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

6 months to
1 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 424 391 378
Rank change year-on-year -33 -13 +120
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 190 296 427
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.34% 0.63% 0.68%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.42% 0.69% 0.76%
Number of salaries quoted 143 178 345
10th Percentile £39,400 £45,000 £41,250
25th Percentile £50,813 £57,500 £51,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.70% +3.85% -6.07%
75th Percentile £86,375 £88,750 £82,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £103,250 £91,500
UK median annual salary £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
% change year-on-year +3.70% +3.85% -5.80%

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 45,015 42,838 55,926
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 80.15% 91.65% 88.71%
Number of salaries quoted 27,213 20,764 44,303
10th Percentile £28,865 £35,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £38,750 £46,250 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £61,425 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -10.46% +6.83% -8.00%
75th Percentile £76,250 £81,250 £76,250
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £95,063
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,751
% change year-on-year -8.33% +7.62% -10.80%

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 1 February 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 1 February 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 +3 91 £77,500 +3.33% 34
South West +34 42 £72,500 +7.41% 20
Midlands +9 27 £52,500 -22.22% 13
South East -15 17 £65,000 +4.00% 19
East Midlands +4 14 £51,058 +27.65% 6
West Midlands +15 13 £57,500 -14.81% 7
North of England -29 9 £55,000 -3.30% 15
Yorkshire -12 6 £56,250 +7.14% 2
North West -2 3 £55,000 -9.84% 11
East of England +18 1 £85,000 +198.25% 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 4 (2.11%) Microsoft Exchange
1 4 (2.11%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.53%) Confluence
Applications
1 5 (2.63%) Microsoft Excel
1 5 (2.63%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.53%) GNU Octave
Cloud Services
1 54 (28.42%) Azure
2 31 (16.32%) AWS
3 18 (9.47%) Microsoft 365
4 15 (7.89%) Entra ID
5 14 (7.37%) Azure Sentinel
6 13 (6.84%) Microsoft Purview
7 12 (6.32%) GitHub
7 12 (6.32%) Slack
8 10 (5.26%) GCP
9 8 (4.21%) GitHub Actions
9 8 (4.21%) Power Platform
10 3 (1.58%) IBM Cloud
11 2 (1.05%) SaaS
12 1 (0.53%) Datadog
12 1 (0.53%) Dynamics 365
12 1 (0.53%) OpenShift
12 1 (0.53%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 31 (16.32%) Firewall
2 21 (11.05%) Network Security
3 15 (7.89%) Wireless
4 14 (7.37%) TCP/IP
4 14 (7.37%) VPN
5 9 (4.74%) Wireshark
6 8 (4.21%) VLAN
7 7 (3.68%) DNS
7 7 (3.68%) Wi-Fi
8 5 (2.63%) HTTP
9 4 (2.11%) Ethernet
9 4 (2.11%) Intrusion Detection
10 3 (1.58%) DHCP
10 3 (1.58%) DMARC
10 3 (1.58%) DMZ
10 3 (1.58%) Internet
10 3 (1.58%) LAN
10 3 (1.58%) Modbus
10 3 (1.58%) SSL
10 3 (1.58%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (4.21%) Power BI
2 5 (2.63%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 19 (10.00%) Burp Suite
1 19 (10.00%) Metasploit
2 15 (7.89%) JIRA
3 8 (4.21%) Jenkins
4 2 (1.05%) IDA Disassembler
5 1 (0.53%) Git
5 1 (0.53%) GitLab
General
1 72 (37.89%) Social Skills
2 51 (26.84%) Finance
3 20 (10.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 18 (9.47%) Analytical Skills
5 15 (7.89%) Influencing Skills
6 13 (6.84%) Presentation Skills
6 13 (6.84%) Retail
7 11 (5.79%) Banking
8 8 (4.21%) Law
8 8 (4.21%) Legal
9 6 (3.16%) Marketing
10 4 (2.11%) Electronics
11 3 (1.58%) Aerospace
11 3 (1.58%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (1.58%) Manufacturing
11 3 (1.58%) Military
11 3 (1.58%) Public Sector
11 3 (1.58%) Telecoms
12 2 (1.05%) Public Speaking
13 1 (0.53%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 34 (17.89%) Analyst
2 32 (16.84%) Consultant
2 32 (16.84%) Security Consultant
2 32 (16.84%) Security Engineer
3 30 (15.79%) Security Analyst
4 28 (14.74%) Senior
5 17 (8.95%) IT Manager
5 17 (8.95%) Security Manager
6 16 (8.42%) Cybersecurity Consultant
7 15 (7.89%) Tester
8 14 (7.37%) Penetration Tester
9 12 (6.32%) Cybersecurity Engineer
9 12 (6.32%) Security Specialist
10 11 (5.79%) Applications Engineer
10 11 (5.79%) Senior Security Engineer
11 10 (5.26%) Information Analyst
11 10 (5.26%) Information Security Analyst
12 9 (4.74%) Lead
12 9 (4.74%) Senior Analyst
12 9 (4.74%) Senior Security Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (2.63%) JSON
2 1 (0.53%) .NET
2 1 (0.53%) PyTorch
2 1 (0.53%) TensorFlow
2 1 (0.53%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 46 (24.21%) Security Posture
2 22 (11.58%) Management Information System
3 21 (11.05%) Cyber Defence
4 19 (10.00%) Mobile App
5 11 (5.79%) Cyber Threat
6 7 (3.68%) Insider Threat
6 7 (3.68%) PKI
6 7 (3.68%) Security Operations Centre
6 7 (3.68%) Self-Motivation
7 6 (3.16%) Analytical Mindset
7 6 (3.16%) Enterprise Software
7 6 (3.16%) Operational Technology
8 5 (2.63%) Data Centre
9 4 (2.11%) Cloud Native
9 4 (2.11%) Cyber Kill Chain
9 4 (2.11%) Cyber Security Posture
10 3 (1.58%) Cyberattack
10 3 (1.58%) Linux Command Line
10 3 (1.58%) Onboarding
10 3 (1.58%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 20 (10.53%) Linux
1 20 (10.53%) Windows
2 6 (3.16%) Android
2 6 (3.16%) Apple iOS
3 5 (2.63%) Unix
4 4 (2.11%) Windows Server
5 2 (1.05%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.53%) Debian
6 1 (0.53%) Ubuntu
6 1 (0.53%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.53%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.53%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 104 (54.74%) Cybersecurity
2 64 (33.68%) Incident Response
3 59 (31.05%) Red Team
4 45 (23.68%) Vulnerability Management
5 43 (22.63%) Application Security
6 42 (22.11%) SIEM
7 40 (21.05%) Problem-Solving
8 38 (20.00%) Information Security
9 34 (17.89%) Agile
10 33 (17.37%) Offensive Security
11 31 (16.32%) Vulnerability Assessment
12 30 (15.79%) Mentoring
12 30 (15.79%) Vulnerability Scanning
13 28 (14.74%) Security Operations
14 26 (13.68%) Business Strategy
14 26 (13.68%) Internal Audit
15 25 (13.16%) Threat Modelling
16 23 (12.11%) Security Testing
17 22 (11.58%) DevOps
17 22 (11.58%) Vulnerability Remediation
Programming Languages
1 54 (28.42%) Python
2 35 (18.42%) Bash
3 34 (17.89%) PowerShell
4 16 (8.42%) Go
5 8 (4.21%) C
5 8 (4.21%) C#
5 8 (4.21%) C++
6 7 (3.68%) SQL
7 5 (2.63%) Java
7 5 (2.63%) JavaScript
7 5 (2.63%) R
8 4 (2.11%) Perl
9 2 (1.05%) Ruby
10 1 (0.53%) Kusto Query Language
10 1 (0.53%) Scala
Qualifications
1 50 (26.32%) CISSP
2 49 (25.79%) CREST Certified
3 48 (25.26%) OSCP
4 45 (23.68%) Degree
5 36 (18.95%) Security Cleared
6 30 (15.79%) SC Cleared
7 26 (13.68%) Cisco Certification
8 20 (10.53%) CEH
9 19 (10.00%) CHECK Team Member
9 19 (10.00%) GIAC
10 18 (9.47%) CCNA
11 16 (8.42%) CHECK Team Leader
11 16 (8.42%) CompTIA Security+
12 15 (7.89%) DV Cleared
12 15 (7.89%) SANS
13 13 (6.84%) CCSAM
14 12 (6.32%) CISA
14 12 (6.32%) GCIH
15 11 (5.79%) CISM
16 10 (5.26%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 72 (37.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 52 (27.37%) NIST
3 27 (14.21%) Cyber Essentials
4 20 (10.53%) Accessibility
4 20 (10.53%) GDPR
5 10 (5.26%) Actionable Recommendations
6 7 (3.68%) NCSC
7 6 (3.16%) GRC
8 5 (2.63%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 4 (2.11%) NIST 800
9 4 (2.11%) QA
10 3 (1.58%) COBIT
10 3 (1.58%) ITGC
10 3 (1.58%) PCI DSS
10 3 (1.58%) RMADS
11 2 (1.05%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 1 (0.53%) HIPAA
12 1 (0.53%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 1 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.53%) SOC 2
System Software
1 16 (8.42%) Active Directory
2 12 (6.32%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (3.68%) VMware ESXi
4 5 (2.63%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (1.05%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.53%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 14 (7.37%) Nessus
2 12 (6.32%) Nmap
3 8 (4.21%) Microsoft Intune
4 7 (3.68%) QRadar
5 5 (2.63%) Kubernetes
6 4 (2.11%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (1.58%) ArcSight ESM
7 3 (1.58%) FortiGate
7 3 (1.58%) Proxmox
7 3 (1.58%) Terraform
8 2 (1.05%) CSIRT
9 1 (0.53%) Ansible
9 1 (0.53%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 56 (29.47%) Microsoft
2 12 (6.32%) ServiceNow
2 12 (6.32%) Tenable
3 11 (5.79%) Cisco
4 8 (4.21%) Splunk
4 8 (4.21%) VMware
5 5 (2.63%) Oracle
6 4 (2.11%) CrowdStrike
6 4 (2.11%) Qualys
7 3 (1.58%) ArcSight
7 3 (1.58%) Dell
7 3 (1.58%) IBM
7 3 (1.58%) LogLogic
7 3 (1.58%) McAfee
7 3 (1.58%) Veeam
8 2 (1.05%) CheckPoint
8 2 (1.05%) CyberArk
8 2 (1.05%) SonicWALL
8 2 (1.05%) Trend Micro
8 2 (1.05%) Zscaler