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 18 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 423 435 455
Rank change year-on-year +12 +20 +11
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 302 214 454
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.36% 0.54% 0.48%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.50% 0.58% 0.58%
Number of salaries quoted 198 164 365
10th Percentile £42,500 £42,875 £38,845
25th Percentile £49,750 £53,750 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.70% +3.85% +4.00%
75th Percentile £87,500 £79,500 £82,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £97,500
UK median annual salary £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
% change year-on-year +3.70% +3.85% -

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 60,860 36,708 78,024
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.03% 92.57% 81.96%
Number of salaries quoted 42,836 20,086 56,665
10th Percentile £30,750 £29,000 £29,440
25th Percentile £41,250 £40,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -12.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £78,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -9.54%

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 18 June 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 18 June 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 +16 131 £82,500 +17.86% 35
South East +11 59 £71,250 +9.62% 19
South West -22 45 £50,000 -25.93% 10
Midlands -30 28 £51,058 -24.36% 8
North of England -53 24 £56,000 -2.61% 8
West Midlands -30 17 £65,000 -3.70% 5
Yorkshire -36 14 £55,000 - 5
East Midlands -16 11 £46,743 +16.86% 3
East of England -11 6 £32,500 - 1
North East -45 6 £75,000 +3.18% 1
North West -8 4 £61,750 +1.23% 2
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 7 (2.32%) Microsoft Exchange
1 7 (2.32%) SharePoint
2 3 (0.99%) Confluence
2 3 (0.99%) IIS
3 1 (0.33%) Apache
3 1 (0.33%) Drupal
3 1 (0.33%) nginx
3 1 (0.33%) WordPress
Applications
1 2 (0.66%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 1 (0.33%) Magento
1 1 (0.33%) SAP EHS
1 1 (0.33%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 74 (24.50%) Azure
2 73 (24.17%) AWS
3 32 (10.60%) Microsoft 365
4 25 (8.28%) GCP
5 15 (4.97%) Entra ID
6 9 (2.98%) Azure Sentinel
6 9 (2.98%) GitHub
7 8 (2.65%) SaaS
8 6 (1.99%) Microsoft Purview
9 5 (1.66%) GitHub Actions
10 4 (1.32%) Amazon EKS
10 4 (1.32%) AWS CloudFormation
10 4 (1.32%) Azure Key Vault
10 4 (1.32%) Mimecast
11 3 (0.99%) Azure DevOps
11 3 (0.99%) OneDrive
11 3 (0.99%) Rubrik
12 2 (0.66%) Figma
12 2 (0.66%) Nutanix
12 2 (0.66%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 68 (22.52%) Firewall
2 26 (8.61%) Network Security
3 21 (6.95%) Cisco Nexus
3 21 (6.95%) Wireless
4 20 (6.62%) Wi-Fi
5 19 (6.29%) VPN
6 18 (5.96%) Internet
7 12 (3.97%) LAN
7 12 (3.97%) WAN
8 11 (3.64%) DNS
9 10 (3.31%) TCP/IP
10 8 (2.65%) Cisco ISE
11 7 (2.32%) VLAN
12 6 (1.99%) Intrusion Detection
13 4 (1.32%) DHCP
13 4 (1.32%) HTTPS
14 3 (0.99%) DMARC
14 3 (0.99%) DMZ
14 3 (0.99%) SSL
14 3 (0.99%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (1.99%) SQL Server
2 3 (0.99%) Amazon RDS
3 2 (0.66%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.33%) InterSystems Cache
4 1 (0.33%) KNIME
4 1 (0.33%) Power BI
4 1 (0.33%) Redis
Development Applications
1 20 (6.62%) Burp Suite
2 19 (6.29%) Metasploit
3 8 (2.65%) JIRA
4 6 (1.99%) Bitbucket
5 4 (1.32%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.99%) Git
7 2 (0.66%) Gatling
7 2 (0.66%) NUnit
7 2 (0.66%) Yeoman
8 1 (0.33%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.33%) GitLab
8 1 (0.33%) IDA Disassembler
8 1 (0.33%) JMeter
8 1 (0.33%) JUnit
8 1 (0.33%) Postman
8 1 (0.33%) Selenium
8 1 (0.33%) Snyk
8 1 (0.33%) Vagrant
General
1 105 (34.77%) Social Skills
2 72 (23.84%) Finance
3 33 (10.93%) Analytical Skills
4 30 (9.93%) Law
5 28 (9.27%) Public Sector
6 20 (6.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 19 (6.29%) Retail
8 15 (4.97%) Banking
9 9 (2.98%) Legal
10 7 (2.32%) Marketing
10 7 (2.32%) Pharmaceutical
11 4 (1.32%) Financial Institution
11 4 (1.32%) Influencing Skills
11 4 (1.32%) Telecoms
12 3 (0.99%) Back Office
13 2 (0.66%) Digital Health
13 2 (0.66%) Digital Healthcare
13 2 (0.66%) Social Housing
14 1 (0.33%) Aerospace
14 1 (0.33%) French Language
Job Titles
1 73 (24.17%) Senior
2 54 (17.88%) Analyst
3 45 (14.90%) Security Analyst
4 43 (14.24%) Consultant
5 42 (13.91%) Penetration Tester
5 42 (13.91%) Security Consultant
5 42 (13.91%) Tester
6 37 (12.25%) Senior Analyst
7 35 (11.59%) Senior Security Analyst
8 24 (7.95%) Lead
8 24 (7.95%) Security Manager
9 23 (7.62%) Cybersecurity Analyst
10 20 (6.62%) Senior Cybersecurity Analyst
11 19 (6.29%) Security Engineer
12 18 (5.96%) Cybersecurity Consultant
12 18 (5.96%) Security Specialist
13 15 (4.97%) Team Leader
14 14 (4.64%) Network Analyst
14 14 (4.64%) Senior Network Analyst
15 12 (3.97%) Network Security Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (1.32%) .NET
2 3 (0.99%) .NET Framework
2 3 (0.99%) OAuth
2 3 (0.99%) RESTful
3 2 (0.66%) AngularJS
3 2 (0.66%) ASP.NET
3 2 (0.66%) ASP.NET Core
3 2 (0.66%) Entity Framework
3 2 (0.66%) LDAP
3 2 (0.66%) OAuth2
3 2 (0.66%) OpenAPI
3 2 (0.66%) OpenID
3 2 (0.66%) RxJS
3 2 (0.66%) Swagger
3 2 (0.66%) Vitest
4 1 (0.33%) ARM Templates
4 1 (0.33%) Memcached
4 1 (0.33%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 76 (25.17%) Security Posture
2 30 (9.93%) Cyber Defence
2 30 (9.93%) Mobile App
3 29 (9.60%) Cyber Threat
4 20 (6.62%) Management Information System
5 14 (4.64%) Self-Motivation
6 13 (4.30%) Security Operations Centre
7 8 (2.65%) Blog
7 8 (2.65%) Data Centre
8 7 (2.32%) Cyber Security Posture
8 7 (2.32%) Onboarding
9 6 (1.99%) Cloud Native
9 6 (1.99%) Insider Threat
10 5 (1.66%) Cyberattack
10 5 (1.66%) Operational Technology
11 4 (1.32%) Enterprise Software
12 3 (0.99%) CCTV
12 3 (0.99%) Hybrid Cloud
12 3 (0.99%) Public Cloud
13 2 (0.66%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 40 (13.25%) Windows
2 33 (10.93%) Linux
3 16 (5.30%) Android
3 16 (5.30%) Apple iOS
4 11 (3.64%) Windows Server
5 4 (1.32%) Unix
6 2 (0.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.66%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 207 (68.54%) Cybersecurity
2 93 (30.79%) Incident Response
3 92 (30.46%) Red Team
4 85 (28.15%) Vulnerability Management
5 66 (21.85%) SIEM
6 65 (21.52%) Offensive Security
7 58 (19.21%) Mentoring
7 58 (19.21%) Problem-Solving
7 58 (19.21%) Security Testing
8 56 (18.54%) Information Security
9 55 (18.21%) Application Security
10 52 (17.22%) Security Operations
11 51 (16.89%) Cloud Security
12 37 (12.25%) Disaster Recovery
13 36 (11.92%) Agile
14 35 (11.59%) Continuous Improvement
14 35 (11.59%) Threat Modelling
15 32 (10.60%) Coaching
15 32 (10.60%) Threat Intelligence
16 31 (10.26%) Business Strategy
Programming Languages
1 43 (14.24%) PowerShell
1 43 (14.24%) Python
2 25 (8.28%) Bash
3 14 (4.64%) Java
4 12 (3.97%) Go
5 5 (1.66%) Bicep
5 5 (1.66%) C#
6 4 (1.32%) C
6 4 (1.32%) C++
6 4 (1.32%) Perl
6 4 (1.32%) SQL
7 3 (0.99%) Objective-C
7 3 (0.99%) Ruby
7 3 (0.99%) Rust
8 2 (0.66%) Kusto Query Language
8 2 (0.66%) PHP
8 2 (0.66%) TypeScript
9 1 (0.33%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 78 (25.83%) CREST Certified
2 64 (21.19%) OSCP
3 58 (19.21%) CISSP
4 52 (17.22%) Security Cleared
5 44 (14.57%) SC Cleared
6 39 (12.91%) CISM
7 33 (10.93%) Degree
8 27 (8.94%) CHECK Team Leader
9 24 (7.95%) CEH
9 24 (7.95%) CHECK Team Member
10 21 (6.95%) CCSAM
10 21 (6.95%) Cisco Certification
10 21 (6.95%) CompTIA Security+
11 16 (5.30%) CCNA
12 15 (4.97%) CCNP
13 14 (4.64%) GIAC
14 13 (4.30%) DV Cleared
15 8 (2.65%) OSCE
15 8 (2.65%) SANS
16 7 (2.32%) GPEN
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 83 (27.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 44 (14.57%) NIST
3 40 (13.25%) GDPR
4 37 (12.25%) Cyber Essentials
5 18 (5.96%) PCI DSS
6 15 (4.97%) Actionable Recommendations
6 15 (4.97%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 13 (4.30%) NCSC
8 12 (3.97%) GRC
9 7 (2.32%) Accessibility
10 6 (1.99%) SOC 2
11 5 (1.66%) QA
11 5 (1.66%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 4 (1.32%) Def Stans
12 4 (1.32%) NIST 800
13 3 (0.99%) COBIT
13 3 (0.99%) Data Quality
14 2 (0.66%) SLA
15 1 (0.33%) GxP
15 1 (0.33%) WCAG
System Software
1 35 (11.59%) Active Directory
2 7 (2.32%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (0.99%) Docker
3 3 (0.99%) EMC RecoverPoint
3 3 (0.99%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (0.66%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.33%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 16 (5.30%) Kubernetes
2 13 (4.30%) Nessus
3 11 (3.64%) Microsoft Intune
4 10 (3.31%) Nmap
5 9 (2.98%) Terraform
6 5 (1.66%) Ansible
7 3 (0.99%) CSIRT
7 3 (0.99%) FortiGate
7 3 (0.99%) SCCM
7 3 (0.99%) VxRail
8 2 (0.66%) Jamf Pro
8 2 (0.66%) Red Hat Satellite
8 2 (0.66%) Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.33%) CASB
9 1 (0.33%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
9 1 (0.33%) Consul
9 1 (0.33%) Packer
9 1 (0.33%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.33%) Puppet
Vendors
1 66 (21.85%) Microsoft
2 29 (9.60%) Cisco
3 22 (7.28%) Qualys
4 21 (6.95%) Palo Alto
5 18 (5.96%) Splunk
6 17 (5.63%) Aruba
7 13 (4.30%) Sophos
8 10 (3.31%) VMware
8 10 (3.31%) Zscaler
9 9 (2.98%) CrowdStrike
10 8 (2.65%) CheckPoint
10 8 (2.65%) Fortinet
11 5 (1.66%) Tenable
11 5 (1.66%) TOWER Software
12 4 (1.32%) Okta
13 3 (0.99%) Dell
13 3 (0.99%) Google
13 3 (0.99%) Rapid7
13 3 (0.99%) ServiceNow
13 3 (0.99%) Veeam