Penetration Testing Job Trends in England

Penetration Testing
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in England requiring Penetration Testing skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 430 389 363
Rank change year-on-year -41 -26 +164
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 180 307 381
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.33% 0.64% 0.71%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.41% 0.71% 0.79%
Number of salaries quoted 135 184 302
10th Percentile £42,500 £45,000 £42,525
25th Percentile £51,031 £55,938 £52,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £65,625 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.67% +0.96% -6.07%
75th Percentile £87,500 £88,750 £82,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK median annual salary £70,000 £66,250 £65,520
% change year-on-year +5.66% +1.11% -2.93%

All Process & Methodology Skills
England

Penetration Testing falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in England.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 43,473 43,343 47,936
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 80.77% 91.03% 89.18%
Number of salaries quoted 26,126 21,134 37,387
10th Percentile £28,750 £35,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £38,000 £46,250 £42,439
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £58,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +2.56% -6.40%
75th Percentile £76,250 £81,250 £77,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £100,000 £97,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -8.00%

Penetration Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Penetration Testing relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in England.

Penetration Testing job vacancy trend in England

Penetration Testing
Salary Trend in England

Salary distribution trend for jobs in England citing Penetration Testing.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in England citing Penetration Testing

Penetration Testing
Salary Histogram in England

Salary distribution for jobs citing Penetration Testing in England over the 6 months to 20 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Penetration Testing in England

Penetration Testing
Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Penetration Testing within the England region over the 6 months to 20 January 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
London +2 85 £75,000 +3.45% 35
South West +35 36 £80,000 +18.52% 26
Midlands +15 27 £52,500 -14.29% 19
South East -22 15 £65,000 +4.00% 28
East Midlands 0 14 £51,058 -11.20% 11
West Midlands +9 13 £57,500 -13.21% 7
North of England -20 11 £55,000 -3.30% 26
Yorkshire -10 8 £56,250 +7.14% 6
North West -7 3 £55,000 -12.00% 18
East of England +23 1 £85,000 +198.25% 7
Penetration Testing
UK

Penetration Testing
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 4 (2.22%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (1.67%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.56%) Confluence
Applications
1 6 (3.33%) Microsoft Excel
1 6 (3.33%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.56%) GNU Octave
Cloud Services
1 52 (28.89%) Azure
2 31 (17.22%) AWS
3 13 (7.22%) Azure Sentinel
3 13 (7.22%) Microsoft 365
4 12 (6.67%) Entra ID
4 12 (6.67%) Slack
5 11 (6.11%) GitHub
6 10 (5.56%) Microsoft Purview
7 9 (5.00%) Power Platform
8 8 (4.44%) GCP
9 7 (3.89%) GitHub Actions
10 3 (1.67%) IBM Cloud
11 2 (1.11%) SaaS
12 1 (0.56%) Datadog
12 1 (0.56%) Dynamics 365
12 1 (0.56%) Mimecast
12 1 (0.56%) OpenShift
12 1 (0.56%) Power Automate
12 1 (0.56%) Rubrik
12 1 (0.56%) SecurityScorecard
Communications & Networking
1 27 (15.00%) Firewall
2 23 (12.78%) Network Security
3 15 (8.33%) Wireless
4 13 (7.22%) TCP/IP
4 13 (7.22%) VPN
5 9 (5.00%) Wireshark
6 6 (3.33%) Intrusion Detection
6 6 (3.33%) VLAN
7 5 (2.78%) DNS
7 5 (2.78%) HTTP
7 5 (2.78%) Wi-Fi
8 4 (2.22%) Ethernet
9 3 (1.67%) Internet
9 3 (1.67%) Modbus
10 2 (1.11%) Cisco ISE
10 2 (1.11%) DMARC
10 2 (1.11%) ICMP
10 2 (1.11%) LAN
10 2 (1.11%) SSL
10 2 (1.11%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (5.00%) Power BI
2 6 (3.33%) Tableau
3 1 (0.56%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 20 (11.11%) Burp Suite
1 20 (11.11%) Metasploit
2 14 (7.78%) JIRA
3 7 (3.89%) Jenkins
4 2 (1.11%) IDA Disassembler
5 1 (0.56%) Git
5 1 (0.56%) GitLab
General
1 67 (37.22%) Social Skills
2 48 (26.67%) Finance
3 19 (10.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 17 (9.44%) Analytical Skills
5 15 (8.33%) Influencing Skills
6 13 (7.22%) Presentation Skills
7 12 (6.67%) Retail
8 10 (5.56%) Banking
9 6 (3.33%) Law
9 6 (3.33%) Legal
9 6 (3.33%) Marketing
10 4 (2.22%) Electronics
10 4 (2.22%) Public Sector
11 3 (1.67%) Aerospace
11 3 (1.67%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (1.67%) Manufacturing
11 3 (1.67%) Military
11 3 (1.67%) Telecoms
12 2 (1.11%) Public Speaking
13 1 (0.56%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 37 (20.56%) Analyst
2 33 (18.33%) Security Analyst
2 33 (18.33%) Security Engineer
3 25 (13.89%) Consultant
3 25 (13.89%) Security Consultant
3 25 (13.89%) Senior
4 16 (8.89%) IT Manager
5 14 (7.78%) Security Manager
6 13 (7.22%) Cybersecurity Consultant
6 13 (7.22%) Cybersecurity Engineer
6 13 (7.22%) Tester
7 12 (6.67%) Penetration Tester
7 12 (6.67%) Senior Security Engineer
8 11 (6.11%) Security Specialist
9 10 (5.56%) Applications Engineer
9 10 (5.56%) Information Analyst
9 10 (5.56%) Information Security Analyst
10 9 (5.00%) Lead
11 8 (4.44%) Digital Analyst
11 8 (4.44%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (2.78%) JSON
2 1 (0.56%) PyTorch
2 1 (0.56%) TensorFlow
2 1 (0.56%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 42 (23.33%) Security Posture
2 22 (12.22%) Cyber Defence
3 20 (11.11%) Management Information System
4 19 (10.56%) Mobile App
5 11 (6.11%) Cyber Threat
6 9 (5.00%) Self-Motivation
7 8 (4.44%) Operational Technology
8 7 (3.89%) Insider Threat
8 7 (3.89%) PKI
8 7 (3.89%) Security Operations Centre
9 6 (3.33%) Analytical Mindset
9 6 (3.33%) Cyber Kill Chain
10 5 (2.78%) Cloud Native
10 5 (2.78%) Enterprise Software
10 5 (2.78%) SCADA
11 4 (2.22%) Cyber Security Posture
12 3 (1.67%) Data Centre
12 3 (1.67%) Linux Command Line
12 3 (1.67%) Onboarding
12 3 (1.67%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 20 (11.11%) Linux
1 20 (11.11%) Windows
2 6 (3.33%) Unix
3 5 (2.78%) Android
3 5 (2.78%) Apple iOS
3 5 (2.78%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.11%) Kali Linux
5 1 (0.56%) Debian
5 1 (0.56%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.56%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.56%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.56%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (53.89%) Cybersecurity
2 61 (33.89%) Incident Response
3 56 (31.11%) Red Team
4 45 (25.00%) Vulnerability Management
5 44 (24.44%) SIEM
6 42 (23.33%) Application Security
7 40 (22.22%) Problem-Solving
8 38 (21.11%) Information Security
9 31 (17.22%) Vulnerability Assessment
10 30 (16.67%) Agile
10 30 (16.67%) Offensive Security
11 29 (16.11%) Vulnerability Scanning
12 27 (15.00%) Mentoring
13 26 (14.44%) Security Operations
14 25 (13.89%) Internal Audit
15 24 (13.33%) Business Strategy
15 24 (13.33%) DevOps
15 24 (13.33%) Threat Modelling
16 22 (12.22%) Vulnerability Remediation
17 21 (11.67%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 55 (30.56%) Python
2 35 (19.44%) Bash
3 33 (18.33%) PowerShell
4 15 (8.33%) Go
5 8 (4.44%) SQL
6 7 (3.89%) C
6 7 (3.89%) C#
6 7 (3.89%) C++
7 6 (3.33%) R
8 5 (2.78%) JavaScript
9 4 (2.22%) Java
9 4 (2.22%) Perl
10 2 (1.11%) Ruby
11 1 (0.56%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.56%) Scala
Qualifications
1 50 (27.78%) CISSP
2 44 (24.44%) CREST Certified
3 43 (23.89%) Degree
3 43 (23.89%) OSCP
4 37 (20.56%) Security Cleared
5 31 (17.22%) SC Cleared
6 27 (15.00%) Cisco Certification
7 19 (10.56%) CEH
7 19 (10.56%) CHECK Team Member
8 18 (10.00%) CCNA
8 18 (10.00%) CompTIA Security+
8 18 (10.00%) GIAC
9 16 (8.89%) CHECK Team Leader
10 14 (7.78%) SANS
11 13 (7.22%) CCSAM
11 13 (7.22%) DV Cleared
12 12 (6.67%) GCIH
13 11 (6.11%) CISA
14 10 (5.56%) MCP
14 10 (5.56%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 67 (37.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 50 (27.78%) NIST
3 25 (13.89%) Cyber Essentials
4 19 (10.56%) Accessibility
5 15 (8.33%) GDPR
6 7 (3.89%) Actionable Recommendations
7 6 (3.33%) NCSC
8 5 (2.78%) NIST 800
9 4 (2.22%) GRC
9 4 (2.22%) QA
10 3 (1.67%) ITGC
10 3 (1.67%) PCI DSS
10 3 (1.67%) RMADS
11 2 (1.11%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 2 (1.11%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 2 (1.11%) SOC 2
12 1 (0.56%) COBIT
12 1 (0.56%) HIPAA
12 1 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 1 (0.56%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 12 (6.67%) Virtual Machines
2 10 (5.56%) Active Directory
3 5 (2.78%) VMware ESXi
3 5 (2.78%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.11%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.56%) EMC RecoverPoint
5 1 (0.56%) pfSense
5 1 (0.56%) Squid
Systems Management
1 15 (8.33%) Nessus
2 12 (6.67%) Nmap
3 7 (3.89%) QRadar
4 5 (2.78%) Microsoft Intune
5 4 (2.22%) Kubernetes
5 4 (2.22%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (1.67%) ArcSight ESM
6 3 (1.67%) Proxmox
7 2 (1.11%) CSIRT
7 2 (1.11%) Terraform
8 1 (0.56%) Ansible
8 1 (0.56%) Cisco CUCM
8 1 (0.56%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.56%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.56%) VxRail
Vendors
1 53 (29.44%) Microsoft
2 12 (6.67%) Cisco
2 12 (6.67%) ServiceNow
2 12 (6.67%) Tenable
3 8 (4.44%) Splunk
4 7 (3.89%) VMware
5 6 (3.33%) Oracle
6 4 (2.22%) Qualys
7 3 (1.67%) ArcSight
7 3 (1.67%) CheckPoint
7 3 (1.67%) IBM
7 3 (1.67%) LogLogic
7 3 (1.67%) McAfee
7 3 (1.67%) Palo Alto
8 2 (1.11%) CrowdStrike
8 2 (1.11%) CyberArk
8 2 (1.11%) Dell
8 2 (1.11%) LogRhythm
8 2 (1.11%) Trend Micro
8 2 (1.11%) Zscaler