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

6 months to
14 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 169 179 169
Rank change year-on-year +10 -10 +10
Contract jobs citing Data Protection Act 558 384 532
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.63% 1.47% 1.40%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 4.76% 4.43% 4.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 247 175 274
10th Percentile £213 £268 £218
25th Percentile £344 £358 £328
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% -9.09%
75th Percentile £588 £584 £588
90th Percentile £653 £684 £725
UK median daily rate £450 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 9 12
10th Percentile - £20.45 -
25th Percentile £25.50 £24.25 £11.95
Median hourly rate £27.50 £24.50 £32.56
Median % change year-on-year +12.24% -24.75% +46.33%
75th Percentile £28.75 £31.76 £44.54
90th Percentile £38.39 £32.09 £60.70
UK median hourly rate £27.50 £24.50 £25.12
% change year-on-year +12.24% -2.45% +16.14%

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 11,723 8,668 11,835
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 34.25% 33.27% 31.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,471 5,277 7,782
10th Percentile £275 £275 £255
25th Percentile £406 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £545 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.42% -0.91% -4.35%
75th Percentile £630 £668 £660
90th Percentile £738 £775 £775
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £527
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.28% -4.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 586 251 752
10th Percentile £15.50 £18.22 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.87 £24.18 £16.88
Median hourly rate £32.25 £37.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -12.84% +13.85% +44.54%
75th Percentile £63.75 £66.00 £58.75
90th Percentile £75.50 £83.20 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £30.00 £35.00 £32.12
% change year-on-year -14.29% +8.98% +42.83%

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 14 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 14 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 14 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 +30 300 £513 +2.50% 7
North of England -24 126 £450 -10.00% 7
Yorkshire -24 68 £475 -12.64% 2
South East -18 59 £325 -27.78% 3
North West -18 47 £425 -14.96% 4
Midlands -39 34 £448 -5.79% 8
West Midlands -38 26 £450 -11.11% 3
South West -6 17 £525 +7.69% 4
East of England -18 15 £475 +1.33% 2
North East -23 11 £250 -44.44% 1
East Midlands -22 8 £336 -10.33% 5
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 27 (4.84%) Confluence
2 9 (1.61%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (1.61%) SharePoint
3 7 (1.25%) Apache Airflow
4 5 (0.90%) Apache
4 5 (0.90%) Apache Spark
5 4 (0.72%) Palantir Foundry
6 3 (0.54%) CMS
6 3 (0.54%) SAS
7 2 (0.36%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 2 (0.36%) Drupal
7 2 (0.36%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 2 (0.36%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.18%) Camunda
8 1 (0.18%) Oracle Workflow
8 1 (0.18%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 18 (3.23%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (2.15%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (1.08%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.90%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.72%) Chatbot
6 3 (0.54%) AutoCAD
6 3 (0.54%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.54%) Sketch
6 3 (0.54%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.36%) Adobe After Effects
7 2 (0.36%) Adobe Illustrator
7 2 (0.36%) InVision
7 2 (0.36%) Photoshop
8 1 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.18%) Adobe Premiere
8 1 (0.18%) Blender
8 1 (0.18%) CINEMA 4D
8 1 (0.18%) Final Cut Pro
8 1 (0.18%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 10 (1.79%) Aladdin
2 5 (0.90%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (0.54%) Dynamics CRM
3 3 (0.54%) Fidessa
3 3 (0.54%) Oracle Receivables
3 3 (0.54%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
4 2 (0.36%) ION MarketView
4 2 (0.36%) Oracle EBS R12
4 2 (0.36%) Oracle General Ledger
4 2 (0.36%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 2 (0.36%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.18%) Adobe Campaign
5 1 (0.18%) Oracle FAH
5 1 (0.18%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.18%) Remedy ITSM
5 1 (0.18%) SAP EWM
5 1 (0.18%) SAP GRC
5 1 (0.18%) SAP MDG
5 1 (0.18%) Veritas eDiscovery
5 1 (0.18%) Workfront
Cloud Services
1 62 (11.11%) AWS
2 55 (9.86%) Azure
3 26 (4.66%) GCP
4 25 (4.48%) Power Platform
5 23 (4.12%) Snowflake
6 18 (3.23%) Microsoft 365
7 17 (3.05%) Amazon S3
7 17 (3.05%) GitHub
8 16 (2.87%) AWS Lambda
8 16 (2.87%) Serverless
9 13 (2.33%) SaaS
10 12 (2.15%) Amazon EC2
11 10 (1.79%) Entra ID
12 8 (1.43%) Dynamics 365
12 8 (1.43%) Figma
12 8 (1.43%) GitHub Actions
13 7 (1.25%) Amazon EKS
13 7 (1.25%) Azure DevOps
13 7 (1.25%) OpenShift
13 7 (1.25%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 16 (2.87%) Firewall
2 15 (2.69%) MPLS
3 11 (1.97%) LAN
4 9 (1.61%) Network Security
5 8 (1.43%) WAN
5 8 (1.43%) Wi-Fi
6 7 (1.25%) VPN
7 5 (0.90%) BGP
7 5 (0.90%) Ethernet
7 5 (0.90%) Wireshark
8 4 (0.72%) DNS
8 4 (0.72%) Kerberos
8 4 (0.72%) NetScaler
8 4 (0.72%) SD-WAN
8 4 (0.72%) SSH
8 4 (0.72%) TCP/IP
8 4 (0.72%) VLAN
9 3 (0.54%) DWDM
9 3 (0.54%) Internet
9 3 (0.54%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (4.30%) Power BI
2 17 (3.05%) PostgreSQL
3 11 (1.97%) NoSQL
4 10 (1.79%) Tableau
5 8 (1.43%) Hadoop
5 8 (1.43%) SQL Server
6 7 (1.25%) Amazon RDS
6 7 (1.25%) Metadata
6 7 (1.25%) MongoDB
7 6 (1.08%) Data Lake
7 6 (1.08%) Data Warehouse
7 6 (1.08%) Relational Database
8 5 (0.90%) Amazon Aurora
9 4 (0.72%) Big Data
9 4 (0.72%) DynamoDB
10 3 (0.54%) Apache Iceberg
10 3 (0.54%) MySQL
11 2 (0.36%) Delta Lake
11 2 (0.36%) RDBMS
11 2 (0.36%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 46 (8.24%) JIRA
2 13 (2.33%) Git
3 11 (1.97%) Jenkins
4 10 (1.79%) SpecFlow
5 6 (1.08%) Gradle
5 6 (1.08%) JUnit
5 6 (1.08%) Maven
5 6 (1.08%) Sonatype Nexus
6 5 (0.90%) GitLab
7 4 (0.72%) Bitbucket
7 4 (0.72%) Fiddler
8 3 (0.54%) CircleCI
9 2 (0.36%) DBeaver
9 2 (0.36%) IntelliJ
9 2 (0.36%) Katalon Studio
9 2 (0.36%) Postman
9 2 (0.36%) TestNG
9 2 (0.36%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.36%) webpack
10 1 (0.18%) PyCharm
General
1 153 (27.42%) Social Skills
2 123 (22.04%) Finance
3 74 (13.26%) Banking
4 61 (10.93%) Analytical Skills
5 29 (5.20%) Telecoms
6 23 (4.12%) Documentation Skills
7 18 (3.23%) Front Office
8 17 (3.05%) Legal
9 15 (2.69%) Public Sector
10 13 (2.33%) Organisational Skills
11 11 (1.97%) Marketing
12 9 (1.61%) Presentation Skills
13 7 (1.25%) Investment Banking
13 7 (1.25%) Publishing
14 6 (1.08%) Financial Institution
15 5 (0.90%) Aerospace
15 5 (0.90%) General Ledger
15 5 (0.90%) Influencing Skills
15 5 (0.90%) Private Banking
16 4 (0.72%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 75 (13.44%) Analyst
2 65 (11.65%) Developer
3 41 (7.35%) Architect
4 40 (7.17%) Business Analyst
5 36 (6.45%) Lead
5 36 (6.45%) Project Manager
6 27 (4.84%) Consultant
7 23 (4.12%) Senior
8 19 (3.41%) Network Engineer
9 16 (2.87%) Software Engineer
9 16 (2.87%) Solutions Architect
10 15 (2.69%) Java Developer
11 14 (2.51%) Support Engineer
12 13 (2.33%) Data Analyst
12 13 (2.33%) Data Engineer
12 13 (2.33%) Full-Stack Engineer
12 13 (2.33%) Python Developer
13 12 (2.15%) Tester
14 9 (1.61%) Designer
14 9 (1.61%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (5.38%) React
2 17 (3.05%) REST
3 14 (2.51%) RESTful
4 13 (2.33%) Playwright
5 11 (1.97%) .NET
5 11 (1.97%) PySpark
6 10 (1.79%) OAuth
6 10 (1.79%) Spring
7 9 (1.61%) SAML
7 9 (1.61%) Spring Boot
8 8 (1.43%) HTML
8 8 (1.43%) Kafka
8 8 (1.43%) LangChain
9 7 (1.25%) AngularJS
9 7 (1.25%) Model Context Protocol
9 7 (1.25%) OpenTelemetry
9 7 (1.25%) XML
10 6 (1.08%) Oracle Fusion
11 5 (0.90%) OpenID
12 4 (0.72%) HTML5
Miscellaneous
1 22 (3.94%) Onboarding
2 17 (3.05%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 16 (2.87%) Cloud Native
4 15 (2.69%) Product Ownership
5 11 (1.97%) Derivative
6 10 (1.79%) Equities
6 10 (1.79%) Management Information System
7 9 (1.61%) Data Centre
7 9 (1.61%) Freedom of Information
8 8 (1.43%) Distributed Systems
8 8 (1.43%) Fixed Income
9 7 (1.25%) Algorithms
10 6 (1.08%) AI Agents
11 5 (0.90%) Mobile App
12 4 (0.72%) Credit Risk
12 4 (0.72%) Data Structures
12 4 (0.72%) Equity Derivative
12 4 (0.72%) Hedge funds
12 4 (0.72%) Replication
12 4 (0.72%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 29 (5.20%) Linux
2 26 (4.66%) Windows
3 8 (1.43%) Unix
4 5 (0.90%) Android
5 4 (0.72%) AIX
5 4 (0.72%) Solaris
5 4 (0.72%) Windows 10
5 4 (0.72%) zOS
6 3 (0.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (0.54%) Windows Server
7 2 (0.36%) VMS
8 1 (0.18%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 558 (100.00%) Data Protection
2 103 (18.46%) Stakeholder Management
3 97 (17.38%) Problem-Solving
4 92 (16.49%) Agile
5 73 (13.08%) Migration
6 62 (11.11%) AI
7 53 (9.50%) Project Management
8 52 (9.32%) CI/CD
9 46 (8.24%) Analytics
10 45 (8.06%) DevOps
11 43 (7.71%) Software Engineering
12 39 (6.99%) Roadmaps
13 38 (6.81%) Continuous Improvement
13 38 (6.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 36 (6.45%) Decision-Making
15 31 (5.56%) Business Analysis
15 31 (5.56%) Test Automation
16 30 (5.38%) Machine Learning
17 29 (5.20%) Risk Management
18 28 (5.02%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 103 (18.46%) Python
2 77 (13.80%) SQL
3 42 (7.53%) Java
4 35 (6.27%) C#
5 32 (5.73%) JavaScript
6 21 (3.76%) TypeScript
7 15 (2.69%) PowerShell
8 13 (2.33%) C++
9 9 (1.61%) Shell Script
10 6 (1.08%) Bash
11 4 (0.72%) PHP
11 4 (0.72%) Scala
12 3 (0.54%) Go
12 3 (0.54%) Groovy
12 3 (0.54%) Kusto Query Language
13 2 (0.36%) Bicep
13 2 (0.36%) COBOL
13 2 (0.36%) Kotlin
13 2 (0.36%) PL/SQL
14 1 (0.18%) VBA
Qualifications
1 52 (9.32%) Degree
2 42 (7.53%) Security Cleared
3 35 (6.27%) SC Cleared
4 17 (3.05%) Computer Science Degree
5 13 (2.33%) Master's Degree
6 10 (1.79%) AWS Certification
7 8 (1.43%) PMI Certification
7 8 (1.43%) PMP
8 5 (0.90%) CISSP
8 5 (0.90%) DV Cleared
9 4 (0.72%) Cisco Certification
10 3 (0.54%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 3 (0.54%) BPSS Clearance
10 3 (0.54%) CCNP
10 3 (0.54%) Microsoft Certification
10 3 (0.54%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 2 (0.36%) Azure Certification
11 2 (0.36%) CCNA
11 2 (0.36%) CompTIA Security+
11 2 (0.36%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (5.38%) GDPR
1 30 (5.38%) QA
2 20 (3.58%) Data Quality
3 13 (2.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 10 (1.79%) NIST
4 10 (1.79%) PMO
5 8 (1.43%) Accessibility
6 4 (0.72%) GRC
6 4 (0.72%) PCI DSS
6 4 (0.72%) SLA
7 3 (0.54%) IFRS
7 3 (0.54%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 2 (0.36%) Basel III
8 2 (0.36%) GAAP
8 2 (0.36%) IFRS 17
8 2 (0.36%) IFRS 9
8 2 (0.36%) ISO 20022
8 2 (0.36%) SEPA
8 2 (0.36%) SOC 2
8 2 (0.36%) WCAG
System Software
1 24 (4.30%) Docker
2 15 (2.69%) Active Directory
3 11 (1.97%) Virtual Desktop
4 9 (1.61%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (0.54%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.36%) KVM
6 2 (0.36%) NFS
6 2 (0.36%) Virtual Servers
6 2 (0.36%) vSphere
7 1 (0.18%) Firmware
7 1 (0.18%) HDFS
7 1 (0.18%) IAG
7 1 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.18%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 31 (5.56%) Kubernetes
2 21 (3.76%) Terraform
3 12 (2.15%) Ansible
4 5 (0.90%) Control-M
4 5 (0.90%) Grafana
4 5 (0.90%) Prometheus
5 4 (0.72%) Microsoft Intune
6 3 (0.54%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 3 (0.54%) PingFederate
6 3 (0.54%) Puppet
6 3 (0.54%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (0.54%) vCenter Server
7 2 (0.36%) IBM Guardium
7 2 (0.36%) Nessus
7 2 (0.36%) Progress Chef
7 2 (0.36%) SCCM
8 1 (0.18%) CSIRT
8 1 (0.18%) Jamf Pro
8 1 (0.18%) SCOM
8 1 (0.18%) Tivoli Storage Manager
Vendors
1 47 (8.42%) Microsoft
2 23 (4.12%) Cisco
2 23 (4.12%) Databricks
3 16 (2.87%) Oracle
4 14 (2.51%) ServiceNow
5 13 (2.33%) SAP
6 11 (1.97%) Adobe
7 10 (1.79%) Salesforce
8 9 (1.61%) Google
8 9 (1.61%) Nokia
8 9 (1.61%) VMware
9 7 (1.25%) ADVA
9 7 (1.25%) Citrix
9 7 (1.25%) Informatica
10 6 (1.08%) CyberArk
10 6 (1.08%) F5
10 6 (1.08%) Juniper
11 5 (0.90%) Foundry
11 5 (0.90%) Meraki
11 5 (0.90%) Workday