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

6 months to
12 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 425 479 450
Rank change year-on-year +54 -29 -9
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 343 180 345
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.37% 0.41% 0.47%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.50% 0.46% 0.58%
Number of salaries quoted 235 152 252
10th Percentile £40,500 £46,000 £41,250
25th Percentile £49,750 £53,391 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.70% +3.85% +8.33%
75th Percentile £90,000 £78,750 £82,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £91,125 £97,500
UK median annual salary £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
% change year-on-year +3.70% +3.85% +4.00%

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 69,225 39,040 59,213
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.69% 89.39% 81.41%
Number of salaries quoted 48,876 22,555 38,883
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £37,500 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -12.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £76,840 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £95,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.84%

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 August 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 August 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 +18 151 £86,000 +22.86% 180
South East +19 73 £70,000 +19.15% 38
South West -19 49 £50,000 -25.93% 32
Midlands -13 29 £65,000 -1.89% 17
North of England -62 26 £56,000 -2.61% 37
West Midlands -23 19 £70,000 +3.70% 14
Yorkshire -29 16 £55,000 - 11
East Midlands -11 10 £46,743 +16.86% 3
East of England - 7 £45,000 - 13
North West -30 5 £67,500 +10.66% 26
North East -54 5 £75,000 +3.18% 1
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 9 (2.62%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (2.04%) SharePoint
3 6 (1.75%) Confluence
4 3 (0.87%) Apache Spark
4 3 (0.87%) IIS
5 1 (0.29%) Apache
5 1 (0.29%) Drupal
5 1 (0.29%) nginx
5 1 (0.29%) WordPress
Applications
1 2 (0.58%) Spreadsheet
2 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.29%) Magento
1 1 (0.29%) SAP EHS
1 1 (0.29%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 90 (26.24%) AWS
2 85 (24.78%) Azure
3 30 (8.75%) Microsoft 365
4 23 (6.71%) GCP
5 15 (4.37%) Entra ID
6 11 (3.21%) SaaS
7 7 (2.04%) GitHub
8 6 (1.75%) Amazon Bedrock
8 6 (1.75%) Azure Sentinel
8 6 (1.75%) Cloud Computing
9 5 (1.46%) Microsoft Purview
9 5 (1.46%) Mimecast
9 5 (1.46%) Nutanix
10 4 (1.17%) Amazon EKS
10 4 (1.17%) Amazon GuardDuty
10 4 (1.17%) AWS CloudFormation
10 4 (1.17%) Azure DevOps
10 4 (1.17%) Azure Key Vault
10 4 (1.17%) OneDrive
11 3 (0.87%) Amazon Kinesis
Communications & Networking
1 91 (26.53%) Firewall
2 36 (10.50%) Cisco Nexus
3 35 (10.20%) Wi-Fi
4 32 (9.33%) Network Security
5 30 (8.75%) Internet
6 24 (7.00%) LAN
6 24 (7.00%) WAN
7 19 (5.54%) VPN
8 14 (4.08%) DNS
9 12 (3.50%) TCP/IP
10 8 (2.33%) Cisco ISE
10 8 (2.33%) VLAN
11 6 (1.75%) HTTPS
11 6 (1.75%) Intrusion Detection
11 6 (1.75%) Wireless
12 5 (1.46%) Cisco ASA
12 5 (1.46%) Kerberos
13 4 (1.17%) DHCP
14 3 (0.87%) Wireshark
15 2 (0.58%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (2.92%) SQL Server
2 5 (1.46%) MongoDB
3 3 (0.87%) Amazon RDS
3 3 (0.87%) Hadoop
3 3 (0.87%) NoSQL
4 2 (0.58%) KNIME
5 1 (0.29%) Electronic Patient Records
5 1 (0.29%) InterSystems Cache
5 1 (0.29%) Power BI
5 1 (0.29%) Redis
Development Applications
1 21 (6.12%) Burp Suite
2 20 (5.83%) Metasploit
3 12 (3.50%) JIRA
4 6 (1.75%) Bitbucket
5 3 (0.87%) Git
5 3 (0.87%) Yeoman
6 2 (0.58%) Gatling
6 2 (0.58%) NUnit
6 2 (0.58%) Snyk
7 1 (0.29%) Cucumber
7 1 (0.29%) GitLab
7 1 (0.29%) IDA Disassembler
7 1 (0.29%) Jenkins
7 1 (0.29%) JMeter
7 1 (0.29%) JUnit
7 1 (0.29%) Postman
7 1 (0.29%) Selenium
7 1 (0.29%) Vagrant
General
1 110 (32.07%) Social Skills
2 57 (16.62%) Finance
3 51 (14.87%) Analytical Skills
4 36 (10.50%) Public Sector
5 29 (8.45%) Law
6 20 (5.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 15 (4.37%) Retail
8 14 (4.08%) Banking
9 8 (2.33%) Influencing Skills
9 8 (2.33%) Telecoms
10 6 (1.75%) Aerospace
10 6 (1.75%) Legal
10 6 (1.75%) Pharmaceutical
11 5 (1.46%) Marketing
12 4 (1.17%) Financial Institution
12 4 (1.17%) Organisational Skills
12 4 (1.17%) Presentation Skills
13 3 (0.87%) Back Office
13 3 (0.87%) Digital Health
13 3 (0.87%) Digital Healthcare
Job Titles
1 87 (25.36%) Senior
2 59 (17.20%) Analyst
3 57 (16.62%) Penetration Tester
3 57 (16.62%) Tester
4 46 (13.41%) Security Analyst
5 41 (11.95%) Lead
6 37 (10.79%) Senior Analyst
7 31 (9.04%) Senior Security Analyst
8 30 (8.75%) Consultant
8 30 (8.75%) Security Engineer
9 28 (8.16%) Cybersecurity Analyst
9 28 (8.16%) Security Consultant
10 25 (7.29%) Senior Cybersecurity Analyst
11 21 (6.12%) Network Analyst
11 21 (6.12%) Senior Network Analyst
12 20 (5.83%) Security Specialist
13 19 (5.54%) Senior Security Engineer
14 18 (5.25%) Cybersecurity Engineer
15 17 (4.96%) Architect
16 16 (4.66%) Team Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (1.46%) LDAP
2 4 (1.17%) RESTful
3 3 (0.87%) .NET
3 3 (0.87%) .NET Framework
3 3 (0.87%) Kafka
3 3 (0.87%) OAuth
4 2 (0.58%) AngularJS
4 2 (0.58%) ASP.NET
4 2 (0.58%) ASP.NET Core
4 2 (0.58%) Entity Framework
4 2 (0.58%) OAuth2
4 2 (0.58%) OpenAPI
4 2 (0.58%) OpenID
4 2 (0.58%) RxJS
4 2 (0.58%) Swagger
4 2 (0.58%) Vitest
5 1 (0.29%) ARM Templates
5 1 (0.29%) Memcached
5 1 (0.29%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 66 (19.24%) Security Posture
2 30 (8.75%) Cyber Threat
3 25 (7.29%) Management Information System
4 17 (4.96%) Onboarding
5 13 (3.79%) Security Operations Centre
6 12 (3.50%) Cyber Defence
6 12 (3.50%) Self-Motivation
7 11 (3.21%) Mobile App
8 9 (2.62%) Operational Technology
9 8 (2.33%) Blog
9 8 (2.33%) Cloud Native
9 8 (2.33%) Cyber Security Posture
10 6 (1.75%) Cyberattack
10 6 (1.75%) Data Centre
10 6 (1.75%) Enterprise Software
10 6 (1.75%) NHS
11 5 (1.46%) PKI
12 4 (1.17%) Cyber Kill Chain
12 4 (1.17%) Insider Threat
13 3 (0.87%) Cloud Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 51 (14.87%) Windows
2 43 (12.54%) Linux
3 18 (5.25%) Windows Server
4 14 (4.08%) Android
4 14 (4.08%) Apple iOS
5 5 (1.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (1.17%) Unix
7 3 (0.87%) Kali Linux
7 3 (0.87%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.58%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 262 (76.38%) Cybersecurity
2 109 (31.78%) Vulnerability Management
3 96 (27.99%) Incident Response
4 93 (27.11%) SIEM
5 74 (21.57%) Security Testing
6 72 (20.99%) Security Operations
7 71 (20.70%) Cloud Security
8 69 (20.12%) Information Security
8 69 (20.12%) Red Team
9 59 (17.20%) Problem-Solving
10 52 (15.16%) Offensive Security
11 49 (14.29%) Disaster Recovery
12 48 (13.99%) Continuous Improvement
13 46 (13.41%) Mentoring
14 45 (13.12%) Application Security
15 44 (12.83%) Threat Detection
16 43 (12.54%) Threat Intelligence
16 43 (12.54%) Vulnerability Remediation
17 40 (11.66%) Incident Management
17 40 (11.66%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 37 (10.79%) PowerShell
2 36 (10.50%) Python
3 15 (4.37%) Java
4 11 (3.21%) Bash
5 10 (2.92%) Go
6 7 (2.04%) SQL
7 6 (1.75%) Bicep
8 3 (0.87%) C
8 3 (0.87%) C#
8 3 (0.87%) C++
8 3 (0.87%) Objective-C
8 3 (0.87%) Perl
8 3 (0.87%) PHP
8 3 (0.87%) Ruby
8 3 (0.87%) Rust
9 2 (0.58%) JavaScript
9 2 (0.58%) Kusto Query Language
9 2 (0.58%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 60 (17.49%) CISSP
2 52 (15.16%) CREST Certified
3 51 (14.87%) Security Cleared
4 46 (13.41%) CISM
5 39 (11.37%) SC Cleared
6 35 (10.20%) OSCP
7 32 (9.33%) Degree
8 23 (6.71%) Cisco Certification
9 20 (5.83%) CHECK Team Member
10 18 (5.25%) CompTIA Security+
11 14 (4.08%) CCNP
11 14 (4.08%) CEH
12 13 (3.79%) GIAC
13 11 (3.21%) DV Cleared
14 10 (2.92%) CCNA
14 10 (2.92%) CHECK Team Leader
15 9 (2.62%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 9 (2.62%) AWS Certification
16 8 (2.33%) CCSP
17 7 (2.04%) OSCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 92 (26.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 59 (17.20%) NIST
3 44 (12.83%) GDPR
4 40 (11.66%) Cyber Essentials
5 20 (5.83%) PCI DSS
6 18 (5.25%) GRC
7 14 (4.08%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 14 (4.08%) NCSC
8 9 (2.62%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 8 (2.33%) Actionable Recommendations
9 8 (2.33%) SOC 2
10 5 (1.46%) Accessibility
10 5 (1.46%) QA
11 4 (1.17%) Def Stans
11 4 (1.17%) NIST 800
12 3 (0.87%) Data Quality
12 3 (0.87%) SLA
13 2 (0.58%) COBIT
14 1 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
14 1 (0.29%) WCAG
System Software
1 37 (10.79%) Active Directory
2 10 (2.92%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (1.46%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (1.17%) Docker
5 3 (0.87%) EMC RecoverPoint
6 2 (0.58%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.58%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 2 (0.58%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 20 (5.83%) Kubernetes
1 20 (5.83%) Nmap
2 13 (3.79%) Nessus
3 9 (2.62%) Terraform
4 7 (2.04%) Microsoft Intune
5 5 (1.46%) Ansible
5 5 (1.46%) Red Hat Satellite
6 4 (1.17%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (0.87%) SCCM
7 3 (0.87%) VxRail
8 2 (0.58%) CSIRT
8 2 (0.58%) Jamf Pro
8 2 (0.58%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
9 1 (0.29%) CASB
9 1 (0.29%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
9 1 (0.29%) Consul
9 1 (0.29%) Network Intrusion Detection System
9 1 (0.29%) OpenVAS
9 1 (0.29%) Packer
9 1 (0.29%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 67 (19.53%) Microsoft
2 46 (13.41%) Cisco
3 44 (12.83%) Palo Alto
3 44 (12.83%) Qualys
4 33 (9.62%) Aruba
5 22 (6.41%) Splunk
6 12 (3.50%) CrowdStrike
7 11 (3.21%) Rapid7
7 11 (3.21%) Sophos
7 11 (3.21%) Tenable
8 10 (2.92%) Fortinet
8 10 (2.92%) VMware
9 8 (2.33%) Zscaler
10 7 (2.04%) ServiceNow
11 6 (1.75%) CheckPoint
12 5 (1.46%) CyberArk
12 5 (1.46%) Ivanti
12 5 (1.46%) Oracle
12 5 (1.46%) Red Hat
12 5 (1.46%) TOWER Software