Penetration Tester Contracts in London

Penetration Tester
England > London

The median Penetration Tester daily rate in London is £475, 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 344 384 470
Rank change year-on-year +40 +86 +119
Contract jobs requiring a Penetration Tester 9 7 23
As % of all contract jobs advertised in London 0.072% 0.039% 0.085%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.077% 0.042% 0.089%
Number of daily rates quoted 5 2 16
10th Percentile £410 £555 £458
25th Percentile £425 £581 £525
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £675 £625
Median % change year-on-year -29.63% +8.00% -16.67%
75th Percentile £513 £731 £700
90th Percentile £520 £735 £798
England median daily rate £500 £638 £625
% change year-on-year -21.57% +2.00% +4.17%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in London. 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 London with a recognized job title 11,726 16,625 25,758
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 93.45% 93.24% 95.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,034 12,022 18,663
10th Percentile £341 £325 £363
25th Percentile £431 £444 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year - -4.35% -
75th Percentile £675 £675 £700
90th Percentile £800 £800 £800
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 143 336 290
10th Percentile £20.45 £16.01 £18.00
25th Percentile £23.90 £20.02 £22.53
Median hourly rate £34.00 £27.81 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +22.26% -20.54% -
75th Percentile £50.75 £43.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £64.75 £65.00 £76.03
England median hourly rate £30.62 £36.31 £45.00
% change year-on-year -15.67% -19.32% +100.00%

Penetration Tester
Job Vacancy Trend in London

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

Job vacancy trend for Penetration Tester in London

Penetration Tester
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in London

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

Daily rate trend for Penetration Tester in London

Penetration Tester
Contract Job Locations in London

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 London 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
Central London +5 2 £475 -34.48% 5
West London - 2 £475 - 13
Penetration Tester
England

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

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 London region featuring Penetration Tester in the job title.

1 7 (77.78%) Penetration Testing
2 4 (44.44%) OSCP
3 3 (33.33%) Red Team
3 3 (33.33%) Social Skills
4 2 (22.22%) NIST
4 2 (22.22%) White-Box Testing
4 2 (22.22%) CEH
4 2 (22.22%) Operational Technology
4 2 (22.22%) Actionable Insight
4 2 (22.22%) Cybersecurity
4 2 (22.22%) Social Engineering
4 2 (22.22%) Python
4 2 (22.22%) Information Security
4 2 (22.22%) Cryptography
4 2 (22.22%) Bash
5 1 (11.11%) Network Architecture
5 1 (11.11%) Nessus
5 1 (11.11%) Ethical Hacking
5 1 (11.11%) CISSP
5 1 (11.11%) Project Management
5 1 (11.11%) Firewall
5 1 (11.11%) Legal
5 1 (11.11%) Stakeholder Management
5 1 (11.11%) Risk Assessment
5 1 (11.11%) Google
5 1 (11.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (11.11%) Project Planning
5 1 (11.11%) Business Development
5 1 (11.11%) Degree
5 1 (11.11%) Computer Science

Penetration Tester Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in London 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 1 (11.11%) AWS
1 1 (11.11%) Azure
1 1 (11.11%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 1 (11.11%) Firewall
Development Applications
1 1 (11.11%) Burp Suite
1 1 (11.11%) Metasploit
General
1 3 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 1 (11.11%) Analytical Skills
2 1 (11.11%) Legal
Miscellaneous
1 2 (22.22%) Operational Technology
2 1 (11.11%) Blog
2 1 (11.11%) Mobile App
2 1 (11.11%) Security Posture
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (77.78%) Penetration Testing
2 3 (33.33%) Red Team
3 2 (22.22%) Actionable Insight
3 2 (22.22%) Cryptography
3 2 (22.22%) Cybersecurity
3 2 (22.22%) Information Security
3 2 (22.22%) Social Engineering
3 2 (22.22%) White-Box Testing
4 1 (11.11%) Business Development
4 1 (11.11%) Computer Science
4 1 (11.11%) Ethical Hacking
4 1 (11.11%) Manual Testing
4 1 (11.11%) OWASP
4 1 (11.11%) Product Management
4 1 (11.11%) Project Management
4 1 (11.11%) Project Planning
4 1 (11.11%) Remediation Plan
4 1 (11.11%) Risk Assessment
4 1 (11.11%) Stakeholder Management
4 1 (11.11%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 2 (22.22%) Bash
1 2 (22.22%) Python
2 1 (11.11%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 4 (44.44%) OSCP
2 2 (22.22%) CEH
3 1 (11.11%) CISSP
3 1 (11.11%) Computer Science Degree
3 1 (11.11%) CREST Certified
3 1 (11.11%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (22.22%) NIST
2 1 (11.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
Systems Management
1 1 (11.11%) Nessus
Vendors
1 1 (11.11%) Google