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 citing Penetration Testing skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 12 November 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

	6 months to 12 Nov 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Rank	161	132	108
Rank change year-on-year	-29	-24	-1
Contract jobs citing Penetration Testing	16	7	3
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands	0.45%	0.34%	0.16%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category	0.52%	0.37%	0.19%
Number of daily rates quoted	15	2	3
10^th Percentile	£450	£346	£313
25^th Percentile	£510	£416	£481
Median daily rate (50^th Percentile)	£575	£538	£775
Median % change year-on-year	+6.98%	-30.65%	+19.23%
75^th Percentile	£675	£666	£788
90^th Percentile	£705	£739	-
England median daily rate	£575	£550	£623
% change year-on-year	+4.55%	-11.65%	+13.18%

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 citing process or methodology skills in the West Midlands.

	6 months to 12 Nov 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Contract vacancies citing process or methodology skills	3,070	1,867	1,579
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the West Midlands	85.63%	90.11%	83.28%
Number of daily rates quoted	1,899	1,191	992
10^th Percentile	£325	£263	£250
25^th Percentile	£413	£400	£400
Median daily rate (50^th Percentile)	£475	£500	£520
Median % change year-on-year	-5.00%	-3.75%	+3.90%
75^th Percentile	£588	£588	£619
90^th Percentile	£675	£675	£713
England median daily rate	£525	£508	£525
% change year-on-year	+3.45%	-3.33%	-4.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted	232	119	45
10^th Percentile	£13.38	£13.25	£14.70
25^th Percentile	£16.50	£16.30	£17.25
Median hourly rate	£20.62	£23.05	£29.00
Median % change year-on-year	-10.56%	-20.52%	+5.45%
75^th Percentile	£33.99	£31.00	£35.00
90^th Percentile	£53.75	£50.00	£51.50
England median hourly rate	£35.11	£25.15	£36.00
% change year-on-year	+39.58%	-30.14%	-19.10%

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 Daily Rate Trend in the West Midlands

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 12 November 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.

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 12 November 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	Job Ads Past 6 Months	Median Daily Rate Past 6 Months	Median Daily Rate % Change on Same Period Last Year	Live Jobs
Birmingham	0	7	£538	+79.17%	14
Worcestershire	-	7	£575	-	2
Shropshire	-32	1	£519	-	1
Coventry	-	1	£500	-	2
Penetration Testing England

Penetration Testing Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the West Midlands

For the 6 months to 12 November 2026, contractor job vacancies citing Penetration Testing also mentioned 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 across the West Midlands region citing Penetration Testing.

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	Security Cleared	62.5%	10
2	Remediation Plan	56.3%	9
3	SolarWinds	50.0%	8
3	Splunk	50.0%	8
5	Cybersecurity	43.8%	7
5	DV Cleared	43.8%	7
5	End-to-End Testing	43.8%	7
5	SQL Server	43.8%	7
5	Vulnerability Management	43.8%	7
5	Vulnerability Scanning	43.8%	7
5	Windows	43.8%	7
12	Azure	37.5%	6
12	NIST	37.5%	6
14	Stakeholder Management	31.3%	5
15	GDPR	25.0%	4
15	Identity Access Management	25.0%	4
15	ISO/IEC 27001	25.0%	4
15	Microsoft	25.0%	4
15	Microsoft 365	25.0%	4
15	PCI DSS	25.0%	4
15	Security Operations	25.0%	4
22	CISSP	18.8%	3
22	Cloud Security	18.8%	3
22	Incident Response	18.8%	3
22	Offensive Security	18.8%	3
22	Project Delivery	18.8%	3
22	SC Cleared	18.8%	3
22	SIEM	18.8%	3
29	AWS	12.5%	2
29	CISM	12.5%	2

Penetration Testing Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the West Midlands by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

Processes & Methodologies

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	Remediation Plan	56.3%	9
2	Cybersecurity	43.8%	7
2	End-to-End Testing	43.8%	7
2	Vulnerability Management	43.8%	7
2	Vulnerability Scanning	43.8%	7
6	Stakeholder Management	31.3%	5
7	Identity Access Management	25.0%	4
7	Security Operations	25.0%	4
9	Cloud Security	18.8%	3
9	Incident Response	18.8%	3
9	Offensive Security	18.8%	3
9	Project Delivery	18.8%	3
9	SIEM	18.8%	3
14	Cyber Threat Intelligence	12.5%	2
14	Data Protection	12.5%	2
14	Information Security	12.5%	2
14	Privileged Access Management	12.5%	2
14	Problem-Solving	12.5%	2
14	Red Team	12.5%	2
14	Regulatory Compliance	12.5%	2