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 30 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 453 420 382
Rank change year-on-year -33 -38 +139
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 156 319 312
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.33% 0.54% 0.68%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.39% 0.63% 0.73%
Number of salaries quoted 139 191 268
10th Percentile £47,750 £46,619 £42,500
25th Percentile £51,750 £56,250 £51,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £65,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% +8.33% -14.29%
75th Percentile £85,125 £87,500 £76,563
90th Percentile £90,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK median annual salary £70,000 £65,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year +7.69% +4.00% -10.71%

All Process and 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 39,618 50,267 42,652
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 84.29% 85.72% 93.63%
Number of salaries quoted 24,725 26,234 32,881
10th Percentile £28,250 £35,000 £32,500
25th Percentile £36,250 £45,000 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -3.23%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £81,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £100,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -

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 30 November 2025.

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 30 November 2025. 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 -18 71 £75,000 - 29
South West +37 26 £80,000 +25.00% 20
South East +20 23 £58,750 -2.08% 20
Midlands +31 18 £53,000 -7.83% 20
West Midlands +31 11 £54,000 +2.86% 17
North of England +21 11 £55,000 -8.33% 17
Yorkshire +14 9 £55,000 +4.76% 6
East Midlands +28 7 £51,058 -11.20% 3
North West +18 2 £57,500 -8.00% 8
East of England +33 1 £85,000 +198.25% 3
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 6 (3.85%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (1.92%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.64%) Confluence
Applications
1 7 (4.49%) Microsoft Excel
1 7 (4.49%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.64%) GNU Octave
Cloud Services
1 55 (35.26%) Azure
2 23 (14.74%) AWS
3 16 (10.26%) Entra ID
4 15 (9.62%) Slack
5 13 (8.33%) Azure Sentinel
6 12 (7.69%) Microsoft 365
7 11 (7.05%) Microsoft Purview
8 10 (6.41%) GitHub
8 10 (6.41%) Power Platform
9 6 (3.85%) GitHub Actions
10 5 (3.21%) GCP
11 4 (2.56%) Azure Key Vault
12 3 (1.92%) Azure DevOps
12 3 (1.92%) Azure Logic Apps
12 3 (1.92%) IBM Cloud
12 3 (1.92%) Mimecast
12 3 (1.92%) PaaS
12 3 (1.92%) SaaS
13 2 (1.28%) Azure Stack
13 2 (1.28%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 48 (30.77%) Firewall
2 31 (19.87%) Network Security
3 15 (9.62%) TCP/IP
4 13 (8.33%) VPN
5 9 (5.77%) Intrusion Detection
6 8 (5.13%) Wi-Fi
6 8 (5.13%) Wireshark
7 6 (3.85%) Wireless
8 5 (3.21%) HTTP
8 5 (3.21%) VLAN
9 4 (2.56%) BGP
9 4 (2.56%) DNS
9 4 (2.56%) Ethernet
9 4 (2.56%) OSPF
10 3 (1.92%) Cisco ISE
10 3 (1.92%) Modbus
10 3 (1.92%) Spanning Tree
11 2 (1.28%) Cisco Nexus
11 2 (1.28%) ICMP
11 2 (1.28%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (6.41%) Power BI
2 7 (4.49%) Tableau
3 2 (1.28%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.64%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 18 (11.54%) JIRA
2 13 (8.33%) Burp Suite
3 12 (7.69%) Metasploit
4 6 (3.85%) Jenkins
5 2 (1.28%) IDA Disassembler
6 1 (0.64%) Git
6 1 (0.64%) GitLab
General
1 71 (45.51%) Social Skills
2 24 (15.38%) Finance
3 20 (12.82%) Analytical Skills
4 18 (11.54%) Influencing Skills
5 16 (10.26%) Presentation Skills
6 13 (8.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 5 (3.21%) Banking
7 5 (3.21%) Manufacturing
7 5 (3.21%) Retail
8 4 (2.56%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (2.56%) Electronics
8 4 (2.56%) Law
8 4 (2.56%) Public Sector
9 3 (1.92%) Mandarin Language
9 3 (1.92%) Military
10 2 (1.28%) Legal
10 2 (1.28%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.64%) Advertising
11 1 (0.64%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.64%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 45 (28.85%) Security Engineer
2 33 (21.15%) Analyst
3 29 (18.59%) Security Analyst
4 21 (13.46%) Senior
5 18 (11.54%) Cybersecurity Engineer
6 15 (9.62%) Senior Security Engineer
7 12 (7.69%) IT Manager
8 10 (6.41%) Consultant
8 10 (6.41%) Network Engineer
8 10 (6.41%) Security Consultant
8 10 (6.41%) Tester
9 9 (5.77%) Cybersecurity Analyst
9 9 (5.77%) Lead
9 9 (5.77%) Penetration Tester
10 8 (5.13%) Applications Engineer
10 8 (5.13%) Cybersecurity Consultant
10 8 (5.13%) Information Analyst
10 8 (5.13%) Information Security Analyst
10 8 (5.13%) Vulnerability Management Engineer
11 7 (4.49%) Internal Audit Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (3.21%) JSON
2 1 (0.64%) Elastic Stack
2 1 (0.64%) ModSecurity
2 1 (0.64%) PyTorch
2 1 (0.64%) TensorFlow
2 1 (0.64%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 27 (17.31%) Management Information System
2 22 (14.10%) Security Posture
3 14 (8.97%) Cyber Threat
3 14 (8.97%) Security Operations Centre
4 9 (5.77%) Cyber Defence
5 8 (5.13%) Operational Technology
6 7 (4.49%) PKI
6 7 (4.49%) Self-Motivation
7 6 (3.85%) Analytical Mindset
7 6 (3.85%) Cyber Kill Chain
7 6 (3.85%) Data Centre
7 6 (3.85%) SCADA
8 5 (3.21%) Cloud Native
8 5 (3.21%) Enterprise Software
9 4 (2.56%) Linux Command Line
10 3 (1.92%) Cyberattack
10 3 (1.92%) Insider Threat
10 3 (1.92%) Mobile App
10 3 (1.92%) Renewable Energy
10 3 (1.92%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 26 (16.67%) Windows
2 24 (15.38%) Linux
3 7 (4.49%) Unix
4 6 (3.85%) Windows Server
5 5 (3.21%) Kali Linux
6 3 (1.92%) VMS
7 1 (0.64%) Android
7 1 (0.64%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.64%) Debian
7 1 (0.64%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.64%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.64%) Windows Server 2016
7 1 (0.64%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 86 (55.13%) Cybersecurity
2 66 (42.31%) Incident Response
3 51 (32.69%) SIEM
4 46 (29.49%) Vulnerability Management
5 36 (23.08%) Vulnerability Assessment
6 33 (21.15%) Vulnerability Scanning
7 31 (19.87%) DevOps
7 31 (19.87%) Security Operations
8 29 (18.59%) Information Security
9 28 (17.95%) Problem-Solving
10 27 (17.31%) Vulnerability Remediation
11 24 (15.38%) Red Team
12 22 (14.10%) CI/CD
13 21 (13.46%) Application Security
13 21 (13.46%) Technology Transformation
14 20 (12.82%) Cloud Security
14 20 (12.82%) ITIL
15 19 (12.18%) Threat Modelling
16 18 (11.54%) SDLC
17 16 (10.26%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 52 (33.33%) Python
2 35 (22.44%) PowerShell
3 31 (19.87%) Bash
4 15 (9.62%) Go
5 13 (8.33%) SQL
6 7 (4.49%) R
7 6 (3.85%) C
7 6 (3.85%) C++
8 5 (3.21%) C#
8 5 (3.21%) JavaScript
9 2 (1.28%) Perl
10 1 (0.64%) Java
10 1 (0.64%) Kusto Query Language
10 1 (0.64%) Scala
Qualifications
1 40 (25.64%) CISSP
1 40 (25.64%) Degree
2 34 (21.79%) Security Cleared
3 28 (17.95%) SC Cleared
4 23 (14.74%) Cisco Certification
5 22 (14.10%) OSCP
6 18 (11.54%) CREST Certified
7 17 (10.90%) CCNA
7 17 (10.90%) SANS
8 15 (9.62%) CompTIA Security+
9 14 (8.97%) DV Cleared
10 13 (8.33%) GIAC
11 12 (7.69%) GCIA
12 11 (7.05%) CCNP
13 9 (5.77%) CISA
14 8 (5.13%) CEH
14 8 (5.13%) CHECK Team Leader
14 8 (5.13%) CHECK Team Member
14 8 (5.13%) GCIH
15 7 (4.49%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 71 (45.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 54 (34.62%) NIST
3 29 (18.59%) Cyber Essentials
4 21 (13.46%) Accessibility
5 18 (11.54%) GDPR
6 6 (3.85%) NCSC
7 5 (3.21%) NIST 800
8 4 (2.56%) QA
9 3 (1.92%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (1.92%) GRC
9 3 (1.92%) ITGC
9 3 (1.92%) RMADS
10 2 (1.28%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 2 (1.28%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 2 (1.28%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.64%) COBIT
11 1 (0.64%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 1 (0.64%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 1 (0.64%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.64%) SOC 2
System Software
1 15 (9.62%) Virtual Machines
2 10 (6.41%) Active Directory
3 6 (3.85%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (2.56%) VMware ESXi
5 3 (1.92%) Firmware
5 3 (1.92%) Hyper-V
6 2 (1.28%) EMC RecoverPoint
6 2 (1.28%) pfSense
6 2 (1.28%) Squid
Systems Management
1 10 (6.41%) Nmap
2 8 (5.13%) QRadar
3 7 (4.49%) Nessus
4 5 (3.21%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (2.56%) Microsoft Intune
6 3 (1.92%) ArcSight ESM
6 3 (1.92%) Proxmox
7 2 (1.28%) Cisco CUCM
7 2 (1.28%) Kubernetes
7 2 (1.28%) Terraform
7 2 (1.28%) VxRail
8 1 (0.64%) Ansible
8 1 (0.64%) CASB
8 1 (0.64%) Kibana
8 1 (0.64%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.64%) SCCM
8 1 (0.64%) ZENworks
Vendors
1 54 (34.62%) Microsoft
2 17 (10.90%) Tenable
3 15 (9.62%) ServiceNow
4 13 (8.33%) Cisco
5 11 (7.05%) Splunk
6 8 (5.13%) VMware
7 7 (4.49%) Oracle
8 6 (3.85%) Fortinet
9 5 (3.21%) Palo Alto
10 4 (2.56%) CheckPoint
10 4 (2.56%) Zscaler
11 3 (1.92%) ArcSight
11 3 (1.92%) CyberArk
11 3 (1.92%) IBM
11 3 (1.92%) LogLogic
11 3 (1.92%) LogRhythm
11 3 (1.92%) McAfee
11 3 (1.92%) Qualys
11 3 (1.92%) Sophos
12 2 (1.28%) Okta