Penetration Testing Contracts in the South West

Penetration Testing
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South 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 4 August 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Aug 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 106 114 146
Rank change year-on-year +8 +32 +18
Contract jobs citing Penetration Testing 7 23 13
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South West 0.37% 0.81% 0.39%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.41% 0.97% 0.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 1 16 11
10th Percentile - £463 £450
25th Percentile £456 £493 £525
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £530 £650
Median % change year-on-year -8.02% -18.46% +8.33%
75th Percentile £519 £538 £705
90th Percentile - £550 £713
England median daily rate £550 £575 £550
% change year-on-year -4.35% +4.55% -8.33%

All Process and Methodology Skills
South 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 South West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,702 2,368 2,946
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 89.72% 83.73% 87.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 998 1,506 2,078
10th Percentile £220 £263 £313
25th Percentile £363 £424 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% +2.38%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £650
90th Percentile £688 £700 £725
England median daily rate £513 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.38% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 202 291 250
10th Percentile £15.16 £15.50 £19.23
25th Percentile £18.51 £40.00 £47.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £65.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -61.31% - +30.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £72.50 £75.50
90th Percentile £70.00 £77.50 £83.44
England median hourly rate £25.15 £42.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -40.82% - +61.35%

Penetration Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

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

Job vacancy trend for Penetration Testing in the South West

Penetration Testing
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the South West

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

Daily rate trend for Penetration Testing in the South West

Penetration Testing
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

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

Hourly rate trend for Penetration Testing in the South West

Penetration Testing
Contract Job Locations in the South 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 South West region over the 6 months to 4 August 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
Bristol +13 3 - - 15
Gloucestershire - 2 - - 18
Wiltshire +4 1 £488 -8.02%
Devon - 1 - - 1
Penetration Testing
England

Penetration Testing
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South 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:

Cloud Services
1 3 (42.86%) Azure
2 2 (28.57%) AWS
2 2 (28.57%) GCP
3 1 (14.29%) Azure Sentinel
3 1 (14.29%) Microsoft 365
3 1 (14.29%) npm
3 1 (14.29%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 1 (14.29%) Cisco Nexus
1 1 (14.29%) Firewall
1 1 (14.29%) Intrusion Detection
1 1 (14.29%) VPN
Development Applications
1 1 (14.29%) Cypress.io
1 1 (14.29%) Git
1 1 (14.29%) SonarQube
1 1 (14.29%) Sonatype Nexus
1 1 (14.29%) webpack
General
1 4 (57.14%) Social Skills
2 3 (42.86%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (14.29%) Banking
3 1 (14.29%) Finance
3 1 (14.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 1 (14.29%) Military
3 1 (14.29%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 3 (42.86%) Analyst
2 2 (28.57%) Penetration Tester
2 2 (28.57%) Senior
2 2 (28.57%) Senior Penetration Tester
2 2 (28.57%) Senior Tester
2 2 (28.57%) SOC Analyst
2 2 (28.57%) Tester
3 1 (14.29%) Cybersecurity Analyst
3 1 (14.29%) Cybersecurity Engineer
3 1 (14.29%) Security Analyst
3 1 (14.29%) Security Engineer
3 1 (14.29%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (14.29%) CSS
1 1 (14.29%) HTML
1 1 (14.29%) Jest
1 1 (14.29%) React
1 1 (14.29%) RESTful
1 1 (14.29%) Spring Boot
1 1 (14.29%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 2 (28.57%) Cyber Threat
1 2 (28.57%) Security Operations Centre
1 2 (28.57%) Security Posture
2 1 (14.29%) Cyber Kill Chain
2 1 (14.29%) Data Protection Act
2 1 (14.29%) Management Information System
2 1 (14.29%) PKI
2 1 (14.29%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 1 (14.29%) Linux
1 1 (14.29%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 5 (71.43%) Problem-Solving
2 4 (57.14%) Cybersecurity
2 4 (57.14%) Incident Response
2 4 (57.14%) Threat Detection
3 3 (42.86%) Coaching
3 3 (42.86%) Continuous Improvement
3 3 (42.86%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
3 3 (42.86%) Security Monitoring
3 3 (42.86%) Security Operations
3 3 (42.86%) SIEM
3 3 (42.86%) Threat Intelligence
4 2 (28.57%) Change Management
4 2 (28.57%) Forensic Analysis
5 1 (14.29%) Agile
5 1 (14.29%) Identity Management
5 1 (14.29%) Information Management
5 1 (14.29%) Information Security
5 1 (14.29%) ITIL
5 1 (14.29%) ITSM
5 1 (14.29%) Web Design
Programming Languages
1 3 (42.86%) PowerShell
1 3 (42.86%) Python
2 2 (28.57%) Kusto Query Language
3 1 (14.29%) Bash
3 1 (14.29%) Java
3 1 (14.29%) JavaScript
3 1 (14.29%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 4 (57.14%) Security Cleared
2 3 (42.86%) CEH
2 3 (42.86%) CISSP
2 3 (42.86%) CompTIA Security+
2 3 (42.86%) SC Cleared
3 1 (14.29%) CISM
3 1 (14.29%) DV Cleared
3 1 (14.29%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (14.29%) GDPR
1 1 (14.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 1 (14.29%) NIST
Vendors
1 2 (28.57%) Microsoft
2 1 (14.29%) Cisco
2 1 (14.29%) Salesforce
2 1 (14.29%) ServiceNow