Penetration Testing Contract Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Penetration Testing
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring Penetration Testing skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 4 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 108 117 122
Rank change year-on-year +9 +5 +57
Contract jobs citing Penetration Testing 12 3 23
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 0.70% 0.14% 0.84%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.78% 0.16% 0.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 12 1 2
10th Percentile £378 - £502
25th Percentile £407 £413 £552
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £425 £644
Median % change year-on-year - -33.98% -0.96%
75th Percentile £463 £438 £727
90th Percentile £532 - £771
South East median daily rate £450 £600 £500
% change year-on-year -25.00% +20.00% -20.00%

All Process and Methodology Skills
Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,547 1,853 2,460
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 90.73% 85.51% 90.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 954 1,046 1,642
10th Percentile £267 £294 £263
25th Percentile £400 £413 £403
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.48% -2.86% +5.00%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £625
90th Percentile £650 £680 £700
South East median daily rate £500 £510 £525
% change year-on-year -1.96% -2.86% +2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 103 79 87
10th Percentile £14.75 £18.66 £16.40
25th Percentile £15.83 £28.88 £25.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £58.38 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year -56.92% +11.19% +165.82%
75th Percentile £44.68 £64.73 £67.75
90th Percentile £79.50 £77.54 £75.67
South East median hourly rate £22.19 £58.38 £54.37
% change year-on-year -61.99% +7.37% +74.54%

Penetration Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Penetration Testing relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

Penetration Testing job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Penetration Testing
Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Penetration Testing.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Penetration Testing

Penetration Testing
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Penetration Testing in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 4 October 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Penetration Testing in the Thames Valley

Penetration Testing
Hourly Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Penetration Testing.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Penetration Testing

Penetration Testing
Contract Job Locations in the Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 4 October 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
Berkshire +26 12 £425 - 7
Penetration Testing
South East

Penetration Testing
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 4 (33.33%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (33.33%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 2 (16.67%) Azure
1 2 (16.67%) Azure DevOps
1 2 (16.67%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 4 (33.33%) Wireshark
2 2 (16.67%) SD-WAN
3 1 (8.33%) FCAPS
3 1 (8.33%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (16.67%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 4 (33.33%) Burp Suite
1 4 (33.33%) JIRA
1 4 (33.33%) Metasploit
General
1 10 (83.33%) Social Skills
2 3 (25.00%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (8.33%) Public Sector
3 1 (8.33%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 5 (41.67%) Penetration Tester
1 5 (41.67%) Tester
2 2 (16.67%) Cybersecurity Manager
2 2 (16.67%) Operational Security Manager
2 2 (16.67%) Project Manager
2 2 (16.67%) Project Manager - Cybersecurity
2 2 (16.67%) Security Manager
2 2 (16.67%) Security Operations Manager
2 2 (16.67%) Security Project Manager
2 2 (16.67%) Testing Manager
3 1 (8.33%) Network Systems Engineer
3 1 (8.33%) Operations Manager
3 1 (8.33%) Operations Project Manager
3 1 (8.33%) PMO Manager
3 1 (8.33%) Senior
3 1 (8.33%) Systems Test Engineer
3 1 (8.33%) Telemetry Manager
3 1 (8.33%) Telemetry Project Manager
3 1 (8.33%) Vulnerability Management Manager
3 1 (8.33%) Vulnerability Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (16.67%) ADO
Miscellaneous
1 2 (16.67%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 4 (33.33%) Kali Linux
1 4 (33.33%) Linux
2 1 (8.33%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (58.33%) Cybersecurity
2 6 (50.00%) Project Management
3 5 (41.67%) Vulnerability Management
4 4 (33.33%) Actionable Insight
4 4 (33.33%) Ethical Hacking
4 4 (33.33%) MITRE ATT&CK
4 4 (33.33%) OWASP
4 4 (33.33%) PRINCE2
4 4 (33.33%) Red Team
4 4 (33.33%) Resource Allocation
4 4 (33.33%) Stakeholder Management
4 4 (33.33%) Test Automation
5 2 (16.67%) Agile
5 2 (16.67%) Business Intelligence
5 2 (16.67%) Change Control
5 2 (16.67%) Change Management
5 2 (16.67%) Cyber Resilience
5 2 (16.67%) Logistics
5 2 (16.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 2 (16.67%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 4 (33.33%) Bash
1 4 (33.33%) PowerShell
1 4 (33.33%) Python
Qualifications
1 5 (41.67%) SC Cleared
1 5 (41.67%) Security Cleared
2 4 (33.33%) CEH
2 4 (33.33%) CISM
2 4 (33.33%) CISSP
2 4 (33.33%) Degree
2 4 (33.33%) GPEN
2 4 (33.33%) OSCP
2 4 (33.33%) PMI Certification
2 4 (33.33%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (41.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 5 (41.67%) NIST
2 4 (33.33%) PMO
3 1 (8.33%) PCI DSS
Systems Management
1 4 (33.33%) Nmap
Vendors
1 1 (8.33%) Nokia