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

6 months to
21 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 436 375 392
Rank change year-on-year -61 +17 +79
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 215 257 461
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.32% 0.68% 0.61%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.41% 0.73% 0.71%
Number of salaries quoted 148 193 364
10th Percentile £41,025 £45,200 £38,821
25th Percentile £50,375 £58,750 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.70% +3.85% -4.90%
75th Percentile £87,500 £87,500 £82,500
90th Percentile £95,375 £95,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £71,184 £70,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year +1.69% +7.69% -6.07%

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 52,241 35,401 65,332
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 77.72% 93.58% 86.88%
Number of salaries quoted 32,434 20,236 50,834
10th Percentile £30,000 £32,000 £29,010
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% -11.29%

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 21 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 21 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 -22 98 £78,000 +7.59% 31
South West +7 48 £68,750 -1.79% 20
Midlands -27 25 £52,500 -22.22% 11
South East -51 19 £72,500 +3.57% 19
North of England -68 15 £67,500 +9.31% 21
West Midlands -17 14 £60,000 -11.11% 8
East Midlands -39 11 £51,058 +27.65% 3
North East -20 5 £75,000 -1.32% 1
North West -39 5 £55,000 -12.00% 9
Yorkshire -39 5 £60,000 +17.07% 11
East of England -9 2 £57,500 - 5
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 (1.86%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (1.40%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.93%) Confluence
4 1 (0.47%) Apache
4 1 (0.47%) Drupal
4 1 (0.47%) IIS
4 1 (0.47%) nginx
4 1 (0.47%) WordPress
Applications
1 3 (1.40%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (1.40%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.47%) Magento
Cloud Services
1 59 (27.44%) Azure
2 44 (20.47%) AWS
3 17 (7.91%) GCP
4 15 (6.98%) GitHub
4 15 (6.98%) Microsoft 365
5 12 (5.58%) Azure Sentinel
6 10 (4.65%) Entra ID
6 10 (4.65%) GitHub Actions
6 10 (4.65%) Microsoft Purview
7 6 (2.79%) Slack
8 5 (2.33%) Power Platform
9 4 (1.86%) Mimecast
10 3 (1.40%) SaaS
11 2 (0.93%) Amazon EKS
11 2 (0.93%) AWS CloudFormation
11 2 (0.93%) Azure DevOps
11 2 (0.93%) Azure Key Vault
11 2 (0.93%) Dynamics 365
11 2 (0.93%) Rubrik
12 1 (0.47%) AWS Control Tower
Communications & Networking
1 40 (18.60%) Firewall
2 23 (10.70%) Network Security
3 20 (9.30%) Wireless
4 15 (6.98%) VPN
5 13 (6.05%) TCP/IP
6 12 (5.58%) DNS
7 9 (4.19%) Intrusion Detection
8 7 (3.26%) Cisco ISE
8 7 (3.26%) VLAN
8 7 (3.26%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (2.33%) HTTP
9 5 (2.33%) Wireshark
10 4 (1.86%) Cisco Nexus
10 4 (1.86%) Ethernet
10 4 (1.86%) HTTPS
10 4 (1.86%) Internet
11 3 (1.40%) DHCP
11 3 (1.40%) DMARC
11 3 (1.40%) LAN
11 3 (1.40%) Modbus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (2.33%) Power BI
2 3 (1.40%) Tableau
3 2 (0.93%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.47%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.47%) InterSystems Cache
4 1 (0.47%) Redis
Development Applications
1 21 (9.77%) Burp Suite
1 21 (9.77%) Metasploit
2 12 (5.58%) JIRA
3 9 (4.19%) Jenkins
4 5 (2.33%) Bitbucket
5 2 (0.93%) Git
5 2 (0.93%) IDA Disassembler
6 1 (0.47%) Gatling
6 1 (0.47%) GitLab
6 1 (0.47%) JMeter
6 1 (0.47%) NUnit
6 1 (0.47%) Vagrant
General
1 78 (36.28%) Social Skills
2 65 (30.23%) Finance
3 20 (9.30%) Analytical Skills
3 20 (9.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 16 (7.44%) Law
4 16 (7.44%) Retail
5 14 (6.51%) Banking
6 9 (4.19%) Legal
6 9 (4.19%) Public Sector
7 8 (3.72%) Influencing Skills
8 7 (3.26%) Presentation Skills
9 6 (2.79%) Marketing
10 4 (1.86%) Electronics
10 4 (1.86%) Telecoms
11 3 (1.40%) Aerospace
11 3 (1.40%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (1.40%) Manufacturing
11 3 (1.40%) Military
12 2 (0.93%) Financial Institution
12 2 (0.93%) Public Speaking
Job Titles
1 39 (18.14%) Consultant
2 38 (17.67%) Analyst
2 38 (17.67%) Security Consultant
3 28 (13.02%) Security Analyst
4 26 (12.09%) Senior
5 25 (11.63%) Security Engineer
6 23 (10.70%) Security Manager
7 21 (9.77%) Tester
8 20 (9.30%) Cybersecurity Consultant
8 20 (9.30%) Penetration Tester
9 18 (8.37%) Security Specialist
10 12 (5.58%) Applications Engineer
10 12 (5.58%) IT Manager
11 11 (5.12%) Senior Analyst
11 11 (5.12%) Senior Security Analyst
12 9 (4.19%) Digital Analyst
12 9 (4.19%) Lead
12 9 (4.19%) Senior Digital Analyst
13 7 (3.26%) Head of Security
13 7 (3.26%) Threat Intelligence Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.40%) .NET
2 2 (0.93%) .NET Framework
2 2 (0.93%) JSON
3 1 (0.47%) AngularJS
3 1 (0.47%) ARM Templates
3 1 (0.47%) ASP.NET
3 1 (0.47%) ASP.NET Core
3 1 (0.47%) Entity Framework
3 1 (0.47%) Memcached
3 1 (0.47%) OAuth
3 1 (0.47%) OAuth2
3 1 (0.47%) OpenAPI
3 1 (0.47%) OpenID
3 1 (0.47%) RESTful
3 1 (0.47%) RxJS
3 1 (0.47%) Swagger
3 1 (0.47%) Vitest
3 1 (0.47%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 61 (28.37%) Security Posture
2 28 (13.02%) Cyber Defence
3 25 (11.63%) Mobile App
4 20 (9.30%) Cyber Threat
5 17 (7.91%) Management Information System
6 7 (3.26%) Data Centre
6 7 (3.26%) Insider Threat
7 6 (2.79%) Analytical Mindset
7 6 (2.79%) Operational Technology
7 6 (2.79%) PKI
7 6 (2.79%) Self-Motivation
8 5 (2.33%) Blog
8 5 (2.33%) Enterprise Software
9 4 (1.86%) Cloud Native
9 4 (1.86%) Cyber Security Posture
9 4 (1.86%) Data Protection Act
10 3 (1.40%) Renewable Energy
10 3 (1.40%) SCADA
10 3 (1.40%) Security Operations Centre
11 2 (0.93%) Cyberattack
Operating Systems
1 27 (12.56%) Linux
2 26 (12.09%) Windows
3 9 (4.19%) Android
3 9 (4.19%) Apple iOS
4 7 (3.26%) Unix
5 4 (1.86%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 120 (55.81%) Cybersecurity
2 76 (35.35%) Incident Response
3 73 (33.95%) Red Team
4 52 (24.19%) Application Security
5 47 (21.86%) Problem-Solving
6 45 (20.93%) Information Security
6 45 (20.93%) Offensive Security
6 45 (20.93%) SIEM
7 43 (20.00%) Agile
8 41 (19.07%) Mentoring
8 41 (19.07%) Vulnerability Management
9 32 (14.88%) Business Strategy
9 32 (14.88%) Threat Modelling
10 31 (14.42%) Internal Audit
11 30 (13.95%) Security Operations
12 29 (13.49%) Business Transformation
13 28 (13.02%) Cloud Security
13 28 (13.02%) Coaching
13 28 (13.02%) Creative Thinking
13 28 (13.02%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 55 (25.58%) Python
2 41 (19.07%) PowerShell
3 39 (18.14%) Bash
4 14 (6.51%) Go
5 9 (4.19%) C
5 9 (4.19%) C++
5 9 (4.19%) Java
6 6 (2.79%) C#
6 6 (2.79%) SQL
7 5 (2.33%) Perl
8 3 (1.40%) R
8 3 (1.40%) Ruby
9 2 (0.93%) Bicep
9 2 (0.93%) JavaScript
10 1 (0.47%) Kusto Query Language
10 1 (0.47%) Objective-C
10 1 (0.47%) PHP
10 1 (0.47%) Rust
10 1 (0.47%) Scala
10 1 (0.47%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 68 (31.63%) CREST Certified
2 62 (28.84%) OSCP
3 52 (24.19%) CISSP
4 47 (21.86%) Degree
5 41 (19.07%) Security Cleared
6 34 (15.81%) SC Cleared
7 28 (13.02%) Cisco Certification
8 27 (12.56%) CEH
9 25 (11.63%) CHECK Team Member
10 20 (9.30%) CHECK Team Leader
11 19 (8.84%) CCNA
11 19 (8.84%) CCSAM
12 18 (8.37%) DV Cleared
13 17 (7.91%) CompTIA Security+
13 17 (7.91%) GIAC
14 16 (7.44%) CISM
15 11 (5.12%) CISA
15 11 (5.12%) GPEN
15 11 (5.12%) SANS
16 10 (4.65%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 71 (33.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 45 (20.93%) NIST
3 29 (13.49%) GDPR
4 23 (10.70%) Cyber Essentials
5 16 (7.44%) Accessibility
5 16 (7.44%) Actionable Recommendations
6 12 (5.58%) PCI DSS
7 11 (5.12%) NCSC
8 9 (4.19%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 6 (2.79%) GRC
10 3 (1.40%) ITGC
10 3 (1.40%) NIST 800
10 3 (1.40%) RMADS
11 2 (0.93%) COBIT
11 2 (0.93%) Data Quality
11 2 (0.93%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 2 (0.93%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.93%) SOC 2
12 1 (0.47%) GxP
12 1 (0.47%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 21 (9.77%) Active Directory
2 6 (2.79%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (2.33%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (1.86%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.93%) EMC RecoverPoint
5 2 (0.93%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.47%) Docker
6 1 (0.47%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 14 (6.51%) Nessus
2 12 (5.58%) Nmap
3 11 (5.12%) Kubernetes
4 7 (3.26%) Microsoft Intune
5 5 (2.33%) Ansible
5 5 (2.33%) Terraform
6 4 (1.86%) CSIRT
7 3 (1.40%) ArcSight ESM
7 3 (1.40%) FortiGate
7 3 (1.40%) QRadar
7 3 (1.40%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.93%) Progress Chef
8 2 (0.93%) VxRail
9 1 (0.47%) Consul
9 1 (0.47%) Jamf Pro
9 1 (0.47%) Packer
9 1 (0.47%) Proxmox
9 1 (0.47%) Puppet
Vendors
1 57 (26.51%) Microsoft
2 15 (6.98%) Cisco
3 12 (5.58%) Splunk
4 9 (4.19%) Zscaler
5 8 (3.72%) CheckPoint
5 8 (3.72%) Sophos
5 8 (3.72%) VMware
6 6 (2.79%) Fortinet
6 6 (2.79%) ServiceNow
6 6 (2.79%) Tenable
7 5 (2.33%) TOWER Software
8 4 (1.86%) CrowdStrike
8 4 (1.86%) Okta
8 4 (1.86%) Qualys
9 3 (1.40%) ArcSight
9 3 (1.40%) Dell
9 3 (1.40%) LogLogic
9 3 (1.40%) McAfee
9 3 (1.40%) Oracle
9 3 (1.40%) Veeam