Penetration Tester Contract Job Trends

Penetration Tester
UK

The median Penetration Tester daily rate in the UK is £675, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 12 September 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

 6 months to
12 Sep 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 638 504 529
Rank change year-on-year -134 +25 +95
Contract jobs requiring a Penetration Tester 33 58 38
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.060% 0.18% 0.098%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.065% 0.19% 0.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 20 52 22
10th Percentile £527 £500 £456
25th Percentile £563 £547 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £675 £550 £638
Median % change year-on-year +22.73% -13.73% +21.43%
75th Percentile £688 £600 £700
90th Percentile £793 - £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £466 £800 £600
% change year-on-year -41.72% +33.33% +6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £38.75 - -
Median hourly rate £42.50 - -
75th Percentile £46.25 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 - -

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. 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 with a recognized job title 50,382 30,069 35,903
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.35% 91.09% 93.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,936 18,968 22,276
10th Percentile £325 £280 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
75th Percentile £625 £621 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,746 1,571 1,738
10th Percentile £14.58 £13.75 £14.73
25th Percentile £20.25 £17.04 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% -
75th Percentile £67.50 £52.33 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.88 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.59
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.83% +12.32%

Penetration Tester
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Penetration Tester' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Penetration Tester job vacancy trend in the UK

Penetration Tester
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Penetration Tester job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Penetration Tester job vacancies in the UK

Penetration Tester
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Penetration Tester over the 6 months to 12 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Penetration Tester in the UK

Penetration Tester
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Penetration Tester job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Penetration Tester job vacancies in the UK

Penetration Tester
Top 10 Contract Job Locations

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 over the 6 months to 12 September 2026. 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
England -165 17 £554 +0.68% 93
Work from Home -79 14 £675 +12.50% 20
London -113 9 £575 +4.55% 28
UK excluding London -105 8 £466 -41.72% 88
Midlands - 7 £466 - 13
West Midlands - 6 £400 - 5
North of England -70 4 - - 19
Yorkshire - 4 - - 10
East Midlands - 1 £533 - 8
South East - 1 - - 22

Penetration Tester Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 12 September 2026, Penetration Tester contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Penetration Tester in the job title.

1 23 (69.70%) Penetration Testing
2 18 (54.55%) Azure
3 17 (51.52%) AWS
4 15 (45.45%) Security Cleared
5 14 (42.42%) CHECK Team Leader
6 13 (39.39%) Kubernetes
6 13 (39.39%) NCSC
6 13 (39.39%) SC Cleared
7 12 (36.36%) CHECK Team Member
7 12 (36.36%) Coaching
7 12 (36.36%) DV Cleared
8 11 (33.33%) Offensive Security
8 11 (33.33%) Security Testing
9 10 (30.30%) CREST Certified
9 10 (30.30%) Red Team
10 9 (27.27%) OSCP
11 6 (18.18%) Cybersecurity
12 4 (12.12%) CI/CD
12 4 (12.12%) Claude Code
12 4 (12.12%) Cloud Security
12 4 (12.12%) Ethical Hacking
13 3 (9.09%) AI
13 3 (9.09%) Application Security
13 3 (9.09%) Containerisation
13 3 (9.09%) GCP
13 3 (9.09%) GPEN
13 3 (9.09%) Internet
13 3 (9.09%) LLM
13 3 (9.09%) Manual Testing
13 3 (9.09%) OWASP

Penetration Tester Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 1 (3.03%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 18 (54.55%) Azure
2 17 (51.52%) AWS
3 3 (9.09%) GCP
4 1 (3.03%) Azure DevOps
4 1 (3.03%) Entra ID
4 1 (3.03%) GitHub
4 1 (3.03%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 3 (9.09%) Internet
2 1 (3.03%) HTTP
2 1 (3.03%) HTTPS
2 1 (3.03%) Network Security
Development Applications
1 4 (12.12%) Claude Code
2 2 (6.06%) Burp Suite
3 1 (3.03%) Jenkins
3 1 (3.03%) JIRA
3 1 (3.03%) Metasploit
3 1 (3.03%) Rational Performance Tester
3 1 (3.03%) SoapUI
General
1 16 (48.48%) Social Skills
2 12 (36.36%) Public Sector
3 3 (9.09%) Finance
4 2 (6.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 1 (3.03%) Automotive
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (3.03%) Laravel
1 1 (3.03%) OAuth
1 1 (3.03%) OpenID
1 1 (3.03%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 4 (12.12%) Security Posture
2 3 (9.09%) Cloud Native
3 2 (6.06%) Embedded Systems
3 2 (6.06%) Mobile App
4 1 (3.03%) CSOC
4 1 (3.03%) Cyber Security Posture
4 1 (3.03%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 1 (3.03%) Linux
1 1 (3.03%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 23 (69.70%) Penetration Testing
2 12 (36.36%) Coaching
3 11 (33.33%) Offensive Security
3 11 (33.33%) Security Testing
4 10 (30.30%) Red Team
5 6 (18.18%) Cybersecurity
6 4 (12.12%) CI/CD
6 4 (12.12%) Cloud Security
6 4 (12.12%) Ethical Hacking
7 3 (9.09%) AI
7 3 (9.09%) Application Security
7 3 (9.09%) Containerisation
7 3 (9.09%) LLM
7 3 (9.09%) Manual Testing
7 3 (9.09%) OWASP
7 3 (9.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 3 (9.09%) Validation
7 3 (9.09%) Vulnerability Research
8 2 (6.06%) Continuous Improvement
8 2 (6.06%) Information Security
Programming Languages
1 1 (3.03%) PHP
1 1 (3.03%) Python
Qualifications
1 15 (45.45%) Security Cleared
2 14 (42.42%) CHECK Team Leader
3 13 (39.39%) SC Cleared
4 12 (36.36%) CHECK Team Member
4 12 (36.36%) DV Cleared
5 10 (30.30%) CREST Certified
6 9 (27.27%) OSCP
7 3 (9.09%) GPEN
8 2 (6.06%) CCSAM
8 2 (6.06%) ECSA
8 2 (6.06%) GXPN
8 2 (6.06%) OSCE
9 1 (3.03%) CEH
9 1 (3.03%) CISM
9 1 (3.03%) CISSP
9 1 (3.03%) CompTIA Security+
9 1 (3.03%) Cyber Scheme
9 1 (3.03%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (39.39%) NCSC
2 1 (3.03%) Actionable Recommendations
2 1 (3.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (3.03%) NIST
2 1 (3.03%) NIST 800
System Software
1 1 (3.03%) Docker
Systems Management
1 13 (39.39%) Kubernetes
2 1 (3.03%) Nmap
Vendors
1 2 (6.06%) Microsoft
123 Penetration Tester jobs Nationwide