Trends for March 2025 Eye on Privacy Include Huge Growth in Contract Hiring and Quests for Higher Salaries

The Eye on Privacy webinar for March 2025 provided an in-depth analysis of the data privacy and AI governance job markets across various sectors, including law firms, corporations, government agencies, consulting firms, software companies, and more. This month, Jared Coseglia, founder and CEO of TRU Staffing Partners, was joined by Omer Tene, a partner at Goodwin, who is recognized as a thought leader in privacy, cybersecurity, AI, and law and technology.
Coseglia and Tene quickly dove into the data metrics featured on the slide below.

Coseglia noted that the data privacy industry is undergoing a “revolution” right now and it is important to help job seekers and hiring professionals know how that will play out in the job market in the months to come. The data on the webinar came from the following sources:

TRU Trends in March 2025

• TRU recruiters have been seeing corporate privacy pros turn to the Am Law (top-ranked firms) for employment. Tene noted that he has “seen the major players reconsider their privacy programs (where they sit, how they should be managed, staff sizes). This has caused a migration of senior in-house privacy pros to move over to outside counsel roles.” Coseglia noted that deregulation and a coming wave of M&A have also prompted these moves.
• Wanting a higher salary has become the number one motivator for job seekers to enter the market, replacing the long-term leader burnout. If you compare the motivations from one year ago from the slide below, burnout has moved to the third position, and the rest of the list is completely different.

• There are 1.7 million privacy pros with AI governance skills, but there are less than 400,00 pros with AI but no privacy. This means that the talent pool that has AI governance skills come from privacy. This is important because as people go to look for AI gov talent within the privacy community, they will need to align the salaries for both industries. 

• AI comp job are coming in with lower advertised salaries than privacy jobs, despite the fact that the candidates for AI gov are coming from the privacy industry. The slide below shows the huge current difference between the salaries people are posting and the actual salaries of those in the privacy market by job title. Tene noted that might be because people still aren’t quite sure yet what the AI governance jobs will entail, and as the industry matures, the salaries will follow suit.

• The last couple of months have shown a sharp increase in full-time privacy job postings. However, Coseglia noted that it was interesting that despite those postings, more than 65% of the jobs that TRU recruiters placed were contract roles. He said that the contract market in privacy was extremely hot because hiring managers are not getting budget they need for headcount but are getting enough budget for contractors to get the work done. The contract roles are long-lasting and impactful. He noted these opportunities can be very lucrative for the contractor sometimes paying better than a full-time job.
• Most of TRU’s candidate portfolio is open to new opportunities. Coseglia said he’s seeing a lot of urgency in people wanting to know what privacy roles are out in the market.
• The urgent need for litigation risk/preparedness in the US is driving the need for additional human resources. Coseglia noted this area was slightly different than regulatory risk preparedness. Tene said that litigation really grabs the attention of corporate leadership more than regulatory demands. Privacy leaders have concerns over class action suits and other potentially high-damage seeking litigation. Coseglia said he assumes the AI governance concerns are high in the litigation risk portfolio awareness to the stakeholders engaging in AI, especially in terms of what data they are using and what the risks are of using it. Tene said he expects a lot of IT-related litigation to come.

Remote/Hybrid vs. In-Office Roles

Coseglia noted that there are two things to learn from the slide below: first, the new normal situation for privacy pros is two to three days in an office. He said most of the privacy pros TRU works with do accept that number. Second, there is an increase in full remote jobs, however, they are predominantly contract roles. 

There has been a huge uptick in privacy contract roles since Q4 of 2024 because of the outcome of the US election. He noted that 42% of TRU-placed contractors who started between January of 2023 and December of 2024 were offered conversions into full-time employment, and 95% of those candidates took the roles. Hiring contractors is how managers are getting the buy-in and budget to get direct hires. Tene said he thought this trend was a global idea that applied to nearly every industry. The try-before-you-buy idea helps evaluate the waters for both contractor and employer.

Are you curious what the data privacy job market might have for you? With the advent of AI governance and the explosion of new contract and FTE roles, the data privacy industry is experiencing significant growth and transformation, making it an excellent time to consider a career in this field. As digital transformation continues, the importance of data privacy will only increase. TRU Staffing Partners will help pair you with the best industry opportunities available to match your skills, experience and interests. Reach out to our recruiting team today. And if you are interested in hiring privacy professionals, TRU’s streamlined hiring process and ongoing care will help you find and support the right talent to fit your needs, so you can focus on managing your business and meeting evolving privacy requirements.