Penetration Testing Contracts in England

Penetration Testing
UK > England

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in England with a requirement for Penetration Testing skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited Penetration Testing over the 6 months to 29 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
29 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 359 410 538
Rank change year-on-year +51 +128 -75
Contract jobs citing Penetration Testing 186 235 228
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.51% 0.49% 0.32%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.59% 0.55% 0.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 135 151 150
10th Percentile £418 £450 £374
25th Percentile £502 £495 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £585 £575 £588
Median % change year-on-year +1.74% -2.13% +11.06%
75th Percentile £675 £691 £652
90th Percentile £750 £800 £744
UK median daily rate £550 £600 £575
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% +9.21%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £81.75 - -
Median hourly rate £83.50 £80.00 -
Median % change year-on-year +4.38% - -
75th Percentile £85.25 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK median hourly rate £83.50 £80.00 -
% change year-on-year +4.38% - -

All Process and Methodology Skills
England

Penetration Testing is in the Processes and Methodologies category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies advertised in England with a requirement for process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 31,578 42,765 64,054
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.86% 89.99% 90.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,635 30,003 45,576
10th Percentile £300 £325 £333
25th Percentile £413 £449 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £540
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +1.85% +8.00%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £650
90th Percentile £750 £766 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £550 £538
% change year-on-year -4.55% +2.33% +7.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,303 1,521 1,733
10th Percentile £12.84 £10.63 £12.50
25th Percentile £16.00 £15.81 £15.25
Median hourly rate £37.50 £37.50 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year - +50.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £61.30 £65.00 £49.25
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.00 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £36.50 £37.00 £25.68
% change year-on-year -1.35% +44.08% +7.00%

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 29 May 2024.

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 29 May 2024. 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 +41 103 £585 -2.50% 46
North of England +30 27 £650 +23.81% 25
South West +22 23 £525 -4.55% 13
North West +28 20 £666 +21.09% 18
Midlands +15 10 £600 -17.24% 7
South East -6 10 £530 -7.42% 18
East of England +7 9 £700 +27.27% 6
West Midlands +10 7 £650 -10.34% 6
Yorkshire +7 5 £650 +23.81% 6
East Midlands - 3 £400 - 1
North East - 2 £625 - 1
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 2 (1.08%) IIS
1 2 (1.08%) JBoss
2 1 (0.54%) Confluence
2 1 (0.54%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (2.15%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.08%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (1.08%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.54%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.54%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 38 (20.43%) Azure
2 23 (12.37%) AWS
3 12 (6.45%) GCP
4 8 (4.30%) Azure Sentinel
4 8 (4.30%) Entra ID
5 5 (2.69%) Azure DevOps
5 5 (2.69%) CloudFront
5 5 (2.69%) SaaS
5 5 (2.69%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 3 (1.61%) GitHub
6 3 (1.61%) GitHub Actions
7 2 (1.08%) PaaS
8 1 (0.54%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (0.54%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 1 (0.54%) Azure Key Vault
8 1 (0.54%) Cloud Computing
8 1 (0.54%) Microsoft 365
8 1 (0.54%) Mimecast
8 1 (0.54%) Oracle CX
Communications & Networking
1 47 (25.27%) Firewall
2 33 (17.74%) Network Security
3 12 (6.45%) WAN
4 11 (5.91%) SD-WAN
4 11 (5.91%) Wireless
5 8 (4.30%) VPN
6 7 (3.76%) DNS
6 7 (3.76%) Intrusion Detection
7 5 (2.69%) TCP/IP
8 2 (1.08%) Cisco ISE
8 2 (1.08%) DHCP
8 2 (1.08%) HTTP
8 2 (1.08%) Internet
8 2 (1.08%) LAN
8 2 (1.08%) tcpdump
8 2 (1.08%) Wireshark
9 1 (0.54%) Fibre Channel
9 1 (0.54%) iSCSI
9 1 (0.54%) MPLS
9 1 (0.54%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.08%) DB2
2 1 (0.54%) Apache Hive
2 1 (0.54%) Hadoop
2 1 (0.54%) Oracle Database
2 1 (0.54%) Oracle Exadata
2 1 (0.54%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 15 (8.06%) Jenkins
2 14 (7.53%) Burp Suite
3 11 (5.91%) GitLab
4 4 (2.15%) JIRA
5 3 (1.61%) Metasploit
6 2 (1.08%) TeamCity
6 2 (1.08%) Vagrant
7 1 (0.54%) Git
7 1 (0.54%) IDA Disassembler
General
1 53 (28.49%) Finance
2 41 (22.04%) Social Skills
3 28 (15.05%) Banking
4 26 (13.98%) Analytical Skills
5 14 (7.53%) Public Sector
6 11 (5.91%) Retail
7 4 (2.15%) Legal
8 3 (1.61%) Manufacturing
9 2 (1.08%) Multimedia
10 1 (0.54%) Automotive
10 1 (0.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.54%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.54%) Law
10 1 (0.54%) Marketing
10 1 (0.54%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.54%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 30 (16.13%) Architect
2 28 (15.05%) Security Architect
2 28 (15.05%) Security Engineer
3 24 (12.90%) Consultant
4 22 (11.83%) Security Consultant
5 21 (11.29%) Analyst
6 15 (8.06%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 14 (7.53%) Network Engineer
8 13 (6.99%) Penetration Tester
8 13 (6.99%) Tester
9 12 (6.45%) Senior
10 11 (5.91%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
11 9 (4.84%) Security Analyst
12 8 (4.30%) Azure Engineer
12 8 (4.30%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
13 7 (3.76%) DevSecOps Engineer
13 7 (3.76%) Ethical Hacker
13 7 (3.76%) IT Consultant
13 7 (3.76%) IT Security Consultant
13 7 (3.76%) SOC Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (2.69%) OAuth
1 5 (2.69%) OAuth2
1 5 (2.69%) SAML
2 1 (0.54%) ARM Templates
2 1 (0.54%) Azure Blueprints
2 1 (0.54%) EDI
2 1 (0.54%) JWT
2 1 (0.54%) OLE
2 1 (0.54%) OpenID
2 1 (0.54%) RESTful
2 1 (0.54%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 24 (12.90%) Security Posture
2 20 (10.75%) Cyber Threat
3 16 (8.60%) Data Centre
4 15 (8.06%) Private Cloud
5 13 (6.99%) Mobile App
6 11 (5.91%) PKI
7 8 (4.30%) Security Operations Centre
8 7 (3.76%) Operational Technology
9 6 (3.23%) Cloud Native
9 6 (3.23%) Cyber Defence
9 6 (3.23%) Management Information System
10 4 (2.15%) Cyberattack
10 4 (2.15%) Hybrid Cloud
11 3 (1.61%) Cyber Kill Chain
11 3 (1.61%) Renewable Energy
12 2 (1.08%) Algorithms
12 2 (1.08%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 2 (1.08%) Insider Threat
12 2 (1.08%) IoT
12 2 (1.08%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 31 (16.67%) Windows
2 30 (16.13%) Linux
3 10 (5.38%) Kali Linux
4 4 (2.15%) Unix
5 2 (1.08%) AIX
5 2 (1.08%) Solaris
6 1 (0.54%) Mac OS X
6 1 (0.54%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 84 (45.16%) Cybersecurity
2 49 (26.34%) Information Security
3 47 (25.27%) Cloud Security
4 40 (21.51%) Vulnerability Scanning
5 33 (17.74%) DevSecOps
6 32 (17.20%) Application Security
7 31 (16.67%) DevOps
8 30 (16.13%) SIEM
9 29 (15.59%) Ethical Hacking
10 28 (15.05%) Incident Response
10 28 (15.05%) Problem-Solving
10 28 (15.05%) Threat Modelling
11 26 (13.98%) Identity Access Management
12 25 (13.44%) CI/CD
12 25 (13.44%) Infrastructure as Code
13 24 (12.90%) Red Team
14 23 (12.37%) Security Operations
15 22 (11.83%) Risk Management
16 21 (11.29%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 21 (11.29%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 25 (13.44%) Python
2 14 (7.53%) Kusto Query Language
3 9 (4.84%) C++
4 7 (3.76%) PowerShell
5 6 (3.23%) JavaScript
6 5 (2.69%) Perl
6 5 (2.69%) Search Processing Language
7 4 (2.15%) C#
7 4 (2.15%) Java
8 3 (1.61%) C
8 3 (1.61%) Shell Script
9 2 (1.08%) Bicep
9 2 (1.08%) Go
9 2 (1.08%) Ruby
9 2 (1.08%) SQL
10 1 (0.54%) Bash
Qualifications
1 48 (25.81%) Security Cleared
2 45 (24.19%) SC Cleared
3 24 (12.90%) Degree
4 21 (11.29%) OSCP
5 16 (8.60%) CISSP
5 16 (8.60%) Computer Science Degree
6 15 (8.06%) CEH
6 15 (8.06%) CREST Certified
7 12 (6.45%) CISM
8 10 (5.38%) GIAC
9 8 (4.30%) GPEN
10 7 (3.76%) CompTIA Security+
11 5 (2.69%) AWS Certification
12 4 (2.15%) Master's Degree
13 3 (1.61%) CCNA
13 3 (1.61%) Cisco Certification
14 2 (1.08%) CCSP
14 2 (1.08%) CSSLP
14 2 (1.08%) DV Cleared
14 2 (1.08%) OSCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 41 (22.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 38 (20.43%) NIST
3 17 (9.14%) PCI DSS
4 16 (8.60%) GDPR
5 12 (6.45%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
6 7 (3.76%) HIPAA
6 7 (3.76%) QA
7 5 (2.69%) COBIT
7 5 (2.69%) NCSC
8 4 (2.15%) SLA
9 2 (1.08%) Cyber Essentials
9 2 (1.08%) ISO 22301
9 2 (1.08%) PMO
9 2 (1.08%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 1 (0.54%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.54%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.54%) JSP 440
System Software
1 16 (8.60%) VMware Infrastructure
2 14 (7.53%) Active Directory
2 14 (7.53%) vSphere
3 5 (2.69%) Docker
4 2 (1.08%) Firmware
4 2 (1.08%) Snort
5 1 (0.54%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 23 (12.37%) Terraform
2 13 (6.99%) vCenter Server
3 6 (3.23%) Nessus
4 2 (1.08%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (1.08%) Tivoli
5 1 (0.54%) Ansible
5 1 (0.54%) CASB
5 1 (0.54%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
5 1 (0.54%) CSIRT
5 1 (0.54%) HP Fortify
5 1 (0.54%) Kibana
5 1 (0.54%) Kubernetes
5 1 (0.54%) Nmap
5 1 (0.54%) OpenVAS
5 1 (0.54%) SCCM
5 1 (0.54%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 34 (18.28%) Microsoft
2 16 (8.60%) VMware
3 12 (6.45%) Google
4 9 (4.84%) Qualys
5 7 (3.76%) Splunk
6 5 (2.69%) Cisco
6 5 (2.69%) SAP
7 4 (2.15%) Oracle
8 3 (1.61%) Checkmarx
8 3 (1.61%) F5
8 3 (1.61%) Veracode
9 2 (1.08%) AppDynamics
9 2 (1.08%) IBM
9 2 (1.08%) Salesforce
10 1 (0.54%) CheckPoint
10 1 (0.54%) Citrix
10 1 (0.54%) Imperva
10 1 (0.54%) Intel
10 1 (0.54%) Rapid7
10 1 (0.54%) Remedy