Photograph of board meeting with diverse board members sitting at a table in front of notebook computers. The image has a transparent pink overlay for Privacy 108's branding.

Australian Privacy Jobs Quarterly Report – December 2022

Published at 12:15 on 30 Mar 2023

Privacy 108’s report on privacy jobs advertised in Australia in October, November and December 2022 is now available.

December 2022 Quarterly Job Report

Main findings

Decline in number of advertised privacy jobs

Advertised privacy jobs for the quarter to December 2022 were sharply lower than last quarter: a total of 85, compared to 134 for the September quarter and 154 for the June quarter.  The number of jobs advertised each month during the December 2022 quarter stayed consistent (average of 28 each month), so the reduction cannot be attributed to end of year slow down.

With the massive data breaches rocking Australia last year it is somewhat surprising to see this decline.  It perhaps reflects a broader drop in general business confidence.

It will be interesting to see if there is an increase in advertised positions in 2023.  The widely proposed changes to the Privacy Act, plus the significant new fines for privacy breaches introduced at the end of 2022, are likely to drive increased opportunities for Australian privacy professionals.

Increase in government jobs and drop in professional service positions

Most of the drop in advertised roles can be linked to the decline in positions advertised by professional services organisations, including law firms. While professional services organisations have been the lead advertisers, in the December quarter this position was taken by government.

There was a slight increase in opportunities in the health sector although with, higher education and not for profit, these sectors remain the lowest three sectors advertising for privacy professionals.

Sydney the main location for privacy jobs

Sydney remained the preferred location for privacy practitioners. Over the quarter there were no advertised positions in Adelaide or Perth, although there were regional roles advertised in Qld and Victoria.

Experience and qualifications required for privacy jobs

Most positions again required some prior privacy experience. While 5+ years was the most common requirement, there were an almost equal number of positions with 3+ and 1+ years experience required.  There were no jobs that were clearly positioned as entry level or graduate roles (that is, for applicants with no previous experience).

There was a move away from positions being offered forqualified lawyers, with privacy managers and officers being in higher demand. Again this is probably linked to the drop in roles with professional services organisations.  However, lawyers are still in demand. Where positions specified that a degree was required, the most common requirement was for a law degree.

Although a law degree is one of the main requirements for a privacy role, reviewing the job descriptions suggests that the majority of job functions are still compliance focused (almost 78% of the roles this quarter).  This move to taking a compliance focused lens to privacy is a concern for privacy practitioners.

There were fewer references to privacy and security certifications, perhaps again reflective of the shift to government rather than professional services firms as advertisers this quarter.

Salaries for privacy professionals

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.

The highest advertised salary was $190k + super for an Associate Director – Privacy with KPMG.

A photograph of two women sitting in an office setting for a candidate interview. They are each holding a copy of the applicants CV, which contains their personal information, for the hiring process.

Privacy Job Report: 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 of the December 2022 Quarterly Job Report can be viewed here:

December 2022 Quarterly Job Report

Previous reports

Privacy, security and training. Jodie is one of Australia’s leading privacy and security experts and the Founder of Privacy 108 Consulting.

Tags:
, , , , , ,