GIAC Penetration Tester (GPEN)
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies with a requirement for GPEN qualifications. Included is a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered 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 875 942 1216
Rank change year-on-year +67 +274 -341
Permanent jobs citing GPEN 21 28 16
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.021% 0.027% 0.010%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.077% 0.082% 0.038%
Number of salaries quoted 11 5 15
10th Percentile £47,500 £66,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £49,375 £87,500 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £90,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -27.78% +63.64% +1.38%
75th Percentile £73,750 £92,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £74,000 £94,600 -
UK excluding London median annual salary £72,500 - -

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

GPEN is in the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies with a requirement for academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Permanent vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 27,286 34,290 41,595
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 27.83% 32.76% 26.99%
Number of salaries quoted 17,237 15,306 18,961
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,250 £31,000
25th Percentile £38,500 £41,750 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £54,000 £58,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.90% +5.45% -
75th Percentile £71,000 £77,500 £73,750
90th Percentile £87,500 £95,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £50,296 £50,000
% change year-on-year -0.59% +0.59% -

GPEN
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing GPEN as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for GPEN in the UK

GPEN
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing GPEN.

Salary trend for GPEN in the UK

GPEN
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing GPEN over the 6 months to 27 April 2024.

Salary histogram for GPEN in the UK

GPEN
Top 8 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing GPEN within the UK 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +104 19 £65,000 -27.78%
Work from Home +97 12 £65,000 -27.78%
UK excluding London +15 10 £72,500 -
London +123 9 £57,500 -36.11%
South East +33 8 £72,500 -
West Midlands - 1 - -
Midlands - 1 - -
Northern Ireland - 1 £57,500 -

GPEN
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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 3 (14.29%) AWS
1 3 (14.29%) Azure
1 3 (14.29%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 8 (38.10%) Network Security
2 4 (19.05%) Wireshark
3 2 (9.52%) 802.11
3 2 (9.52%) Bluetooth
3 2 (9.52%) ZigBee
Development Applications
1 4 (19.05%) Metasploit
2 1 (4.76%) AppScan
2 1 (4.76%) Burp Suite
General
1 8 (38.10%) Finance
1 8 (38.10%) Telecoms
2 4 (19.05%) Social Skills
3 3 (14.29%) Public Sector
4 2 (9.52%) Cyber-Physical System
4 2 (9.52%) Manufacturing
5 1 (4.76%) Automotive
5 1 (4.76%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 8 (38.10%) Security Assurance Manager
1 8 (38.10%) Security Manager
2 7 (33.33%) Penetration Tester
2 7 (33.33%) Tester
3 6 (28.57%) Cybersecurity Manager
4 4 (19.05%) Consultant
4 4 (19.05%) Senior
4 4 (19.05%) Senior Consultant
4 4 (19.05%) Senior Testing Consultant
4 4 (19.05%) Testing Consultant
5 3 (14.29%) Security Consultant
5 3 (14.29%) Senior Security Consultant
5 3 (14.29%) Threat Hunter
6 2 (9.52%) Analyst
6 2 (9.52%) Security Analyst
6 2 (9.52%) Security Engineer
6 2 (9.52%) Telecoms Manager
7 1 (4.76%) Penetration Test Consultant
7 1 (4.76%) Vulnerability Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (9.52%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 9 (42.86%) Self-Motivation
2 3 (14.29%) Cyberattack
2 3 (14.29%) Virtual Team
3 2 (9.52%) CAN bus
3 2 (9.52%) IoT
3 2 (9.52%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 1 (4.76%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 18 (85.71%) Penetration Testing
2 17 (80.95%) Cybersecurity
3 14 (66.67%) Red Team
4 11 (52.38%) Purple Team
5 9 (42.86%) Information Security
5 9 (42.86%) Risk Management
6 8 (38.10%) Application Security
6 8 (38.10%) Computer Science
6 8 (38.10%) Content Development
6 8 (38.10%) DevSecOps
6 8 (38.10%) OWASP
6 8 (38.10%) Security Management
6 8 (38.10%) Security Operations
6 8 (38.10%) Software Engineering
6 8 (38.10%) Stakeholder Management
6 8 (38.10%) Vulnerability Management
7 7 (33.33%) Ethical Hacking
8 6 (28.57%) Offensive Security
9 5 (23.81%) MITRE ATT&CK
10 4 (19.05%) Security Testing
Programming Languages
1 3 (14.29%) Bash
1 3 (14.29%) Python
Qualifications
1 16 (76.19%) CISSP
2 14 (66.67%) GIAC
3 12 (57.14%) CEH
4 9 (42.86%) CISM
5 8 (38.10%) Degree
6 7 (33.33%) CompTIA Security+
6 7 (33.33%) OSCP
7 4 (19.05%) CREST Certified
8 2 (9.52%) CompTIA CySA+
8 2 (9.52%) ECSA
9 1 (4.76%) CGEIT
9 1 (4.76%) CISA
9 1 (4.76%) CRISC
9 1 (4.76%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (42.86%) GDPR
1 9 (42.86%) NIST
2 8 (38.10%) GRC
3 6 (28.57%) NIST 800
4 3 (14.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
Systems Management
1 10 (47.62%) Nessus
2 6 (28.57%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
Vendors
1 6 (28.57%) Qualys
2 3 (14.29%) Microsoft
3 1 (4.76%) Trustwave