Security Penetration Tester Contracts

Penetration/Security Tester
UK

The median Penetration/Security Tester daily rate in the UK is £625, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 30 April 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
30 Apr 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 515 569 703
Rank change year-on-year +54 +134 +147
Contract jobs requiring a Security Penetration Tester 4 31 10
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.014% 0.071% 0.017%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.015% 0.077% 0.018%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 0 9
10th Percentile - - £550
25th Percentile £613 - £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 - £625
Median % change year-on-year - - +44.09%
75th Percentile £638 - £798
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median daily rate - - -

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 27,050 40,453 56,471
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.52% 92.79% 94.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,687 26,352 39,474
10th Percentile £300 £275 £313
25th Percentile £406 £409 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £493 £500
% change year-on-year -3.55% -1.50% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,031 2,658 1,569
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.86 £14.29
25th Percentile £18.51 £16.30 £19.50
Median hourly rate £29.07 £36.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -19.25% -20.00% +91.86%
75th Percentile £62.50 £60.75 £65.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.75 £38.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -25.32% -9.41% +117.95%

Security Penetration Tester
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Security Penetration Tester in the UK

Security Penetration Tester
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Security Penetration Tester.

Daily rate trend for Security Penetration Tester in the UK

Security Penetration Tester
Top 3 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Security Penetration Tester within the UK over the 6 months to 30 April 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
England +35 3 £625 - 1
Work from Home +21 2 £625 - 7
London - 2 - -

Security Penetration Tester Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 30 April 2025, Security 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 featuring Security Penetration Tester in the job title.

1 3 (75.00%) Penetration Testing
2 2 (50.00%) Software Engineering
2 2 (50.00%) C
2 2 (50.00%) C++
2 2 (50.00%) Java
2 2 (50.00%) Linux
2 2 (50.00%) Assembly Language
2 2 (50.00%) Firmware
2 2 (50.00%) OSCP
2 2 (50.00%) Android
2 2 (50.00%) Rust
2 2 (50.00%) FreeRTOS
2 2 (50.00%) Offensive Security
2 2 (50.00%) Embedded Firmware
2 2 (50.00%) Cryptography
3 1 (25.00%) Customer Experience
3 1 (25.00%) NIST
3 1 (25.00%) Red Team
3 1 (25.00%) Purple Team
3 1 (25.00%) Issue Tracking
3 1 (25.00%) Stakeholder and Relationship Management
3 1 (25.00%) Coaching
3 1 (25.00%) Product Management
3 1 (25.00%) Network Architecture
3 1 (25.00%) Cybersecurity
3 1 (25.00%) Project Management
3 1 (25.00%) Firewall
3 1 (25.00%) Legal
3 1 (25.00%) Stakeholder Management
3 1 (25.00%) Risk Assessment

Security Penetration Tester Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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:

Communications & Networking
1 1 (25.00%) Firewall
General
1 1 (25.00%) Legal
Miscellaneous
1 1 (25.00%) Blog
Operating Systems
1 2 (50.00%) Android
1 2 (50.00%) FreeRTOS
1 2 (50.00%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (75.00%) Penetration Testing
2 2 (50.00%) Cryptography
2 2 (50.00%) Offensive Security
2 2 (50.00%) Software Engineering
3 1 (25.00%) Business Development
3 1 (25.00%) Coaching
3 1 (25.00%) Customer Experience
3 1 (25.00%) Cybersecurity
3 1 (25.00%) Issue Tracking
3 1 (25.00%) Network Architecture
3 1 (25.00%) Product Management
3 1 (25.00%) Project Management
3 1 (25.00%) Project Planning
3 1 (25.00%) Purple Team
3 1 (25.00%) Red Team
3 1 (25.00%) Risk Assessment
3 1 (25.00%) Stakeholder and Relationship Management
3 1 (25.00%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 2 (50.00%) Assembly Language
1 2 (50.00%) C
1 2 (50.00%) C++
1 2 (50.00%) Java
1 2 (50.00%) Rust
Qualifications
1 2 (50.00%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (25.00%) NIST
System Software
1 2 (50.00%) Embedded Firmware
1 2 (50.00%) Firmware