Penetration Testing Contracts with Hybrid/Remote/WFH Options

Penetration Testing
UK > Work from Home

The table below provides summary statistics for remote or hybrid contract work requiring Penetration Testing skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Penetration Testing over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 238 236 383
Rank change year-on-year -2 +147 +69
Contract jobs citing Penetration Testing 66 109 94
As % of all contract jobs with a WFH option 0.67% 0.71% 0.36%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.73% 0.81% 0.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 35 62 69
10th Percentile £487 £401 £408
25th Percentile £500 £505 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £588 £600
Median % change year-on-year +2.13% -2.08% +5.26%
75th Percentile £671 £675 £700
90th Percentile £710 £750 £798
UK median daily rate £550 £586 £600
% change year-on-year -6.18% -2.29% +4.35%

All Process and Methodology Skills
Work from Home

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 with remote or hybrid options requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 9,021 13,483 23,229
As % of all contract jobs with a WFH option 91.08% 87.87% 89.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,191 8,996 16,418
10th Percentile £340 £325 £363
25th Percentile £419 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year - -2.78% +2.86%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £763 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £520 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 224 579 532
10th Percentile £14.20 £15.17 £19.00
25th Percentile £19.56 £25.25 £30.54
Median hourly rate £39.52 £43.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -8.09% -21.82% +57.14%
75th Percentile £66.13 £60.00 £68.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.25 £80.23
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £35.65 £37.30
% change year-on-year -18.65% -4.42% +49.20%

Penetration Testing
Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

Job vacancies with remote working options citing Penetration Testing as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Penetration Testing trend for jobs with Hybrid/Remote/WFH options

Penetration Testing
Daily Rate Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in job vacancies with remote working options 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 remote working options citing Penetration Testing over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

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 remote working options 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 3 (4.55%) SharePoint
2 2 (3.03%) SAS
Business Applications
1 2 (3.03%) NetSuite
1 2 (3.03%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 31 (46.97%) Azure
2 12 (18.18%) AWS
3 11 (16.67%) Microsoft 365
4 10 (15.15%) Entra ID
5 7 (10.61%) OneDrive
6 6 (9.09%) SaaS
7 5 (7.58%) Azure DevOps
7 5 (7.58%) GCP
8 4 (6.06%) IaaS
8 4 (6.06%) Power Platform
9 3 (4.55%) Cloud Computing
9 3 (4.55%) GitHub
10 2 (3.03%) Azure Sentinel
10 2 (3.03%) GitHub Actions
10 2 (3.03%) PaaS
11 1 (1.52%) AWS CloudFormation
11 1 (1.52%) Azure Key Vault
11 1 (1.52%) Microsoft Purview
11 1 (1.52%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 14 (21.21%) Network Security
2 10 (15.15%) Firewall
3 4 (6.06%) VPN
4 3 (4.55%) HTTP
4 3 (4.55%) Internet
5 2 (3.03%) Intrusion Detection
6 1 (1.52%) Cisco ISE
6 1 (1.52%) Wireless
6 1 (1.52%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (4.55%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 7 (10.61%) MSI
2 4 (6.06%) Burp Suite
2 4 (6.06%) GitLab
2 4 (6.06%) Metasploit
3 2 (3.03%) Jenkins
4 1 (1.52%) Cucumber
4 1 (1.52%) Cypress.io
4 1 (1.52%) Gatling
4 1 (1.52%) JIRA
4 1 (1.52%) JMeter
4 1 (1.52%) REST Assured
4 1 (1.52%) Selenium
4 1 (1.52%) Snyk
4 1 (1.52%) SonarQube
4 1 (1.52%) SpecFlow
General
1 19 (28.79%) Finance
1 19 (28.79%) Social Skills
2 8 (12.12%) Analytical Skills
3 4 (6.06%) Public Sector
4 3 (4.55%) Banking
5 2 (3.03%) French Language
5 2 (3.03%) Legal
6 1 (1.52%) Automotive
6 1 (1.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 1 (1.52%) Manufacturing
6 1 (1.52%) Military
Job Titles
1 12 (18.18%) Senior
2 9 (13.64%) Security Engineer
3 8 (12.12%) Penetration Tester
3 8 (12.12%) Security Manager
4 6 (9.09%) Tester
4 6 (9.09%) Wintel Engineer
5 5 (7.58%) Consultant
5 5 (7.58%) Security Consultant
6 4 (6.06%) Information Security Consultant
6 4 (6.06%) IT Manager
6 4 (6.06%) Operational Security Manager
6 4 (6.06%) Operations Manager
6 4 (6.06%) Security Operations Manager
6 4 (6.06%) Security Specialist
6 4 (6.06%) Security Technical Consultant
6 4 (6.06%) Senior Manager
6 4 (6.06%) Technical Consultant
6 4 (6.06%) Technical Security Consultant
7 3 (4.55%) Cybersecurity Manager
7 3 (4.55%) Senior Penetration Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.52%) EDI
1 1 (1.52%) Playwright
1 1 (1.52%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 10 (15.15%) Security Posture
2 8 (12.12%) Cloud Native
3 7 (10.61%) Cyber Threat
4 5 (7.58%) PKI
5 3 (4.55%) Embedded Systems
5 3 (4.55%) Operational Technology
5 3 (4.55%) Video Conferencing
6 2 (3.03%) Management Information System
6 2 (3.03%) Self-Motivation
7 1 (1.52%) Cyber Defence
7 1 (1.52%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (1.52%) Industrial Internet of Things
7 1 (1.52%) IoT
7 1 (1.52%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (1.52%) Life Science
7 1 (1.52%) Onboarding
7 1 (1.52%) Product Ownership
7 1 (1.52%) Renewable Energy
7 1 (1.52%) SCADA
7 1 (1.52%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 8 (12.12%) Windows
2 5 (7.58%) Linux
3 2 (3.03%) Android
3 2 (3.03%) FreeRTOS
3 2 (3.03%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (39.39%) Cybersecurity
2 19 (28.79%) Cloud Security
3 16 (24.24%) Threat Modelling
4 14 (21.21%) Vulnerability Management
5 13 (19.70%) Security Testing
6 11 (16.67%) Agile
6 11 (16.67%) DevSecOps
6 11 (16.67%) Information Security
7 10 (15.15%) CI/CD
7 10 (15.15%) Microservices
8 9 (13.64%) DevOps
8 9 (13.64%) Ethical Hacking
8 9 (13.64%) Migration
8 9 (13.64%) Problem-Solving
8 9 (13.64%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
9 8 (12.12%) Project Management
9 8 (12.12%) Vulnerability Scanning
10 7 (10.61%) Compatibility Testing
10 7 (10.61%) Identity Access Management
10 7 (10.61%) Security Operations
Programming Languages
1 8 (12.12%) Python
2 7 (10.61%) Java
3 6 (9.09%) C++
4 5 (7.58%) C
4 5 (7.58%) PowerShell
5 4 (6.06%) Rust
6 3 (4.55%) JavaScript
7 2 (3.03%) Assembly Language
7 2 (3.03%) Bash
7 2 (3.03%) Embedded C
7 2 (3.03%) Embedded C++
8 1 (1.52%) Perl
8 1 (1.52%) Ruby
8 1 (1.52%) SQL
Qualifications
1 15 (22.73%) Security Cleared
2 14 (21.21%) SC Cleared
3 12 (18.18%) CISSP
4 10 (15.15%) CEH
5 7 (10.61%) Degree
5 7 (10.61%) OSCP
6 6 (9.09%) Computer Science Degree
7 4 (6.06%) Cisco Certification
7 4 (6.06%) CISM
7 4 (6.06%) CompTIA Security+
7 4 (6.06%) CREST Certified
7 4 (6.06%) OSCE
8 3 (4.55%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 3 (4.55%) CCSP
8 3 (4.55%) GCIH
8 3 (4.55%) SANS
9 2 (3.03%) CISA
9 2 (3.03%) GIAC
9 2 (3.03%) Master's Degree
9 2 (3.03%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (16.67%) NIST
2 9 (13.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 6 (9.09%) GDPR
4 4 (6.06%) NCSC
4 4 (6.06%) SLA
5 3 (4.55%) PCI DSS
6 2 (3.03%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 2 (3.03%) HIPAA
7 1 (1.52%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (1.52%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (1.52%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (1.52%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
7 1 (1.52%) NIST 800
7 1 (1.52%) QA
System Software
1 2 (3.03%) Docker
1 2 (3.03%) Embedded Firmware
1 2 (3.03%) Firmware
2 1 (1.52%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 11 (16.67%) Microsoft Intune
2 4 (6.06%) Nessus
3 3 (4.55%) Progress Chef
4 2 (3.03%) Terraform
5 1 (1.52%) Ansible
5 1 (1.52%) HP Fortify
5 1 (1.52%) Kubernetes
5 1 (1.52%) Nmap
5 1 (1.52%) WSUS
Vendors
1 19 (28.79%) Microsoft
2 3 (4.55%) ForgeRock
2 3 (4.55%) Oracle
2 3 (4.55%) SAP
3 2 (3.03%) Google
3 2 (3.03%) Qualys
3 2 (3.03%) Workday
4 1 (1.52%) Apple
4 1 (1.52%) Ariba
4 1 (1.52%) Cisco
4 1 (1.52%) CyberArk
4 1 (1.52%) Samsung
4 1 (1.52%) Splunk