Penetration Tester Jobs

Penetration Tester
UK

The median Penetration Tester salary in the UK is £62,500 per year according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months to 27 April 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
27 Apr 2024		 Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 745 816 1124
Rank change year-on-year +71 +308 -283
Permanent jobs requiring a Penetration Tester 151 154 108
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.15% 0.15% 0.070%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.16% 0.16% 0.073%
Number of salaries quoted 116 80 92
10th Percentile £45,000 £39,250 £35,000
25th Percentile £48,750 £52,500 £49,375
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £68,750 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -8.09%
75th Percentile £82,500 £91,250 £80,000
90th Percentile - £105,500 £84,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - +33.33%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
UK

The following table is for comparison with the above and includes summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. 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 the UK with a recognized job title 92,756 95,826 148,057
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.61% 91.56% 96.06%
Number of salaries quoted 66,592 60,202 85,221
10th Percentile £28,500 £32,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £38,500 £45,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,550 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -12.42% - +9.09%
75th Percentile £71,250 £81,250 £78,750
90th Percentile £90,000 £100,000 £96,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% +5.26%

Penetration Tester
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Penetration Tester in the UK

Penetration Tester
Salary Trend

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

Salary trend for Penetration Tester in the UK

Penetration Tester
Salary Histogram

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

Salary histogram for Penetration Tester in the UK

Penetration Tester
Top 14 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Penetration Tester 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 +122 130 £67,500 - 10
London +167 81 £70,000 -20.00% 2
Work from Home +41 67 £55,000 -18.52% 9
UK excluding London -29 49 £55,000 -8.33% 4
South West +4 22 £45,000 -5.26% 2
North of England +45 10 £50,000 -16.67%
Midlands +4 10 £55,000 -12.00% 1
West Midlands +23 9 £55,000 -12.00% 1
Yorkshire +92 5 £38,750 -35.42%
North West +8 5 £50,000 -20.00%
South East +15 3 £57,500 +18.56%
Northern Ireland +31 2 £68,750 -5.17% 1
Scotland -81 2 £65,000 -13.33%
East Midlands -14 1 £60,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 27 April 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 featuring Penetration Tester in the job title.

1 135 (89.40%) Penetration Testing
2 111 (73.51%) Cybersecurity
3 62 (41.06%) Social Skills
4 61 (40.40%) OSCP
5 59 (39.07%) Red Team
5 59 (39.07%) Problem-Solving
6 57 (37.75%) Information Security
6 57 (37.75%) Security Testing
7 54 (35.76%) CREST Certified
8 48 (31.79%) Degree
9 45 (29.80%) Application Security
10 43 (28.48%) Computer Science
11 42 (27.81%) Analytical Skills
12 40 (26.49%) Metasploit
13 37 (24.50%) Reverse Engineering
13 37 (24.50%) Burp Suite
14 36 (23.84%) Kali Linux
15 35 (23.18%) Vulnerability Scanning
16 34 (22.52%) Computer Science Degree
17 32 (21.19%) Malware Analysis
18 31 (20.53%) CHECK Team Member
19 30 (19.87%) Critical Thinking
20 29 (19.21%) Network Security
20 29 (19.21%) Linux
20 29 (19.21%) Mobile App
21 23 (15.23%) Law
22 22 (14.57%) SC Cleared
22 22 (14.57%) Security Cleared
22 22 (14.57%) Offensive Security
22 22 (14.57%) Presentation Skills

Penetration Tester Skill Set
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 13 (8.61%) AWS
2 12 (7.95%) Azure
2 12 (7.95%) GCP
3 4 (2.65%) Dynamics 365
3 4 (2.65%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 29 (19.21%) Network Security
2 18 (11.92%) Firewall
3 15 (9.93%) Wireless
4 8 (5.30%) Wi-Fi
5 5 (3.31%) Wireless Security
6 4 (2.65%) Internet
6 4 (2.65%) TCP/IP
6 4 (2.65%) Wireshark
Development Applications
1 40 (26.49%) Metasploit
2 37 (24.50%) Burp Suite
3 1 (0.66%) AppScan
General
1 62 (41.06%) Social Skills
2 42 (27.81%) Analytical Skills
3 23 (15.23%) Law
4 22 (14.57%) Presentation Skills
5 10 (6.62%) Public Sector
6 9 (5.96%) Retail
7 8 (5.30%) Legal
8 6 (3.97%) Banking
8 6 (3.97%) Marketing
9 5 (3.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (2.65%) Games
Miscellaneous
1 29 (19.21%) Mobile App
2 20 (13.25%) Security Posture
3 6 (3.97%) Onboarding
4 4 (2.65%) Cyber Security Posture
4 4 (2.65%) Cyber Threat
4 4 (2.65%) Cyberattack
4 4 (2.65%) Embedded Systems
4 4 (2.65%) IoT
5 3 (1.99%) Operational Technology
5 3 (1.99%) Virtual Team
6 2 (1.32%) Client/Server
6 2 (1.32%) Greenfield Project
7 1 (0.66%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 36 (23.84%) Kali Linux
2 29 (19.21%) Linux
3 20 (13.25%) Android
3 20 (13.25%) Apple iOS
4 5 (3.31%) Windows
5 4 (2.65%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 135 (89.40%) Penetration Testing
2 111 (73.51%) Cybersecurity
3 59 (39.07%) Problem-Solving
3 59 (39.07%) Red Team
4 57 (37.75%) Information Security
4 57 (37.75%) Security Testing
5 45 (29.80%) Application Security
6 43 (28.48%) Computer Science
7 37 (24.50%) Reverse Engineering
8 35 (23.18%) Vulnerability Scanning
9 32 (21.19%) Malware Analysis
10 30 (19.87%) Critical Thinking
11 22 (14.57%) Offensive Security
12 19 (12.58%) Ethical Hacking
13 17 (11.26%) Data Privacy
13 17 (11.26%) Mentoring
14 16 (10.60%) Incident Response
15 15 (9.93%) Vulnerability Assessment
16 14 (9.27%) Cloud Security
17 12 (7.95%) Risk Analysis
Programming Languages
1 11 (7.28%) Python
2 8 (5.30%) Java
3 7 (4.64%) Bash
4 5 (3.31%) Go
5 4 (2.65%) C#
5 4 (2.65%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 61 (40.40%) OSCP
2 54 (35.76%) CREST Certified
3 48 (31.79%) Degree
4 34 (22.52%) Computer Science Degree
5 31 (20.53%) CHECK Team Member
6 22 (14.57%) SC Cleared
6 22 (14.57%) Security Cleared
7 13 (8.61%) Cyber Scheme
8 11 (7.28%) CHECK Team Leader
9 7 (4.64%) CEH
9 7 (4.64%) GPEN
10 6 (3.97%) GIAC
10 6 (3.97%) PCI QSA
10 6 (3.97%) Tigerscheme
11 5 (3.31%) CCSAM
11 5 (3.31%) CISSP
11 5 (3.31%) OSCE
12 4 (2.65%) BPSS Clearance
12 4 (2.65%) Master's Degree
13 3 (1.99%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (9.27%) GRC
1 14 (9.27%) PCI DSS
2 9 (5.96%) NIST
3 6 (3.97%) Actionable Recommendations
4 5 (3.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (1.99%) GDPR
System Software
1 1 (0.66%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 8 (5.30%) Nessus
1 8 (5.30%) Nmap
2 5 (3.31%) Kubernetes
3 4 (2.65%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
Vendors
1 7 (4.64%) Microsoft
2 4 (2.65%) Google
3 3 (1.99%) Qualys
4 1 (0.66%) Red Hat
4 1 (0.66%) Trustwave