The conversation between Jared Coseglia, Founder and CEO of TRU Staffing Partners, and Ron De Jesus, Field CPO of Transcend, on May’s Eye on Privacy webinar was so insightful, we decided to add a part two to the recap of the session. After discussing the major trends for May (as covered in the last blog post), Coseglia and De Jesus took a deeper dive into what the trends meant for the data privacy community.

Coseglia: Let’s unpack all this data in greater detail. We’ve got a number of specific data points to discuss. In regard to CPOs and those 19,000 jobs from last year, we found that less than 5% of advertised privacy jobs were for CPOs. This is a big decline. There is a lot less opportunity out there for this role.

Some of the opportunities might be changing in terms of titling or skillset experience but this is a significant impact to what CPOs do next. Additionally, CPOs are spending up to 20% of their time personally recruiting privacy staff and spending up to 25% of their time on A.I. issues. What are your thoughts around what is happening to the role of CPO?

De Jesus: It’s interesting to see what happens next to CPOs in their careers. I have seen some peers dabble in consulting or move in-house at one of the Big 4 firms for career growth. Overall, CPO roles are training into broader roles and taking on other compliance requirements. I expect we will see an uptick in A.I. governance roles that might be folded into A.I. and CPO combinations. That 5% is a surprising figure to me but there are multiple reasons the role is changing.

Coseglia: The guidance I have been giving CPOS is that the next six to 12 months is a really important time for them to meet internally with their upper group of stakeholders. It’s crucial to discuss the roles and responsibilities about recalibration, salary compensation, potential retitling, and reporting structures that will better suit the business. The future may be that the CPO role goes above and beyond privacy. I’ve seen it in eDiscovery and cybersecurity – sometimes the best way to move up is to move to the side a little bit. And to your point, I’ve seen a number of CPOs move to law firms—that’s a pathway too—particularly if you are a practicing attorney.

De Jesus: Absolutely! The 15% to 25% of time spent on A.I. is spot on. As the A.I. Act is in its final stages, with Colorado becoming the first U.S. state to enact A.I. requirements, it’s going to increase from there.

Coseglia: Let’s take a question from the audience: Can you explain how A.I. governance is different from traditional privacy roles and what departments are hiring for them?

De Jesus: We all know that privacy pros have already been doing A.I. governance since the inception of A.I. initiatives. We’ve been doing impact assessments, making sure transparency exists with respect to new initiatives and projects that might involve technology like A.I. In my perspective, this change to A.I. governance is a bit of a fad. So you will see a lot of these A.I. governance roles pop up, but as privacy pros, we are suited to handle them. I recently got the AIGP (A.I. Governance Professional) certification—I felt it is an expression of my ability to operationalize privacy through the lens of A.I.

Coseglia: I love that, and I agree with you. To answer the back half of that question, many open privacy jobs are still attorney-driven. Hiring managers want attorneys with A.I. Act knowledge, with an understanding of contracts, knowledge of third-party vendors, and knowledge of business regulations. That will evolve and change. Salaries for A.I. governance are all over the board today.

De Jesus: I think the JD requirement depends on the maturity level and size of the organization. Smaller organizations might want a JD to cover all their bases. I’m not a lawyer and I’m a huge proponent of companies taking into consideration other specialties that might be able to operationalize privacy.

Coseglia: I think this can be a specialization in an ecosystem at a big organization where they’ve got the room to compartmentalize skillsets but for most organizations, this is another hat that is being worn by someone in a leadership position. This next slide is a deeper dive into the contractor versus direct trend. We are seeing nearly double the number of contract roles open versus full-time hires. TRU has measured how long it takes to find and hire new staff on your own – five times longer than using a staffing agency. The problem with spending that time is you are losing candidates, over-compromising on compensation, and encountering many obstacles because the speed is so slow. What the slide below shows is that while there may be jobs advertised, they are not being filled quickly. As a result, the contract jobs are being filled quickly and efficiently. Ron, do you have any thoughts on these dynamics?

De Jesus: TRU Staffing Partners definitely has that expertise when it comes to the job requisitions that are out there. Our roles are incredibly specialized, so working with a company like TRU is definitely going to be beneficial, especially if you don’t have the expertise in recruitment. TRU can be your first line of defense when it comes to collecting resumes, interviewing, and advising on best possible hires.

Coseglia: Here is an example of TRU contractors’ average length of assignment from 2022 to 2024. For conversion, it is taking about 228 days. You can see how many privacy pro contractors convert to full-time during contract assignments. Most assignments end around 231 days, assignments that convert will end a few days faster.

On this next slide, we break it down further: 65% of TRU customers hire both full-time and contract employees, which I think is compelling.

Then, 92% of contractor we place either finish their assignments and move to the next one, convert to direct hire, or re-engage with the same customer to stay on the assignment. Lastly, 6% of TRU privacy contractors take other direct hire positions after an average of 260 days on assignment—with a huge exception. Contractors in Big Tech average more than 700 days on assignment. Assignments with Big Tech last 3x longer than average.

Here are all the reasons why organizations use contractors: