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 23 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 369 361 421
Rank change year-on-year -8 +60 +138
Contract jobs citing Penetration Testing 111 183 238
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.47% 0.50% 0.50%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.51% 0.58% 0.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 71 132 153
10th Percentile £425 £425 £450
25th Percentile £490 £503 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £585 £588
Median % change year-on-year -5.98% -0.43% +0.43%
75th Percentile £693 £675 £694
90th Percentile £775 £767 £800
UK median daily rate £536 £563 £600
% change year-on-year -4.67% -6.25% +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 21,762 31,336 43,140
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 91.29% 86.24% 90.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,222 20,550 30,257
10th Percentile £305 £300 £325
25th Percentile £412 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% +1.85%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £675
90th Percentile £750 £750 £768
UK median daily rate £513 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.38% -4.55% +3.29%
Number of hourly rates quoted 920 2,253 1,528
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.88 £10.63
25th Percentile £18.13 £15.95 £16.13
Median hourly rate £28.08 £36.50 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year -23.08% -2.67% +50.00%
75th Percentile £60.00 £60.25 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £27.50 £36.05 £37.00
% change year-on-year -23.71% -2.58% +44.08%

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 23 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 23 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 +11 57 £575 -1.92% 217
South East +68 25 £658 +24.06% 434
North of England +1 12 £531 -18.27% 381
North West -3 9 £575 -13.66% 177
Midlands +14 7 £350 -36.36% 339
West Midlands +11 5 £413 -36.54% 187
Yorkshire +14 3 £531 -18.27% 160
East of England +23 2 £738 +5.36% 261
East Midlands +9 2 £350 -12.50% 131
South West +16 1 - - 245
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 (7.21%) SharePoint
2 2 (1.80%) SAS
2 2 (1.80%) TPMS
Business Applications
1 4 (3.60%) Unit4 Business World
2 2 (1.80%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 53 (47.75%) Azure
2 21 (18.92%) AWS
3 13 (11.71%) Microsoft 365
4 12 (10.81%) GCP
5 10 (9.01%) SaaS
6 7 (6.31%) Power Platform
7 6 (5.41%) Entra ID
7 6 (5.41%) IaaS
8 5 (4.50%) Azure Sentinel
8 5 (4.50%) Cloud Computing
9 4 (3.60%) Azure DevOps
9 4 (3.60%) GitHub
9 4 (3.60%) PaaS
10 3 (2.70%) AWS CloudFormation
10 3 (2.70%) GitHub Actions
10 3 (2.70%) Serverless
11 2 (1.80%) Amazon GuardDuty
11 2 (1.80%) Amazon Macie
11 2 (1.80%) AWS KMS
11 2 (1.80%) Azure Stack
Communications & Networking
1 25 (22.52%) Network Security
2 21 (18.92%) Firewall
3 11 (9.91%) VPN
4 7 (6.31%) Internet
5 3 (2.70%) HTTP
6 2 (1.80%) Intrusion Detection
6 2 (1.80%) LAN
6 2 (1.80%) WAN
7 1 (0.90%) MPLS
7 1 (0.90%) SSL
7 1 (0.90%) Wireless
7 1 (0.90%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (6.31%) Power BI
2 1 (0.90%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 6 (5.41%) GitLab
2 5 (4.50%) Burp Suite
2 5 (4.50%) Metasploit
3 3 (2.70%) Jenkins
3 3 (2.70%) SonarQube
4 2 (1.80%) MSI
5 1 (0.90%) JIRA
5 1 (0.90%) Snyk
General
1 35 (31.53%) Social Skills
2 19 (17.12%) Finance
3 14 (12.61%) Analytical Skills
4 11 (9.91%) Public Sector
5 10 (9.01%) Legal
6 5 (4.50%) Military
7 4 (3.60%) Financial Institution
7 4 (3.60%) Retail
8 2 (1.80%) Aerospace
8 2 (1.80%) Banking
8 2 (1.80%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (1.80%) French Language
8 2 (1.80%) Law
8 2 (1.80%) Marketing
9 1 (0.90%) Automotive
9 1 (0.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.90%) Police
9 1 (0.90%) Presentation Skills
9 1 (0.90%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 17 (15.32%) Architect
2 15 (13.51%) Security Architect
3 14 (12.61%) Security Engineer
3 14 (12.61%) Senior
3 14 (12.61%) Tester
4 13 (11.71%) Lead
5 11 (9.91%) Penetration Tester
6 9 (8.11%) IT Manager
7 8 (7.21%) IT Services Manager
7 8 (7.21%) Security Manager
7 8 (7.21%) Service Manager
8 7 (6.31%) Senior Manager
9 6 (5.41%) Analyst
9 6 (5.41%) Auditor
9 6 (5.41%) Security Auditor
9 6 (5.41%) Senior IT Manager
9 6 (5.41%) Senior Service Manager
9 6 (5.41%) Solutions Architect
10 5 (4.50%) Cybersecurity Engineer
11 4 (3.60%) IT Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.80%) pytest
2 1 (0.90%) .NET
2 1 (0.90%) CSS
2 1 (0.90%) EDI
2 1 (0.90%) HTML
2 1 (0.90%) OAuth
2 1 (0.90%) React
Miscellaneous
1 22 (19.82%) Security Posture
2 8 (7.21%) Cloud Native
3 7 (6.31%) Cyber Threat
3 7 (6.31%) Operational Technology
3 7 (6.31%) Video Conferencing
4 6 (5.41%) Management Information System
5 5 (4.50%) PKI
6 3 (2.70%) Embedded Systems
6 3 (2.70%) Public Cloud
7 2 (1.80%) Algorithms
7 2 (1.80%) Cyber Kill Chain
7 2 (1.80%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (1.80%) IoT
7 2 (1.80%) Legacy Systems
7 2 (1.80%) Mobile App
7 2 (1.80%) Onboarding
7 2 (1.80%) Private Cloud
7 2 (1.80%) Security Operations Centre
7 2 (1.80%) Self-Motivation
8 1 (0.90%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 7 (6.31%) Windows
2 4 (3.60%) Linux
3 2 (1.80%) Kali Linux
3 2 (1.80%) Windows Server
3 2 (1.80%) Windows Server 2016
3 2 (1.80%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 47 (42.34%) Cybersecurity
2 34 (30.63%) Cloud Security
3 30 (27.03%) Vulnerability Management
4 24 (21.62%) Security Testing
5 21 (18.92%) Incident Response
6 20 (18.02%) Information Security
7 19 (17.12%) SIEM
8 18 (16.22%) Problem-Solving
8 18 (16.22%) Security Architecture
9 17 (15.32%) Risk Management
10 16 (14.41%) Agile
10 16 (14.41%) Threat Modelling
10 16 (14.41%) Vulnerability Assessment
11 15 (13.51%) DevSecOps
11 15 (13.51%) Security Monitoring
11 15 (13.51%) Vulnerability Scanning
12 13 (11.71%) CI/CD
12 13 (11.71%) Security Operations
12 13 (11.71%) Vulnerability Remediation
13 12 (10.81%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 17 (15.32%) Python
2 7 (6.31%) Java
2 7 (6.31%) PowerShell
3 5 (4.50%) Bash
4 4 (3.60%) C++
4 4 (3.60%) JavaScript
5 3 (2.70%) Ruby
6 2 (1.80%) C
6 2 (1.80%) Perl
7 1 (0.90%) C#
7 1 (0.90%) PHP
7 1 (0.90%) SQL
7 1 (0.90%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 34 (30.63%) Security Cleared
2 33 (29.73%) SC Cleared
3 25 (22.52%) CISSP
4 16 (14.41%) Degree
5 14 (12.61%) CEH
6 9 (8.11%) CISM
6 9 (8.11%) OSCP
7 8 (7.21%) Cisco Certification
7 8 (7.21%) CREST Certified
8 7 (6.31%) Computer Science Degree
9 6 (5.41%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 6 (5.41%) CCSP
9 6 (5.41%) GCIH
10 5 (4.50%) CompTIA Security+
11 4 (3.60%) CISA
11 4 (3.60%) GIAC
11 4 (3.60%) OSCE
12 3 (2.70%) GPEN
12 3 (2.70%) GWAPT
12 3 (2.70%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (27.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 28 (25.23%) NIST
3 16 (14.41%) GDPR
4 13 (11.71%) PCI DSS
5 11 (9.91%) HIPAA
6 9 (8.11%) NCSC
6 9 (8.11%) SLA
7 6 (5.41%) QA
8 5 (4.50%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 4 (3.60%) GRC
10 2 (1.80%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (1.80%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 2 (1.80%) NIST 800
11 1 (0.90%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.90%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.90%) EU AI Act
11 1 (0.90%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 4 (3.60%) Docker
2 3 (2.70%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.90%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 9 (8.11%) Nessus
2 8 (7.21%) Microsoft Intune
3 6 (5.41%) Kubernetes
4 3 (2.70%) HP Fortify
4 3 (2.70%) Progress Chef
4 3 (2.70%) Terraform
5 1 (0.90%) Ansible
5 1 (0.90%) CASB
5 1 (0.90%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
5 1 (0.90%) CSIRT
5 1 (0.90%) Nmap
Vendors
1 32 (28.83%) Microsoft
2 6 (5.41%) Qualys
3 5 (4.50%) Oracle
4 4 (3.60%) Google
4 4 (3.60%) SAP
5 3 (2.70%) ForgeRock
5 3 (2.70%) Tenable
6 2 (1.80%) Splunk
6 2 (1.80%) Tripwire
6 2 (1.80%) Workday
7 1 (0.90%) Apple
7 1 (0.90%) BT
7 1 (0.90%) CyberArk
7 1 (0.90%) Okta
7 1 (0.90%) Samsung