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

6 months to
9 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 442 375 375
Rank change year-on-year -67 0 +102
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 201 270 475
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.32% 0.68% 0.65%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.40% 0.73% 0.74%
Number of salaries quoted 138 195 380
10th Percentile £38,750 £45,000 £38,963
25th Percentile £50,813 £58,750 £47,725
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £72,434 £67,500 £64,951
Median % change year-on-year +7.31% +3.92% -6.14%
75th Percentile £87,500 £87,500 £82,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £95,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £72,500 £69,750 £64,902
% change year-on-year +3.94% +7.47% -6.21%

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 49,769 37,111 64,353
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 78.05% 93.74% 87.40%
Number of salaries quoted 30,703 20,324 50,435
10th Percentile £29,750 £32,500 £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% -11.78%

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 9 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 9 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 -8 95 £77,500 +6.16% 20
South West +12 44 £76,250 +8.93% 16
Midlands -25 25 £52,500 -22.22% 8
South East -53 17 £72,500 +3.57% 23
West Midlands -14 14 £60,000 -11.11% 4
East Midlands -17 11 £51,058 +27.65% 4
North of England -49 11 £55,000 -10.93% 14
Yorkshire -36 6 £56,250 +9.76% 4
North West -38 3 £55,000 -12.00% 9
East of England +2 2 £57,500 - 6
North East -16 2 £75,000 -1.32% 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 5 (2.49%) Microsoft Exchange
1 5 (2.49%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.50%) Confluence
Applications
1 3 (1.49%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (1.49%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 50 (24.88%) Azure
2 35 (17.41%) AWS
3 17 (8.46%) Microsoft 365
4 14 (6.97%) GitHub
5 13 (6.47%) GCP
6 12 (5.97%) Entra ID
7 11 (5.47%) Azure Sentinel
7 11 (5.47%) Microsoft Purview
8 10 (4.98%) GitHub Actions
9 8 (3.98%) Slack
10 6 (2.99%) Power Platform
11 3 (1.49%) IBM Cloud
11 3 (1.49%) Mimecast
11 3 (1.49%) SaaS
12 2 (1.00%) Dynamics 365
13 1 (0.50%) Amazon EKS
13 1 (0.50%) AWS CloudFormation
13 1 (0.50%) Datadog
13 1 (0.50%) OneDrive
13 1 (0.50%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 36 (17.91%) Firewall
2 20 (9.95%) Network Security
2 20 (9.95%) Wireless
3 14 (6.97%) TCP/IP
3 14 (6.97%) VPN
4 10 (4.98%) DNS
5 8 (3.98%) VLAN
6 7 (3.48%) Intrusion Detection
6 7 (3.48%) Wi-Fi
7 5 (2.49%) Cisco ISE
7 5 (2.49%) HTTP
7 5 (2.49%) Wireshark
8 4 (1.99%) Ethernet
9 3 (1.49%) DMZ
9 3 (1.49%) HTTPS
9 3 (1.49%) Internet
9 3 (1.49%) LAN
9 3 (1.49%) SSL
9 3 (1.49%) VoIP
9 3 (1.49%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (2.99%) Power BI
2 3 (1.49%) Tableau
3 1 (0.50%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 21 (10.45%) Burp Suite
1 21 (10.45%) Metasploit
2 12 (5.97%) JIRA
3 10 (4.98%) Jenkins
4 3 (1.49%) Bitbucket
5 2 (1.00%) IDA Disassembler
6 1 (0.50%) Git
6 1 (0.50%) GitLab
General
1 76 (37.81%) Social Skills
2 63 (31.34%) Finance
3 21 (10.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 18 (8.96%) Analytical Skills
5 16 (7.96%) Retail
6 14 (6.97%) Banking
7 13 (6.47%) Law
8 10 (4.98%) Influencing Skills
9 9 (4.48%) Presentation Skills
10 8 (3.98%) Legal
11 6 (2.99%) Marketing
12 4 (1.99%) Electronics
12 4 (1.99%) Telecoms
13 3 (1.49%) Aerospace
13 3 (1.49%) Documentation Skills
13 3 (1.49%) Manufacturing
13 3 (1.49%) Military
13 3 (1.49%) Public Sector
14 2 (1.00%) Financial Institution
14 2 (1.00%) Public Speaking
Job Titles
1 36 (17.91%) Analyst
2 34 (16.92%) Consultant
2 34 (16.92%) Security Consultant
3 29 (14.43%) Security Engineer
4 28 (13.93%) Senior
5 27 (13.43%) Security Analyst
6 24 (11.94%) Security Manager
7 20 (9.95%) Tester
8 19 (9.45%) Penetration Tester
9 16 (7.96%) Cybersecurity Consultant
9 16 (7.96%) Security Specialist
10 13 (6.47%) Applications Engineer
11 12 (5.97%) IT Manager
12 11 (5.47%) Senior Analyst
12 11 (5.47%) Senior Security Analyst
13 9 (4.48%) Digital Analyst
13 9 (4.48%) Senior Digital Analyst
14 8 (3.98%) Cybersecurity Engineer
14 8 (3.98%) Lead
15 7 (3.48%) Cybersecurity Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.00%) JSON
2 1 (0.50%) .NET
2 1 (0.50%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 55 (27.36%) Security Posture
2 27 (13.43%) Cyber Defence
3 25 (12.44%) Mobile App
4 20 (9.95%) Cyber Threat
5 18 (8.96%) Management Information System
6 7 (3.48%) Insider Threat
6 7 (3.48%) PKI
7 6 (2.99%) Analytical Mindset
7 6 (2.99%) Data Centre
7 6 (2.99%) Enterprise Software
7 6 (2.99%) Operational Technology
7 6 (2.99%) Self-Motivation
8 4 (1.99%) Cloud Native
8 4 (1.99%) Cyber Security Posture
8 4 (1.99%) Data Protection Act
8 4 (1.99%) Security Operations Centre
9 3 (1.49%) Cyberattack
9 3 (1.49%) Renewable Energy
9 3 (1.49%) SCADA
10 2 (1.00%) Arduino
Operating Systems
1 17 (8.46%) Windows
2 16 (7.96%) Linux
3 9 (4.48%) Android
3 9 (4.48%) Apple iOS
4 6 (2.99%) Unix
5 4 (1.99%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 111 (55.22%) Cybersecurity
2 72 (35.82%) Incident Response
3 69 (34.33%) Red Team
4 50 (24.88%) Application Security
5 45 (22.39%) Problem-Solving
6 44 (21.89%) Offensive Security
7 43 (21.39%) Agile
7 43 (21.39%) Information Security
8 42 (20.90%) SIEM
8 42 (20.90%) Vulnerability Management
9 37 (18.41%) Mentoring
10 34 (16.92%) Business Strategy
11 31 (15.42%) Internal Audit
11 31 (15.42%) Threat Modelling
12 28 (13.93%) Business Transformation
12 28 (13.93%) Coaching
12 28 (13.93%) Creative Thinking
12 28 (13.93%) Vulnerability Assessment
13 27 (13.43%) Security Testing
14 25 (12.44%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 55 (27.36%) Python
2 40 (19.90%) Bash
2 40 (19.90%) PowerShell
3 15 (7.46%) Go
4 8 (3.98%) C
4 8 (3.98%) C++
4 8 (3.98%) Java
5 5 (2.49%) C#
5 5 (2.49%) SQL
6 4 (1.99%) Perl
7 3 (1.49%) R
8 2 (1.00%) JavaScript
8 2 (1.00%) Ruby
9 1 (0.50%) Scala
Qualifications
1 62 (30.85%) CREST Certified
2 61 (30.35%) OSCP
3 51 (25.37%) CISSP
4 46 (22.89%) Degree
5 36 (17.91%) Security Cleared
6 30 (14.93%) SC Cleared
7 27 (13.43%) Cisco Certification
8 24 (11.94%) CEH
8 24 (11.94%) CHECK Team Member
9 21 (10.45%) CHECK Team Leader
10 19 (9.45%) CCNA
11 18 (8.96%) CCSAM
12 16 (7.96%) CompTIA Security+
13 15 (7.46%) DV Cleared
13 15 (7.46%) GIAC
14 14 (6.97%) SANS
15 12 (5.97%) CISM
16 11 (5.47%) CISA
17 10 (4.98%) Microsoft Certification
17 10 (4.98%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 69 (34.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 43 (21.39%) NIST
3 28 (13.93%) GDPR
4 26 (12.94%) Cyber Essentials
5 19 (9.45%) Accessibility
6 14 (6.97%) Actionable Recommendations
7 10 (4.98%) NCSC
8 9 (4.48%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 8 (3.98%) PCI DSS
10 6 (2.99%) GRC
11 3 (1.49%) ITGC
11 3 (1.49%) NIST 800
11 3 (1.49%) RMADS
12 2 (1.00%) COBIT
12 2 (1.00%) Data Quality
12 2 (1.00%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 2 (1.00%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 1 (0.50%) HIPAA
13 1 (0.50%) QA
13 1 (0.50%) SOC 2
System Software
1 17 (8.46%) Active Directory
2 8 (3.98%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (2.99%) VMware ESXi
3 6 (2.99%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.00%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.50%) EMC RecoverPoint
5 1 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 16 (7.96%) Nessus
2 12 (5.97%) Nmap
3 11 (5.47%) Kubernetes
4 5 (2.49%) Microsoft Intune
5 4 (1.99%) CSIRT
6 3 (1.49%) Ansible
6 3 (1.49%) ArcSight ESM
6 3 (1.49%) FortiGate
6 3 (1.49%) Proxmox
6 3 (1.49%) QRadar
6 3 (1.49%) Terraform
7 2 (1.00%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.50%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.50%) VxRail
Vendors
1 54 (26.87%) Microsoft
2 13 (6.47%) Cisco
3 9 (4.48%) VMware
4 8 (3.98%) ServiceNow
4 8 (3.98%) Splunk
4 8 (3.98%) Tenable
5 6 (2.99%) CheckPoint
5 6 (2.99%) Zscaler
6 5 (2.49%) Sophos
7 4 (1.99%) Fortinet
7 4 (1.99%) Qualys
8 3 (1.49%) ArcSight
8 3 (1.49%) Dell
8 3 (1.49%) IBM
8 3 (1.49%) LogLogic
8 3 (1.49%) McAfee
8 3 (1.49%) Okta
8 3 (1.49%) Oracle
8 3 (1.49%) TOWER Software
8 3 (1.49%) Veeam