Penetration Tester Contracts in the UK excluding London

Penetration Tester
UK > UK excluding London

The median Penetration Tester daily rate in the UK excluding London is £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 28 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
28 Jun 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 355 389 432
Rank change year-on-year +34 +43 +81
Contract jobs requiring a Penetration Tester 4 9 6
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.029% 0.043% 0.026%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.032% 0.046% 0.028%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 7 4
10th Percentile - £560 £480
25th Percentile - - £525
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £600 £558
Median % change year-on-year -16.67% +7.62% +2.76%
75th Percentile - £650 £571
90th Percentile - - £572
UK median daily rate £500 £613 £550
% change year-on-year -18.37% +11.36% +4.27%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding 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 the UK excluding London with a recognized job title 12,535 19,528 21,566
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.18% 92.39% 94.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,818 11,672 14,887
10th Percentile £220 £213 £231
25th Percentile £363 £365 £398
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £493 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.65% -1.40% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £594 £600
90th Percentile £650 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% +1.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 989 2,454 1,125
10th Percentile £13.49 £12.65 £13.41
25th Percentile £16.63 £16.00 £17.72
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -37.13% - +100.00%
75th Percentile £57.50 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £74.86 £75.50
UK median hourly rate £27.00 £37.50 £43.81
% change year-on-year -28.00% -14.39% +71.78%

Penetration Tester
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Job vacancy trend for Penetration Tester in the UK excluding London

Penetration Tester
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Daily rate trend for Penetration Tester in the UK excluding London

Penetration Tester
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Penetration Tester in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for Penetration Tester in the UK excluding London

Penetration Tester
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding 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 UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 28 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
South West +38 2 - - 10
South East - 2 £500 - 16
Penetration Tester
UK

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

For the 6 months to 28 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 UK excluding London region featuring Penetration Tester in the job title.

1 4 (100.00%) Penetration Testing
2 2 (50.00%) Burp Suite
2 2 (50.00%) Metasploit
2 2 (50.00%) SC Cleared
2 2 (50.00%) Security Cleared
2 2 (50.00%) Coaching
3 1 (25.00%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (25.00%) Entra ID
3 1 (25.00%) OSINT
3 1 (25.00%) OAuth
3 1 (25.00%) HIPAA
3 1 (25.00%) OWASP
3 1 (25.00%) Reverse Engineering
3 1 (25.00%) Azure
3 1 (25.00%) Open Source
3 1 (25.00%) GWAPT
3 1 (25.00%) GPEN
3 1 (25.00%) OSCP
3 1 (25.00%) OSCE
3 1 (25.00%) Cybersecurity
3 1 (25.00%) Cryptography
3 1 (25.00%) Ethical Hacking
3 1 (25.00%) Vulnerability Assessment
3 1 (25.00%) C
3 1 (25.00%) C++
3 1 (25.00%) Java
3 1 (25.00%) Linux
3 1 (25.00%) Python
3 1 (25.00%) Microsoft
3 1 (25.00%) Active Directory

Penetration Tester Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding 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 (25.00%) Azure
1 1 (25.00%) Entra ID
Development Applications
1 2 (50.00%) Burp Suite
1 2 (50.00%) Metasploit
General
1 1 (25.00%) Analytical Skills
1 1 (25.00%) Social Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (25.00%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 1 (25.00%) Cyber Threat
1 1 (25.00%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 1 (25.00%) Kali Linux
1 1 (25.00%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 4 (100.00%) Penetration Testing
2 2 (50.00%) Coaching
3 1 (25.00%) Actionable Insight
3 1 (25.00%) Computer Science
3 1 (25.00%) Cryptography
3 1 (25.00%) Cybersecurity
3 1 (25.00%) Data Protection
3 1 (25.00%) Ethical Hacking
3 1 (25.00%) Information Security
3 1 (25.00%) Open Source
3 1 (25.00%) OSINT
3 1 (25.00%) OWASP
3 1 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
3 1 (25.00%) Regulatory Compliance
3 1 (25.00%) Reverse Engineering
3 1 (25.00%) Risk Assessment
3 1 (25.00%) Scenario Testing
3 1 (25.00%) Security Testing
3 1 (25.00%) Threat Modelling
3 1 (25.00%) Vulnerability Assessment
Programming Languages
1 1 (25.00%) C
1 1 (25.00%) C++
1 1 (25.00%) Java
1 1 (25.00%) Python
1 1 (25.00%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 2 (50.00%) SC Cleared
1 2 (50.00%) Security Cleared
2 1 (25.00%) Computer Science Degree
2 1 (25.00%) Degree
2 1 (25.00%) GPEN
2 1 (25.00%) GWAPT
2 1 (25.00%) Master's Degree
2 1 (25.00%) OSCE
2 1 (25.00%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (25.00%) Actionable Recommendations
1 1 (25.00%) GDPR
1 1 (25.00%) HIPAA
1 1 (25.00%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 1 (25.00%) Active Directory
Vendors
1 1 (25.00%) Microsoft