Penetration Testing Contract Job Trends in Cheshire

Penetration Testing
North West > Cheshire

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Cheshire requiring Penetration Testing skills. It covers vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 18 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 68 51 39
Rank change year-on-year -17 -12 -
Contract jobs citing Penetration Testing 11 6 9
As % of all contract jobs advertised in Cheshire 1.67% 1.16% 2.39%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.83% 1.35% 2.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 9 4 3
10th Percentile £433 £582 £523
25th Percentile £475 £698 £556
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £775 £625
Median % change year-on-year -35.48% +24.00% -
75th Percentile £645 £788 £694
90th Percentile £671 - £728
North West median daily rate £508 £668 £588
% change year-on-year -23.87% +13.62% +25.67%

All Process and Methodology Skills
Cheshire

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 Cheshire.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 602 444 330
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire 91.21% 85.55% 87.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 452 277 188
10th Percentile £304 £324 £265
25th Percentile £358 £390 £423
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £446 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -6.21% -5.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £520 £575 £588
90th Percentile £687 £650 £638
North West median daily rate £450 £493 £500
% change year-on-year -8.72% -1.40% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 16 30
10th Percentile - £16.00 £16.93
25th Percentile £12.82 £30.31 £22.13
Median hourly rate £17.75 £35.00 £30.54
Median % change year-on-year -49.29% +14.60% +46.19%
75th Percentile £35.38 £43.75 £35.00
90th Percentile £67.25 £47.50 £40.00
North West median hourly rate £25.15 £42.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year -40.83% +21.43% +55.56%

Penetration Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in Cheshire

Job postings citing Penetration Testing as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in Cheshire.

Job vacancy trend for Penetration Testing in Cheshire

Penetration Testing
Daily Rate Trend in Cheshire

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

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

Penetration Testing
Daily Rate Histogram in Cheshire

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Penetration Testing in Cheshire over the 6 months to 18 September 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Penetration Testing in Cheshire

Penetration Testing
Hourly Rate Trend in Cheshire

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

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

Penetration Testing
Contract Job Locations in Cheshire

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 Cheshire region over the 6 months to 18 September 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
Knutsford -20 6 £617 -20.42%
Macclesfield - 1 £375 - 1
Penetration Testing
North West

Penetration Testing
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in Cheshire 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 6 (54.55%) AWS
2 4 (36.36%) Azure
2 4 (36.36%) Cloud Computing
2 4 (36.36%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 5 (45.45%) Firewall
2 3 (27.27%) Internet
2 3 (27.27%) Intrusion Detection
2 3 (27.27%) Network Security
3 2 (18.18%) DNS
3 2 (18.18%) HTTP
3 2 (18.18%) SSL
3 2 (18.18%) TCP/IP
Development Applications
1 2 (18.18%) GitLab
General
1 5 (45.45%) Analytical Skills
2 2 (18.18%) Finance
3 1 (9.09%) Banking
Job Titles
1 4 (36.36%) Architect
1 4 (36.36%) Security Architect
1 4 (36.36%) Security Solutions Architect
1 4 (36.36%) Solutions Architect
2 3 (27.27%) Security Engineer
3 2 (18.18%) ForgeRock Engineer
3 2 (18.18%) Network Engineer
3 2 (18.18%) Network Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (18.18%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 3 (27.27%) Security Posture
2 2 (18.18%) Cloud Security Posture
2 2 (18.18%) CMDB
2 2 (18.18%) Cyber Threat
2 2 (18.18%) PKI
3 1 (9.09%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 2 (18.18%) Linux
1 2 (18.18%) Unix
1 2 (18.18%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 9 (81.82%) Vulnerability Assessment
2 6 (54.55%) Threat Modelling
3 5 (45.45%) Problem-Solving
4 4 (36.36%) Artificial Intelligence
4 4 (36.36%) Cloud Security
4 4 (36.36%) Cybersecurity
4 4 (36.36%) Data Ingestion
4 4 (36.36%) Data Privacy
4 4 (36.36%) Generative AI
4 4 (36.36%) Machine Learning
4 4 (36.36%) Security Architecture
4 4 (36.36%) Vulnerability Scanning
5 3 (27.27%) Incident Response
5 3 (27.27%) Network Design
5 3 (27.27%) SIEM
6 2 (18.18%) CI/CD
6 2 (18.18%) DevSecOps
6 2 (18.18%) Forensic Analysis
6 2 (18.18%) Log Correlation
6 2 (18.18%) Vulnerability Remediation
Programming Languages
1 2 (18.18%) Java
1 2 (18.18%) JavaScript
1 2 (18.18%) Python
Qualifications
1 3 (27.27%) Cisco Certification
1 3 (27.27%) CISSP
1 3 (27.27%) CompTIA Security+
2 2 (18.18%) CCNP
2 2 (18.18%) MCSA
2 2 (18.18%) MCSE
2 2 (18.18%) Microsoft Certification
3 1 (9.09%) CCNA CyberOps
3 1 (9.09%) CCSA
3 1 (9.09%) CCSE
3 1 (9.09%) Check Point Certification
3 1 (9.09%) Computer Science Degree
3 1 (9.09%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (36.36%) California Consumer Privacy Act
1 4 (36.36%) GDPR
System Software
1 2 (18.18%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 2 (18.18%) CASB
1 2 (18.18%) Nessus
1 2 (18.18%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 3 (27.27%) Cisco
1 3 (27.27%) Palo Alto
1 3 (27.27%) Zscaler
2 2 (18.18%) CyberArk
2 2 (18.18%) ForgeRock
2 2 (18.18%) Remedy
2 2 (18.18%) Splunk
2 2 (18.18%) Tenable
3 1 (9.09%) CheckPoint