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 contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 9 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 68 51 48
Rank change year-on-year -17 -3 -
Contract jobs citing Penetration Testing 6 6 3
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 0.86% 1.18% 0.74%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.98% 1.36% 0.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 5 4 2
10th Percentile £398 £582 £616
25th Percentile £450 £698 £622
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £775 £663
Median % change year-on-year -38.71% +16.98% -
75th Percentile £615 £788 £722
90th Percentile £633 - £739
North West median daily rate £508 £643 £650
% change year-on-year -20.90% -1.15% +40.16%

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 614 441 368
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire 87.97% 86.81% 91.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 457 269 230
10th Percentile £268 £325 £265
25th Percentile £358 £385 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £496 £525
Median % change year-on-year -9.90% -5.50% +16.67%
75th Percentile £538 £567 £575
90th Percentile £688 £650 £611
North West median daily rate £450 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +1.01%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 23 25
10th Percentile £12.82 £16.05 £15.40
25th Percentile £15.53 £21.05 £17.25
Median hourly rate £22.43 £27.39 £22.53
Median % change year-on-year -18.09% +21.55% +61.04%
75th Percentile £40.00 £39.38 £35.00
90th Percentile £70.55 £43.75 £40.00
North West median hourly rate £29.60 £35.68 £35.00
% change year-on-year -17.04% +1.94% +38.92%

Penetration Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in Cheshire

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

Penetration Testing job vacancy trend 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 9 November 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 9 November 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 -19 2 £617 -20.42%
Macclesfield - 1 £375 -
Penetration Testing
North West

Penetration Testing
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Cheshire 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:

Cloud Services
1 1 (16.67%) AWS
1 1 (16.67%) Azure
1 1 (16.67%) Cloud Computing
1 1 (16.67%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 5 (83.33%) Firewall
2 3 (50.00%) Internet
2 3 (50.00%) Intrusion Detection
2 3 (50.00%) Network Security
3 2 (33.33%) DNS
3 2 (33.33%) SSL
3 2 (33.33%) TCP/IP
General
1 2 (33.33%) Analytical Skills
1 2 (33.33%) Finance
Job Titles
1 2 (33.33%) Network Engineer
1 2 (33.33%) Network Security Engineer
1 2 (33.33%) Security Engineer
2 1 (16.67%) Architect
2 1 (16.67%) Security Architect
2 1 (16.67%) Security Solutions Architect
2 1 (16.67%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (33.33%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 3 (50.00%) Security Posture
2 2 (33.33%) Cloud Security Posture
2 2 (33.33%) CMDB
3 1 (16.67%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 2 (33.33%) Linux
1 2 (33.33%) Unix
1 2 (33.33%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 6 (100.00%) Vulnerability Assessment
2 3 (50.00%) Incident Response
2 3 (50.00%) Network Design
2 3 (50.00%) SIEM
3 2 (33.33%) Cloud Security
3 2 (33.33%) Identity Management
3 2 (33.33%) ITIL
3 2 (33.33%) ITSM
3 2 (33.33%) Log Correlation
3 2 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
3 2 (33.33%) Ticket Management
3 2 (33.33%) Validation
3 2 (33.33%) Vulnerability Management
3 2 (33.33%) Vulnerability Remediation
3 2 (33.33%) Vulnerability Scanning
4 1 (16.67%) Cybersecurity
4 1 (16.67%) Identity Access Management
4 1 (16.67%) Infrastructure Automation
4 1 (16.67%) Security Architecture
4 1 (16.67%) Threat Modelling
Qualifications
1 3 (50.00%) Cisco Certification
1 3 (50.00%) CISSP
1 3 (50.00%) CompTIA Security+
2 2 (33.33%) CCNP
2 2 (33.33%) MCSA
2 2 (33.33%) MCSE
2 2 (33.33%) Microsoft Certification
3 1 (16.67%) CCNA CyberOps
3 1 (16.67%) CCSA
3 1 (16.67%) CCSE
3 1 (16.67%) Check Point Certification
3 1 (16.67%) Computer Science Degree
3 1 (16.67%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (16.67%) California Consumer Privacy Act
1 1 (16.67%) GDPR
System Software
1 2 (33.33%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 2 (33.33%) CASB
1 2 (33.33%) Nessus
Vendors
1 3 (50.00%) Cisco
1 3 (50.00%) Palo Alto
1 3 (50.00%) Zscaler
2 2 (33.33%) CyberArk
2 2 (33.33%) Remedy
2 2 (33.33%) Splunk
2 2 (33.33%) Tenable
3 1 (16.67%) CheckPoint