Penetration Tester Contracts in England

Penetration Tester
UK > England

The median Penetration Tester daily rate in England is £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 469 496 622
Rank change year-on-year +27 +126 +148
Contract jobs requiring a Penetration Tester 16 46 31
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.066% 0.12% 0.061%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.071% 0.13% 0.065%
Number of daily rates quoted 10 10 22
10th Percentile £423 £534 £458
25th Percentile £438 £600 £531
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £638 £625
Median % change year-on-year -21.57% +2.00% +4.17%
75th Percentile £522 £697 £700
90th Percentile £548 £742 £795
UK median daily rate £500 £600 £613
% change year-on-year -16.67% -2.04% +8.89%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in England. 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 contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in England with a recognized job title 22,549 34,488 47,741
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.59% 92.73% 94.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,007 22,894 33,903
10th Percentile £300 £275 £313
25th Percentile £409 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £643 £663
90th Percentile £750 £750 £763
UK median daily rate £515 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 900 2,432 1,409
10th Percentile £14.20 £13.00 £14.35
25th Percentile £18.51 £16.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £30.62 £36.31 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -15.67% -19.32% +100.00%
75th Percentile £63.75 £61.25 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £76.60
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
% change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%

Penetration Tester
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

Job vacancy trend for Penetration Tester in England

Penetration Tester
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Penetration Tester in England.

Daily rate trend for Penetration Tester in England

Penetration Tester
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Penetration Tester in England over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Penetration Tester in England

Penetration Tester
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Penetration Tester in England.

Hourly rate trend for Penetration Tester in England

Penetration Tester
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Penetration Tester within the England region over the 6 months to 1 May 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
London +40 9 £475 -29.63% 29
South East +22 3 £500 - 109
South West +44 1 - - 55
Penetration Tester
UK

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

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Penetration Tester contract 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 contract job ads across the England region featuring Penetration Tester in the job title.

1 14 (87.50%) Penetration Testing
2 7 (43.75%) OSCP
3 5 (31.25%) Cryptography
3 5 (31.25%) Python
3 5 (31.25%) Social Skills
4 4 (25.00%) Burp Suite
4 4 (25.00%) C
4 4 (25.00%) C++
4 4 (25.00%) Information Security
4 4 (25.00%) Cybersecurity
4 4 (25.00%) Metasploit
4 4 (25.00%) Azure
5 3 (18.75%) OWASP
5 3 (18.75%) Computer Science
5 3 (18.75%) Analytical Skills
5 3 (18.75%) Ethical Hacking
5 3 (18.75%) CEH
5 3 (18.75%) Degree
5 3 (18.75%) Java
5 3 (18.75%) Actionable Insight
5 3 (18.75%) Computer Science Degree
5 3 (18.75%) Problem-Solving
5 3 (18.75%) Cloud Security
5 3 (18.75%) Red Team
6 2 (12.50%) Coaching
6 2 (12.50%) Operational Technology
6 2 (12.50%) NIST
6 2 (12.50%) White-Box Testing
6 2 (12.50%) Offensive Security
6 2 (12.50%) Regulatory Compliance

Penetration Tester Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England 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 4 (25.00%) Azure
2 2 (12.50%) AWS
3 1 (6.25%) Entra ID
3 1 (6.25%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 1 (6.25%) Firewall
Development Applications
1 4 (25.00%) Burp Suite
1 4 (25.00%) Metasploit
General
1 5 (31.25%) Social Skills
2 3 (18.75%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (6.25%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (6.25%) .NET
1 1 (6.25%) OAuth
1 1 (6.25%) React
Miscellaneous
1 2 (12.50%) Data Protection Act
1 2 (12.50%) Operational Technology
2 1 (6.25%) Blog
2 1 (6.25%) Cyber Threat
2 1 (6.25%) Embedded Systems
2 1 (6.25%) Enterprise Software
2 1 (6.25%) Mobile App
2 1 (6.25%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 2 (12.50%) Linux
2 1 (6.25%) Android
2 1 (6.25%) FreeRTOS
2 1 (6.25%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (87.50%) Penetration Testing
2 5 (31.25%) Cryptography
3 4 (25.00%) Cybersecurity
3 4 (25.00%) Information Security
4 3 (18.75%) Actionable Insight
4 3 (18.75%) Cloud Security
4 3 (18.75%) Computer Science
4 3 (18.75%) Ethical Hacking
4 3 (18.75%) OWASP
4 3 (18.75%) Problem-Solving
4 3 (18.75%) Red Team
5 2 (12.50%) Coaching
5 2 (12.50%) Data Protection
5 2 (12.50%) Offensive Security
5 2 (12.50%) Regulatory Compliance
5 2 (12.50%) Reverse Engineering
5 2 (12.50%) Risk Assessment
5 2 (12.50%) Scenario Testing
5 2 (12.50%) Security Testing
5 2 (12.50%) White-Box Testing
Programming Languages
1 5 (31.25%) Python
2 4 (25.00%) C
2 4 (25.00%) C++
3 3 (18.75%) Java
4 2 (12.50%) Bash
4 2 (12.50%) Ruby
4 2 (12.50%) Rust
5 1 (6.25%) Assembly Language
5 1 (6.25%) C#
5 1 (6.25%) Embedded C
5 1 (6.25%) Embedded C++
5 1 (6.25%) PowerShell
5 1 (6.25%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 7 (43.75%) OSCP
2 3 (18.75%) CEH
2 3 (18.75%) Computer Science Degree
2 3 (18.75%) Degree
3 2 (12.50%) GPEN
3 2 (12.50%) GWAPT
3 2 (12.50%) Master's Degree
3 2 (12.50%) OSCE
4 1 (6.25%) CISSP
4 1 (6.25%) CREST Certified
4 1 (6.25%) SC Cleared
4 1 (6.25%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (12.50%) GDPR
1 2 (12.50%) HIPAA
1 2 (12.50%) NIST
1 2 (12.50%) PCI DSS
2 1 (6.25%) Actionable Recommendations
2 1 (6.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 1 (6.25%) Active Directory
1 1 (6.25%) Embedded Firmware
1 1 (6.25%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 1 (6.25%) Nessus
Vendors
1 2 (12.50%) Microsoft
2 1 (6.25%) Google