Penetration Testing Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

Penetration Testing
England > West Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the West Midlands requiring Penetration Testing skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 16 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 137 91 100
Rank change year-on-year -46 +9 +20
Contract jobs citing Penetration Testing 18 6 8
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 0.59% 0.44% 0.42%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.71% 0.50% 0.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 13 6 8
10th Percentile - £300 £535
25th Percentile £363 £353 £597
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £569 £650
Median % change year-on-year -3.30% -12.50% +40.92%
75th Percentile £750 £745 £675
90th Percentile - £788 -
England median daily rate £550 £625 £600
% change year-on-year -12.00% +4.17% +4.35%

All Process & Methodology Skills
West Midlands

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 West Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 2,550 1,202 1,612
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 83.74% 88.71% 83.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,690 805 1,066
10th Percentile £305 £200 £280
25th Percentile £402 £388 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.80% - -2.44%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £611
90th Percentile £650 £678 £725
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 96 57 118
10th Percentile £14.00 £12.62 £11.11
25th Percentile £18.78 £14.50 £14.03
Median hourly rate £27.37 £18.00 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +52.06% -20.00% +26.98%
75th Percentile £60.06 £28.18 £40.38
90th Percentile £71.56 £35.90 £57.00
England median hourly rate £41.56 £31.76 £34.21
% change year-on-year +30.84% -7.16% -8.77%

Penetration Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

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

Penetration Testing job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

Penetration Testing
Daily Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Penetration Testing.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Penetration Testing

Penetration Testing
Daily Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Penetration Testing in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 16 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Penetration Testing in the West Midlands

Penetration Testing
Hourly Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Penetration Testing.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Penetration Testing

Penetration Testing
Contract Job Locations in the West Midlands

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 West Midlands region over the 6 months to 16 April 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
Warwickshire -5 12 £550 +2.33%
Birmingham -18 3 £550 +4.76%
Coventry -26 2 £700 +14.29% 1
Penetration Testing
England

Penetration Testing
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the West Midlands 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 7 (38.89%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 4 (22.22%) Azure
2 2 (11.11%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 4 (22.22%) Intrusion Detection
2 3 (16.67%) Firewall
3 1 (5.56%) Network Security
Development Applications
1 8 (44.44%) JIRA
2 1 (5.56%) JMeter
2 1 (5.56%) LoadRunner
2 1 (5.56%) Postman
2 1 (5.56%) SoapUI
General
1 4 (22.22%) Social Skills
2 2 (11.11%) Public Sector
3 1 (5.56%) Police
Job Titles
1 5 (27.78%) Penetration Tester
1 5 (27.78%) Tester
2 4 (22.22%) Analyst
2 4 (22.22%) IT Security Officer
2 4 (22.22%) Security Officer
2 4 (22.22%) Senior
3 2 (11.11%) Architect
3 2 (11.11%) Solutions Architect
4 1 (5.56%) Consultant
4 1 (5.56%) Functional Consultant
4 1 (5.56%) Penetration Test Consultant
4 1 (5.56%) Security Engineer
4 1 (5.56%) Test Manager
4 1 (5.56%) Testing Consultant
Miscellaneous
1 6 (33.33%) Security Operations Centre
2 4 (22.22%) Cloud Native
2 4 (22.22%) CSOC
3 1 (5.56%) Management Information System
3 1 (5.56%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 6 (33.33%) Linux
2 4 (22.22%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 8 (44.44%) Continuous Improvement
1 8 (44.44%) Incident Response
1 8 (44.44%) Security Operations
2 4 (22.22%) AI
2 4 (22.22%) Analytics
2 4 (22.22%) Critical Thinking
2 4 (22.22%) Cybersecurity
2 4 (22.22%) Generative AI
2 4 (22.22%) MITRE ATT&CK
2 4 (22.22%) Proactive Monitoring
2 4 (22.22%) Problem-Solving
2 4 (22.22%) SIEM
2 4 (22.22%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
2 4 (22.22%) Use Case
2 4 (22.22%) Vulnerability Assessment
2 4 (22.22%) Vulnerability Management
3 3 (16.67%) SDLC
3 3 (16.67%) Threat Management
4 2 (11.11%) API Testing
4 2 (11.11%) Regulatory Compliance
Programming Languages
1 4 (22.22%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 11 (61.11%) SC Cleared
1 11 (61.11%) Security Cleared
2 1 (5.56%) ISTQB
2 1 (5.56%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
2 1 (5.56%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (11.11%) NCSC
1 2 (11.11%) NIST
2 1 (5.56%) QA
System Software
1 4 (22.22%) Snort
Systems Management
1 6 (33.33%) Kubernetes
2 4 (22.22%) CSIRT
Vendors
1 4 (22.22%) Microsoft
1 4 (22.22%) Splunk
2 2 (11.11%) OutSystems