica
13 6 (1.02%) Juniper
13 6 (1.02%) Workday
14 5 (0.85%) Foundry
14 5 (0.85%) Splunk