Penetration Testing Jobs in England

Penetration Testing
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies advertised in England requiring Penetration Testing skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the annual salaries offered in vacancies that cited Penetration Testing over the 6 months leading up to 12 July 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 514 473 436
Rank change year-on-year -41 -37 +143
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 194 415 492
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 0.37% 0.46% 0.65%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.41% 0.56% 0.68%
Number of salaries quoted 164 326 361
10th Percentile £45,825 £38,750 £42,500
25th Percentile £53,391 £47,500 £50,015
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £67,500 £65,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.85% +8.33% -7.69%
75th Percentile £78,750 £81,250 £87,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £101,250 £103,750
UK median annual salary £67,500 £65,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year +3.85% +4.00% -3.85%

All Process and 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 47,411 74,454 72,431
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 90.35% 82.68% 95.47%
Number of salaries quoted 25,113 52,266 47,291
10th Percentile £28,500 £29,750 £33,750
25th Percentile £39,750 £40,000 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year - -12.00% +4.17%
75th Percentile £75,000 £73,750 £81,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £93,750 £102,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £60,249
% change year-on-year - -8.71% +0.42%

Penetration Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings citing Penetration Testing as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for Penetration Testing in England

Penetration Testing
Salary Trend in England

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing Penetration Testing in England.

Salary trend for Penetration Testing in England

Penetration Testing
Salary Histogram in England

Salary distribution for jobs citing Penetration Testing in England over the 6 months to 12 July 2025.

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 July 2025. 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 +5 94 £72,500 +3.57% 106
North of England +32 37 £57,500 -4.17% 25
Midlands +42 26 £67,500 +3.85% 12
South East +34 25 £60,000 +20.00% 34
West Midlands +57 24 £67,500 +22.73% 12
North West -11 17 £57,500 -4.17% 13
Yorkshire +49 16 £55,000 +10.00% 8
South West +75 7 £67,500 +4.65% 18
North East - 4 £72,692 - 4
East Midlands +21 2 £40,000 -38.46%
Penetration Testing
UK

Penetration Testing
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 2 (1.03%) TPMS
Applications
1 1 (0.52%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (0.52%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 50 (25.77%) Azure
2 26 (13.40%) AWS
3 24 (12.37%) Microsoft 365
4 14 (7.22%) Entra ID
5 9 (4.64%) GCP
5 9 (4.64%) PaaS
6 6 (3.09%) Google Workspace
7 5 (2.58%) Azure DevOps
7 5 (2.58%) Azure Sentinel
8 4 (2.06%) SaaS
9 3 (1.55%) Azure Key Vault
9 3 (1.55%) Azure Logic Apps
9 3 (1.55%) IaaS
10 2 (1.03%) Azure Data Factory
10 2 (1.03%) Azure Monitor
10 2 (1.03%) Azure Stack
10 2 (1.03%) Cloud Computing
10 2 (1.03%) Microsoft Purview
10 2 (1.03%) Power Platform
10 2 (1.03%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 55 (28.35%) Firewall
2 39 (20.10%) Network Security
3 11 (5.67%) BGP
3 11 (5.67%) OSPF
4 10 (5.15%) Spanning Tree
5 9 (4.64%) TCP/IP
5 9 (4.64%) Wireless
6 6 (3.09%) HTTP
6 6 (3.09%) SSL
6 6 (3.09%) VLAN
7 5 (2.58%) Intrusion Detection
7 5 (2.58%) VPN
8 4 (2.06%) DNS
8 4 (2.06%) HTTPS
9 3 (1.55%) WAN
10 2 (1.03%) DHCP
10 2 (1.03%) Internet
10 2 (1.03%) NAS
10 2 (1.03%) SAN
10 2 (1.03%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.03%) Elasticsearch
1 2 (1.03%) Power BI
2 1 (0.52%) Amazon RDS
2 1 (0.52%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 18 (9.28%) JIRA
2 14 (7.22%) Selenium
3 12 (6.19%) Burp Suite
3 12 (6.19%) Metasploit
4 2 (1.03%) Git
4 2 (1.03%) Postman
4 2 (1.03%) REST Assured
5 1 (0.52%) Cypress.io
5 1 (0.52%) GitLab
5 1 (0.52%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.52%) JMeter
5 1 (0.52%) JUnit
5 1 (0.52%) LoadRunner
5 1 (0.52%) SoapUI
5 1 (0.52%) TestRail
General
1 72 (37.11%) Social Skills
2 32 (16.49%) Finance
3 24 (12.37%) Analytical Skills
4 13 (6.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 11 (5.67%) Law
5 11 (5.67%) Mandarin Language
6 7 (3.61%) Influencing Skills
6 7 (3.61%) Legal
7 6 (3.09%) Manufacturing
8 5 (2.58%) Organisational Skills
8 5 (2.58%) Telecoms
9 4 (2.06%) Aerospace
9 4 (2.06%) Banking
10 2 (1.03%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (1.03%) Games
10 2 (1.03%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (1.03%) Public Sector
11 1 (0.52%) Automotive
11 1 (0.52%) Aviation
11 1 (0.52%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 35 (18.04%) Security Engineer
2 34 (17.53%) Lead
3 25 (12.89%) Analyst
4 23 (11.86%) Senior
5 22 (11.34%) Security Analyst
6 18 (9.28%) Tester
7 16 (8.25%) Penetration Tester
8 15 (7.73%) Network Engineer
9 13 (6.70%) Architect
9 13 (6.70%) Automation Engineer
9 13 (6.70%) Security Architect
9 13 (6.70%) Security Manager
9 13 (6.70%) Validation Engineer
10 12 (6.19%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 12 (6.19%) Security Specialist
11 11 (5.67%) IT Analyst
11 11 (5.67%) IT Security Analyst
12 9 (4.64%) Cybersecurity Engineer
12 9 (4.64%) Cybersecurity Specialist
13 7 (3.61%) Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.03%) Elastic Stack
1 2 (1.03%) REST
2 1 (0.52%) AngularJS
2 1 (0.52%) EDI
2 1 (0.52%) JWT
2 1 (0.52%) ModSecurity
2 1 (0.52%) Node.js
2 1 (0.52%) OAuth
2 1 (0.52%) OAuth2
2 1 (0.52%) SAML
2 1 (0.52%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 27 (13.92%) Management Information System
2 25 (12.89%) Security Posture
3 17 (8.76%) Operational Technology
4 15 (7.73%) Security Operations Centre
5 14 (7.22%) Cyber Threat
5 14 (7.22%) SCADA
6 12 (6.19%) Mobile App
7 11 (5.67%) Data Centre
8 8 (4.12%) Self-Motivation
9 5 (2.58%) Cyber Security Posture
10 4 (2.06%) Distributed Systems
10 4 (2.06%) Onboarding
11 3 (1.55%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (1.55%) Cloud Native
11 3 (1.55%) Cyber Defence
11 3 (1.55%) Greenfield Project
11 3 (1.55%) PKI
11 3 (1.55%) Virtual Team
12 2 (1.03%) Cyberattack
12 2 (1.03%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 26 (13.40%) Windows
2 12 (6.19%) Linux
3 6 (3.09%) Android
3 6 (3.09%) Apple iOS
3 6 (3.09%) Windows Server
4 3 (1.55%) Kali Linux
4 3 (1.55%) VMS
5 2 (1.03%) Windows Server 2019
6 1 (0.52%) CentOS
6 1 (0.52%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 125 (64.43%) Cybersecurity
2 71 (36.60%) Incident Response
3 59 (30.41%) Information Security
4 58 (29.90%) Vulnerability Management
5 49 (25.26%) SIEM
6 43 (22.16%) Vulnerability Assessment
7 36 (18.56%) Security Testing
8 34 (17.53%) Computer Science
9 32 (16.49%) Mentoring
10 30 (15.46%) Cloud Security
10 30 (15.46%) Test Automation
11 28 (14.43%) Risk Management
12 26 (13.40%) Problem-Solving
12 26 (13.40%) Red Team
13 24 (12.37%) Security Operations
14 23 (11.86%) Vulnerability Scanning
15 22 (11.34%) Security Architecture
16 19 (9.79%) Offensive Security
16 19 (9.79%) Risk Assessment
17 18 (9.28%) Application Security
Programming Languages
1 24 (12.37%) PowerShell
2 21 (10.82%) Python
3 15 (7.73%) Bash
4 7 (3.61%) Java
5 5 (2.58%) Go
5 5 (2.58%) SQL
6 4 (2.06%) C
6 4 (2.06%) C++
6 4 (2.06%) Kotlin
6 4 (2.06%) Objective-C
7 3 (1.55%) C#
8 2 (1.03%) JavaScript
8 2 (1.03%) Kusto Query Language
8 2 (1.03%) Perl
Qualifications
1 53 (27.32%) Degree
2 29 (14.95%) CISSP
3 27 (13.92%) SC Cleared
3 27 (13.92%) Security Cleared
4 21 (10.82%) CREST Certified
5 20 (10.31%) OSCP
6 18 (9.28%) CISM
7 15 (7.73%) ISTQB
8 14 (7.22%) CEH
9 8 (4.12%) CCSAS
9 8 (4.12%) Master's Degree
10 7 (3.61%) CRISC
11 6 (3.09%) Azure Certification
11 6 (3.09%) CISA
11 6 (3.09%) CompTIA Security+
11 6 (3.09%) SANS
12 5 (2.58%) Computer Science Degree
13 4 (2.06%) CHECK Team Leader
13 4 (2.06%) GIAC
14 3 (1.55%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 61 (31.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 47 (24.23%) NIST
3 19 (9.79%) GDPR
4 18 (9.28%) Cyber Essentials
5 12 (6.19%) NCSC
6 11 (5.67%) PCI DSS
7 7 (3.61%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 7 (3.61%) QA
8 6 (3.09%) Accessibility
9 5 (2.58%) GRC
10 3 (1.55%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (1.55%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 3 (1.55%) NIST 800
10 3 (1.55%) SOC 2
11 2 (1.03%) ISO/IEC 17025
12 1 (0.52%) COBIT
12 1 (0.52%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 28 (14.43%) Active Directory
2 3 (1.55%) Firmware
2 3 (1.55%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (1.03%) Hyper-V
3 2 (1.03%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.52%) Docker
Systems Management
1 11 (5.67%) Microsoft Intune
2 9 (4.64%) Single Sign-On
3 7 (3.61%) Kubernetes
4 6 (3.09%) Jamf Pro
4 6 (3.09%) Nmap
5 5 (2.58%) Nessus
6 4 (2.06%) Terraform
7 2 (1.03%) Kibana
8 1 (0.52%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 1 (0.52%) Argo
8 1 (0.52%) Grafana
8 1 (0.52%) HP Quality Center
8 1 (0.52%) OpenVAS
8 1 (0.52%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.52%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.52%) QRadar
8 1 (0.52%) ZENworks
Vendors
1 53 (27.32%) Microsoft
2 19 (9.79%) Cisco
3 9 (4.64%) Google
4 7 (3.61%) Juniper
4 7 (3.61%) Meraki
5 3 (1.55%) Palo Alto
5 3 (1.55%) Splunk
5 3 (1.55%) Tenable
5 3 (1.55%) VMware
6 2 (1.03%) Checkmarx
6 2 (1.03%) Dell
6 2 (1.03%) EMC
6 2 (1.03%) Fortinet
6 2 (1.03%) LogRhythm
6 2 (1.03%) ServiceNow
6 2 (1.03%) SonicWALL
6 2 (1.03%) Sophos
7 1 (0.52%) Qualys
7 1 (0.52%) Red Hat
7 1 (0.52%) Samsung