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 20 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
20 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 706 806 1074
Rank change year-on-year +100 +268 -248
Permanent jobs requiring a Penetration Tester 134 119 88
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 0.15% 0.13% 0.064%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.16% 0.15% 0.067%
Number of salaries quoted 108 68 77
10th Percentile £44,250 £39,100 £35,000
25th Percentile £50,000 £52,500 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £66,250 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.66% +10.42% +9.09%
75th Percentile £82,500 £91,250 £80,000
90th Percentile - £109,875 £85,000
UK median annual salary £65,000 £67,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year -3.70% +12.50% -7.69%

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 81,786 81,001 131,568
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.57% 91.55% 96.04%
Number of salaries quoted 60,839 51,644 75,317
10th Percentile £28,500 £32,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £38,250 £45,000 £43,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £53,000 £60,800 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -12.83% +1.33% +9.09%
75th Percentile £71,250 £82,500 £80,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £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 20 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 20 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 +153 86 £70,000 -20.00% 8
South West -20 20 £45,000 -5.26% 4
North of England +33 12 £50,000 -16.67% 7
Midlands -15 9 £55,000 -12.00% 2
West Midlands +6 8 £55,000 -12.00% 2
Yorkshire +83 6 £47,500 -20.83% 3
North West -4 6 £50,000 -23.08% 4
South East -3 3 £57,500 +15.00% 2
East Midlands -18 1 £60,000 -
Penetration Tester
UK

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

For the 6 months to 20 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.

1 118 (88.06%) Penetration Testing
2 100 (74.63%) Cybersecurity
3 57 (42.54%) Problem-Solving
3 57 (42.54%) Social Skills
4 54 (40.30%) Red Team
5 48 (35.82%) OSCP
5 48 (35.82%) Information Security
6 47 (35.07%) Degree
6 47 (35.07%) Security Testing
7 44 (32.84%) Computer Science
8 41 (30.60%) Analytical Skills
9 39 (29.10%) CREST Certified
10 37 (27.61%) Metasploit
10 37 (27.61%) Application Security
11 35 (26.12%) Vulnerability Scanning
12 34 (25.37%) Burp Suite
12 34 (25.37%) Kali Linux
13 33 (24.63%) Computer Science Degree
14 31 (23.13%) Reverse Engineering
15 30 (22.39%) Malware Analysis
16 29 (21.64%) Network Security
17 28 (20.90%) Linux
17 28 (20.90%) Critical Thinking
18 27 (20.15%) Mobile App
19 21 (15.67%) CHECK Team Member
20 20 (14.93%) Presentation Skills
21 18 (13.43%) Mentoring
21 18 (13.43%) Ethical Hacking
21 18 (13.43%) Offensive Security
22 17 (12.69%) Data Privacy

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 14 (10.45%) Azure
2 10 (7.46%) AWS
3 7 (5.22%) GCP
4 4 (2.99%) Dynamics 365
4 4 (2.99%) Microsoft 365
5 1 (0.75%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 29 (21.64%) Network Security
2 16 (11.94%) Firewall
3 14 (10.45%) Wireless
4 10 (7.46%) Wi-Fi
5 3 (2.24%) Wireless Security
5 3 (2.24%) Wireshark
6 2 (1.49%) Internet
6 2 (1.49%) TCP/IP
Development Applications
1 37 (27.61%) Metasploit
2 34 (25.37%) Burp Suite
General
1 57 (42.54%) Social Skills
2 41 (30.60%) Analytical Skills
3 20 (14.93%) Presentation Skills
4 15 (11.19%) Law
5 10 (7.46%) Public Sector
6 8 (5.97%) Legal
7 7 (5.22%) Marketing
8 4 (2.99%) Games
8 4 (2.99%) Retail
9 1 (0.75%) Banking
Miscellaneous
1 27 (20.15%) Mobile App
2 15 (11.19%) Security Posture
3 6 (4.48%) Cyber Threat
3 6 (4.48%) Onboarding
4 5 (3.73%) Cyberattack
4 5 (3.73%) IoT
5 4 (2.99%) Cyber Security Posture
6 3 (2.24%) Operational Technology
6 3 (2.24%) Virtual Team
7 2 (1.49%) Client/Server
7 2 (1.49%) Embedded Systems
7 2 (1.49%) Greenfield Project
8 1 (0.75%) Mainframe
8 1 (0.75%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 34 (25.37%) Kali Linux
2 28 (20.90%) Linux
3 13 (9.70%) Android
3 13 (9.70%) Apple iOS
4 2 (1.49%) Unix
4 2 (1.49%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 118 (88.06%) Penetration Testing
2 100 (74.63%) Cybersecurity
3 57 (42.54%) Problem-Solving
4 54 (40.30%) Red Team
5 48 (35.82%) Information Security
6 47 (35.07%) Security Testing
7 44 (32.84%) Computer Science
8 37 (27.61%) Application Security
9 35 (26.12%) Vulnerability Scanning
10 31 (23.13%) Reverse Engineering
11 30 (22.39%) Malware Analysis
12 28 (20.90%) Critical Thinking
13 18 (13.43%) Ethical Hacking
13 18 (13.43%) Mentoring
13 18 (13.43%) Offensive Security
14 17 (12.69%) Data Privacy
15 16 (11.94%) Incident Response
16 14 (10.45%) Vulnerability Assessment
17 13 (9.70%) Risk Analysis
18 12 (8.96%) Test Strategy
Programming Languages
1 9 (6.72%) Python
2 5 (3.73%) Bash
3 4 (2.99%) JavaScript
4 3 (2.24%) Java
5 2 (1.49%) C#
Qualifications
1 48 (35.82%) OSCP
2 47 (35.07%) Degree
3 39 (29.10%) CREST Certified
4 33 (24.63%) Computer Science Degree
5 21 (15.67%) CHECK Team Member
6 14 (10.45%) CHECK Team Leader
6 14 (10.45%) SC Cleared
6 14 (10.45%) Security Cleared
7 8 (5.97%) Cyber Scheme
8 7 (5.22%) CEH
9 6 (4.48%) GIAC
9 6 (4.48%) GPEN
9 6 (4.48%) OSCE
9 6 (4.48%) PCI QSA
9 6 (4.48%) Tigerscheme
10 5 (3.73%) CCSAM
11 4 (2.99%) BPSS Clearance
11 4 (2.99%) CISSP
12 3 (2.24%) CompTIA Security+
13 2 (1.49%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (10.45%) GRC
1 14 (10.45%) PCI DSS
2 9 (6.72%) NIST
3 6 (4.48%) Actionable Recommendations
4 3 (2.24%) GDPR
4 3 (2.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
Systems Management
1 7 (5.22%) Nessus
2 6 (4.48%) Nmap
3 4 (2.99%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
Vendors
1 7 (5.22%) Microsoft
2 4 (2.99%) Google
2 4 (2.99%) Qualys
3 1 (0.75%) Red Hat