Penetration Testing Contracts in England

Penetration Testing
UK > England

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in England with a requirement for Penetration Testing skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited Penetration Testing over the 6 months to 27 April 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
27 Apr 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 330 435 542
Rank change year-on-year +105 +107 -56
Contract jobs citing Penetration Testing 215 233 240
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.58% 0.46% 0.34%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.67% 0.51% 0.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 123 145 153
10th Percentile £415 £450 £362
25th Percentile £502 £500 £506
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £590 £575 £588
Median % change year-on-year +2.61% -2.13% +17.50%
75th Percentile £681 £725 £675
90th Percentile £774 £799 £775
UK median daily rate £588 £600 £575
% change year-on-year -2.08% +4.35% +5.99%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £81.75 - -
Median hourly rate £83.50 £80.00 -
Median % change year-on-year +4.38% - -
75th Percentile £85.25 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK median hourly rate £83.50 £80.00 -
% change year-on-year +4.38% - -

All Process and Methodology Skills
England

Penetration Testing is in the Processes and Methodologies category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies advertised in England with a requirement for process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 31,985 45,619 64,566
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 86.53% 90.25% 90.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,974 32,022 45,804
10th Percentile £300 £325 £331
25th Percentile £413 £445 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +2.33% +9.69%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £650
90th Percentile £750 £769 £749
UK median daily rate £525 £550 £525
% change year-on-year -4.55% +4.76% +8.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,225 1,607 1,769
10th Percentile £12.86 £10.94 £12.50
25th Percentile £16.00 £16.31 £15.25
Median hourly rate £35.50 £37.50 £24.35
Median % change year-on-year -5.33% +54.00% +1.46%
75th Percentile £60.00 £65.00 £49.25
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.00 £63.15
UK median hourly rate £35.00 £37.34 £25.00
% change year-on-year -6.27% +49.36% -

Penetration Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings citing Penetration Testing as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for Penetration Testing in England

Penetration Testing
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Penetration Testing in England.

Daily rate trend for Penetration Testing in England

Penetration Testing
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Penetration Testing in England over the 6 months to 27 April 2024.

Daily rate histogram for Penetration Testing in England

Penetration Testing
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Penetration Testing in England.

Hourly rate trend for Penetration Testing in England

Penetration Testing
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Penetration Testing within the England region over the 6 months to 27 April 2024. 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
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
London +54 99 £590 -1.67% 44
South East +50 47 £530 -7.83% 22
North of England +35 24 £650 +23.81% 10
South West +33 22 £525 -10.64% 19
North West +23 18 £666 +26.86% 5
Midlands +15 11 £550 -16.98% 8
East of England +16 8 £700 +16.67% 2
West Midlands +23 7 £650 -1.89% 3
Yorkshire +13 4 £650 +23.81% 4
East Midlands - 4 £400 - 5
North East - 2 £625 - 1
Penetration Testing
UK

Penetration Testing
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 4 (1.86%) SharePoint
2 2 (0.93%) IIS
2 2 (0.93%) JBoss
3 1 (0.47%) Confluence
Applications
1 7 (3.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (2.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 5 (2.33%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.47%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 47 (21.86%) SaaS
2 41 (19.07%) PaaS
3 39 (18.14%) IaaS
4 33 (15.35%) Azure
5 25 (11.63%) AWS
6 11 (5.12%) GCP
7 6 (2.79%) Azure DevOps
8 5 (2.33%) Azure Sentinel
8 5 (2.33%) CloudFront
8 5 (2.33%) Entra ID
8 5 (2.33%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 3 (1.40%) GitHub
9 3 (1.40%) GitHub Actions
10 1 (0.47%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 1 (0.47%) AWS CloudFormation
10 1 (0.47%) AWS CloudTrail
10 1 (0.47%) Cloud Computing
10 1 (0.47%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 42 (19.53%) Firewall
2 39 (18.14%) 5G
2 39 (18.14%) Broadband
3 28 (13.02%) Network Security
4 13 (6.05%) Wireless
5 12 (5.58%) WAN
6 11 (5.12%) SD-WAN
7 7 (3.26%) DNS
8 6 (2.79%) Intrusion Detection
8 6 (2.79%) VPN
9 4 (1.86%) TCP/IP
10 2 (0.93%) DHCP
10 2 (0.93%) Internet
10 2 (0.93%) tcpdump
10 2 (0.93%) Wireshark
11 1 (0.47%) Fibre Channel
11 1 (0.47%) FTP
11 1 (0.47%) HTTP
11 1 (0.47%) iSCSI
11 1 (0.47%) LAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.93%) DB2
2 1 (0.47%) Apache Hive
2 1 (0.47%) Hadoop
2 1 (0.47%) Oracle Database
2 1 (0.47%) Oracle Exadata
2 1 (0.47%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 14 (6.51%) Jenkins
2 11 (5.12%) Burp Suite
3 10 (4.65%) GitLab
4 4 (1.86%) TeamCity
5 3 (1.40%) Metasploit
6 2 (0.93%) JIRA
6 2 (0.93%) Vagrant
7 1 (0.47%) IDA Disassembler
General
1 46 (21.40%) Finance
2 40 (18.60%) Law
3 39 (18.14%) Organisational Skills
3 39 (18.14%) Social Skills
4 27 (12.56%) Banking
5 24 (11.16%) Analytical Skills
6 18 (8.37%) Public Sector
7 9 (4.19%) Retail
8 4 (1.86%) Legal
9 3 (1.40%) Manufacturing
10 2 (0.93%) Multimedia
11 1 (0.47%) Marketing
11 1 (0.47%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (0.47%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 55 (25.58%) Penetration Tester
1 55 (25.58%) Tester
2 41 (19.07%) Security Specialist
3 39 (18.14%) Security Penetration Tester
3 39 (18.14%) Security Tester
3 39 (18.14%) Testing Specialist
4 29 (13.49%) Architect
5 27 (12.56%) Security Architect
6 22 (10.23%) Consultant
7 20 (9.30%) Security Engineer
8 18 (8.37%) Security Consultant
9 17 (7.91%) Analyst
10 15 (6.98%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 14 (6.51%) Network Engineer
12 13 (6.05%) Senior
13 11 (5.12%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
14 8 (3.72%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
15 7 (3.26%) DevSecOps Engineer
15 7 (3.26%) Ethical Hacker
15 7 (3.26%) SOC Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (18.14%) Web Services
2 5 (2.33%) OAuth
2 5 (2.33%) OAuth2
2 5 (2.33%) SAML
3 1 (0.47%) EDI
3 1 (0.47%) OLE
3 1 (0.47%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 57 (26.51%) Mobile App
2 18 (8.37%) Cyber Threat
2 18 (8.37%) Security Posture
3 16 (7.44%) Data Centre
4 15 (6.98%) Private Cloud
5 10 (4.65%) PKI
6 8 (3.72%) Operational Technology
6 8 (3.72%) Security Operations Centre
7 6 (2.79%) Cloud Native
7 6 (2.79%) Cyber Defence
8 5 (2.33%) IoT
9 4 (1.86%) Hybrid Cloud
9 4 (1.86%) Management Information System
10 3 (1.40%) Cyberattack
10 3 (1.40%) Renewable Energy
11 2 (0.93%) Algorithms
11 2 (0.93%) Cyber Kill Chain
11 2 (0.93%) Insider Threat
11 2 (0.93%) Public Cloud
12 1 (0.47%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 39 (18.14%) Windows
2 35 (16.28%) Linux
3 10 (4.65%) Kali Linux
4 4 (1.86%) Unix
5 2 (0.93%) AIX
5 2 (0.93%) Solaris
5 2 (0.93%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.47%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 122 (56.74%) Cybersecurity
2 66 (30.70%) Application Security
3 58 (26.98%) MITRE ATT&CK
4 55 (25.58%) OWASP
5 54 (25.12%) Security Testing
5 54 (25.12%) Stakeholder Management
6 49 (22.79%) Information Security
7 42 (19.53%) Cloud Security
8 35 (16.28%) Vulnerability Scanning
9 32 (14.88%) DevSecOps
10 29 (13.49%) DevOps
11 28 (13.02%) Ethical Hacking
12 27 (12.56%) Red Team
13 26 (12.09%) Problem-Solving
13 26 (12.09%) SIEM
14 25 (11.63%) CI/CD
14 25 (11.63%) Incident Response
14 25 (11.63%) Security Operations
14 25 (11.63%) Threat Modelling
15 23 (10.70%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 25 (11.63%) Python
2 13 (6.05%) Kusto Query Language
3 9 (4.19%) C++
4 8 (3.72%) C#
5 6 (2.79%) Go
5 6 (2.79%) JavaScript
5 6 (2.79%) PowerShell
6 4 (1.86%) Perl
6 4 (1.86%) Search Processing Language
7 3 (1.40%) C
7 3 (1.40%) Java
7 3 (1.40%) Shell Script
8 2 (0.93%) Ruby
8 2 (0.93%) SQL
9 1 (0.47%) Bash
Qualifications
1 86 (40.00%) Security Cleared
2 64 (29.77%) OSCP
3 59 (27.44%) CREST Certified
4 53 (24.65%) GIAC
5 49 (22.79%) GPEN
6 44 (20.47%) SC Cleared
7 40 (18.60%) SANS
8 23 (10.70%) Degree
9 15 (6.98%) Computer Science Degree
10 14 (6.51%) CISSP
11 13 (6.05%) CEH
12 12 (5.58%) CISM
13 7 (3.26%) CHECK Team Leader
13 7 (3.26%) CompTIA Security+
14 5 (2.33%) AWS Certification
15 4 (1.86%) Master's Degree
16 3 (1.40%) CCNA
16 3 (1.40%) Cisco Certification
17 2 (0.93%) CCSP
17 2 (0.93%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (25.12%) PCI DSS
2 51 (23.72%) GDPR
3 44 (20.47%) NCSC
4 38 (17.67%) NIST
5 36 (16.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 12 (5.58%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
7 7 (3.26%) QA
8 5 (2.33%) COBIT
8 5 (2.33%) HIPAA
8 5 (2.33%) PMO
9 4 (1.86%) SLA
10 2 (0.93%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (0.93%) ISO 22301
10 2 (0.93%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.47%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.47%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.47%) JSP 440
System Software
1 16 (7.44%) VMware Infrastructure
2 14 (6.51%) vSphere
3 12 (5.58%) Active Directory
4 5 (2.33%) Docker
5 2 (0.93%) Snort
6 1 (0.47%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 18 (8.37%) Terraform
2 13 (6.05%) vCenter Server
3 6 (2.79%) Nessus
4 2 (0.93%) Tivoli
5 1 (0.47%) CASB
5 1 (0.47%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
5 1 (0.47%) CSIRT
5 1 (0.47%) Kibana
5 1 (0.47%) Kubernetes
5 1 (0.47%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (0.47%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 39 (18.14%) Virgin Media
2 32 (14.88%) Microsoft
3 17 (7.91%) VMware
4 11 (5.12%) Google
5 6 (2.79%) Qualys
5 6 (2.79%) Splunk
6 5 (2.33%) SAP
7 4 (1.86%) Cisco
8 3 (1.40%) F5
8 3 (1.40%) Oracle
9 2 (0.93%) AppDynamics
9 2 (0.93%) IBM
9 2 (0.93%) Remedy
10 1 (0.47%) BigPanda
10 1 (0.47%) Checkmarx
10 1 (0.47%) CrowdStrike
10 1 (0.47%) Darktrace
10 1 (0.47%) Palo Alto
10 1 (0.47%) Rapid7
10 1 (0.47%) Veracode