Privacy 108’s analysis of Australian privacy jobs advertised in September 2022 is now available.

Main Findings from our Privacy Jobs Report

Main findings include:

• The number of job ads this quarter was lower than last quarter: a total of 134 compared to 154 last quarter.
• Professional services organisations, including law firms, were again the biggest advertisers, doubling the next largest sector.
• The spike in Technology / Telecom roles has not sustained into this quarter. However, we’re seeing a consistent trend in Banking/Financial Services and Corporate (including retail) which suggests organisations in these sectors are establishing and building privacy teams. This quarter, both sectors returned to the top three advertising sectors.
• There was a slight increase in the health, higher education and not for profit sectors continuing to advertise positions, although they remain the lowest three advertising sectors.
• The increase in positions for qualified lawyers we’ve seen over the last two quarters has slowed with legal counsel roles comprising 18% of all positions advertised down from 33% last quarter.
• The majority of job functions are still compliance focussed (almost 70% of the roles this quarter) with many being in the compliance or risk part of the organisation.
• Notwithstanding the focus on legal qualifications and prior privacy experience, the average salary for advertised positions this quarter remains around $145k, which is more commensurate with lower middle management rather than senior roles.
• We’ve seen a couple of entry level and graduate level positions advertised this quarter which is an interesting trend we’ll keep our eye on.
• There is also growing references to privacy and security requirements including the IAPP certifications.

Our Methodology:

As part of our ongoing research into the state of the Australian privacy profession, Privacy 108 analyses the privacy job market, comparing on-line job adverts monthly.

Job listings provide a useful snapshot into how both private and public sector organisations value privacy, the resources they are willing to commit to developing and managing privacy programs, and to building their privacy maturity.

A list of all positions with ‘privacy’ and/or ‘data protection’ in the title is compiled from jobs advertised on www.seek.com.au, www.indeed.com.au and Linked In on a selected date each month. These lists are then analysed.

From December 2018 to July 2021 the job surveys were conducted on a quarterly basis only. Commencing in August 2021 we began taking monthly (rather than quarterly) snapshots. This will help us identify, for instance, jobs that are advertised for more than 30 days. Linked In job ads were also only added to the analysis from August 2021.

Data from every month and from all three job advertising platforms we now survey (Linked In, Seek and Indeed) are included in our charts and analysis in this report, with the exception of the quarterly trend charts. In order to continue comparing trends from when we commenced surveying the job market in Dec 2018, these quarterly trend charts are based only on the snapshot numbers for the quarterly months of March, June, September and December.

The full version can be viewed here:

September 2022 Quarterly Job Report

Previous reports

• June 2022 Quarterly Job Report
• March 2022 Quarterly Job Report
• December 2021 Quarterly Job Report
• September 2021 Quarterly Job Report
• June 2021 Quarterly Job Report