Penetration Tester Jobs in England

Penetration Tester
UK > England

The median Penetration Tester salary in England is £70,000 per year according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months to 13 May 2024.

The first table below provides salary benchmarking and summary statistics including a comparison to same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
13 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 704 817 1045
Rank change year-on-year +113 +228 -219
Permanent jobs requiring a Penetration Tester 127 119 93
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 0.15% 0.13% 0.069%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.16% 0.14% 0.072%
Number of salaries quoted 102 69 82
10th Percentile £42,750 £39,150 £35,000
25th Percentile £50,000 £52,500 £46,563
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £67,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.70% +12.50% +9.09%
75th Percentile £82,500 £91,250 £80,000
90th Percentile - £108,250 £85,000
UK median annual salary £62,500 £68,750 £60,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +14.58% -11.76%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
England

The following table is for comparison with the above and includes summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies advertised in England. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in England with a recognized job title 80,982 82,462 128,831
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.47% 91.54% 96.08%
Number of salaries quoted 60,404 52,476 75,206
10th Percentile £28,500 £32,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £38,250 £45,000 £43,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £53,500 £60,800 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -12.01% +1.33% +9.09%
75th Percentile £71,500 £82,500 £80,000
90th Percentile £91,000 £100,000 £97,500
UK median annual salary £52,500 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -12.50% - +9.09%

Penetration Tester
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings that featured Penetration Tester in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for Penetration Tester in England

Penetration Tester
Salary Trend in England

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing Penetration Tester in England.

Salary trend for Penetration Tester in England

Penetration Tester
Salary Histogram in England

Salary distribution for jobs citing Penetration Tester in England over the 6 months to 13 May 2024.

Salary histogram for Penetration Tester in England

Penetration Tester
Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Penetration Tester within the England region over the 6 months to 13 May 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
London +152 82 £70,000 -20.00% 7
South West -17 18 £45,000 -5.26% 5
North of England +46 11 £50,000 -16.67% 6
Midlands -8 9 £55,000 -12.00% 4
West Midlands +11 8 £55,000 -12.00% 4
North West +1 6 £50,000 -20.00% 4
Yorkshire +83 5 £38,750 -35.42% 2
South East -2 3 £57,500 +15.00% 2
East Midlands -6 1 £60,000 -
Penetration Tester
UK

Penetration Tester Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 13 May 2024, Penetration Tester job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads across the England region featuring Penetration Tester in the job title.

1 114 (89.76%) Penetration Testing
2 98 (77.17%) Cybersecurity
3 57 (44.88%) Problem-Solving
4 56 (44.09%) Social Skills
5 51 (40.16%) Red Team
6 48 (37.80%) Information Security
7 47 (37.01%) OSCP
8 46 (36.22%) Degree
9 45 (35.43%) Security Testing
10 43 (33.86%) Computer Science
11 41 (32.28%) Analytical Skills
12 37 (29.13%) Metasploit
13 36 (28.35%) Application Security
14 35 (27.56%) Vulnerability Scanning
14 35 (27.56%) CREST Certified
15 34 (26.77%) Burp Suite
15 34 (26.77%) Kali Linux
16 32 (25.20%) Computer Science Degree
17 31 (24.41%) Reverse Engineering
18 30 (23.62%) Malware Analysis
19 29 (22.83%) Network Security
20 28 (22.05%) Linux
20 28 (22.05%) Critical Thinking
21 26 (20.47%) Mobile App
22 20 (15.75%) Presentation Skills
23 19 (14.96%) CHECK Team Member
24 18 (14.17%) Ethical Hacking
25 17 (13.39%) Mentoring
25 17 (13.39%) Data Privacy
26 16 (12.60%) Firewall

Penetration Tester Skill Set
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:

Cloud Services
1 13 (10.24%) Azure
2 9 (7.09%) AWS
3 7 (5.51%) GCP
4 4 (3.15%) Dynamics 365
4 4 (3.15%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 29 (22.83%) Network Security
2 16 (12.60%) Firewall
3 13 (10.24%) Wireless
4 8 (6.30%) Wi-Fi
5 3 (2.36%) Wireless Security
5 3 (2.36%) Wireshark
6 2 (1.57%) Internet
6 2 (1.57%) TCP/IP
Development Applications
1 37 (29.13%) Metasploit
2 34 (26.77%) Burp Suite
General
1 56 (44.09%) Social Skills
2 41 (32.28%) Analytical Skills
3 20 (15.75%) Presentation Skills
4 15 (11.81%) Law
5 10 (7.87%) Public Sector
6 8 (6.30%) Legal
7 7 (5.51%) Marketing
8 4 (3.15%) Games
8 4 (3.15%) Retail
9 1 (0.79%) Banking
Miscellaneous
1 26 (20.47%) Mobile App
2 15 (11.81%) Security Posture
3 6 (4.72%) Onboarding
4 5 (3.94%) Cyber Threat
4 5 (3.94%) IoT
5 4 (3.15%) Cyber Security Posture
5 4 (3.15%) Cyberattack
6 3 (2.36%) Operational Technology
6 3 (2.36%) Virtual Team
7 2 (1.57%) Client/Server
7 2 (1.57%) Embedded Systems
7 2 (1.57%) Greenfield Project
8 1 (0.79%) Mainframe
8 1 (0.79%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 34 (26.77%) Kali Linux
2 28 (22.05%) Linux
3 13 (10.24%) Android
3 13 (10.24%) Apple iOS
4 2 (1.57%) Unix
4 2 (1.57%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 114 (89.76%) Penetration Testing
2 98 (77.17%) Cybersecurity
3 57 (44.88%) Problem-Solving
4 51 (40.16%) Red Team
5 48 (37.80%) Information Security
6 45 (35.43%) Security Testing
7 43 (33.86%) Computer Science
8 36 (28.35%) Application Security
9 35 (27.56%) Vulnerability Scanning
10 31 (24.41%) Reverse Engineering
11 30 (23.62%) Malware Analysis
12 28 (22.05%) Critical Thinking
13 18 (14.17%) Ethical Hacking
14 17 (13.39%) Data Privacy
14 17 (13.39%) Mentoring
15 16 (12.60%) Offensive Security
16 15 (11.81%) Incident Response
17 13 (10.24%) Vulnerability Assessment
18 12 (9.45%) OWASP
18 12 (9.45%) Risk Analysis
Programming Languages
1 9 (7.09%) Python
2 5 (3.94%) Bash
3 4 (3.15%) JavaScript
4 3 (2.36%) Java
5 2 (1.57%) C#
Qualifications
1 47 (37.01%) OSCP
2 46 (36.22%) Degree
3 35 (27.56%) CREST Certified
4 32 (25.20%) Computer Science Degree
5 19 (14.96%) CHECK Team Member
6 11 (8.66%) SC Cleared
6 11 (8.66%) Security Cleared
7 10 (7.87%) CHECK Team Leader
8 7 (5.51%) CEH
8 7 (5.51%) Cyber Scheme
9 6 (4.72%) GIAC
9 6 (4.72%) GPEN
9 6 (4.72%) OSCE
9 6 (4.72%) PCI QSA
9 6 (4.72%) Tigerscheme
10 5 (3.94%) CCSAM
11 4 (3.15%) BPSS Clearance
11 4 (3.15%) CISSP
12 3 (2.36%) CompTIA Security+
13 2 (1.57%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (11.02%) GRC
1 14 (11.02%) PCI DSS
2 9 (7.09%) NIST
3 6 (4.72%) Actionable Recommendations
4 3 (2.36%) GDPR
4 3 (2.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
Systems Management
1 7 (5.51%) Nessus
2 6 (4.72%) Nmap
3 4 (3.15%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
Vendors
1 7 (5.51%) Microsoft
2 4 (3.15%) Google
2 4 (3.15%) Qualys
3 1 (0.79%) Red Hat