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 23 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 439 366 389
Rank change year-on-year -73 +23 +87
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 219 260 470
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.32% 0.68% 0.61%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.42% 0.73% 0.71%
Number of salaries quoted 152 195 372
10th Percentile £42,000 £45,400 £38,750
25th Percentile £50,375 £59,375 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £67,500 £64,902
Median % change year-on-year +3.70% +4.00% -3.85%
75th Percentile £87,500 £87,500 £81,563
90th Percentile £96,125 £95,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £70,000 £69,500 £62,500
% change year-on-year +0.72% +11.20% -9.68%

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 52,713 35,574 66,332
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 77.63% 93.56% 86.75%
Number of salaries quoted 32,661 20,407 51,505
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £45,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%
75th Percentile £77,500 £81,250 £75,000
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £95,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -11.29%

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 23 March 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 23 March 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 -12 98 £78,000 +7.59% 31
South West +16 49 £65,000 -7.14% 20
Midlands -50 25 £52,500 -22.22% 12
South East -59 20 £72,500 +3.57% 19
North of England -58 17 £60,000 -2.83% 21
West Midlands -14 14 £60,000 -11.11% 8
East Midlands -33 11 £51,058 +27.65% 4
North West -36 6 £55,500 -11.20% 8
Yorkshire -42 6 £57,500 +12.20% 12
North East -20 5 £75,000 -1.32% 1
East of England -5 2 £57,500 - 5
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 (1.83%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (1.37%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.91%) Confluence
4 1 (0.46%) Apache
4 1 (0.46%) Drupal
4 1 (0.46%) IIS
4 1 (0.46%) nginx
4 1 (0.46%) WordPress
Applications
1 3 (1.37%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (1.37%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.46%) Magento
Cloud Services
1 59 (26.94%) Azure
2 45 (20.55%) AWS
3 17 (7.76%) GCP
4 15 (6.85%) GitHub
4 15 (6.85%) Microsoft 365
5 12 (5.48%) Azure Sentinel
6 10 (4.57%) Entra ID
6 10 (4.57%) GitHub Actions
6 10 (4.57%) Microsoft Purview
7 6 (2.74%) Slack
8 5 (2.28%) Power Platform
9 4 (1.83%) Mimecast
10 3 (1.37%) SaaS
11 2 (0.91%) Amazon EKS
11 2 (0.91%) AWS CloudFormation
11 2 (0.91%) Azure DevOps
11 2 (0.91%) Azure Key Vault
11 2 (0.91%) Dynamics 365
11 2 (0.91%) Rubrik
12 1 (0.46%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 41 (18.72%) Firewall
2 24 (10.96%) Network Security
3 20 (9.13%) Wireless
4 15 (6.85%) VPN
5 13 (5.94%) TCP/IP
6 12 (5.48%) DNS
7 9 (4.11%) Intrusion Detection
8 7 (3.20%) Cisco ISE
8 7 (3.20%) VLAN
8 7 (3.20%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (2.28%) HTTP
9 5 (2.28%) Wireshark
10 4 (1.83%) Cisco Nexus
10 4 (1.83%) Ethernet
10 4 (1.83%) HTTPS
10 4 (1.83%) Internet
11 3 (1.37%) DHCP
11 3 (1.37%) DMARC
11 3 (1.37%) LAN
11 3 (1.37%) Modbus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (2.28%) Power BI
2 3 (1.37%) Tableau
3 2 (0.91%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.46%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.46%) InterSystems Cache
4 1 (0.46%) Redis
Development Applications
1 21 (9.59%) Burp Suite
1 21 (9.59%) Metasploit
2 12 (5.48%) JIRA
3 9 (4.11%) Jenkins
4 5 (2.28%) Bitbucket
5 2 (0.91%) Git
5 2 (0.91%) IDA Disassembler
6 1 (0.46%) Gatling
6 1 (0.46%) GitLab
6 1 (0.46%) JMeter
6 1 (0.46%) NUnit
6 1 (0.46%) Vagrant
General
1 78 (35.62%) Social Skills
2 65 (29.68%) Finance
3 20 (9.13%) Analytical Skills
3 20 (9.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 16 (7.31%) Law
4 16 (7.31%) Retail
5 14 (6.39%) Banking
6 11 (5.02%) Public Sector
7 9 (4.11%) Legal
8 8 (3.65%) Influencing Skills
9 7 (3.20%) Presentation Skills
10 6 (2.74%) Marketing
11 4 (1.83%) Electronics
11 4 (1.83%) Telecoms
12 3 (1.37%) Aerospace
12 3 (1.37%) Documentation Skills
12 3 (1.37%) Manufacturing
12 3 (1.37%) Military
13 2 (0.91%) Public Speaking
13 2 (0.91%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 39 (17.81%) Analyst
1 39 (17.81%) Consultant
2 38 (17.35%) Security Consultant
3 29 (13.24%) Security Analyst
4 27 (12.33%) Senior
5 25 (11.42%) Security Engineer
6 24 (10.96%) Security Manager
7 22 (10.05%) Tester
8 21 (9.59%) Penetration Tester
9 20 (9.13%) Cybersecurity Consultant
10 18 (8.22%) Security Specialist
11 12 (5.48%) Applications Engineer
11 12 (5.48%) IT Manager
11 12 (5.48%) Senior Analyst
11 12 (5.48%) Senior Security Analyst
12 9 (4.11%) Digital Analyst
12 9 (4.11%) Lead
12 9 (4.11%) Senior Digital Analyst
13 7 (3.20%) Head of Security
13 7 (3.20%) Threat Intelligence Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.37%) .NET
2 2 (0.91%) .NET Framework
2 2 (0.91%) JSON
3 1 (0.46%) AngularJS
3 1 (0.46%) ARM Templates
3 1 (0.46%) ASP.NET
3 1 (0.46%) ASP.NET Core
3 1 (0.46%) Entity Framework
3 1 (0.46%) Memcached
3 1 (0.46%) OAuth
3 1 (0.46%) OAuth2
3 1 (0.46%) OpenAPI
3 1 (0.46%) OpenID
3 1 (0.46%) RESTful
3 1 (0.46%) RxJS
3 1 (0.46%) Swagger
3 1 (0.46%) Vitest
3 1 (0.46%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 62 (28.31%) Security Posture
2 28 (12.79%) Cyber Defence
3 25 (11.42%) Mobile App
4 20 (9.13%) Cyber Threat
5 17 (7.76%) Management Information System
6 7 (3.20%) Data Centre
6 7 (3.20%) Insider Threat
7 6 (2.74%) Analytical Mindset
7 6 (2.74%) Operational Technology
7 6 (2.74%) PKI
7 6 (2.74%) Self-Motivation
8 5 (2.28%) Blog
8 5 (2.28%) Enterprise Software
9 4 (1.83%) Cloud Native
9 4 (1.83%) Cyber Security Posture
9 4 (1.83%) Data Protection Act
10 3 (1.37%) Renewable Energy
10 3 (1.37%) SCADA
10 3 (1.37%) Security Operations Centre
11 2 (0.91%) Cyberattack
Operating Systems
1 27 (12.33%) Linux
2 26 (11.87%) Windows
3 9 (4.11%) Android
3 9 (4.11%) Apple iOS
4 7 (3.20%) Unix
5 4 (1.83%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 123 (56.16%) Cybersecurity
2 77 (35.16%) Incident Response
3 74 (33.79%) Red Team
4 52 (23.74%) Application Security
5 47 (21.46%) Problem-Solving
6 46 (21.00%) Information Security
6 46 (21.00%) SIEM
7 45 (20.55%) Offensive Security
8 43 (19.63%) Agile
9 42 (19.18%) Mentoring
9 42 (19.18%) Vulnerability Management
10 32 (14.61%) Business Strategy
10 32 (14.61%) Threat Modelling
11 31 (14.16%) Internal Audit
12 30 (13.70%) Security Operations
13 29 (13.24%) Business Transformation
14 28 (12.79%) Coaching
14 28 (12.79%) Creative Thinking
14 28 (12.79%) SDLC
14 28 (12.79%) Security Testing
Programming Languages
1 55 (25.11%) Python
2 41 (18.72%) PowerShell
3 39 (17.81%) Bash
4 14 (6.39%) Go
5 9 (4.11%) C
5 9 (4.11%) C++
5 9 (4.11%) Java
6 6 (2.74%) C#
6 6 (2.74%) SQL
7 5 (2.28%) Perl
8 3 (1.37%) R
8 3 (1.37%) Ruby
9 2 (0.91%) Bicep
9 2 (0.91%) JavaScript
10 1 (0.46%) Kusto Query Language
10 1 (0.46%) Objective-C
10 1 (0.46%) PHP
10 1 (0.46%) Rust
10 1 (0.46%) Scala
10 1 (0.46%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 68 (31.05%) CREST Certified
2 62 (28.31%) OSCP
3 54 (24.66%) CISSP
4 48 (21.92%) Degree
5 42 (19.18%) Security Cleared
6 35 (15.98%) SC Cleared
7 29 (13.24%) Cisco Certification
8 28 (12.79%) CEH
9 25 (11.42%) CHECK Team Member
10 20 (9.13%) CHECK Team Leader
11 19 (8.68%) CCNA
11 19 (8.68%) CCSAM
12 18 (8.22%) CISM
12 18 (8.22%) DV Cleared
13 17 (7.76%) CompTIA Security+
13 17 (7.76%) GIAC
14 11 (5.02%) CCNP
14 11 (5.02%) CISA
14 11 (5.02%) GPEN
14 11 (5.02%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 73 (33.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 46 (21.00%) NIST
3 30 (13.70%) GDPR
4 24 (10.96%) Cyber Essentials
5 17 (7.76%) Actionable Recommendations
6 16 (7.31%) Accessibility
7 12 (5.48%) PCI DSS
8 11 (5.02%) NCSC
9 10 (4.57%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 6 (2.74%) GRC
11 3 (1.37%) ITGC
11 3 (1.37%) NIST 800
11 3 (1.37%) RMADS
12 2 (0.91%) COBIT
12 2 (0.91%) Data Quality
12 2 (0.91%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 2 (0.91%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.91%) SOC 2
13 1 (0.46%) GxP
13 1 (0.46%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 21 (9.59%) Active Directory
2 6 (2.74%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (2.28%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (1.83%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.91%) EMC RecoverPoint
5 2 (0.91%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.46%) Docker
6 1 (0.46%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 14 (6.39%) Nessus
2 12 (5.48%) Nmap
3 11 (5.02%) Kubernetes
4 7 (3.20%) Microsoft Intune
5 5 (2.28%) Ansible
5 5 (2.28%) Terraform
6 4 (1.83%) CSIRT
7 3 (1.37%) ArcSight ESM
7 3 (1.37%) FortiGate
7 3 (1.37%) QRadar
7 3 (1.37%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.91%) Progress Chef
8 2 (0.91%) VxRail
9 1 (0.46%) Consul
9 1 (0.46%) Jamf Pro
9 1 (0.46%) Packer
9 1 (0.46%) Proxmox
9 1 (0.46%) Puppet
Vendors
1 57 (26.03%) Microsoft
2 15 (6.85%) Cisco
3 12 (5.48%) Splunk
4 9 (4.11%) Zscaler
5 8 (3.65%) CheckPoint
5 8 (3.65%) Sophos
5 8 (3.65%) VMware
6 6 (2.74%) Fortinet
6 6 (2.74%) ServiceNow
6 6 (2.74%) Tenable
7 5 (2.28%) TOWER Software
8 4 (1.83%) CrowdStrike
8 4 (1.83%) Okta
8 4 (1.83%) Qualys
9 3 (1.37%) ArcSight
9 3 (1.37%) Dell
9 3 (1.37%) LogLogic
9 3 (1.37%) McAfee
9 3 (1.37%) Oracle
9 3 (1.37%) Veeam