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 24 June 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
24 Jun 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 343 394 460
Rank change year-on-year +51 +66 +123
Contract jobs requiring a Penetration Tester 7 10 12
As % of all contract jobs advertised in London 0.056% 0.057% 0.048%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.060% 0.061% 0.050%
Number of daily rates quoted 7 5 8
10th Percentile £415 £608 £506
25th Percentile £431 £713 £525
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £725 £645
Median % change year-on-year -34.48% +12.40% +14.16%
75th Percentile £538 £765 £798
90th Percentile £565 - £847
England median daily rate £500 £650 £558
% change year-on-year -23.08% +16.59% +2.76%

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 11,759 16,474 23,813
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 93.41% 93.77% 94.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,963 11,827 17,372
10th Percentile £338 £325 £363
25th Percentile £425 £444 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year - -4.35% -
75th Percentile £675 £676 £700
90th Percentile £798 £800 £800
England median daily rate £513 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.38% -4.55% +2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 174 321 274
10th Percentile £19.28 £16.00 £18.00
25th Percentile £24.00 £20.02 £22.53
Median hourly rate £33.45 £27.50 £36.77
Median % change year-on-year +21.62% -25.21% +5.06%
75th Percentile £50.50 £46.50 £63.94
90th Percentile £64.63 £67.00 £82.43
England median hourly rate £28.75 £39.55 £43.63
% change year-on-year -27.31% -9.35% +78.37%

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
Daily Rate Histogram in London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Penetration Tester in London over the 6 months to 24 June 2025.

Daily rate histogram 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 24 June 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 -37.91% 10
West London - 2 £475 - 3
Penetration Tester
England

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

For the 6 months to 24 June 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 5 (71.43%) Penetration Testing
2 3 (42.86%) Social Skills
3 2 (28.57%) Actionable Insight
3 2 (28.57%) Cybersecurity
3 2 (28.57%) White-Box Testing
3 2 (28.57%) Vulnerability Remediation
3 2 (28.57%) Python
3 2 (28.57%) Information Security
3 2 (28.57%) CEH
3 2 (28.57%) OWASP
3 2 (28.57%) Bash
3 2 (28.57%) OSCP
3 2 (28.57%) Burp Suite
4 1 (14.29%) Kali Linux
4 1 (14.29%) CREST Certified
4 1 (14.29%) Security Operations
4 1 (14.29%) Mobile App
4 1 (14.29%) Process Improvement
4 1 (14.29%) Metasploit
4 1 (14.29%) Test Automation
4 1 (14.29%) Azure
4 1 (14.29%) AWS
4 1 (14.29%) Linux
4 1 (14.29%) Nessus
4 1 (14.29%) Ethical Hacking
4 1 (14.29%) HTTP
4 1 (14.29%) TCP/IP
4 1 (14.29%) CISSP
4 1 (14.29%) IPsec
4 1 (14.29%) Finance

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 (14.29%) AWS
1 1 (14.29%) Azure
1 1 (14.29%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 1 (14.29%) HTTP
1 1 (14.29%) IPsec
1 1 (14.29%) Network Security
1 1 (14.29%) TCP/IP
Development Applications
1 2 (28.57%) Burp Suite
2 1 (14.29%) Metasploit
General
1 3 (42.86%) Social Skills
2 1 (14.29%) Analytical Skills
2 1 (14.29%) Finance
Miscellaneous
1 1 (14.29%) Mobile App
1 1 (14.29%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 1 (14.29%) Kali Linux
1 1 (14.29%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 5 (71.43%) Penetration Testing
2 2 (28.57%) Actionable Insight
2 2 (28.57%) Cybersecurity
2 2 (28.57%) Information Security
2 2 (28.57%) OWASP
2 2 (28.57%) Vulnerability Remediation
2 2 (28.57%) White-Box Testing
3 1 (14.29%) Application Security
3 1 (14.29%) Cloud Security
3 1 (14.29%) Computer Science
3 1 (14.29%) Ethical Hacking
3 1 (14.29%) Manual Testing
3 1 (14.29%) Problem-Solving
3 1 (14.29%) Process Improvement
3 1 (14.29%) Remediation Plan
3 1 (14.29%) Security Operations
3 1 (14.29%) Stakeholder Management
3 1 (14.29%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 2 (28.57%) Bash
1 2 (28.57%) Python
2 1 (14.29%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 2 (28.57%) CEH
1 2 (28.57%) OSCP
2 1 (14.29%) CISSP
2 1 (14.29%) Computer Science Degree
2 1 (14.29%) CREST Certified
2 1 (14.29%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (14.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 1 (14.29%) NIST
Systems Management
1 1 (14.29%) Nessus
Vendors
1 1 (14.29%) Google