Penetration Testing Contracts in England

Penetration Testing
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in England requiring Penetration Testing skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Penetration Testing over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 366 338 430
Rank change year-on-year -28 +92 +115
Contract jobs citing Penetration Testing 119 206 231
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.49% 0.55% 0.46%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.54% 0.64% 0.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 74 126 144
10th Percentile £429 £419 £450
25th Percentile £496 £504 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £619 £589 £575
Median % change year-on-year +5.10% +2.39% -1.71%
75th Percentile £702 £675 £709
90th Percentile £788 £772 £799
UK median daily rate £550 £586 £600
% change year-on-year -6.18% -2.29% +4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £51.25 £81.75 -
Median hourly rate £52.50 £83.50 £80.00
Median % change year-on-year -37.13% +4.38% -
75th Percentile £53.75 £85.25 -
90th Percentile - - -
UK median hourly rate £52.50 £83.50 £80.00
% change year-on-year -37.13% +4.38% -

All Process and Methodology Skills
England

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 England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 22,202 32,193 45,529
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 91.16% 86.56% 90.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,534 21,105 31,969
10th Percentile £310 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £445
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% +2.33%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £675
90th Percentile £750 £750 £765
UK median daily rate £520 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 921 2,246 1,592
10th Percentile £14.42 £12.92 £10.87
25th Percentile £18.20 £16.01 £16.25
Median hourly rate £29.07 £36.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year -19.25% -4.00% +53.06%
75th Percentile £63.75 £60.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £35.65 £37.30
% change year-on-year -18.65% -4.42% +49.20%

Penetration Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

Job vacancy trend for Penetration Testing in England

Penetration Testing
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in England

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

Daily rate trend for Penetration Testing in England

Penetration Testing
Daily Rate Histogram in England

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

Daily rate histogram for Penetration Testing in England

Penetration Testing
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in England

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

Hourly rate trend for Penetration Testing in England

Penetration Testing
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 Testing 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 -1 62 £600 +1.69% 144
South East +37 26 £658 +24.06% 187
North of England +6 12 £525 -19.23% 170
North West +7 9 £575 -13.66% 88
Midlands +17 6 £569 +3.41% 133
West Midlands +13 6 £569 -12.50% 73
East of England +25 3 £775 +10.71% 104
South West +25 1 - - 95
Yorkshire +5 1 - - 66
North East -1 1 £550 -12.00% 16
Penetration Testing
UK

Penetration Testing
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:

Application Platforms
1 8 (6.72%) SharePoint
2 2 (1.68%) SAS
2 2 (1.68%) TPMS
Business Applications
1 4 (3.36%) Unit4 Business World
2 2 (1.68%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 56 (47.06%) Azure
2 21 (17.65%) AWS
3 14 (11.76%) SaaS
4 12 (10.08%) Microsoft 365
5 11 (9.24%) GCP
6 10 (8.40%) IaaS
7 8 (6.72%) PaaS
8 7 (5.88%) Power Platform
9 6 (5.04%) Entra ID
10 5 (4.20%) Azure DevOps
10 5 (4.20%) Azure Sentinel
10 5 (4.20%) Cloud Computing
11 3 (2.52%) Serverless
12 2 (1.68%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 2 (1.68%) Amazon GuardDuty
12 2 (1.68%) Amazon Macie
12 2 (1.68%) AWS CloudTrail
12 2 (1.68%) AWS KMS
12 2 (1.68%) OCI
12 2 (1.68%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 26 (21.85%) Network Security
2 24 (20.17%) Firewall
3 11 (9.24%) VPN
4 7 (5.88%) Internet
5 3 (2.52%) HTTP
6 2 (1.68%) Intrusion Detection
6 2 (1.68%) LAN
6 2 (1.68%) WAN
7 1 (0.84%) Cisco ISE
7 1 (0.84%) Wireless
7 1 (0.84%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (5.88%) Power BI
2 3 (2.52%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 5 (4.20%) Burp Suite
1 5 (4.20%) Metasploit
2 4 (3.36%) GitLab
3 3 (2.52%) MSI
4 1 (0.84%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.84%) JIRA
4 1 (0.84%) Snyk
4 1 (0.84%) SonarQube
General
1 35 (29.41%) Social Skills
2 21 (17.65%) Finance
3 18 (15.13%) Analytical Skills
4 15 (12.61%) Legal
5 9 (7.56%) Public Sector
6 6 (5.04%) Retail
7 4 (3.36%) Financial Institution
7 4 (3.36%) Military
8 2 (1.68%) Aerospace
8 2 (1.68%) Banking
8 2 (1.68%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (1.68%) French Language
8 2 (1.68%) Law
9 1 (0.84%) Automotive
9 1 (0.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.84%) Police
9 1 (0.84%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 24 (20.17%) Senior
2 20 (16.81%) Architect
3 19 (15.97%) Tester
4 15 (12.61%) Security Architect
5 14 (11.76%) Penetration Tester
6 12 (10.08%) Lead
7 11 (9.24%) Security Engineer
8 10 (8.40%) Security Manager
9 9 (7.56%) IT Manager
9 9 (7.56%) Solutions Architect
10 8 (6.72%) IT Services Manager
10 8 (6.72%) Senior Manager
10 8 (6.72%) Service Manager
11 7 (5.88%) Technical Architect
12 6 (5.04%) Auditor
12 6 (5.04%) Security Auditor
12 6 (5.04%) Senior IT Manager
12 6 (5.04%) Senior Service Manager
12 6 (5.04%) Senior Tester
13 5 (4.20%) Technical Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (4.20%) CSS
1 5 (4.20%) HTML
2 1 (0.84%) .NET
2 1 (0.84%) ARM Templates
2 1 (0.84%) EDI
2 1 (0.84%) OAuth
2 1 (0.84%) React
Miscellaneous
1 18 (15.13%) Security Posture
2 9 (7.56%) Cloud Native
3 8 (6.72%) Cyber Threat
3 8 (6.72%) Management Information System
4 7 (5.88%) Operational Technology
4 7 (5.88%) Video Conferencing
5 6 (5.04%) Cyber Kill Chain
5 6 (5.04%) Public Cloud
6 5 (4.20%) Cyber Defence
6 5 (4.20%) Mobile App
6 5 (4.20%) Private Cloud
7 4 (3.36%) Embedded Systems
7 4 (3.36%) Onboarding
7 4 (3.36%) PKI
8 2 (1.68%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (1.68%) IoT
8 2 (1.68%) Self-Motivation
9 1 (0.84%) Blog
9 1 (0.84%) Enterprise Software
9 1 (0.84%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 9 (7.56%) Windows
2 6 (5.04%) Linux
3 2 (1.68%) Kali Linux
3 2 (1.68%) Unix
3 2 (1.68%) Windows Server
3 2 (1.68%) Windows Server 2016
3 2 (1.68%) Windows Server 2019
4 1 (0.84%) Android
4 1 (0.84%) FreeRTOS
4 1 (0.84%) Windows 10
4 1 (0.84%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 50 (42.02%) Cybersecurity
2 39 (32.77%) Cloud Security
3 26 (21.85%) Security Testing
3 26 (21.85%) Vulnerability Management
4 25 (21.01%) Information Security
5 23 (19.33%) Problem-Solving
6 19 (15.97%) Incident Response
6 19 (15.97%) SIEM
7 18 (15.13%) DevSecOps
7 18 (15.13%) Security Architecture
7 18 (15.13%) Threat Modelling
8 17 (14.29%) Risk Management
9 16 (13.45%) Computer Science
9 16 (13.45%) Vulnerability Scanning
10 15 (12.61%) Agile
10 15 (12.61%) DevOps
10 15 (12.61%) Vulnerability Assessment
10 15 (12.61%) Vulnerability Remediation
11 14 (11.76%) Data Protection
11 14 (11.76%) Ethical Hacking
Programming Languages
1 16 (13.45%) Python
2 8 (6.72%) JavaScript
3 7 (5.88%) Java
3 7 (5.88%) Ruby
4 5 (4.20%) C++
4 5 (4.20%) PHP
4 5 (4.20%) PowerShell
4 5 (4.20%) SQL
5 4 (3.36%) C
6 3 (2.52%) Bash
7 2 (1.68%) Rust
8 1 (0.84%) Assembly Language
8 1 (0.84%) C#
8 1 (0.84%) Embedded C
8 1 (0.84%) Embedded C++
8 1 (0.84%) Perl
8 1 (0.84%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 29 (24.37%) Security Cleared
2 28 (23.53%) SC Cleared
3 27 (22.69%) CISSP
4 23 (19.33%) Degree
5 18 (15.13%) CEH
6 15 (12.61%) OSCP
7 11 (9.24%) Cisco Certification
8 10 (8.40%) CISM
8 10 (8.40%) CREST Certified
9 9 (7.56%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 9 (7.56%) CCSP
10 8 (6.72%) Computer Science Degree
11 7 (5.88%) GIAC
11 7 (5.88%) GPEN
11 7 (5.88%) GWAPT
12 6 (5.04%) GCIH
13 5 (4.20%) CCSAS
13 5 (4.20%) CISA
13 5 (4.20%) Master's Degree
13 5 (4.20%) OSCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (26.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 25 (21.01%) NIST
3 12 (10.08%) GDPR
4 9 (7.56%) PCI DSS
4 9 (7.56%) SLA
5 8 (6.72%) NCSC
6 7 (5.88%) HIPAA
7 5 (4.20%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 3 (2.52%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 3 (2.52%) NIST 800
8 3 (2.52%) QA
9 2 (1.68%) GRC
10 1 (0.84%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.84%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.84%) EU AI Act
10 1 (0.84%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 3 (2.52%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.68%) Docker
3 1 (0.84%) Embedded Firmware
3 1 (0.84%) Firmware
3 1 (0.84%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 8 (6.72%) Microsoft Intune
2 7 (5.88%) Nessus
3 4 (3.36%) Kubernetes
4 3 (2.52%) CASB
4 3 (2.52%) Progress Chef
4 3 (2.52%) Terraform
5 2 (1.68%) WSUS
6 1 (0.84%) Ansible
6 1 (0.84%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
6 1 (0.84%) CSIRT
6 1 (0.84%) HP Fortify
6 1 (0.84%) Nmap
6 1 (0.84%) SCCM
Vendors
1 29 (24.37%) Microsoft
2 7 (5.88%) Oracle
3 6 (5.04%) SAP
4 4 (3.36%) Qualys
5 3 (2.52%) ForgeRock
5 3 (2.52%) Google
5 3 (2.52%) Tenable
6 2 (1.68%) Ariba
6 2 (1.68%) Splunk
6 2 (1.68%) TOWER Software
6 2 (1.68%) Tripwire
6 2 (1.68%) Workday
7 1 (0.84%) Apple
7 1 (0.84%) BT
7 1 (0.84%) Cisco
7 1 (0.84%) CyberArk
7 1 (0.84%) Samsung