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

6 months to
9 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 171 186 192
Rank change year-on-year +15 +6 -41
Contract jobs citing Data Protection Act 633 355 458
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.55% 1.46% 1.24%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 4.80% 4.28% 4.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 274 145 225
10th Percentile £213 £282 £236
25th Percentile £327 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -9.52% -
75th Percentile £538 £575 £625
90th Percentile £638 £638 £738
UK median daily rate £449 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -5.53% -5.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 10 23
10th Percentile £19.88 £23.75 £11.95
25th Percentile £25.50 £24.25 £21.50
Median hourly rate £27.75 £28.32 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year -2.01% +2.98% -26.67%
75th Percentile £34.67 £31.76 £35.00
90th Percentile £57.88 £31.92 £62.50
UK median hourly rate £27.75 £28.32 £27.50
% change year-on-year -2.01% +2.98% -29.03%

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 13,174 8,301 11,321
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 32.33% 34.16% 30.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,351 5,433 7,416
10th Percentile £308 £300 £268
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £545 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.96% -0.91% -3.93%
75th Percentile £625 £675 £675
90th Percentile £750 £788 £800
UK median daily rate £503 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -4.17% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 662 327 821
10th Percentile £16.01 £16.72 £12.25
25th Percentile £21.00 £21.23 £15.17
Median hourly rate £47.00 £35.00 £32.12
Median % change year-on-year +34.29% +8.98% +42.83%
75th Percentile £70.00 £64.88 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £84.70 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £45.00 £32.50 £31.00
% change year-on-year +38.46% +4.84% +37.87%

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 May 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 May 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 May 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 +27 313 £475 +4.51% 10
North of England -13 167 £475 - 7
Yorkshire -7 107 £475 -9.52% 3
South East -36 68 £368 -2.00% 1
North West -1 56 £450 -10.00% 2
Midlands -36 54 £425 -17.07% 5
West Midlands -43 41 £438 -16.67% 3
South West -27 14 £525 +20.00% 6
East Midlands -22 13 £425 +13.71% 2
East of England -36 9 £413 +37.50% 4
North East -38 4 £250 -39.39% 2
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 (2.84%) Confluence
2 12 (1.90%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (1.58%) SharePoint
4 5 (0.79%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 5 (0.79%) SAS
5 3 (0.47%) Apache
5 3 (0.47%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (0.47%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.47%) CMS
6 2 (0.32%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 2 (0.32%) Drupal
6 2 (0.32%) Jupyter
6 2 (0.32%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.16%) Camunda
7 1 (0.16%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.16%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 17 (2.69%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (2.05%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.63%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.47%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.32%) AutoCAD
6 2 (0.32%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.32%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.16%) Adobe After Effects
7 1 (0.16%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.16%) Adobe Illustrator
7 1 (0.16%) Adobe Premiere
7 1 (0.16%) Blender
7 1 (0.16%) CINEMA 4D
7 1 (0.16%) Maya
7 1 (0.16%) Photoshop
7 1 (0.16%) Trello
Business Applications
1 12 (1.90%) Aladdin
2 4 (0.63%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (0.47%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 3 (0.47%) SAP GRC
4 2 (0.32%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.32%) Oracle General Ledger
4 2 (0.32%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 2 (0.32%) Salesforce CRM
4 2 (0.32%) Workfront
5 1 (0.16%) Endur
5 1 (0.16%) Fidessa
5 1 (0.16%) ION MarketView
5 1 (0.16%) Loan IQ
5 1 (0.16%) Oracle Applications
5 1 (0.16%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.16%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.16%) Remedy ITSM
5 1 (0.16%) SAP MDG
5 1 (0.16%) SAP PLM
5 1 (0.16%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 69 (10.90%) Azure
2 60 (9.48%) AWS
3 32 (5.06%) GCP
4 25 (3.95%) Power Platform
5 19 (3.00%) Microsoft 365
5 19 (3.00%) Snowflake
6 17 (2.69%) GitHub
6 17 (2.69%) SaaS
7 16 (2.53%) Entra ID
8 10 (1.58%) Serverless
9 9 (1.42%) AWS Lambda
10 8 (1.26%) Figma
10 8 (1.26%) OpenShift
11 7 (1.11%) Amazon EC2
11 7 (1.11%) Amazon S3
11 7 (1.11%) Azure DevOps
11 7 (1.11%) Microsoft Purview
11 7 (1.11%) PaaS
12 6 (0.95%) Amazon EKS
12 6 (0.95%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 23 (3.63%) Firewall
2 18 (2.84%) MPLS
3 16 (2.53%) Network Security
4 12 (1.90%) LAN
5 11 (1.74%) Wi-Fi
6 10 (1.58%) WAN
7 8 (1.26%) VPN
8 7 (1.11%) DNS
8 7 (1.11%) Ethernet
9 6 (0.95%) BGP
9 6 (0.95%) Cisco Nexus
9 6 (0.95%) TCP/IP
10 5 (0.79%) NetScaler
11 4 (0.63%) DHCP
11 4 (0.63%) VLAN
12 3 (0.47%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
12 3 (0.47%) Internet
12 3 (0.47%) SDH
12 3 (0.47%) VoIP
12 3 (0.47%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (3.63%) Power BI
2 18 (2.84%) PostgreSQL
3 16 (2.53%) Metadata
4 11 (1.74%) Relational Database
5 10 (1.58%) Tableau
6 9 (1.42%) Data Lake
6 9 (1.42%) Data Warehouse
6 9 (1.42%) SQL Server
7 7 (1.11%) MongoDB
8 5 (0.79%) Amazon RDS
8 5 (0.79%) DynamoDB
8 5 (0.79%) Oracle Database
9 4 (0.63%) NoSQL
9 4 (0.63%) Pinecone
9 4 (0.63%) Weaviate
10 3 (0.47%) Big Data
10 3 (0.47%) Hadoop
10 3 (0.47%) MySQL
10 3 (0.47%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 2 (0.32%) KDB
Development Applications
1 42 (6.64%) JIRA
2 18 (2.84%) Git
3 12 (1.90%) Jenkins
4 11 (1.74%) SpecFlow
5 7 (1.11%) Sonatype Nexus
6 6 (0.95%) Maven
7 5 (0.79%) GitLab
8 4 (0.63%) Bitbucket
8 4 (0.63%) Gradle
8 4 (0.63%) JUnit
8 4 (0.63%) Postman
9 3 (0.47%) Katalon Studio
9 3 (0.47%) Liquibase
9 3 (0.47%) TestNG
10 2 (0.32%) Flyway
10 2 (0.32%) Gatling
10 2 (0.32%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.32%) JMeter
10 2 (0.32%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.32%) webpack
General
1 182 (28.75%) Social Skills
2 144 (22.75%) Finance
3 75 (11.85%) Banking
4 56 (8.85%) Analytical Skills
5 31 (4.90%) Telecoms
6 28 (4.42%) Front Office
7 24 (3.79%) Documentation Skills
8 20 (3.16%) Organisational Skills
8 20 (3.16%) Public Sector
9 17 (2.69%) Legal
10 16 (2.53%) Marketing
11 11 (1.74%) Influencing Skills
12 10 (1.58%) Presentation Skills
13 8 (1.26%) Investment Banking
14 7 (1.11%) Financial Institution
14 7 (1.11%) Pharmaceutical
15 6 (0.95%) Private Banking
16 5 (0.79%) Police
16 5 (0.79%) Publishing
16 5 (0.79%) Retail
Job Titles
1 72 (11.37%) Architect
2 71 (11.22%) Analyst
3 66 (10.43%) Developer
4 42 (6.64%) Business Analyst
4 42 (6.64%) Senior
5 40 (6.32%) Consultant
6 35 (5.53%) Lead
7 33 (5.21%) Project Manager
8 26 (4.11%) Solutions Architect
9 23 (3.63%) Java Developer
9 23 (3.63%) Network Engineer
10 14 (2.21%) Data Engineer
11 13 (2.05%) Software Engineer
11 13 (2.05%) Tester
12 12 (1.90%) Automation Tester
12 12 (1.90%) Data Analyst
12 12 (1.90%) DevOps Engineer
12 12 (1.90%) Product Manager
12 12 (1.90%) Python Developer
13 11 (1.74%) Network Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (5.21%) React
2 24 (3.79%) REST
3 14 (2.21%) Playwright
3 14 (2.21%) Spring
4 13 (2.05%) .NET
4 13 (2.05%) RESTful
4 13 (2.05%) Spring Boot
5 12 (1.90%) Kafka
6 10 (1.58%) JSON
7 8 (1.26%) Middleware
7 8 (1.26%) PySpark
8 7 (1.11%) AngularJS
8 7 (1.11%) GraphQL
8 7 (1.11%) Vue
8 7 (1.11%) XML
9 6 (0.95%) HTML
9 6 (0.95%) Model Context Protocol
9 6 (0.95%) Node.js
9 6 (0.95%) OpenTelemetry
9 6 (0.95%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 33 (5.21%) Product Ownership
2 27 (4.27%) Cloud Native
3 26 (4.11%) Onboarding
4 21 (3.32%) Virtual Team
5 20 (3.16%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 17 (2.69%) Distributed Systems
7 15 (2.37%) Derivative
8 13 (2.05%) Mobile App
9 12 (1.90%) Data Centre
10 10 (1.58%) Equities
11 8 (1.26%) AI Agents
12 7 (1.11%) Algorithms
12 7 (1.11%) Replication
13 6 (0.95%) Equity Derivative
13 6 (0.95%) Fixed Income
13 6 (0.95%) Mainframe
13 6 (0.95%) Management Information System
14 5 (0.79%) Distributed Architecture
14 5 (0.79%) Freedom of Information
14 5 (0.79%) Hedge funds
Operating Systems
1 27 (4.27%) Linux
2 26 (4.11%) Windows
3 11 (1.74%) Android
4 8 (1.26%) Apple iOS
4 8 (1.26%) zOS
5 6 (0.95%) Unix
5 6 (0.95%) Windows Server
6 4 (0.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.16%) CentOS
7 1 (0.16%) Oracle Linux
7 1 (0.16%) Rocky
7 1 (0.16%) Solaris
7 1 (0.16%) VMS
7 1 (0.16%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 633 (100.00%) Data Protection
2 121 (19.12%) Stakeholder Management
3 120 (18.96%) Agile
4 104 (16.43%) Problem-Solving
5 77 (12.16%) Migration
6 74 (11.69%) AI
7 72 (11.37%) DevOps
8 71 (11.22%) Continuous Improvement
9 66 (10.43%) CI/CD
10 64 (10.11%) Analytics
11 56 (8.85%) Project Management
12 55 (8.69%) Roadmaps
13 48 (7.58%) Decision-Making
14 45 (7.11%) Test Automation
15 39 (6.16%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 38 (6.00%) Observability
16 38 (6.00%) Risk Management
17 36 (5.69%) Software Engineering
18 32 (5.06%) Data Modelling
18 32 (5.06%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 109 (17.22%) Python
2 71 (11.22%) SQL
3 64 (10.11%) Java
4 31 (4.90%) C#
5 30 (4.74%) JavaScript
6 21 (3.32%) TypeScript
7 18 (2.84%) PowerShell
8 13 (2.05%) Bash
8 13 (2.05%) C++
9 8 (1.26%) Kotlin
10 6 (0.95%) Go
10 6 (0.95%) Kusto Query Language
11 5 (0.79%) R
11 5 (0.79%) Shell Script
12 4 (0.63%) JCL
12 4 (0.63%) PL/SQL
13 3 (0.47%) Apex Code
13 3 (0.47%) Scala
14 2 (0.32%) ActionScript
14 2 (0.32%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 50 (7.90%) Security Cleared
2 47 (7.42%) Degree
2 47 (7.42%) SC Cleared
3 16 (2.53%) Computer Science Degree
4 9 (1.42%) PMI Certification
4 9 (1.42%) PMP
5 6 (0.95%) CCNP
5 6 (0.95%) Cisco Certification
5 6 (0.95%) Master's Degree
6 5 (0.79%) AWS Certification
6 5 (0.79%) Azure Certification
7 4 (0.63%) CISSP
8 3 (0.47%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 3 (0.47%) Microsoft Certification
8 3 (0.47%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 2 (0.32%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (0.32%) CCNA
9 2 (0.32%) JNCIA
9 2 (0.32%) JNCIS
9 2 (0.32%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (5.37%) QA
2 32 (5.06%) GDPR
3 19 (3.00%) Data Quality
4 17 (2.69%) PMO
5 11 (1.74%) Accessibility
5 11 (1.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 8 (1.26%) NIST
6 8 (1.26%) SLA
7 6 (0.95%) GRC
8 5 (0.79%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (0.47%) IFRS
10 2 (0.32%) Basel III
10 2 (0.32%) GAAP
10 2 (0.32%) IFRS 17
10 2 (0.32%) IFRS 9
10 2 (0.32%) ISO 20022
10 2 (0.32%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 2 (0.32%) SEPA
10 2 (0.32%) WCAG
11 1 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 28 (4.42%) Docker
2 19 (3.00%) Active Directory
3 12 (1.90%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (1.26%) Virtual Desktop
5 6 (0.95%) KVM
6 5 (0.79%) NFS
7 4 (0.63%) Time Sharing Option
8 3 (0.47%) IAG
8 3 (0.47%) Virtual Machines
8 3 (0.47%) Virtual Servers
8 3 (0.47%) vSphere
8 3 (0.47%) XenApp
8 3 (0.47%) XenDesktop
9 2 (0.32%) GPFS
9 2 (0.32%) Microsoft App-V
9 2 (0.32%) Oracle RAC
9 2 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.16%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 37 (5.85%) Kubernetes
2 31 (4.90%) Terraform
3 24 (3.79%) Ansible
4 9 (1.42%) Grafana
5 6 (0.95%) Microsoft Intune
6 5 (0.79%) Control-M
6 5 (0.79%) Prometheus
6 5 (0.79%) Tivoli Storage Manager
7 3 (0.47%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.32%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (0.32%) Data Guard
8 2 (0.32%) IBM Guardium
8 2 (0.32%) Nessus
8 2 (0.32%) Oracle RMAN
8 2 (0.32%) Packer
8 2 (0.32%) QRadar
8 2 (0.32%) SCCM
9 1 (0.16%) Kibana
9 1 (0.16%) SELinux
9 1 (0.16%) vRealize
Vendors
1 56 (8.85%) Microsoft
2 32 (5.06%) Cisco
3 27 (4.27%) Databricks
4 24 (3.79%) Oracle
5 22 (3.48%) SAP
6 16 (2.53%) ServiceNow
7 13 (2.05%) Informatica
8 12 (1.90%) Salesforce
8 12 (1.90%) VMware
9 11 (1.74%) Adobe
9 11 (1.74%) Citrix
9 11 (1.74%) Workday
10 10 (1.58%) IBM
11 9 (1.42%) F5
11 9 (1.42%) Google
12 8 (1.26%) Red Hat
13 7 (1.11%) ADVA
13 7 (1.11%) Nokia
13 7 (1.11%) Palo Alto
14 5 (0.79%) Meraki