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

6 months to
19 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 445 380 391
Rank change year-on-year -65 +11 +79
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 213 260 463
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.32% 0.68% 0.62%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.41% 0.73% 0.71%
Number of salaries quoted 146 195 367
10th Percentile £40,375 £45,000 £38,892
25th Percentile £50,578 £58,750 £47,500
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 £95,625 £95,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £71,184 £69,500 £65,000
% change year-on-year +2.42% +6.92% -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 51,670 35,658 65,018
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 77.78% 93.55% 87.00%
Number of salaries quoted 32,008 20,224 50,768
10th Percentile £30,000 £32,000 £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 19 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 19 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 -17 97 £77,500 +6.90% 32
South West +8 46 £72,500 +3.57% 21
Midlands -30 25 £52,500 -22.22% 13
South East -55 20 £72,500 +3.57% 18
North of England -59 15 £60,000 -2.83% 17
West Midlands -20 14 £60,000 -11.11% 9
East Midlands -37 11 £51,058 +27.65% 4
Yorkshire -34 6 £56,250 +9.76% 7
North West -31 5 £55,000 -12.00% 8
North East -18 4 £75,000 -1.32% 2
East of England -12 2 £57,500 - 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 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 59 (27.70%) Azure
2 43 (20.19%) AWS
3 16 (7.51%) Microsoft 365
4 15 (7.04%) GCP
5 14 (6.57%) GitHub
6 12 (5.63%) Azure Sentinel
7 11 (5.16%) Entra ID
8 10 (4.69%) Microsoft Purview
9 9 (4.23%) GitHub Actions
10 6 (2.82%) Power Platform
10 6 (2.82%) Slack
11 4 (1.88%) Mimecast
12 3 (1.41%) SaaS
13 2 (0.94%) Azure Key Vault
13 2 (0.94%) Dynamics 365
13 2 (0.94%) IBM Cloud
13 2 (0.94%) Rubrik
14 1 (0.47%) Amazon EKS
14 1 (0.47%) Cloudflare
14 1 (0.47%) Figma
Communications & Networking
1 41 (19.25%) Firewall
2 24 (11.27%) Network Security
3 20 (9.39%) Wireless
4 16 (7.51%) VPN
5 14 (6.57%) TCP/IP
6 12 (5.63%) DNS
7 9 (4.23%) Intrusion Detection
8 8 (3.76%) VLAN
9 7 (3.29%) Cisco ISE
9 7 (3.29%) Wi-Fi
10 5 (2.35%) HTTP
10 5 (2.35%) Wireshark
11 4 (1.88%) Cisco Nexus
11 4 (1.88%) Ethernet
11 4 (1.88%) HTTPS
11 4 (1.88%) Internet
12 3 (1.41%) DMARC
12 3 (1.41%) DMZ
12 3 (1.41%) Modbus
12 3 (1.41%) SSL
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 11 (5.16%) JIRA
3 9 (4.23%) 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 78 (36.62%) Social Skills
2 65 (30.52%) 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%) Legal
9 8 (3.76%) Influencing Skills
9 8 (3.76%) Public Sector
10 7 (3.29%) Presentation Skills
11 6 (2.82%) Marketing
12 4 (1.88%) Electronics
12 4 (1.88%) Telecoms
13 3 (1.41%) Aerospace
13 3 (1.41%) Documentation Skills
13 3 (1.41%) Manufacturing
13 3 (1.41%) Military
14 2 (0.94%) Financial Institution
14 2 (0.94%) Public Speaking
Job Titles
1 39 (18.31%) Consultant
2 38 (17.84%) Security Consultant
3 37 (17.37%) Analyst
4 27 (12.68%) Security Analyst
4 27 (12.68%) 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 18 (8.45%) Security Specialist
9 12 (5.63%) Applications Engineer
9 12 (5.63%) IT Manager
10 11 (5.16%) Senior Analyst
10 11 (5.16%) Senior Security Analyst
11 9 (4.23%) Digital Analyst
11 9 (4.23%) Senior Digital Analyst
12 8 (3.76%) Lead
13 7 (3.29%) Cybersecurity Engineer
13 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 60 (28.17%) Security Posture
2 28 (13.15%) 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%) Renewable Energy
10 3 (1.41%) SCADA
11 2 (0.94%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 25 (11.74%) Linux
1 25 (11.74%) 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 76 (35.68%) Incident Response
3 73 (34.27%) Red Team
4 52 (24.41%) Application Security
5 46 (21.60%) Problem-Solving
6 45 (21.13%) Information Security
6 45 (21.13%) Offensive Security
6 45 (21.13%) SIEM
7 43 (20.19%) Agile
8 42 (19.72%) Vulnerability Management
9 40 (18.78%) Mentoring
10 33 (15.49%) Business Strategy
11 32 (15.02%) Threat Modelling
12 31 (14.55%) Internal Audit
13 29 (13.62%) Business Transformation
13 29 (13.62%) Security Operations
14 28 (13.15%) Coaching
14 28 (13.15%) Creative Thinking
14 28 (13.15%) SDLC
15 27 (12.68%) Ethical Hacking
Programming Languages
1 55 (25.82%) Python
2 41 (19.25%) PowerShell
3 39 (18.31%) Bash
4 14 (6.57%) Go
5 9 (4.23%) C
5 9 (4.23%) C++
5 9 (4.23%) Java
6 6 (2.82%) C#
6 6 (2.82%) SQL
7 5 (2.35%) Perl
8 3 (1.41%) R
8 3 (1.41%) Ruby
9 2 (0.94%) Bicep
9 2 (0.94%) JavaScript
10 1 (0.47%) Kusto Query Language
10 1 (0.47%) Objective-C
10 1 (0.47%) Rust
10 1 (0.47%) Scala
10 1 (0.47%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 67 (31.46%) CREST Certified
2 62 (29.11%) OSCP
3 52 (24.41%) CISSP
4 47 (22.07%) Degree
5 39 (18.31%) Security Cleared
6 33 (15.49%) SC Cleared
7 29 (13.62%) Cisco Certification
8 26 (12.21%) CEH
9 25 (11.74%) CHECK Team Member
10 20 (9.39%) CCNA
10 20 (9.39%) CHECK Team Leader
11 19 (8.92%) CCSAM
12 18 (8.45%) DV Cleared
13 17 (7.98%) CompTIA Security+
14 16 (7.51%) GIAC
15 15 (7.04%) CISM
16 12 (5.63%) SANS
17 11 (5.16%) CCNP
17 11 (5.16%) CISA
17 11 (5.16%) GPEN
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 73 (34.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 44 (20.66%) NIST
3 29 (13.62%) GDPR
4 25 (11.74%) Cyber Essentials
5 16 (7.51%) Accessibility
5 16 (7.51%) Actionable Recommendations
6 12 (5.63%) PCI DSS
7 10 (4.69%) NCSC
8 9 (4.23%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
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%) GxP
12 1 (0.47%) QA
System Software
1 21 (9.86%) Active Directory
2 6 (2.82%) Virtual Machines
2 6 (2.82%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (2.35%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (0.94%) EMC RecoverPoint
4 2 (0.94%) Hyper-V
5 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 15 (7.04%) Cisco
3 11 (5.16%) Splunk
4 9 (4.23%) VMware
4 9 (4.23%) Zscaler
5 8 (3.76%) CheckPoint
5 8 (3.76%) Sophos
6 6 (2.82%) Fortinet
6 6 (2.82%) ServiceNow
6 6 (2.82%) Tenable
7 4 (1.88%) CrowdStrike
7 4 (1.88%) Okta
7 4 (1.88%) Qualys
7 4 (1.88%) TOWER Software
8 3 (1.41%) ArcSight
8 3 (1.41%) Dell
8 3 (1.41%) LogLogic
8 3 (1.41%) McAfee
8 3 (1.41%) Oracle
8 3 (1.41%) Veeam