Penetration Testing Contracts in the North West

Penetration Testing
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the North West 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 111 118 146
Rank change year-on-year +7 +28 +5
Contract jobs citing Penetration Testing 9 19 11
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the North West 0.46% 0.69% 0.34%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.51% 0.80% 0.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 8 14 6
10th Percentile £400 £425 £475
25th Percentile £469 £463 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £666 £525
Median % change year-on-year -13.66% +26.86% -
75th Percentile £655 £669 £616
90th Percentile £671 £682 £638
England median daily rate £619 £589 £575
% change year-on-year +5.10% +2.39% -1.71%

All Process and Methodology Skills
North West

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 the North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,776 2,377 2,894
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 90.24% 86.28% 90.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,147 1,519 2,058
10th Percentile £300 £306 £313
25th Percentile £393 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £593 £588
90th Percentile £661 £688 £675
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% +2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 108 244 144
10th Percentile £15.97 £10.95 £16.85
25th Percentile £22.66 £13.30 £21.25
Median hourly rate £31.88 £21.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +51.81% -40.00% +70.82%
75th Percentile £60.00 £45.22 £48.91
90th Percentile £83.96 £57.50 £65.00
England median hourly rate £29.07 £36.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year -19.25% -4.00% +53.06%

Penetration Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Job postings citing Penetration Testing as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Job vacancy trend for Penetration Testing in the North West

Penetration Testing
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the North West

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Penetration Testing in the North West.

Daily rate trend for Penetration Testing in the North West

Penetration Testing
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

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

Daily rate histogram for Penetration Testing in the North West

Penetration Testing
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Penetration Testing in the North West.

Hourly rate trend for Penetration Testing in the North West

Penetration Testing
Contract Job Locations in the North West

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 North West 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
Cheshire - 5 £586 - 18
Manchester +10 2 £650 +44.44% 52
Lancashire - 2 £400 - 18
Penetration Testing
England

Penetration Testing
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the North West 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 (22.22%) SAS
Cloud Services
1 5 (55.56%) AWS
1 5 (55.56%) Azure
2 3 (33.33%) Cloud Computing
2 3 (33.33%) GCP
3 2 (22.22%) Entra ID
3 2 (22.22%) IaaS
3 2 (22.22%) Microsoft 365
3 2 (22.22%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 2 (22.22%) HTTP
2 1 (11.11%) Wireless
Development Applications
1 2 (22.22%) GitLab
General
1 3 (33.33%) Analytical Skills
2 2 (22.22%) Legal
2 2 (22.22%) Social Skills
3 1 (11.11%) Automotive
3 1 (11.11%) Banking
Job Titles
1 3 (33.33%) Architect
1 3 (33.33%) Security Architect
1 3 (33.33%) Security Solutions Architect
1 3 (33.33%) Solutions Architect
2 2 (22.22%) ForgeRock Engineer
3 1 (11.11%) Coordinator
3 1 (11.11%) Lead
3 1 (11.11%) Security Engineer
3 1 (11.11%) Test Coordinator
3 1 (11.11%) Test Leader
Miscellaneous
1 3 (33.33%) Operational Technology
2 2 (22.22%) Cyber Threat
2 2 (22.22%) Onboarding
2 2 (22.22%) PKI
3 1 (11.11%) Embedded Systems
3 1 (11.11%) Industrial Internet of Things
3 1 (11.11%) IoT
3 1 (11.11%) SCADA
Processes & Methodologies
1 6 (66.67%) Cybersecurity
2 5 (55.56%) Threat Modelling
3 4 (44.44%) Cloud Security
3 4 (44.44%) Data Protection
4 3 (33.33%) Artificial Intelligence
4 3 (33.33%) Data Ingestion
4 3 (33.33%) Data Privacy
4 3 (33.33%) Generative AI
4 3 (33.33%) Machine Learning
4 3 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
4 3 (33.33%) Security Architecture
4 3 (33.33%) Vulnerability Assessment
5 2 (22.22%) CI/CD
5 2 (22.22%) Cyber Resilience
5 2 (22.22%) DevSecOps
5 2 (22.22%) Forensic Analysis
5 2 (22.22%) Microservices
5 2 (22.22%) Red Team
5 2 (22.22%) Security Testing
5 2 (22.22%) Vulnerability Scanning
Programming Languages
1 2 (22.22%) Java
1 2 (22.22%) JavaScript
1 2 (22.22%) Python
Qualifications
1 2 (22.22%) APMG
1 2 (22.22%) CREST Certified
1 2 (22.22%) OSCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (33.33%) California Consumer Privacy Act
1 3 (33.33%) GDPR
Systems Management
1 2 (22.22%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 2 (22.22%) ForgeRock