Data Protection Contract Job Trends

Data Protection
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs citing Data Protection skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 10 November 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Nov 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 86 75 87
Rank change year-on-year -11 +12 0
Contract jobs citing Data Protection 1,795 1,190 940
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.24% 3.43% 2.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.79% 3.82% 3.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 906 583 500
10th Percentile £269 £289 £237
25th Percentile £400 £400 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
75th Percentile £613 £600 £600
90th Percentile £689 £676 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £468 £461 £475
% change year-on-year +1.36% -2.89% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 144 66 13
10th Percentile £13.09 £12.63 £18.88
25th Percentile £13.70 £14.57 £20.75
Median hourly rate £16.62 £18.38 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.56% -26.49% +7.57%
75th Percentile £24.71 £20.71 £30.00
90th Percentile £33.75 £37.66 £42.72
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.62 £18.38 £25.00
% change year-on-year -9.56% -26.49% +19.05%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Data Protection falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies citing process or methodology skills.

6 months to
10 Nov 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Contract vacancies citing process or methodology skills 47,370 31,186 31,226
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 85.59% 90.02% 86.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,285 19,511 18,789
10th Percentile £325 £297 £310
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.50%
75th Percentile £638 £624 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,818 2,038 1,099
10th Percentile £13.50 £14.38 £15.09
25th Percentile £16.46 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £35.00 £25.15 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +39.17% -28.14% -19.77%
75th Percentile £65.00 £43.75 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.00 £73.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £34.28 £22.50 £33.27
% change year-on-year +52.36% -32.37% -24.21%

Data Protection Job Vacancy Trend

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

Data Protection job vacancy trend in the UK

Data Protection Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Data Protection.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Data Protection

Data Protection Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Data Protection over the 6 months to 10 November 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Data Protection in the UK

Data Protection Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Data Protection.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Data Protection

Data Protection Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution for jobs citing Data Protection over the 6 months to 10 November 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Data Protection in the UK

Data Protection Top 18 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Data Protection within the UK over the 6 months to 10 November 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
Job Ads
Past 6 Months
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -10 1,466 £500 - 1,130
UK excluding London -4 982 £468 +1.36% 541
London -35 615 £550 +4.76% 602
Work from Home +1 482 £500 +5.26% 503
North of England +23 385 £475 +4.68% 155
South East -17 203 £465 -9.63% 124
Yorkshire +17 187 £482 -6.05% 56
North West +19 163 £450 +5.88% 84
Midlands -1 151 £450 -3.23% 97
Scotland -9 119 £440 +6.67% 46
West Midlands +1 118 £450 -10.00% 66
South West -4 64 £500 -3.85% 41
North East -19 36 £525 +35.48% 15
East Midlands -8 32 £538 +34.38% 31
East of England -22 32 £385 -16.76% 48
Wales -5 24 £413 +4.76% 10
Northern Ireland +3 18 £110 -78.10% 24
Channel Islands -4 2 £600 -17.24% 1

Data Protection Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

Processes & Methodologies

RankSkillShareJob Ads
1Stakeholder Management27.9%501
2Agile18.2%327
3Problem-Solving17.9%321
4Continuous Improvement16.2%291
5Cybersecurity14.9%268
6AI14.3%256
7CI/CD13.7%246
8Stakeholder Engagement13.4%240
9Migration13.3%238
10DevOps11.3%203
11Roadmaps10.9%195
12Decision-Making10.0%179
12Risk Management10.0%179
14Information Security9.7%174
15Data Governance9.4%169
16Analytics9.0%161
17Infrastructure as Code8.6%154
18Validation8.5%153
19Information Governance7.5%135
20Data Modelling7.4%133