Penetration Testing Contracts with Work from Home Options

Penetration Testing
UK > Work from Home

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with an option to work from home (WFH) and a requirement for Penetration Testing skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited Penetration Testing over the 6 months to 26 April 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
26 Apr 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 237 386 451
Rank change year-on-year +149 +65 -74
Contract jobs citing Penetration Testing 123 94 178
As % of all contract jobs with a WFH option 0.80% 0.36% 0.40%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.91% 0.40% 0.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 62 69 127
10th Percentile £401 £408 £429
25th Percentile £505 £475 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £600 £575
Median % change year-on-year - +4.35% -3.49%
75th Percentile £675 £700 £625
90th Percentile £750 £792 £700
UK median daily rate £588 £600 £575
% change year-on-year -2.08% +4.35% +5.26%

All Process and Methodology Skills
Work from Home

Penetration Testing is in the Processes and Methodologies category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a WFH option and a requirement for process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 13,515 23,376 40,505
As % of all contract jobs with a WFH option 87.88% 89.86% 91.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,014 16,510 29,383
10th Percentile £325 £363 £360
25th Percentile £425 £450 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £540 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.78% +2.86% +8.47%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £625
90th Percentile £750 £750 £713
UK median daily rate £525 £550 £525
% change year-on-year -4.55% +4.76% +8.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 563 541 540
10th Percentile £15.03 £19.00 £13.50
25th Percentile £24.13 £30.75 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £55.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.27% +57.14% +35.92%
75th Percentile £60.00 £68.75 £55.00
90th Percentile £75.25 £80.25 £66.78
UK median hourly rate £35.00 £37.00 £25.00
% change year-on-year -5.41% +48.00% -

Penetration Testing
Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

Job vacancies with a work from home option citing Penetration Testing as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Penetration Testing trend for jobs with a WFH option

Penetration Testing
Daily Rate Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in job vacancies with a work from home option citing Penetration Testing.

Penetration Testing daily rate for jobs with a WFH option

Penetration Testing
Daily Rate Histogram for Jobs with a WFH Option

Daily rate distribution for jobs with a work from home option citing Penetration Testing over the 6 months to 26 April 2024.

Penetration Testing daily rate histogram for jobs with a WFH option

Penetration Testing
Hourly Rate Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

3-month moving average hourly rate quoted in job vacancies with a work from home option citing Penetration Testing.

Penetration Testing hourly rate for jobs with a WFH option

Penetration Testing
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities with WFH Options 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:

Application Platforms
1 5 (4.07%) Confluence
2 4 (3.25%) SharePoint
3 2 (1.63%) IIS
3 2 (1.63%) JBoss
Applications
1 6 (4.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (4.07%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 5 (4.07%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.81%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.81%) Dynamics GP
Cloud Services
1 47 (38.21%) SaaS
2 41 (33.33%) IaaS
2 41 (33.33%) PaaS
3 15 (12.20%) AWS
3 15 (12.20%) Azure
4 5 (4.07%) CloudFront
4 5 (4.07%) Entra ID
4 5 (4.07%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 3 (2.44%) Azure Sentinel
5 3 (2.44%) GitHub
5 3 (2.44%) GitHub Actions
6 2 (1.63%) AWS CloudFormation
6 2 (1.63%) Azure DevOps
6 2 (1.63%) GCP
6 2 (1.63%) Power Platform
7 1 (0.81%) Cloud Functions
7 1 (0.81%) Cloudflare
7 1 (0.81%) Google Kubernetes Engine
7 1 (0.81%) Microsoft 365
7 1 (0.81%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 42 (34.15%) 5G
2 41 (33.33%) Broadband
3 19 (15.45%) Network Security
4 12 (9.76%) Firewall
5 6 (4.88%) Intrusion Detection
5 6 (4.88%) VPN
6 5 (4.07%) DNS
6 5 (4.07%) TCP/IP
7 4 (3.25%) tcpdump
7 4 (3.25%) Wireshark
8 3 (2.44%) Wireless
9 1 (0.81%) 4G
9 1 (0.81%) Cisco Firepower
9 1 (0.81%) LTE
9 1 (0.81%) SD-WAN
9 1 (0.81%) SSL
9 1 (0.81%) WAN
9 1 (0.81%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (3.25%) Apache Hive
1 4 (3.25%) Hadoop
1 4 (3.25%) Tableau
2 2 (1.63%) DB2
Development Applications
1 6 (4.88%) Jenkins
1 6 (4.88%) JIRA
2 4 (3.25%) IDA Disassembler
3 2 (1.63%) Burp Suite
3 2 (1.63%) GitLab
3 2 (1.63%) Vagrant
4 1 (0.81%) CircleCI
General
1 42 (34.15%) Law
2 41 (33.33%) Organisational Skills
3 26 (21.14%) Finance
4 14 (11.38%) Public Sector
5 11 (8.94%) Social Skills
6 9 (7.32%) Analytical Skills
7 8 (6.50%) Retail
8 6 (4.88%) Banking
8 6 (4.88%) Manufacturing
9 2 (1.63%) Automotive
9 2 (1.63%) Electronics
9 2 (1.63%) Multimedia
10 1 (0.81%) Legal
10 1 (0.81%) Marketing
10 1 (0.81%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.81%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 47 (38.21%) Penetration Tester
1 47 (38.21%) Tester
2 44 (35.77%) Security Specialist
3 41 (33.33%) Security Penetration Tester
3 41 (33.33%) Security Tester
3 41 (33.33%) Testing Specialist
4 16 (13.01%) Architect
4 16 (13.01%) Security Engineer
5 14 (11.38%) Analyst
5 14 (11.38%) Security Architect
5 14 (11.38%) Senior
6 12 (9.76%) Security Analyst
7 8 (6.50%) Cybersecurity Analyst
8 7 (5.69%) Cloud Engineer
8 7 (5.69%) Senior Analyst
8 7 (5.69%) Senior Cybersecurity Analyst
8 7 (5.69%) Senior Security Analyst
9 5 (4.07%) Applications Engineer
9 5 (4.07%) Project Manager
9 5 (4.07%) Security Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (33.33%) Web Services
2 5 (4.07%) OAuth
2 5 (4.07%) OAuth2
2 5 (4.07%) SAML
3 4 (3.25%) OLE
4 1 (0.81%) EDI
4 1 (0.81%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 49 (39.84%) Mobile App
2 9 (7.32%) Management Information System
2 9 (7.32%) Security Posture
3 7 (5.69%) Cloud Native
3 7 (5.69%) Cyber Threat
4 5 (4.07%) Cyber Kill Chain
4 5 (4.07%) Operational Technology
4 5 (4.07%) Security Operations Centre
5 4 (3.25%) YARA
6 2 (1.63%) Cloud Security Posture
6 2 (1.63%) Cyberattack
6 2 (1.63%) Insider Threat
6 2 (1.63%) PKI
7 1 (0.81%) Cyber Defence
7 1 (0.81%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 1 (0.81%) Embedded Systems
7 1 (0.81%) Enterprise Software
7 1 (0.81%) FMCG
7 1 (0.81%) IoT
7 1 (0.81%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 21 (17.07%) Windows
2 16 (13.01%) Linux
3 4 (3.25%) Unix
4 2 (1.63%) AIX
4 2 (1.63%) Kali Linux
4 2 (1.63%) Solaris
4 2 (1.63%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.81%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 82 (66.67%) Cybersecurity
2 57 (46.34%) Application Security
3 50 (40.65%) Stakeholder Management
4 49 (39.84%) MITRE ATT&CK
5 45 (36.59%) OWASP
5 45 (36.59%) Security Testing
6 35 (28.46%) Information Security
7 19 (15.45%) Cloud Security
7 19 (15.45%) Incident Response
7 19 (15.45%) SIEM
7 19 (15.45%) Vulnerability Management
8 16 (13.01%) Risk Management
8 16 (13.01%) Security Operations
9 14 (11.38%) Security Architecture
10 12 (9.76%) Vulnerability Assessment
11 11 (8.94%) CI/CD
11 11 (8.94%) Cryptography
12 10 (8.13%) DevSecOps
12 10 (8.13%) Red Team
12 10 (8.13%) Vulnerability Remediation
Programming Languages
1 6 (4.88%) Python
2 3 (2.44%) C++
2 3 (2.44%) JavaScript
3 2 (1.63%) Kusto Query Language
3 2 (1.63%) SQL
4 1 (0.81%) Go
4 1 (0.81%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 61 (49.59%) Security Cleared
2 48 (39.02%) CREST Certified
3 46 (37.40%) OSCP
4 44 (35.77%) GIAC
4 44 (35.77%) GPEN
5 41 (33.33%) SANS
6 20 (16.26%) SC Cleared
7 9 (7.32%) CISSP
7 9 (7.32%) Degree
8 7 (5.69%) CISM
9 6 (4.88%) CEH
10 5 (4.07%) AWS Certification
11 4 (3.25%) Computer Science Degree
12 3 (2.44%) DV Cleared
12 3 (2.44%) Master's Degree
13 2 (1.63%) Cisco Certification
13 2 (1.63%) CompTIA Security+
13 2 (1.63%) CSSLP
13 2 (1.63%) ITIL Certification
13 2 (1.63%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (36.59%) GDPR
1 45 (36.59%) NCSC
2 44 (35.77%) PCI DSS
3 20 (16.26%) NIST
4 18 (14.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 5 (4.07%) COBIT
5 5 (4.07%) HMG Security Policy Framework
5 5 (4.07%) PMO
6 3 (2.44%) Disclosure Scotland
7 2 (1.63%) Automotive SPICE
7 2 (1.63%) AUTOSAR
7 2 (1.63%) ISO 22301
7 2 (1.63%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.81%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.81%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 1 (0.81%) QA
System Software
1 9 (7.32%) Active Directory
2 5 (4.07%) Docker
2 5 (4.07%) Snort
3 1 (0.81%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 5 (4.07%) Terraform
2 4 (3.25%) Kibana
3 2 (1.63%) CASB
3 2 (1.63%) Nessus
3 2 (1.63%) Tivoli
4 1 (0.81%) Ansible
4 1 (0.81%) HP Fortify
4 1 (0.81%) Kubernetes
4 1 (0.81%) SCCM
4 1 (0.81%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 41 (33.33%) Virgin Media
2 11 (8.94%) Microsoft
3 6 (4.88%) Google
4 5 (4.07%) Splunk
5 3 (2.44%) Qualys
6 2 (1.63%) AppDynamics
6 2 (1.63%) Cisco
6 2 (1.63%) F5
6 2 (1.63%) IBM
6 2 (1.63%) Oracle
6 2 (1.63%) Palo Alto
6 2 (1.63%) Remedy
7 1 (0.81%) Barracuda Networks
7 1 (0.81%) BigPanda
7 1 (0.81%) SAP