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

6 months to
26 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 437 374 393
Rank change year-on-year -63 +19 +86
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 222 249 473
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.32% 0.68% 0.61%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.42% 0.73% 0.71%
Number of salaries quoted 154 195 375
10th Percentile £42,150 £46,600 £38,750
25th Percentile £50,000 £59,375 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £68,750 £67,500 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +1.85% +3.85% -3.70%
75th Percentile £87,500 £87,500 £82,500
90th Percentile £95,875 £95,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £70,000 £69,500 £62,500
% change year-on-year +0.72% +11.20% -9.68%

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 53,002 34,266 66,641
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 77.33% 93.54% 86.56%
Number of salaries quoted 32,961 20,243 51,625
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,750 £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 £80,750 £74,000
90th Percentile £98,750 £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 26 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 26 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 -14 100 £77,500 +6.90% 31
South West +9 49 £65,000 -7.14% 23
Midlands -44 26 £52,500 -22.22% 9
South East -54 20 £72,500 +3.57% 22
North of England -65 17 £60,000 -2.83% 14
West Midlands -18 15 £60,000 -11.11% 7
East Midlands -35 11 £51,058 +27.65% 2
Yorkshire -42 6 £57,500 +12.20% 7
North West -44 6 £55,500 -11.20% 7
North East -21 5 £75,000 -1.32%
East of England -18 2 £57,500 - 6
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 (1.80%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (1.35%) Confluence
2 3 (1.35%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.45%) Apache
3 1 (0.45%) Drupal
3 1 (0.45%) IIS
3 1 (0.45%) nginx
3 1 (0.45%) WordPress
Applications
1 3 (1.35%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (1.35%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.45%) Magento
Cloud Services
1 61 (27.48%) Azure
2 47 (21.17%) AWS
3 16 (7.21%) GCP
4 15 (6.76%) GitHub
4 15 (6.76%) Microsoft 365
5 12 (5.41%) Azure Sentinel
6 10 (4.50%) Entra ID
6 10 (4.50%) GitHub Actions
6 10 (4.50%) Microsoft Purview
7 6 (2.70%) Slack
8 5 (2.25%) Power Platform
9 4 (1.80%) Mimecast
10 3 (1.35%) SaaS
11 2 (0.90%) Amazon EKS
11 2 (0.90%) AWS CloudFormation
11 2 (0.90%) Azure DevOps
11 2 (0.90%) Azure Key Vault
11 2 (0.90%) Dynamics 365
11 2 (0.90%) Rubrik
12 1 (0.45%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 42 (18.92%) Firewall
2 23 (10.36%) Network Security
3 20 (9.01%) Wireless
4 16 (7.21%) VPN
5 13 (5.86%) DNS
5 13 (5.86%) TCP/IP
6 8 (3.60%) Intrusion Detection
6 8 (3.60%) VLAN
7 7 (3.15%) Cisco ISE
8 6 (2.70%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (2.25%) HTTP
10 4 (1.80%) Cisco Nexus
10 4 (1.80%) HTTPS
10 4 (1.80%) Wireshark
11 3 (1.35%) DHCP
11 3 (1.35%) DMARC
11 3 (1.35%) Ethernet
11 3 (1.35%) Internet
11 3 (1.35%) Modbus
11 3 (1.35%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (2.25%) Power BI
2 3 (1.35%) SQL Server
2 3 (1.35%) Tableau
3 1 (0.45%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (0.45%) InterSystems Cache
3 1 (0.45%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.45%) Redis
Development Applications
1 21 (9.46%) Burp Suite
1 21 (9.46%) Metasploit
2 13 (5.86%) JIRA
3 9 (4.05%) Jenkins
4 5 (2.25%) Bitbucket
5 2 (0.90%) Git
5 2 (0.90%) IDA Disassembler
6 1 (0.45%) Gatling
6 1 (0.45%) GitLab
6 1 (0.45%) JMeter
6 1 (0.45%) NUnit
6 1 (0.45%) Vagrant
General
1 77 (34.68%) Social Skills
2 66 (29.73%) Finance
3 20 (9.01%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 19 (8.56%) Analytical Skills
5 17 (7.66%) Law
6 16 (7.21%) Retail
7 14 (6.31%) Banking
8 12 (5.41%) Public Sector
9 9 (4.05%) Influencing Skills
9 9 (4.05%) Legal
10 7 (3.15%) Presentation Skills
11 6 (2.70%) Marketing
12 4 (1.80%) Telecoms
13 3 (1.35%) Aerospace
13 3 (1.35%) Electronics
13 3 (1.35%) Manufacturing
13 3 (1.35%) Military
14 2 (0.90%) Documentation Skills
14 2 (0.90%) Financial Institution
14 2 (0.90%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 41 (18.47%) Consultant
2 40 (18.02%) Security Consultant
3 38 (17.12%) Analyst
4 29 (13.06%) Security Analyst
5 27 (12.16%) Senior
6 25 (11.26%) Security Engineer
7 24 (10.81%) Security Manager
8 23 (10.36%) Tester
9 22 (9.91%) Penetration Tester
10 21 (9.46%) Cybersecurity Consultant
11 18 (8.11%) Security Specialist
12 12 (5.41%) Applications Engineer
12 12 (5.41%) IT Manager
12 12 (5.41%) Lead
12 12 (5.41%) Senior Analyst
12 12 (5.41%) Senior Security Analyst
13 9 (4.05%) Digital Analyst
13 9 (4.05%) Senior Digital Analyst
14 7 (3.15%) Head of Security
14 7 (3.15%) Senior Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.35%) .NET
2 2 (0.90%) .NET Framework
2 2 (0.90%) JSON
3 1 (0.45%) AngularJS
3 1 (0.45%) ARM Templates
3 1 (0.45%) ASP.NET
3 1 (0.45%) ASP.NET Core
3 1 (0.45%) Entity Framework
3 1 (0.45%) LDAP
3 1 (0.45%) Memcached
3 1 (0.45%) OAuth
3 1 (0.45%) OAuth2
3 1 (0.45%) OpenAPI
3 1 (0.45%) OpenID
3 1 (0.45%) RESTful
3 1 (0.45%) RxJS
3 1 (0.45%) Swagger
3 1 (0.45%) Vitest
3 1 (0.45%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 62 (27.93%) Security Posture
2 27 (12.16%) Cyber Defence
3 26 (11.71%) Mobile App
4 20 (9.01%) Cyber Threat
5 17 (7.66%) Management Information System
6 7 (3.15%) Data Centre
6 7 (3.15%) Insider Threat
7 6 (2.70%) Blog
7 6 (2.70%) Operational Technology
7 6 (2.70%) PKI
7 6 (2.70%) Self-Motivation
8 5 (2.25%) Analytical Mindset
8 5 (2.25%) Enterprise Software
9 4 (1.80%) Cyber Security Posture
9 4 (1.80%) Data Protection Act
10 3 (1.35%) Cloud Native
10 3 (1.35%) Renewable Energy
10 3 (1.35%) SCADA
10 3 (1.35%) Security Operations Centre
11 2 (0.90%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 29 (13.06%) Linux
2 28 (12.61%) Windows
3 10 (4.50%) Android
3 10 (4.50%) Apple iOS
4 7 (3.15%) Unix
5 5 (2.25%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 127 (57.21%) Cybersecurity
2 78 (35.14%) Incident Response
3 74 (33.33%) Red Team
4 53 (23.87%) Application Security
5 47 (21.17%) Problem-Solving
6 46 (20.72%) Information Security
6 46 (20.72%) Offensive Security
6 46 (20.72%) SIEM
7 44 (19.82%) Mentoring
7 44 (19.82%) Vulnerability Management
8 43 (19.37%) Agile
9 32 (14.41%) Business Strategy
10 31 (13.96%) Internal Audit
10 31 (13.96%) Security Operations
10 31 (13.96%) Threat Modelling
11 30 (13.51%) Security Testing
12 29 (13.06%) Business Transformation
13 28 (12.61%) Cloud Security
13 28 (12.61%) Coaching
13 28 (12.61%) Creative Thinking
Programming Languages
1 55 (24.77%) Python
2 42 (18.92%) PowerShell
3 39 (17.57%) Bash
4 14 (6.31%) Go
5 10 (4.50%) Java
6 8 (3.60%) C
6 8 (3.60%) C++
7 6 (2.70%) C#
7 6 (2.70%) SQL
8 5 (2.25%) Perl
9 3 (1.35%) R
9 3 (1.35%) Ruby
10 2 (0.90%) Bicep
10 2 (0.90%) JavaScript
11 1 (0.45%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.45%) Objective-C
11 1 (0.45%) PHP
11 1 (0.45%) Rust
11 1 (0.45%) Scala
11 1 (0.45%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 70 (31.53%) CREST Certified
2 62 (27.93%) OSCP
3 53 (23.87%) CISSP
4 48 (21.62%) Degree
5 42 (18.92%) Security Cleared
6 35 (15.77%) SC Cleared
7 28 (12.61%) CEH
7 28 (12.61%) Cisco Certification
8 25 (11.26%) CHECK Team Member
9 20 (9.01%) CHECK Team Leader
10 19 (8.56%) CCNA
10 19 (8.56%) CCSAM
10 19 (8.56%) CISM
11 18 (8.11%) DV Cleared
12 17 (7.66%) CompTIA Security+
12 17 (7.66%) GIAC
13 11 (4.95%) CCNP
13 11 (4.95%) CISA
13 11 (4.95%) GPEN
13 11 (4.95%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 76 (34.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 48 (21.62%) NIST
3 31 (13.96%) GDPR
4 25 (11.26%) Cyber Essentials
5 17 (7.66%) Actionable Recommendations
6 16 (7.21%) Accessibility
7 13 (5.86%) PCI DSS
8 11 (4.95%) NCSC
9 10 (4.50%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 6 (2.70%) GRC
11 3 (1.35%) ITGC
11 3 (1.35%) NIST 800
11 3 (1.35%) RMADS
11 3 (1.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.90%) COBIT
12 2 (0.90%) Data Quality
12 2 (0.90%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 2 (0.90%) SOC 2
13 1 (0.45%) HIPAA
13 1 (0.45%) QA
System Software
1 23 (10.36%) Active Directory
2 7 (3.15%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (2.70%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (1.80%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.90%) EMC RecoverPoint
5 2 (0.90%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.45%) Docker
6 1 (0.45%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 14 (6.31%) Nessus
2 12 (5.41%) Nmap
3 11 (4.95%) Kubernetes
4 7 (3.15%) Microsoft Intune
5 5 (2.25%) Ansible
5 5 (2.25%) Terraform
6 4 (1.80%) CSIRT
7 3 (1.35%) ArcSight ESM
7 3 (1.35%) FortiGate
7 3 (1.35%) QRadar
7 3 (1.35%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.90%) Progress Chef
8 2 (0.90%) VxRail
9 1 (0.45%) Consul
9 1 (0.45%) Jamf Pro
9 1 (0.45%) Packer
9 1 (0.45%) Proxmox
9 1 (0.45%) Puppet
9 1 (0.45%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 58 (26.13%) Microsoft
2 14 (6.31%) Cisco
3 13 (5.86%) Splunk
4 9 (4.05%) Sophos
4 9 (4.05%) VMware
5 8 (3.60%) Zscaler
6 7 (3.15%) CheckPoint
6 7 (3.15%) ServiceNow
6 7 (3.15%) Tenable
7 6 (2.70%) Fortinet
8 5 (2.25%) Qualys
8 5 (2.25%) TOWER Software
9 4 (1.80%) CrowdStrike
9 4 (1.80%) Okta
9 4 (1.80%) Oracle
10 3 (1.35%) ArcSight
10 3 (1.35%) CyberArk
10 3 (1.35%) Dell
10 3 (1.35%) McAfee
10 3 (1.35%) Veeam