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

6 months to
17 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 439 381 390
Rank change year-on-year -58 +9 +86
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 213 263 465
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.32% 0.68% 0.62%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.41% 0.73% 0.72%
Number of salaries quoted 147 195 369
10th Percentile £40,700 £45,000 £38,939
25th Percentile £50,656 £58,750 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.70% +3.85% -6.07%
75th Percentile £87,500 £87,500 £82,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £95,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £71,184 £70,000 £64,951
% change year-on-year +1.69% +7.77% -6.14%

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 51,528 36,093 64,989
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 77.90% 93.54% 87.05%
Number of salaries quoted 31,904 20,307 50,751
10th Percentile £30,000 £32,000 £29,010
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% -11.41%

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 17 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 17 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 -7 97 £77,500 +6.90% 38
South West +14 47 £72,500 +3.57% 22
Midlands -28 25 £52,500 -22.22% 18
South East -46 19 £72,500 +3.57% 34
North of England -51 15 £60,000 -2.83% 25
West Midlands -8 14 £60,000 -11.11% 10
East Midlands -25 11 £51,058 +27.65% 8
Yorkshire -36 6 £56,250 +9.76% 11
North West -36 5 £55,000 -12.00% 11
North East -20 4 £75,000 -1.32% 3
East of England -12 2 £57,500 - 8
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 (2.35%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (1.88%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.47%) Confluence
Applications
1 3 (1.41%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (1.41%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 58 (27.23%) Azure
2 42 (19.72%) AWS
3 16 (7.51%) Microsoft 365
4 15 (7.04%) GitHub
5 14 (6.57%) GCP
6 12 (5.63%) Azure Sentinel
7 11 (5.16%) Entra ID
8 10 (4.69%) GitHub Actions
8 10 (4.69%) Microsoft Purview
9 7 (3.29%) Slack
10 6 (2.82%) Power Platform
11 3 (1.41%) Mimecast
11 3 (1.41%) SaaS
12 2 (0.94%) Azure Key Vault
12 2 (0.94%) Dynamics 365
12 2 (0.94%) IBM Cloud
12 2 (0.94%) Rubrik
13 1 (0.47%) Amazon EKS
13 1 (0.47%) Datadog
13 1 (0.47%) Figma
Communications & Networking
1 40 (18.78%) Firewall
2 22 (10.33%) Network Security
3 20 (9.39%) Wireless
4 15 (7.04%) VPN
5 14 (6.57%) TCP/IP
6 12 (5.63%) DNS
7 8 (3.76%) Intrusion Detection
7 8 (3.76%) VLAN
8 7 (3.29%) Wi-Fi
9 6 (2.82%) Cisco ISE
10 5 (2.35%) HTTP
10 5 (2.35%) Wireshark
11 4 (1.88%) Ethernet
11 4 (1.88%) HTTPS
11 4 (1.88%) Internet
12 3 (1.41%) DMZ
12 3 (1.41%) LAN
12 3 (1.41%) SSL
12 3 (1.41%) VoIP
12 3 (1.41%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (2.82%) Power BI
2 3 (1.41%) Tableau
3 1 (0.47%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 21 (9.86%) Burp Suite
1 21 (9.86%) Metasploit
2 12 (5.63%) JIRA
3 10 (4.69%) Jenkins
4 5 (2.35%) Bitbucket
5 2 (0.94%) Git
5 2 (0.94%) IDA Disassembler
6 1 (0.47%) GitLab
6 1 (0.47%) NUnit
General
1 81 (38.03%) Social Skills
2 66 (30.99%) Finance
3 20 (9.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 19 (8.92%) Analytical Skills
5 16 (7.51%) Retail
6 15 (7.04%) Law
7 14 (6.57%) Banking
8 9 (4.23%) Influencing Skills
8 9 (4.23%) Legal
9 8 (3.76%) Presentation Skills
9 8 (3.76%) Public Sector
10 6 (2.82%) Marketing
11 4 (1.88%) Electronics
11 4 (1.88%) Telecoms
12 3 (1.41%) Aerospace
12 3 (1.41%) Documentation Skills
12 3 (1.41%) Manufacturing
12 3 (1.41%) Military
13 2 (0.94%) Financial Institution
13 2 (0.94%) Public Speaking
Job Titles
1 39 (18.31%) Consultant
2 38 (17.84%) Analyst
2 38 (17.84%) Security Consultant
3 28 (13.15%) Security Analyst
3 28 (13.15%) Security Engineer
4 27 (12.68%) Senior
5 24 (11.27%) Security Manager
6 20 (9.39%) Cybersecurity Consultant
6 20 (9.39%) Tester
7 19 (8.92%) Penetration Tester
8 17 (7.98%) Security Specialist
9 13 (6.10%) Applications Engineer
10 12 (5.63%) IT Manager
11 11 (5.16%) Senior Analyst
11 11 (5.16%) Senior Security Analyst
12 9 (4.23%) Digital Analyst
12 9 (4.23%) Senior Digital Analyst
13 8 (3.76%) Lead
14 7 (3.29%) Cybersecurity Analyst
14 7 (3.29%) Threat Intelligence Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (0.94%) .NET
1 2 (0.94%) JSON
2 1 (0.47%) .NET Framework
2 1 (0.47%) AngularJS
2 1 (0.47%) ASP.NET
2 1 (0.47%) ASP.NET Core
2 1 (0.47%) Entity Framework
2 1 (0.47%) OAuth
2 1 (0.47%) OAuth2
2 1 (0.47%) OpenAPI
2 1 (0.47%) OpenID
2 1 (0.47%) RESTful
2 1 (0.47%) RxJS
2 1 (0.47%) Swagger
2 1 (0.47%) Vitest
2 1 (0.47%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 59 (27.70%) Security Posture
2 27 (12.68%) Cyber Defence
3 25 (11.74%) Mobile App
4 21 (9.86%) Cyber Threat
5 17 (7.98%) Management Information System
6 7 (3.29%) Data Centre
6 7 (3.29%) Insider Threat
6 7 (3.29%) PKI
7 6 (2.82%) Analytical Mindset
7 6 (2.82%) Enterprise Software
7 6 (2.82%) Operational Technology
7 6 (2.82%) Self-Motivation
8 5 (2.35%) Blog
9 4 (1.88%) Cloud Native
9 4 (1.88%) Cyber Security Posture
9 4 (1.88%) Data Protection Act
9 4 (1.88%) Security Operations Centre
10 3 (1.41%) Cyberattack
10 3 (1.41%) Renewable Energy
10 3 (1.41%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 24 (11.27%) Linux
1 24 (11.27%) Windows
2 9 (4.23%) Android
2 9 (4.23%) Apple iOS
3 7 (3.29%) Unix
4 4 (1.88%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 119 (55.87%) Cybersecurity
2 77 (36.15%) Incident Response
3 72 (33.80%) Red Team
4 52 (24.41%) Application Security
5 46 (21.60%) Problem-Solving
6 45 (21.13%) Offensive Security
6 45 (21.13%) SIEM
7 44 (20.66%) Information Security
8 43 (20.19%) Agile
8 43 (20.19%) Vulnerability Management
9 39 (18.31%) Mentoring
10 33 (15.49%) Business Strategy
10 33 (15.49%) Threat Modelling
11 31 (14.55%) Internal Audit
12 29 (13.62%) Business Transformation
13 28 (13.15%) Coaching
13 28 (13.15%) Creative Thinking
13 28 (13.15%) SDLC
13 28 (13.15%) Security Operations
13 28 (13.15%) Vulnerability Assessment
Programming Languages
1 56 (26.29%) Python
2 41 (19.25%) PowerShell
3 40 (18.78%) Bash
4 14 (6.57%) Go
5 8 (3.76%) C
5 8 (3.76%) C++
5 8 (3.76%) Java
6 6 (2.82%) SQL
7 5 (2.35%) C#
8 4 (1.88%) Perl
9 3 (1.41%) R
10 2 (0.94%) Bicep
10 2 (0.94%) JavaScript
10 2 (0.94%) Ruby
11 1 (0.47%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.47%) Scala
11 1 (0.47%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 66 (30.99%) CREST Certified
2 61 (28.64%) OSCP
3 53 (24.88%) CISSP
4 47 (22.07%) Degree
5 40 (18.78%) Security Cleared
6 34 (15.96%) SC Cleared
7 28 (13.15%) Cisco Certification
8 26 (12.21%) CEH
9 25 (11.74%) CHECK Team Member
10 20 (9.39%) CHECK Team Leader
11 19 (8.92%) CCNA
12 18 (8.45%) CCSAM
12 18 (8.45%) DV Cleared
13 17 (7.98%) CompTIA Security+
14 16 (7.51%) GIAC
15 15 (7.04%) CISM
16 13 (6.10%) SANS
17 11 (5.16%) CISA
18 10 (4.69%) CCNP
18 10 (4.69%) GPEN
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 75 (35.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 45 (21.13%) NIST
3 29 (13.62%) GDPR
4 26 (12.21%) Cyber Essentials
5 18 (8.45%) Accessibility
6 15 (7.04%) Actionable Recommendations
7 12 (5.63%) PCI DSS
8 10 (4.69%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 10 (4.69%) NCSC
9 6 (2.82%) GRC
10 3 (1.41%) ITGC
10 3 (1.41%) NIST 800
10 3 (1.41%) RMADS
11 2 (0.94%) COBIT
11 2 (0.94%) Data Quality
11 2 (0.94%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 2 (0.94%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.94%) SOC 2
12 1 (0.47%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 1 (0.47%) QA
System Software
1 21 (9.86%) Active Directory
2 7 (3.29%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (2.82%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (2.35%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.94%) EMC RecoverPoint
5 2 (0.94%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.47%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 15 (7.04%) Nessus
2 12 (5.63%) Nmap
3 11 (5.16%) Kubernetes
4 7 (3.29%) Microsoft Intune
5 4 (1.88%) Ansible
5 4 (1.88%) CSIRT
5 4 (1.88%) Terraform
6 3 (1.41%) ArcSight ESM
6 3 (1.41%) FortiGate
6 3 (1.41%) QRadar
6 3 (1.41%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.94%) Proxmox
7 2 (0.94%) VxRail
8 1 (0.47%) Jamf Pro
8 1 (0.47%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 57 (26.76%) Microsoft
2 14 (6.57%) Cisco
3 10 (4.69%) Splunk
4 9 (4.23%) VMware
5 8 (3.76%) Zscaler
6 7 (3.29%) CheckPoint
6 7 (3.29%) ServiceNow
6 7 (3.29%) Sophos
6 7 (3.29%) Tenable
7 5 (2.35%) Fortinet
8 4 (1.88%) CrowdStrike
8 4 (1.88%) Qualys
8 4 (1.88%) TOWER Software
9 3 (1.41%) ArcSight
9 3 (1.41%) Dell
9 3 (1.41%) LogLogic
9 3 (1.41%) McAfee
9 3 (1.41%) Okta
9 3 (1.41%) Oracle
9 3 (1.41%) Veeam