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

6 months to
29 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 430 396 374
Rank change year-on-year -34 -22 +136
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 192 300 406
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.34% 0.64% 0.67%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.43% 0.69% 0.76%
Number of salaries quoted 145 182 326
10th Percentile £42,200 £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% -5.93%
75th Percentile £87,500 £88,750 £82,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £102,250 £90,000
UK median annual salary £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
% change year-on-year +3.70% +3.85% -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 44,707 43,296 53,424
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 80.31% 91.66% 88.61%
Number of salaries quoted 27,023 21,021 42,133
10th Percentile £28,928 £35,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £38,500 £46,250 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £61,110 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +6.28% -8.00%
75th Percentile £77,354 £81,250 £77,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £96,250
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £57,444
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.45% -8.09%

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 29 January 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 29 January 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 92 £77,500 +3.33% 38
South West +36 42 £72,500 +5.45% 25
Midlands +1 27 £52,500 -20.75% 19
South East -25 17 £65,000 +4.00% 31
East Midlands -1 14 £51,058 +27.65% 11
West Midlands +13 13 £57,500 -14.81% 8
North of England -16 9 £55,000 - 26
Yorkshire -15 6 £56,250 +7.14% 6
North West -4 3 £55,000 -9.84% 17
East of England +20 1 £85,000 +198.25% 7
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 (2.08%) Microsoft Exchange
1 4 (2.08%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.52%) Confluence
Applications
1 5 (2.60%) Microsoft Excel
1 5 (2.60%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.52%) GNU Octave
Cloud Services
1 56 (29.17%) Azure
2 33 (17.19%) AWS
3 18 (9.38%) Microsoft 365
4 15 (7.81%) Azure Sentinel
4 15 (7.81%) Entra ID
5 13 (6.77%) Microsoft Purview
6 12 (6.25%) GitHub
6 12 (6.25%) Slack
7 10 (5.21%) GCP
8 8 (4.17%) GitHub Actions
8 8 (4.17%) Power Platform
9 3 (1.56%) IBM Cloud
10 2 (1.04%) SaaS
11 1 (0.52%) Datadog
11 1 (0.52%) Dynamics 365
11 1 (0.52%) OpenShift
11 1 (0.52%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 32 (16.67%) Firewall
2 23 (11.98%) Network Security
3 16 (8.33%) VPN
4 15 (7.81%) TCP/IP
4 15 (7.81%) Wireless
5 9 (4.69%) Wireshark
6 8 (4.17%) VLAN
7 7 (3.65%) DNS
7 7 (3.65%) Wi-Fi
8 5 (2.60%) HTTP
8 5 (2.60%) Intrusion Detection
9 4 (2.08%) Ethernet
9 4 (2.08%) LAN
9 4 (2.08%) SSL
9 4 (2.08%) WAN
10 3 (1.56%) DHCP
10 3 (1.56%) DMARC
10 3 (1.56%) DMZ
10 3 (1.56%) Internet
10 3 (1.56%) Modbus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (4.17%) Power BI
2 5 (2.60%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 19 (9.90%) Burp Suite
1 19 (9.90%) Metasploit
2 15 (7.81%) JIRA
3 8 (4.17%) Jenkins
4 2 (1.04%) IDA Disassembler
5 1 (0.52%) Git
5 1 (0.52%) GitLab
General
1 72 (37.50%) Social Skills
2 51 (26.56%) Finance
3 20 (10.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 18 (9.38%) Analytical Skills
5 15 (7.81%) Influencing Skills
6 13 (6.77%) Presentation Skills
6 13 (6.77%) Retail
7 11 (5.73%) Banking
8 8 (4.17%) Legal
9 7 (3.65%) Law
10 6 (3.13%) Marketing
11 4 (2.08%) Electronics
12 3 (1.56%) Aerospace
12 3 (1.56%) Documentation Skills
12 3 (1.56%) Manufacturing
12 3 (1.56%) Military
12 3 (1.56%) Public Sector
12 3 (1.56%) Telecoms
13 2 (1.04%) Public Speaking
14 1 (0.52%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 35 (18.23%) Security Engineer
2 34 (17.71%) Analyst
3 31 (16.15%) Consultant
3 31 (16.15%) Security Consultant
4 30 (15.63%) Security Analyst
5 29 (15.10%) Senior
6 16 (8.33%) Cybersecurity Consultant
6 16 (8.33%) IT Manager
6 16 (8.33%) Security Manager
7 14 (7.29%) Tester
8 13 (6.77%) Cybersecurity Engineer
8 13 (6.77%) Penetration Tester
9 12 (6.25%) Security Specialist
9 12 (6.25%) Senior Security Engineer
10 11 (5.73%) Applications Engineer
11 10 (5.21%) Information Analyst
11 10 (5.21%) Information Security Analyst
12 9 (4.69%) Lead
12 9 (4.69%) Senior Analyst
12 9 (4.69%) Senior Security Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (2.60%) JSON
2 1 (0.52%) .NET
2 1 (0.52%) PyTorch
2 1 (0.52%) TensorFlow
2 1 (0.52%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 48 (25.00%) Security Posture
2 22 (11.46%) Management Information System
3 21 (10.94%) Cyber Defence
4 19 (9.90%) Mobile App
5 11 (5.73%) Cyber Threat
6 7 (3.65%) Insider Threat
6 7 (3.65%) PKI
6 7 (3.65%) Security Operations Centre
6 7 (3.65%) Self-Motivation
7 6 (3.13%) Analytical Mindset
7 6 (3.13%) Enterprise Software
7 6 (3.13%) Operational Technology
8 5 (2.60%) Cloud Native
8 5 (2.60%) Data Centre
9 4 (2.08%) Cyber Kill Chain
9 4 (2.08%) Cyber Security Posture
10 3 (1.56%) Cyberattack
10 3 (1.56%) Linux Command Line
10 3 (1.56%) Onboarding
10 3 (1.56%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 20 (10.42%) Linux
1 20 (10.42%) Windows
2 6 (3.13%) Android
2 6 (3.13%) Apple iOS
3 5 (2.60%) Unix
4 4 (2.08%) Windows Server
5 2 (1.04%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.52%) Debian
6 1 (0.52%) Ubuntu
6 1 (0.52%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.52%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.52%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 105 (54.69%) Cybersecurity
2 65 (33.85%) Incident Response
3 59 (30.73%) Red Team
4 47 (24.48%) Vulnerability Management
5 44 (22.92%) SIEM
6 43 (22.40%) Application Security
7 40 (20.83%) Problem-Solving
8 39 (20.31%) Information Security
9 34 (17.71%) Agile
10 33 (17.19%) Offensive Security
10 33 (17.19%) Vulnerability Assessment
11 31 (16.15%) Vulnerability Scanning
12 30 (15.63%) Mentoring
13 29 (15.10%) Security Operations
14 26 (13.54%) Business Strategy
14 26 (13.54%) Internal Audit
14 26 (13.54%) Threat Modelling
15 23 (11.98%) Cloud Security
15 23 (11.98%) DevOps
15 23 (11.98%) Security Testing
Programming Languages
1 55 (28.65%) Python
2 35 (18.23%) Bash
3 34 (17.71%) PowerShell
4 16 (8.33%) Go
5 8 (4.17%) C
5 8 (4.17%) C#
5 8 (4.17%) C++
6 7 (3.65%) SQL
7 5 (2.60%) Java
7 5 (2.60%) JavaScript
7 5 (2.60%) R
8 4 (2.08%) Perl
9 2 (1.04%) Ruby
10 1 (0.52%) Kusto Query Language
10 1 (0.52%) Scala
Qualifications
1 52 (27.08%) CISSP
2 49 (25.52%) CREST Certified
3 47 (24.48%) OSCP
4 45 (23.44%) Degree
5 37 (19.27%) Security Cleared
6 31 (16.15%) SC Cleared
7 28 (14.58%) Cisco Certification
8 21 (10.94%) CEH
9 19 (9.90%) CCNA
9 19 (9.90%) CHECK Team Member
9 19 (9.90%) GIAC
10 18 (9.38%) CompTIA Security+
11 16 (8.33%) CHECK Team Leader
12 15 (7.81%) DV Cleared
12 15 (7.81%) SANS
13 13 (6.77%) CCSAM
14 12 (6.25%) CISA
14 12 (6.25%) GCIH
15 11 (5.73%) CISM
16 10 (5.21%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 73 (38.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 52 (27.08%) NIST
3 27 (14.06%) Cyber Essentials
4 20 (10.42%) Accessibility
5 19 (9.90%) GDPR
6 9 (4.69%) Actionable Recommendations
7 7 (3.65%) NCSC
8 6 (3.13%) GRC
9 5 (2.60%) NIST 800
10 4 (2.08%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 4 (2.08%) QA
11 3 (1.56%) COBIT
11 3 (1.56%) ITGC
11 3 (1.56%) PCI DSS
11 3 (1.56%) RMADS
12 2 (1.04%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 2 (1.04%) SOC 2
13 1 (0.52%) GxP
13 1 (0.52%) HIPAA
13 1 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 16 (8.33%) Active Directory
2 12 (6.25%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (3.65%) VMware ESXi
4 5 (2.60%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (1.04%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.52%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 14 (7.29%) Nessus
2 12 (6.25%) Nmap
3 8 (4.17%) Microsoft Intune
4 7 (3.65%) QRadar
5 5 (2.60%) Kubernetes
6 4 (2.08%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (1.56%) ArcSight ESM
7 3 (1.56%) FortiGate
7 3 (1.56%) Proxmox
7 3 (1.56%) Terraform
8 2 (1.04%) CSIRT
9 1 (0.52%) Ansible
9 1 (0.52%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 57 (29.69%) Microsoft
2 12 (6.25%) Cisco
2 12 (6.25%) ServiceNow
2 12 (6.25%) Tenable
3 8 (4.17%) Splunk
3 8 (4.17%) VMware
4 5 (2.60%) Oracle
5 4 (2.08%) CrowdStrike
5 4 (2.08%) Qualys
6 3 (1.56%) ArcSight
6 3 (1.56%) CheckPoint
6 3 (1.56%) Dell
6 3 (1.56%) IBM
6 3 (1.56%) LogLogic
6 3 (1.56%) McAfee
6 3 (1.56%) Palo Alto
6 3 (1.56%) Veeam
7 2 (1.04%) CyberArk
7 2 (1.04%) SonicWALL
7 2 (1.04%) Trend Micro