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 24 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 438 380 406
Rank change year-on-year -58 +26 +65
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 246 239 485
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.31% 0.64% 0.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.42% 0.69% 0.68%
Number of salaries quoted 165 192 378
10th Percentile £42,500 £45,000 £38,750
25th Percentile £50,000 £57,500 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,538 £67,500 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year -7.35% +3.85% -3.70%
75th Percentile £85,000 £85,000 £82,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £97,250 £95,000
UK median annual salary £65,000 £67,500 £62,500
% change year-on-year -3.70% +8.00% -7.41%

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 59,005 34,747 71,049
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 75.29% 92.96% 85.73%
Number of salaries quoted 37,172 20,692 53,693
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £58,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.33% +9.09% -12.00%
75th Percentile £78,750 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £102,500 £93,750
UK median annual salary £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -4.17% +9.09% -10.57%

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 24 April 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 24 April 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 -13 107 £78,750 +8.62% 43
South West -12 52 £51,250 -24.07% 7
South East -57 29 £72,500 +16.00% 21
North of England -60 25 £56,000 -2.61% 2
Midlands -45 21 £52,500 -22.22% 4
West Midlands -29 13 £65,000 -3.70% 4
Yorkshire -52 13 £55,000 +7.32% 1
East Midlands -53 8 £51,058 +27.65%
North West -41 7 £56,000 -8.20% 1
North East -32 5 £75,000 +12.36%
East of England -38 3 £30,000 - 1
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 5 (2.03%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.22%) IIS
2 3 (1.22%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.81%) Confluence
4 1 (0.41%) Apache
4 1 (0.41%) Drupal
4 1 (0.41%) nginx
4 1 (0.41%) WordPress
Business Applications
1 1 (0.41%) Magento
Cloud Services
1 60 (24.39%) Azure
2 58 (23.58%) AWS
3 21 (8.54%) GCP
4 19 (7.72%) Microsoft 365
5 12 (4.88%) GitHub
6 11 (4.47%) Azure Sentinel
6 11 (4.47%) Entra ID
7 9 (3.66%) Microsoft Purview
8 8 (3.25%) GitHub Actions
9 5 (2.03%) SaaS
10 4 (1.63%) Amazon EKS
10 4 (1.63%) AWS CloudFormation
10 4 (1.63%) Azure Key Vault
10 4 (1.63%) Mimecast
11 3 (1.22%) Azure DevOps
12 2 (0.81%) Cloudflare
12 2 (0.81%) Dynamics 365
12 2 (0.81%) Figma
12 2 (0.81%) OneDrive
12 2 (0.81%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 45 (18.29%) Firewall
2 26 (10.57%) Network Security
3 20 (8.13%) Wireless
4 18 (7.32%) VPN
5 13 (5.28%) TCP/IP
6 12 (4.88%) DNS
7 9 (3.66%) Intrusion Detection
8 8 (3.25%) VLAN
9 7 (2.85%) Cisco ISE
9 7 (2.85%) Internet
10 4 (1.63%) Cisco Nexus
10 4 (1.63%) HTTPS
10 4 (1.63%) VoIP
11 3 (1.22%) DHCP
11 3 (1.22%) DMARC
11 3 (1.22%) DMZ
11 3 (1.22%) LAN
11 3 (1.22%) SSL
11 3 (1.22%) WAN
11 3 (1.22%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.63%) SQL Server
2 3 (1.22%) Amazon RDS
3 2 (0.81%) Power BI
4 1 (0.41%) InterSystems Cache
4 1 (0.41%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.41%) Redis
Development Applications
1 19 (7.72%) Burp Suite
1 19 (7.72%) Metasploit
2 7 (2.85%) Jenkins
3 6 (2.44%) Bitbucket
4 5 (2.03%) JIRA
5 2 (0.81%) Git
5 2 (0.81%) NUnit
6 1 (0.41%) Gatling
6 1 (0.41%) JMeter
6 1 (0.41%) Vagrant
General
1 75 (30.49%) Finance
2 74 (30.08%) Social Skills
3 26 (10.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 24 (9.76%) Public Sector
5 23 (9.35%) Law
6 22 (8.94%) Banking
7 19 (7.72%) Retail
8 15 (6.10%) Analytical Skills
9 9 (3.66%) Legal
10 7 (2.85%) Marketing
10 7 (2.85%) Pharmaceutical
11 5 (2.03%) Telecoms
12 4 (1.63%) Financial Institution
13 3 (1.22%) Aerospace
13 3 (1.22%) Back Office
13 3 (1.22%) Influencing Skills
14 2 (0.81%) Documentation Skills
14 2 (0.81%) Military
14 2 (0.81%) Public Speaking
14 2 (0.81%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 46 (18.70%) Consultant
2 45 (18.29%) Security Consultant
3 37 (15.04%) Analyst
4 33 (13.41%) Senior
5 31 (12.60%) Penetration Tester
5 31 (12.60%) Tester
6 30 (12.20%) Security Analyst
7 26 (10.57%) Cybersecurity Consultant
8 24 (9.76%) Security Manager
9 20 (8.13%) Lead
10 16 (6.50%) Security Engineer
10 16 (6.50%) Security Specialist
11 15 (6.10%) Senior Analyst
11 15 (6.10%) Senior Security Analyst
12 11 (4.47%) Information Analyst
12 11 (4.47%) Information Security Analyst
13 10 (4.07%) Team Leader
14 9 (3.66%) Digital Analyst
14 9 (3.66%) Head of Security
14 9 (3.66%) Test Team Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (1.63%) .NET
2 3 (1.22%) .NET Framework
3 2 (0.81%) AngularJS
3 2 (0.81%) ASP.NET
3 2 (0.81%) ASP.NET Core
3 2 (0.81%) Entity Framework
3 2 (0.81%) OAuth
3 2 (0.81%) OAuth2
3 2 (0.81%) OpenAPI
3 2 (0.81%) OpenID
3 2 (0.81%) RESTful
3 2 (0.81%) RxJS
3 2 (0.81%) Swagger
3 2 (0.81%) Vitest
4 1 (0.41%) ARM Templates
4 1 (0.41%) LDAP
4 1 (0.41%) Memcached
Miscellaneous
1 63 (25.61%) Security Posture
2 29 (11.79%) Mobile App
3 25 (10.16%) Cyber Defence
4 23 (9.35%) Cyber Threat
5 16 (6.50%) Management Information System
6 11 (4.47%) Self-Motivation
7 7 (2.85%) Blog
7 7 (2.85%) Data Centre
8 6 (2.44%) Cyber Security Posture
9 5 (2.03%) Cloud Native
9 5 (2.03%) Enterprise Software
9 5 (2.03%) Insider Threat
10 4 (1.63%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (1.63%) Operational Technology
10 4 (1.63%) PKI
10 4 (1.63%) Public Cloud
10 4 (1.63%) Security Operations Centre
11 3 (1.22%) Cyberattack
11 3 (1.22%) Onboarding
12 2 (0.81%) Housing Association
Operating Systems
1 30 (12.20%) Windows
2 28 (11.38%) Linux
3 12 (4.88%) Android
3 12 (4.88%) Apple iOS
4 4 (1.63%) Unix
4 4 (1.63%) Windows Server
5 2 (0.81%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 157 (63.82%) Cybersecurity
2 81 (32.93%) Red Team
3 76 (30.89%) Incident Response
4 59 (23.98%) Information Security
5 56 (22.76%) Application Security
6 51 (20.73%) Mentoring
6 51 (20.73%) Offensive Security
7 50 (20.33%) SIEM
8 47 (19.11%) Security Testing
9 44 (17.89%) Vulnerability Management
10 43 (17.48%) Problem-Solving
11 39 (15.85%) Agile
12 35 (14.23%) Cloud Security
13 33 (13.41%) Security Operations
14 30 (12.20%) Business Strategy
15 29 (11.79%) Business Transformation
15 29 (11.79%) Internal Audit
16 28 (11.38%) Coaching
16 28 (11.38%) Creative Thinking
17 27 (10.98%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 44 (17.89%) Python
2 39 (15.85%) PowerShell
3 33 (13.41%) Bash
4 14 (5.69%) Java
5 13 (5.28%) Go
6 7 (2.85%) C#
6 7 (2.85%) Perl
7 6 (2.44%) SQL
8 5 (2.03%) C
8 5 (2.03%) C++
8 5 (2.03%) Ruby
9 4 (1.63%) Bicep
10 3 (1.22%) Objective-C
10 3 (1.22%) Rust
11 2 (0.81%) Kusto Query Language
11 2 (0.81%) TypeScript
12 1 (0.41%) PHP
Qualifications
1 80 (32.52%) CREST Certified
2 69 (28.05%) OSCP
3 60 (24.39%) CISSP
4 42 (17.07%) Security Cleared
5 39 (15.85%) Degree
6 35 (14.23%) SC Cleared
7 29 (11.79%) CISM
8 28 (11.38%) CEH
8 28 (11.38%) Cisco Certification
9 27 (10.98%) CHECK Team Member
10 24 (9.76%) CHECK Team Leader
11 21 (8.54%) CCSAM
12 19 (7.72%) CCNA
13 17 (6.91%) CompTIA Security+
14 15 (6.10%) GIAC
15 13 (5.28%) CCNP
15 13 (5.28%) DV Cleared
16 11 (4.47%) GPEN
16 11 (4.47%) SANS
17 9 (3.66%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 77 (31.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 41 (16.67%) NIST
3 37 (15.04%) GDPR
4 32 (13.01%) Cyber Essentials
5 17 (6.91%) Actionable Recommendations
6 14 (5.69%) PCI DSS
7 12 (4.88%) NCSC
8 11 (4.47%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 8 (3.25%) Accessibility
9 8 (3.25%) GRC
10 6 (2.44%) SOC 2
11 4 (1.63%) ITGC
12 3 (1.22%) COBIT
12 3 (1.22%) QA
12 3 (1.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 2 (0.81%) Data Quality
13 2 (0.81%) ISO/IEC 27005
13 2 (0.81%) RMADS
14 1 (0.41%) GxP
14 1 (0.41%) HIPAA
System Software
1 25 (10.16%) Active Directory
2 7 (2.85%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (1.22%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (0.81%) EMC RecoverPoint
4 2 (0.81%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.41%) Docker
5 1 (0.41%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.41%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 13 (5.28%) Nessus
2 12 (4.88%) Kubernetes
3 10 (4.07%) Nmap
4 8 (3.25%) Microsoft Intune
5 7 (2.85%) Terraform
6 5 (2.03%) Ansible
7 4 (1.63%) CSIRT
7 4 (1.63%) Single Sign-On
8 3 (1.22%) ArcSight ESM
8 3 (1.22%) FortiGate
8 3 (1.22%) QRadar
9 2 (0.81%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (0.81%) VxRail
10 1 (0.41%) Consul
10 1 (0.41%) Packer
10 1 (0.41%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.41%) Puppet
10 1 (0.41%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 55 (22.36%) Microsoft
2 14 (5.69%) Splunk
3 12 (4.88%) Cisco
4 11 (4.47%) Sophos
5 10 (4.07%) VMware
6 9 (3.66%) Zscaler
7 7 (2.85%) CheckPoint
7 7 (2.85%) Fortinet
8 5 (2.03%) CrowdStrike
8 5 (2.03%) Qualys
8 5 (2.03%) TOWER Software
9 4 (1.63%) Okta
10 3 (1.22%) ArcSight
10 3 (1.22%) CyberArk
10 3 (1.22%) Dell
10 3 (1.22%) LogLogic
10 3 (1.22%) McAfee
10 3 (1.22%) Palo Alto
10 3 (1.22%) Veeam
11 2 (0.81%) DevExpress