Penetration Testing Contract Job Trends in Berkshire

Penetration Testing
South East > Berkshire

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Berkshire requiring Penetration Testing skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 4 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 85 111 91
Rank change year-on-year +26 -20 +34
Contract jobs citing Penetration Testing 12 1 23
As % of all contract jobs in Berkshire 0.98% 0.061% 1.30%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.08% 0.069% 1.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 12 0 2
10th Percentile £378 - £502
25th Percentile £407 - £552
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 - £644
Median % change year-on-year - - -0.96%
75th Percentile £463 - £727
90th Percentile £532 - £771
South East median daily rate £450 £600 £500
% change year-on-year -25.00% +20.00% -20.00%

All Process and Methodology Skills
Berkshire

Penetration Testing falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in Berkshire.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,113 1,440 1,583
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Berkshire 90.86% 87.48% 89.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 703 757 994
10th Percentile £316 £325 £263
25th Percentile £413 £438 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +4.76% +5.00%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £638
90th Percentile £650 £688 £700
South East median daily rate £500 £510 £525
% change year-on-year -1.96% -2.86% +2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 45 66 62
10th Percentile £14.75 £19.34 £21.03
25th Percentile £17.50 £41.56 £48.40
Median hourly rate £37.28 £60.83 £60.63
Median % change year-on-year -38.71% +0.34% +21.25%
75th Percentile £58.00 £64.73 £73.59
90th Percentile £87.40 £80.74 £76.06
South East median hourly rate £22.19 £58.38 £54.37
% change year-on-year -61.99% +7.37% +74.54%

Penetration Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in Berkshire

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Penetration Testing relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Berkshire.

Penetration Testing job vacancy trend in Berkshire

Penetration Testing
Daily Rate Trend in Berkshire

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Penetration Testing.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Penetration Testing

Penetration Testing
Daily Rate Histogram in Berkshire

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Penetration Testing in Berkshire over the 6 months to 4 October 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Penetration Testing in Berkshire

Penetration Testing
Hourly Rate Trend in Berkshire

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Penetration Testing.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Penetration Testing

Penetration Testing
Contract Job Locations in Berkshire

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 Berkshire region over the 6 months to 4 October 2025. 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
Wokingham -6 8 £425 - 4
Reading - 3 £536 - 2
Slough - 1 £379 -
Penetration Testing
South East

Penetration Testing
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Berkshire by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 4 (33.33%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (33.33%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 2 (16.67%) Azure
1 2 (16.67%) Azure DevOps
1 2 (16.67%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 4 (33.33%) Wireshark
2 2 (16.67%) SD-WAN
3 1 (8.33%) FCAPS
3 1 (8.33%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (16.67%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 4 (33.33%) Burp Suite
1 4 (33.33%) JIRA
1 4 (33.33%) Metasploit
General
1 10 (83.33%) Social Skills
2 3 (25.00%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (8.33%) Public Sector
3 1 (8.33%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 5 (41.67%) Penetration Tester
1 5 (41.67%) Tester
2 2 (16.67%) Cybersecurity Manager
2 2 (16.67%) Operational Security Manager
2 2 (16.67%) Project Manager
2 2 (16.67%) Project Manager - Cybersecurity
2 2 (16.67%) Security Manager
2 2 (16.67%) Security Operations Manager
2 2 (16.67%) Security Project Manager
2 2 (16.67%) Testing Manager
3 1 (8.33%) Network Systems Engineer
3 1 (8.33%) Operations Manager
3 1 (8.33%) Operations Project Manager
3 1 (8.33%) PMO Manager
3 1 (8.33%) Senior
3 1 (8.33%) Systems Test Engineer
3 1 (8.33%) Telemetry Manager
3 1 (8.33%) Telemetry Project Manager
3 1 (8.33%) Vulnerability Management Manager
3 1 (8.33%) Vulnerability Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (16.67%) ADO
Miscellaneous
1 2 (16.67%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 4 (33.33%) Kali Linux
1 4 (33.33%) Linux
2 1 (8.33%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (58.33%) Cybersecurity
2 6 (50.00%) Project Management
3 5 (41.67%) Vulnerability Management
4 4 (33.33%) Actionable Insight
4 4 (33.33%) Ethical Hacking
4 4 (33.33%) MITRE ATT&CK
4 4 (33.33%) OWASP
4 4 (33.33%) PRINCE2
4 4 (33.33%) Red Team
4 4 (33.33%) Resource Allocation
4 4 (33.33%) Stakeholder Management
4 4 (33.33%) Test Automation
5 2 (16.67%) Agile
5 2 (16.67%) Business Intelligence
5 2 (16.67%) Change Control
5 2 (16.67%) Change Management
5 2 (16.67%) Cyber Resilience
5 2 (16.67%) Logistics
5 2 (16.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 2 (16.67%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 4 (33.33%) Bash
1 4 (33.33%) PowerShell
1 4 (33.33%) Python
Qualifications
1 5 (41.67%) SC Cleared
1 5 (41.67%) Security Cleared
2 4 (33.33%) CEH
2 4 (33.33%) CISM
2 4 (33.33%) CISSP
2 4 (33.33%) Degree
2 4 (33.33%) GPEN
2 4 (33.33%) OSCP
2 4 (33.33%) PMI Certification
2 4 (33.33%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (41.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 5 (41.67%) NIST
2 4 (33.33%) PMO
3 1 (8.33%) PCI DSS
Systems Management
1 4 (33.33%) Nmap
Vendors
1 1 (8.33%) Nokia