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 15 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 474 460 417
Rank change year-on-year -14 -43 +139
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 164 307 301
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.38% 0.48% 0.60%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.43% 0.58% 0.64%
Number of salaries quoted 141 170 274
10th Percentile £47,500 £45,000 £42,500
25th Percentile £52,500 £56,250 £50,564
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £65,625 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% +9.38% -14.29%
75th Percentile £87,500 £87,500 £77,188
90th Percentile £90,000 £100,000 £91,750
UK median annual salary £69,384 £66,250 £62,500
% change year-on-year +4.73% +6.00% -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 38,105 52,509 47,053
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 88.91% 82.61% 93.97%
Number of salaries quoted 21,889 28,165 35,931
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,000 £32,750
25th Percentile £36,250 £45,000 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,800
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% -1.32% +1.33%
75th Percentile £75,250 £80,000 £81,250
90th Percentile £97,500 £97,500 £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 15 October 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 15 October 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 +21 90 £75,000 - 54
North of England +5 26 £57,500 -6.12% 27
South East -3 21 £60,000 +1.69% 43
Yorkshire +33 18 £55,000 +4.76% 2
Midlands +7 13 £59,000 +2.61% 17
South West +30 9 £70,000 +5.66% 12
West Midlands +19 9 £55,000 -15.38% 12
North West -25 6 £67,192 +4.99% 21
East Midlands +12 4 £61,250 +6.52% 4
North East - 2 £75,574 - 4
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 (3.66%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (1.83%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (3.66%) Microsoft Excel
1 6 (3.66%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.61%) GNU Octave
Cloud Services
1 58 (35.37%) Azure
2 34 (20.73%) AWS
3 23 (14.02%) Microsoft 365
4 18 (10.98%) Entra ID
5 14 (8.54%) Slack
6 12 (7.32%) Azure Sentinel
7 8 (4.88%) GCP
8 7 (4.27%) GitHub
8 7 (4.27%) Power Platform
9 6 (3.66%) Google Workspace
9 6 (3.66%) Microsoft Purview
10 4 (2.44%) Azure Key Vault
11 3 (1.83%) Azure DevOps
11 3 (1.83%) Azure Logic Apps
11 3 (1.83%) GitHub Actions
11 3 (1.83%) IBM Cloud
11 3 (1.83%) Mimecast
11 3 (1.83%) PaaS
12 2 (1.22%) Azure Stack
12 2 (1.22%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 57 (34.76%) Firewall
2 40 (24.39%) Network Security
3 12 (7.32%) Wireless
4 11 (6.71%) VPN
5 10 (6.10%) TCP/IP
6 9 (5.49%) VLAN
7 7 (4.27%) Intrusion Detection
7 7 (4.27%) SSL
7 7 (4.27%) Wi-Fi
7 7 (4.27%) Wireshark
8 5 (3.05%) BGP
8 5 (3.05%) OSPF
9 3 (1.83%) Cisco ISE
9 3 (1.83%) Ethernet
9 3 (1.83%) Spanning Tree
9 3 (1.83%) WAN
10 2 (1.22%) HTTP
10 2 (1.22%) Internet
10 2 (1.22%) LAN
10 2 (1.22%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (4.27%) Power BI
2 6 (3.66%) Tableau
3 2 (1.22%) Elasticsearch
3 2 (1.22%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 17 (10.37%) JIRA
2 9 (5.49%) Burp Suite
3 8 (4.88%) Metasploit
4 3 (1.83%) Git
4 3 (1.83%) Jenkins
5 2 (1.22%) GitLab
General
1 78 (47.56%) Social Skills
2 24 (14.63%) Finance
3 21 (12.80%) Influencing Skills
4 19 (11.59%) Analytical Skills
5 17 (10.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 14 (8.54%) Presentation Skills
7 7 (4.27%) Law
8 5 (3.05%) Legal
9 4 (2.44%) Banking
10 3 (1.83%) Documentation Skills
10 3 (1.83%) Electronics
10 3 (1.83%) Mandarin Language
11 2 (1.22%) Financial Institution
11 2 (1.22%) Manufacturing
11 2 (1.22%) Organisational Skills
11 2 (1.22%) Retail
12 1 (0.61%) Advertising
12 1 (0.61%) Marketing
12 1 (0.61%) Military
12 1 (0.61%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 47 (28.66%) Security Engineer
2 33 (20.12%) Analyst
3 29 (17.68%) Security Analyst
4 22 (13.41%) Senior
5 17 (10.37%) Cybersecurity Engineer
6 16 (9.76%) Lead
7 15 (9.15%) Senior Security Engineer
8 12 (7.32%) Architect
9 11 (6.71%) Network Engineer
9 11 (6.71%) Security Architect
10 10 (6.10%) IT Manager
11 9 (5.49%) Cybersecurity Specialist
11 9 (5.49%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 9 (5.49%) Penetration Tester
11 9 (5.49%) Security Specialist
11 9 (5.49%) Tester
12 8 (4.88%) Cloud Engineer
12 8 (4.88%) Vulnerability Management Engineer
13 7 (4.27%) Cybersecurity Analyst
13 7 (4.27%) Information Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (3.05%) JSON
2 2 (1.22%) Elastic Stack
3 1 (0.61%) EDI
3 1 (0.61%) ModSecurity
3 1 (0.61%) PyTorch
3 1 (0.61%) TensorFlow
3 1 (0.61%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 21 (12.80%) Management Information System
2 18 (10.98%) Security Posture
3 17 (10.37%) Security Operations Centre
4 14 (8.54%) Cyber Threat
5 10 (6.10%) Self-Motivation
6 9 (5.49%) Mobile App
7 8 (4.88%) Cyber Defence
8 7 (4.27%) Data Centre
9 6 (3.66%) Analytical Mindset
9 6 (3.66%) Cyber Kill Chain
9 6 (3.66%) Operational Technology
10 5 (3.05%) Cloud Native
11 4 (2.44%) Distributed Systems
11 4 (2.44%) PKI
12 3 (1.83%) Cyberattack
12 3 (1.83%) Enterprise Software
12 3 (1.83%) Onboarding
12 3 (1.83%) Public Cloud
12 3 (1.83%) SCADA
12 3 (1.83%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 36 (21.95%) Windows
2 23 (14.02%) Linux
3 6 (3.66%) Unix
3 6 (3.66%) Windows Server
4 5 (3.05%) Kali Linux
5 3 (1.83%) Android
5 3 (1.83%) Apple iOS
5 3 (1.83%) VMS
6 1 (0.61%) Debian
6 1 (0.61%) Ubuntu
6 1 (0.61%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.61%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.61%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (59.15%) Cybersecurity
2 72 (43.90%) Incident Response
3 59 (35.98%) Vulnerability Management
4 56 (34.15%) SIEM
5 40 (24.39%) Vulnerability Scanning
6 39 (23.78%) Vulnerability Assessment
7 33 (20.12%) Security Operations
8 32 (19.51%) DevOps
8 32 (19.51%) Information Security
9 28 (17.07%) Cloud Security
10 26 (15.85%) Security Testing
11 24 (14.63%) CI/CD
12 21 (12.80%) Problem-Solving
13 20 (12.20%) Vulnerability Remediation
14 19 (11.59%) Security Architecture
15 18 (10.98%) Application Security
16 17 (10.37%) ITIL
16 17 (10.37%) Technology Transformation
17 16 (9.76%) Risk Management
17 16 (9.76%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 51 (31.10%) Python
2 39 (23.78%) PowerShell
3 29 (17.68%) Bash
4 17 (10.37%) Go
5 10 (6.10%) SQL
6 7 (4.27%) JavaScript
7 6 (3.66%) R
8 4 (2.44%) C
8 4 (2.44%) C#
8 4 (2.44%) C++
8 4 (2.44%) Java
9 3 (1.83%) Perl
10 1 (0.61%) Kotlin
10 1 (0.61%) Kusto Query Language
10 1 (0.61%) Objective-C
10 1 (0.61%) Scala
Qualifications
1 34 (20.73%) Degree
2 30 (18.29%) CISSP
3 25 (15.24%) SC Cleared
3 25 (15.24%) Security Cleared
4 16 (9.76%) OSCP
5 15 (9.15%) Cisco Certification
6 12 (7.32%) CCNA
6 12 (7.32%) CCNP
6 12 (7.32%) CompTIA Security+
6 12 (7.32%) GCIA
6 12 (7.32%) SANS
7 10 (6.10%) CREST Certified
8 8 (4.88%) AWS Certification
9 7 (4.27%) CEH
9 7 (4.27%) CHECK Team Leader
9 7 (4.27%) CISA
10 6 (3.66%) ACCA
10 6 (3.66%) CIMA
10 6 (3.66%) DV Cleared
11 5 (3.05%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 67 (40.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 50 (30.49%) NIST
3 26 (15.85%) Cyber Essentials
4 17 (10.37%) Accessibility
5 13 (7.93%) GDPR
6 11 (6.71%) NCSC
7 9 (5.49%) QA
8 3 (1.83%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 3 (1.83%) SOC 2
9 2 (1.22%) NIST 800
10 1 (0.61%) COBIT
10 1 (0.61%) GRC
10 1 (0.61%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 1 (0.61%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 18 (10.98%) Active Directory
2 14 (8.54%) Virtual Machines
3 4 (2.44%) Firmware
3 4 (2.44%) VMware ESXi
3 4 (2.44%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.22%) EMC RecoverPoint
4 2 (1.22%) pfSense
4 2 (1.22%) Squid
5 1 (0.61%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 11 (6.71%) Microsoft Intune
2 10 (6.10%) Single Sign-On
3 6 (3.66%) Jamf Pro
3 6 (3.66%) Nmap
4 5 (3.05%) Kubernetes
4 5 (3.05%) Nessus
4 5 (3.05%) QRadar
5 3 (1.83%) Proxmox
6 2 (1.22%) Cisco CUCM
6 2 (1.22%) Kibana
6 2 (1.22%) Progress Chef
6 2 (1.22%) Terraform
6 2 (1.22%) VxRail
7 1 (0.61%) Ansible
7 1 (0.61%) CASB
7 1 (0.61%) SCCM
7 1 (0.61%) ZENworks
Vendors
1 60 (36.59%) Microsoft
2 17 (10.37%) Cisco
3 16 (9.76%) Tenable
4 14 (8.54%) ServiceNow
5 9 (5.49%) Splunk
6 7 (4.27%) Google
6 7 (4.27%) Meraki
6 7 (4.27%) Oracle
7 6 (3.66%) Fortinet
7 6 (3.66%) VMware
8 5 (3.05%) Palo Alto
9 4 (2.44%) CheckPoint
9 4 (2.44%) Sophos
9 4 (2.44%) Zscaler
10 3 (1.83%) IBM
11 2 (1.22%) Citrix
11 2 (1.22%) CrowdStrike
11 2 (1.22%) Dell
11 2 (1.22%) LogRhythm
11 2 (1.22%) Okta