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

6 months to
12 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 451 383 387
Rank change year-on-year -68 +4 +82
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 206 265 474
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.32% 0.68% 0.64%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.41% 0.72% 0.74%
Number of salaries quoted 141 193 379
10th Percentile £38,750 £45,000 £38,939
25th Percentile £50,813 £58,750 £47,725
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.70% +3.85% -3.70%
75th Percentile £87,500 £87,500 £82,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £95,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £72,434 £69,750 £65,000
% change year-on-year +3.85% +7.31% -6.07%

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 50,827 36,748 64,434
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 78.13% 93.68% 87.29%
Number of salaries quoted 31,403 20,173 50,460
10th Percentile £29,750 £32,500 £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% -11.31%

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 12 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 12 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 0 94 £77,500 +6.90% 34
South West +12 46 £72,500 +3.57% 13
Midlands -29 25 £52,500 -22.22% 3
South East -53 18 £72,500 +3.57% 19
West Midlands -14 14 £60,000 -11.11% 3
North of England -54 13 £60,000 -4.00% 10
East Midlands -28 11 £51,058 +27.65%
Yorkshire -43 6 £56,250 +9.76% 3
North West -34 4 £55,000 -12.00% 6
North East -16 3 £75,000 -1.32% 1
East of England 0 2 £57,500 - 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 (2.91%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (2.43%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.49%) Confluence
Applications
1 3 (1.46%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (1.46%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 54 (26.21%) Azure
2 38 (18.45%) AWS
3 17 (8.25%) Microsoft 365
4 14 (6.80%) GitHub
5 13 (6.31%) Entra ID
5 13 (6.31%) GCP
6 10 (4.85%) Azure Sentinel
6 10 (4.85%) GitHub Actions
6 10 (4.85%) Microsoft Purview
7 7 (3.40%) Slack
8 6 (2.91%) Power Platform
9 3 (1.46%) IBM Cloud
9 3 (1.46%) Mimecast
9 3 (1.46%) SaaS
10 2 (0.97%) Dynamics 365
10 2 (0.97%) Rubrik
11 1 (0.49%) Amazon EKS
11 1 (0.49%) Azure DevOps
11 1 (0.49%) Azure Key Vault
11 1 (0.49%) Figma
Communications & Networking
1 37 (17.96%) Firewall
2 21 (10.19%) Network Security
3 20 (9.71%) Wireless
4 15 (7.28%) VPN
5 14 (6.80%) TCP/IP
6 10 (4.85%) DNS
7 8 (3.88%) VLAN
8 7 (3.40%) Intrusion Detection
8 7 (3.40%) Wi-Fi
9 6 (2.91%) Cisco ISE
10 5 (2.43%) HTTP
10 5 (2.43%) Wireshark
11 4 (1.94%) Ethernet
11 4 (1.94%) Internet
12 3 (1.46%) Cisco Nexus
12 3 (1.46%) DMARC
12 3 (1.46%) DMZ
12 3 (1.46%) HTTPS
12 3 (1.46%) Modbus
12 3 (1.46%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (2.91%) Power BI
2 3 (1.46%) Tableau
3 1 (0.49%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 22 (10.68%) Burp Suite
1 22 (10.68%) Metasploit
2 12 (5.83%) JIRA
3 10 (4.85%) Jenkins
4 4 (1.94%) Bitbucket
5 2 (0.97%) Git
5 2 (0.97%) IDA Disassembler
6 1 (0.49%) GitLab
6 1 (0.49%) NUnit
General
1 79 (38.35%) Social Skills
2 64 (31.07%) Finance
3 20 (9.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 18 (8.74%) Analytical Skills
5 16 (7.77%) Retail
6 14 (6.80%) Banking
6 14 (6.80%) Law
7 9 (4.37%) Influencing Skills
7 9 (4.37%) Legal
8 8 (3.88%) Presentation Skills
9 6 (2.91%) Marketing
10 5 (2.43%) Public Sector
11 4 (1.94%) Electronics
11 4 (1.94%) Telecoms
12 3 (1.46%) Aerospace
12 3 (1.46%) Documentation Skills
12 3 (1.46%) Manufacturing
12 3 (1.46%) Military
13 2 (0.97%) Financial Institution
13 2 (0.97%) Public Speaking
Job Titles
1 37 (17.96%) Consultant
2 36 (17.48%) Analyst
2 36 (17.48%) Security Consultant
3 29 (14.08%) Security Engineer
4 28 (13.59%) Senior
5 27 (13.11%) Security Analyst
6 24 (11.65%) Security Manager
7 20 (9.71%) Tester
8 19 (9.22%) Penetration Tester
9 18 (8.74%) Cybersecurity Consultant
10 17 (8.25%) Security Specialist
11 13 (6.31%) Applications Engineer
12 12 (5.83%) IT Manager
13 11 (5.34%) Senior Analyst
13 11 (5.34%) Senior Security Analyst
14 9 (4.37%) Digital Analyst
14 9 (4.37%) Lead
14 9 (4.37%) Senior Digital Analyst
15 8 (3.88%) Cybersecurity Engineer
16 7 (3.40%) Threat Intelligence Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (0.97%) .NET
1 2 (0.97%) JSON
2 1 (0.49%) .NET Framework
2 1 (0.49%) AngularJS
2 1 (0.49%) ASP.NET
2 1 (0.49%) ASP.NET Core
2 1 (0.49%) Entity Framework
2 1 (0.49%) OpenAPI
2 1 (0.49%) RESTful
2 1 (0.49%) RxJS
2 1 (0.49%) Swagger
2 1 (0.49%) Vitest
2 1 (0.49%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 57 (27.67%) Security Posture
2 27 (13.11%) Cyber Defence
3 25 (12.14%) Mobile App
4 20 (9.71%) Cyber Threat
5 17 (8.25%) Management Information System
6 7 (3.40%) Data Centre
6 7 (3.40%) Enterprise Software
6 7 (3.40%) Insider Threat
6 7 (3.40%) PKI
7 6 (2.91%) Analytical Mindset
7 6 (2.91%) Operational Technology
7 6 (2.91%) Self-Motivation
8 5 (2.43%) Security Operations Centre
9 4 (1.94%) Cloud Native
9 4 (1.94%) Cyber Security Posture
9 4 (1.94%) Data Protection Act
10 3 (1.46%) Blog
10 3 (1.46%) Cyberattack
10 3 (1.46%) Renewable Energy
10 3 (1.46%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 21 (10.19%) Windows
2 20 (9.71%) Linux
3 9 (4.37%) Android
3 9 (4.37%) Apple iOS
4 6 (2.91%) Unix
5 5 (2.43%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 115 (55.83%) Cybersecurity
2 73 (35.44%) Incident Response
3 69 (33.50%) Red Team
4 51 (24.76%) Application Security
5 45 (21.84%) Problem-Solving
6 44 (21.36%) Offensive Security
7 43 (20.87%) Agile
7 43 (20.87%) Information Security
7 43 (20.87%) SIEM
8 41 (19.90%) Vulnerability Management
9 37 (17.96%) Mentoring
10 34 (16.50%) Business Strategy
11 32 (15.53%) Threat Modelling
12 31 (15.05%) Internal Audit
13 29 (14.08%) Business Transformation
14 28 (13.59%) Coaching
14 28 (13.59%) Creative Thinking
15 27 (13.11%) Security Operations
15 27 (13.11%) Security Testing
15 27 (13.11%) Vulnerability Assessment
Programming Languages
1 55 (26.70%) Python
2 40 (19.42%) Bash
2 40 (19.42%) PowerShell
3 14 (6.80%) Go
4 8 (3.88%) C
4 8 (3.88%) C++
4 8 (3.88%) Java
5 6 (2.91%) SQL
6 5 (2.43%) C#
7 4 (1.94%) Perl
8 3 (1.46%) R
9 2 (0.97%) JavaScript
9 2 (0.97%) Ruby
10 1 (0.49%) Bicep
10 1 (0.49%) Scala
10 1 (0.49%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 65 (31.55%) CREST Certified
2 61 (29.61%) OSCP
3 52 (25.24%) CISSP
4 45 (21.84%) Degree
5 39 (18.93%) Security Cleared
6 33 (16.02%) SC Cleared
7 28 (13.59%) Cisco Certification
8 24 (11.65%) CEH
8 24 (11.65%) CHECK Team Member
9 21 (10.19%) CHECK Team Leader
10 20 (9.71%) CCNA
11 18 (8.74%) CCSAM
12 17 (8.25%) DV Cleared
13 16 (7.77%) CompTIA Security+
14 15 (7.28%) GIAC
15 14 (6.80%) SANS
16 13 (6.31%) CISM
17 11 (5.34%) CISA
18 10 (4.85%) CCNP
18 10 (4.85%) GPEN
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 71 (34.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 42 (20.39%) NIST
3 28 (13.59%) GDPR
4 25 (12.14%) Cyber Essentials
5 18 (8.74%) Accessibility
6 14 (6.80%) Actionable Recommendations
7 10 (4.85%) NCSC
7 10 (4.85%) PCI DSS
8 9 (4.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 6 (2.91%) GRC
10 3 (1.46%) ITGC
10 3 (1.46%) NIST 800
10 3 (1.46%) RMADS
11 2 (0.97%) COBIT
11 2 (0.97%) Data Quality
11 2 (0.97%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 2 (0.97%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.49%) GxP
12 1 (0.49%) HIPAA
12 1 (0.49%) QA
System Software
1 21 (10.19%) Active Directory
2 7 (3.40%) Virtual Machines
2 7 (3.40%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (2.91%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (0.97%) EMC RecoverPoint
4 2 (0.97%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.49%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 16 (7.77%) Nessus
2 13 (6.31%) Nmap
3 11 (5.34%) Kubernetes
4 5 (2.43%) Microsoft Intune
5 4 (1.94%) CSIRT
6 3 (1.46%) Ansible
6 3 (1.46%) ArcSight ESM
6 3 (1.46%) FortiGate
6 3 (1.46%) Proxmox
6 3 (1.46%) QRadar
6 3 (1.46%) Terraform
7 2 (0.97%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.97%) VxRail
8 1 (0.49%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 55 (26.70%) Microsoft
2 14 (6.80%) Cisco
3 10 (4.85%) VMware
4 9 (4.37%) Splunk
5 7 (3.40%) CheckPoint
5 7 (3.40%) ServiceNow
5 7 (3.40%) Tenable
5 7 (3.40%) Zscaler
6 6 (2.91%) Sophos
7 4 (1.94%) Fortinet
7 4 (1.94%) Qualys
8 3 (1.46%) ArcSight
8 3 (1.46%) Dell
8 3 (1.46%) IBM
8 3 (1.46%) LogLogic
8 3 (1.46%) McAfee
8 3 (1.46%) Okta
8 3 (1.46%) Oracle
8 3 (1.46%) TOWER Software
8 3 (1.46%) Veeam