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

6 months to
12 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 445 415 421
Rank change year-on-year -30 +6 +41
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 248 225 470
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.31% 0.58% 0.56%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.42% 0.62% 0.66%
Number of salaries quoted 166 180 369
10th Percentile £42,500 £43,625 £38,939
25th Percentile £49,750 £57,500 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £67,500 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year -7.41% +3.85% -3.70%
75th Percentile £89,000 £87,165 £82,500
90th Percentile £98,750 £98,000 £96,500
UK median annual salary £65,000 £69,500 £65,000
% change year-on-year -6.47% +6.92% -3.70%

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 59,545 36,509 71,748
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.99% 93.39% 85.21%
Number of salaries quoted 39,042 20,550 53,849
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £29,000
25th Percentile £41,250 £42,000 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - +9.09% -12.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £102,500 £93,750
UK median annual salary £60,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year - +9.09% -9.84%

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 May 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 May 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 -4 110 £81,250 +11.30% 45
South West -8 45 £50,000 -25.93% 8
South East -20 33 £72,500 +3.57% 13
North of England -37 25 £56,000 -8.20% 6
Midlands -40 22 £60,000 -11.11% 7
West Midlands -39 14 £65,000 -3.70% 6
Yorkshire -42 13 £55,000 - 3
East Midlands -26 8 £51,058 +27.65% 1
North West -21 7 £56,000 -8.20% 3
North East -34 5 £75,000 -1.32%
East of England -13 4 £30,000 - 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 6 (2.42%) SharePoint
2 5 (2.02%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (1.21%) IIS
4 2 (0.81%) Confluence
5 1 (0.40%) Apache
5 1 (0.40%) Drupal
5 1 (0.40%) nginx
5 1 (0.40%) WordPress
Business Applications
1 1 (0.40%) Magento
1 1 (0.40%) SAP EHS
1 1 (0.40%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 58 (23.39%) AWS
2 54 (21.77%) Azure
3 22 (8.87%) Microsoft 365
4 21 (8.47%) GCP
5 12 (4.84%) Entra ID
6 10 (4.03%) Azure Sentinel
6 10 (4.03%) GitHub
7 6 (2.42%) GitHub Actions
8 5 (2.02%) Microsoft Purview
9 4 (1.61%) Amazon EKS
9 4 (1.61%) AWS CloudFormation
9 4 (1.61%) Azure Key Vault
9 4 (1.61%) Mimecast
9 4 (1.61%) SaaS
10 3 (1.21%) Azure DevOps
10 3 (1.21%) OneDrive
11 2 (0.81%) Cloudflare
11 2 (0.81%) Figma
11 2 (0.81%) IaaS
11 2 (0.81%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 42 (16.94%) Firewall
2 26 (10.48%) Network Security
3 20 (8.06%) Wireless
4 17 (6.85%) VPN
5 10 (4.03%) DNS
6 9 (3.63%) TCP/IP
7 8 (3.23%) Internet
8 7 (2.82%) Cisco ISE
9 6 (2.42%) Intrusion Detection
9 6 (2.42%) VLAN
10 4 (1.61%) Cisco Nexus
10 4 (1.61%) HTTPS
11 3 (1.21%) DHCP
11 3 (1.21%) DMARC
11 3 (1.21%) DMZ
11 3 (1.21%) LAN
11 3 (1.21%) SSL
11 3 (1.21%) VoIP
11 3 (1.21%) WAN
11 3 (1.21%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (2.02%) SQL Server
2 3 (1.21%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (0.40%) InterSystems Cache
3 1 (0.40%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.40%) Power BI
3 1 (0.40%) Redis
Development Applications
1 17 (6.85%) Burp Suite
1 17 (6.85%) Metasploit
2 6 (2.42%) Bitbucket
3 5 (2.02%) Jenkins
3 5 (2.02%) JIRA
4 2 (0.81%) Git
4 2 (0.81%) NUnit
5 1 (0.40%) Gatling
5 1 (0.40%) JMeter
5 1 (0.40%) Vagrant
General
1 76 (30.65%) Social Skills
2 70 (28.23%) Finance
3 26 (10.48%) Public Sector
4 25 (10.08%) Law
5 21 (8.47%) Banking
6 20 (8.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 18 (7.26%) Analytical Skills
8 17 (6.85%) Retail
9 8 (3.23%) Legal
10 7 (2.82%) Marketing
10 7 (2.82%) Pharmaceutical
11 5 (2.02%) Telecoms
12 4 (1.61%) Financial Institution
13 3 (1.21%) Back Office
13 3 (1.21%) Influencing Skills
14 2 (0.81%) Aerospace
14 2 (0.81%) Public Speaking
14 2 (0.81%) Social Housing
15 1 (0.40%) French Language
15 1 (0.40%) German Language
Job Titles
1 45 (18.15%) Consultant
2 44 (17.74%) Security Consultant
3 43 (17.34%) Senior
4 34 (13.71%) Penetration Tester
4 34 (13.71%) Tester
5 31 (12.50%) Analyst
6 26 (10.48%) Security Manager
7 24 (9.68%) Security Analyst
8 23 (9.27%) Cybersecurity Consultant
9 18 (7.26%) Lead
10 15 (6.05%) Security Specialist
10 15 (6.05%) Senior Analyst
10 15 (6.05%) Senior Security Analyst
11 14 (5.65%) Security Engineer
12 10 (4.03%) Team Leader
13 9 (3.63%) Digital Analyst
13 9 (3.63%) IT Support
13 9 (3.63%) Senior Penetration Tester
13 9 (3.63%) Senior Tester
13 9 (3.63%) Test Team Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (1.61%) .NET
2 3 (1.21%) .NET Framework
3 2 (0.81%) AngularJS
3 2 (0.81%) ASP.NET
3 2 (0.81%) ASP.NET Core
3 2 (0.81%) Entity Framework
3 2 (0.81%) OAuth
3 2 (0.81%) OAuth2
3 2 (0.81%) OpenAPI
3 2 (0.81%) OpenID
3 2 (0.81%) RESTful
3 2 (0.81%) RxJS
3 2 (0.81%) Swagger
3 2 (0.81%) Vitest
4 1 (0.40%) ARM Templates
4 1 (0.40%) LDAP
4 1 (0.40%) Memcached
Miscellaneous
1 62 (25.00%) Security Posture
2 31 (12.50%) Mobile App
3 29 (11.69%) Cyber Defence
4 25 (10.08%) Cyber Threat
5 15 (6.05%) Management Information System
6 12 (4.84%) Self-Motivation
7 9 (3.63%) Security Operations Centre
8 7 (2.82%) Blog
8 7 (2.82%) Data Centre
9 6 (2.42%) Cyber Security Posture
10 4 (1.61%) Enterprise Software
10 4 (1.61%) Insider Threat
10 4 (1.61%) Onboarding
10 4 (1.61%) Operational Technology
10 4 (1.61%) Public Cloud
11 3 (1.21%) CCTV
11 3 (1.21%) Cloud Native
11 3 (1.21%) Cyberattack
12 2 (0.81%) Analytical Mindset
12 2 (0.81%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
Operating Systems
1 35 (14.11%) Windows
2 31 (12.50%) Linux
3 15 (6.05%) Android
3 15 (6.05%) Apple iOS
4 6 (2.42%) Windows Server
5 4 (1.61%) Unix
6 2 (0.81%) Windows Server 2016
7 1 (0.40%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 162 (65.32%) Cybersecurity
2 87 (35.08%) Red Team
3 76 (30.65%) Incident Response
4 53 (21.37%) Application Security
4 53 (21.37%) Mentoring
5 52 (20.97%) Offensive Security
5 52 (20.97%) Security Testing
6 50 (20.16%) Information Security
6 50 (20.16%) Vulnerability Management
7 47 (18.95%) SIEM
8 42 (16.94%) Problem-Solving
9 36 (14.52%) Agile
10 35 (14.11%) Security Operations
11 34 (13.71%) Cloud Security
12 30 (12.10%) Business Strategy
12 30 (12.10%) Business Transformation
13 29 (11.69%) Internal Audit
14 28 (11.29%) Coaching
14 28 (11.29%) Creative Thinking
15 26 (10.48%) Ethical Hacking
Programming Languages
1 44 (17.74%) Python
2 40 (16.13%) PowerShell
3 30 (12.10%) Bash
4 14 (5.65%) Java
5 13 (5.24%) Go
6 7 (2.82%) Perl
7 6 (2.42%) C#
8 5 (2.02%) C
8 5 (2.02%) C++
8 5 (2.02%) Ruby
9 4 (1.61%) Bicep
9 4 (1.61%) SQL
10 3 (1.21%) Objective-C
10 3 (1.21%) Rust
11 2 (0.81%) Kusto Query Language
11 2 (0.81%) TypeScript
12 1 (0.40%) PHP
Qualifications
1 76 (30.65%) CREST Certified
2 66 (26.61%) OSCP
3 56 (22.58%) CISSP
4 39 (15.73%) Security Cleared
5 35 (14.11%) Degree
5 35 (14.11%) SC Cleared
6 31 (12.50%) CISM
7 26 (10.48%) CEH
7 26 (10.48%) CHECK Team Member
8 23 (9.27%) CHECK Team Leader
9 22 (8.87%) Cisco Certification
10 21 (8.47%) CCSAM
11 15 (6.05%) CCNA
11 15 (6.05%) CompTIA Security+
12 13 (5.24%) CCNP
13 10 (4.03%) GIAC
13 10 (4.03%) GPEN
14 9 (3.63%) DV Cleared
15 8 (3.23%) CISA
15 8 (3.23%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 70 (28.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 34 (13.71%) GDPR
2 34 (13.71%) NIST
3 31 (12.50%) Cyber Essentials
4 16 (6.45%) Actionable Recommendations
5 15 (6.05%) PCI DSS
6 14 (5.65%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 10 (4.03%) GRC
8 9 (3.63%) NCSC
9 6 (2.42%) Accessibility
9 6 (2.42%) SOC 2
10 3 (1.21%) COBIT
10 3 (1.21%) Data Quality
10 3 (1.21%) QA
11 2 (0.81%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.40%) GxP
12 1 (0.40%) HIPAA
12 1 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 1 (0.40%) ITGC
12 1 (0.40%) SLA
System Software
1 28 (11.29%) Active Directory
2 5 (2.02%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (1.21%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (0.81%) EMC RecoverPoint
5 1 (0.40%) Docker
5 1 (0.40%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 12 (4.84%) Kubernetes
1 12 (4.84%) Nessus
2 11 (4.44%) Microsoft Intune
3 8 (3.23%) Nmap
4 7 (2.82%) Terraform
5 5 (2.02%) Ansible
6 4 (1.61%) CSIRT
7 3 (1.21%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.81%) Jamf Pro
8 2 (0.81%) SCCM
8 2 (0.81%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.81%) VxRail
9 1 (0.40%) CASB
9 1 (0.40%) Consul
9 1 (0.40%) Packer
9 1 (0.40%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.40%) Puppet
9 1 (0.40%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 56 (22.58%) Microsoft
2 14 (5.65%) Splunk
3 12 (4.84%) Cisco
3 12 (4.84%) Sophos
4 9 (3.63%) Zscaler
5 8 (3.23%) Fortinet
5 8 (3.23%) VMware
6 7 (2.82%) CheckPoint
6 7 (2.82%) CrowdStrike
7 5 (2.02%) TOWER Software
8 4 (1.61%) Okta
8 4 (1.61%) Palo Alto
8 4 (1.61%) Qualys
9 3 (1.21%) Dell
9 3 (1.21%) Veeam
10 2 (0.81%) DevExpress
10 2 (0.81%) Rapid7
10 2 (0.81%) Tenable
11 1 (0.40%) CyberArk
11 1 (0.40%) Veracode