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 27 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 445 392 388
Rank change year-on-year -53 -4 +105
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 207 287 436
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.34% 0.67% 0.65%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.43% 0.72% 0.74%
Number of salaries quoted 144 187 351
10th Percentile £39,725 £45,000 £41,250
25th Percentile £50,813 £58,750 £49,375
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £71,184 £70,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +1.69% +7.69% -6.07%
75th Percentile £90,000 £88,750 £82,500
90th Percentile £93,800 £101,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £72,500 £70,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year +3.57% +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 48,558 39,642 58,898
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 78.92% 93.04% 88.20%
Number of salaries quoted 29,771 20,090 46,517
10th Percentile £29,000 £33,750 £29,750
25th Percentile £39,000 £46,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £62,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -12.00% +13.64% -12.00%
75th Percentile £77,500 £82,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £97,500 £103,075 £95,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,001 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%

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 27 February 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 27 February 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 +1 99 £85,000 +13.33% 17
South West +31 44 £76,250 +10.91% 11
Midlands -12 26 £52,500 -22.22% 4
South East -46 18 £65,000 -1.89% 5
West Midlands -6 14 £60,000 -11.11% 4
East Midlands -16 12 £51,058 +27.65%
North of England -40 11 £55,000 -9.84% 7
Yorkshire -33 6 £56,250 +9.76% 2
North West -33 3 £55,000 -12.00% 4
East of England +7 2 £57,500 - 3
North East - 2 £75,000 - 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 (2.42%) Microsoft Exchange
1 5 (2.42%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.48%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (1.93%) Microsoft Excel
1 4 (1.93%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.48%) GNU Octave
Cloud Services
1 51 (24.64%) Azure
2 34 (16.43%) AWS
3 17 (8.21%) Microsoft 365
4 14 (6.76%) GitHub
5 13 (6.28%) Entra ID
5 13 (6.28%) GCP
6 12 (5.80%) Slack
7 11 (5.31%) Azure Sentinel
7 11 (5.31%) Microsoft Purview
8 10 (4.83%) GitHub Actions
9 7 (3.38%) Power Platform
10 3 (1.45%) IBM Cloud
10 3 (1.45%) SaaS
11 2 (0.97%) Dynamics 365
11 2 (0.97%) Mimecast
12 1 (0.48%) Amazon EKS
12 1 (0.48%) AWS CloudFormation
12 1 (0.48%) Datadog
12 1 (0.48%) OneDrive
12 1 (0.48%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 35 (16.91%) Firewall
2 21 (10.14%) Network Security
3 20 (9.66%) Wireless
4 15 (7.25%) TCP/IP
5 13 (6.28%) VPN
6 9 (4.35%) DNS
7 8 (3.86%) VLAN
8 7 (3.38%) Wi-Fi
9 6 (2.90%) Intrusion Detection
10 5 (2.42%) HTTP
10 5 (2.42%) Wireshark
11 4 (1.93%) Cisco ISE
11 4 (1.93%) Ethernet
12 3 (1.45%) DHCP
12 3 (1.45%) DMARC
12 3 (1.45%) LAN
12 3 (1.45%) Modbus
12 3 (1.45%) SSL
12 3 (1.45%) VoIP
12 3 (1.45%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (3.38%) Power BI
2 4 (1.93%) Tableau
3 1 (0.48%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 21 (10.14%) Burp Suite
1 21 (10.14%) Metasploit
2 16 (7.73%) JIRA
3 10 (4.83%) Jenkins
4 2 (0.97%) Bitbucket
4 2 (0.97%) IDA Disassembler
5 1 (0.48%) Git
5 1 (0.48%) GitLab
General
1 81 (39.13%) Social Skills
2 63 (30.43%) Finance
3 21 (10.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 19 (9.18%) Analytical Skills
5 16 (7.73%) Retail
6 15 (7.25%) Influencing Skills
7 14 (6.76%) Banking
8 13 (6.28%) Law
8 13 (6.28%) Presentation Skills
9 8 (3.86%) Legal
10 6 (2.90%) Marketing
11 4 (1.93%) Electronics
11 4 (1.93%) Telecoms
12 3 (1.45%) Aerospace
12 3 (1.45%) Documentation Skills
12 3 (1.45%) Manufacturing
12 3 (1.45%) Military
12 3 (1.45%) Public Sector
13 2 (0.97%) Financial Institution
13 2 (0.97%) Public Speaking
Job Titles
1 35 (16.91%) Analyst
1 35 (16.91%) Consultant
1 35 (16.91%) Security Consultant
2 34 (16.43%) Security Engineer
3 31 (14.98%) Senior
4 28 (13.53%) Security Analyst
5 22 (10.63%) Security Manager
6 19 (9.18%) Tester
7 18 (8.70%) Penetration Tester
8 17 (8.21%) Cybersecurity Consultant
9 15 (7.25%) Security Specialist
10 14 (6.76%) IT Manager
11 13 (6.28%) Applications Engineer
12 11 (5.31%) Cybersecurity Engineer
12 11 (5.31%) Senior Analyst
12 11 (5.31%) Senior Security Analyst
13 10 (4.83%) Senior Security Engineer
14 9 (4.35%) Digital Analyst
14 9 (4.35%) Senior Digital Analyst
15 8 (3.86%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.45%) JSON
2 1 (0.48%) .NET
2 1 (0.48%) PyTorch
2 1 (0.48%) TensorFlow
2 1 (0.48%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 55 (26.57%) Security Posture
2 26 (12.56%) Cyber Defence
3 25 (12.08%) Mobile App
4 22 (10.63%) Management Information System
5 16 (7.73%) Cyber Threat
6 7 (3.38%) Insider Threat
6 7 (3.38%) PKI
7 6 (2.90%) Analytical Mindset
7 6 (2.90%) Data Centre
7 6 (2.90%) Enterprise Software
7 6 (2.90%) Operational Technology
7 6 (2.90%) Security Operations Centre
7 6 (2.90%) Self-Motivation
8 4 (1.93%) Cloud Native
8 4 (1.93%) Cyber Security Posture
8 4 (1.93%) Data Protection Act
9 3 (1.45%) Cyberattack
9 3 (1.45%) Renewable Energy
9 3 (1.45%) SCADA
10 2 (0.97%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 17 (8.21%) Linux
1 17 (8.21%) Windows
2 9 (4.35%) Android
2 9 (4.35%) Apple iOS
3 6 (2.90%) Unix
4 4 (1.93%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.48%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 113 (54.59%) Cybersecurity
2 70 (33.82%) Incident Response
3 69 (33.33%) Red Team
4 51 (24.64%) Application Security
5 47 (22.71%) Problem-Solving
6 45 (21.74%) Vulnerability Management
7 43 (20.77%) Agile
7 43 (20.77%) Offensive Security
7 43 (20.77%) SIEM
8 40 (19.32%) Information Security
9 37 (17.87%) Mentoring
10 34 (16.43%) Business Strategy
11 32 (15.46%) Internal Audit
12 31 (14.98%) Threat Modelling
13 30 (14.49%) Vulnerability Assessment
14 28 (13.53%) Business Transformation
14 28 (13.53%) Coaching
14 28 (13.53%) Creative Thinking
15 27 (13.04%) Security Testing
15 27 (13.04%) Vulnerability Scanning
Programming Languages
1 60 (28.99%) Python
2 43 (20.77%) Bash
3 42 (20.29%) PowerShell
4 19 (9.18%) Go
5 8 (3.86%) C
5 8 (3.86%) C++
5 8 (3.86%) Java
6 6 (2.90%) C#
6 6 (2.90%) SQL
7 4 (1.93%) Perl
7 4 (1.93%) R
8 3 (1.45%) JavaScript
9 2 (0.97%) Ruby
10 1 (0.48%) Scala
Qualifications
1 62 (29.95%) CREST Certified
2 61 (29.47%) OSCP
3 55 (26.57%) CISSP
4 50 (24.15%) Degree
5 36 (17.39%) Security Cleared
6 30 (14.49%) SC Cleared
7 28 (13.53%) Cisco Certification
8 24 (11.59%) CEH
8 24 (11.59%) CHECK Team Member
9 21 (10.14%) CHECK Team Leader
10 20 (9.66%) CCNA
11 18 (8.70%) CCSAM
12 17 (8.21%) CompTIA Security+
13 16 (7.73%) SANS
14 15 (7.25%) DV Cleared
14 15 (7.25%) GIAC
15 14 (6.76%) CISM
16 12 (5.80%) CISA
17 10 (4.83%) CCNP
17 10 (4.83%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 74 (35.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 49 (23.67%) NIST
3 26 (12.56%) Cyber Essentials
3 26 (12.56%) GDPR
4 23 (11.11%) Accessibility
5 12 (5.80%) Actionable Recommendations
6 10 (4.83%) NCSC
7 8 (3.86%) PCI DSS
8 7 (3.38%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 6 (2.90%) GRC
10 4 (1.93%) NIST 800
11 3 (1.45%) COBIT
11 3 (1.45%) ITGC
11 3 (1.45%) RMADS
12 2 (0.97%) Data Quality
12 2 (0.97%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 2 (0.97%) QA
12 2 (0.97%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 1 (0.48%) GxP
13 1 (0.48%) SOC 2
System Software
1 17 (8.21%) Active Directory
2 12 (5.80%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (2.90%) VMware ESXi
3 6 (2.90%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.97%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.48%) EMC RecoverPoint
5 1 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 16 (7.73%) Nessus
2 12 (5.80%) Nmap
3 10 (4.83%) Kubernetes
4 6 (2.90%) Microsoft Intune
5 4 (1.93%) CSIRT
6 3 (1.45%) ArcSight ESM
6 3 (1.45%) FortiGate
6 3 (1.45%) Proxmox
6 3 (1.45%) QRadar
6 3 (1.45%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (1.45%) Terraform
7 2 (0.97%) Ansible
8 1 (0.48%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.48%) VxRail
Vendors
1 55 (26.57%) Microsoft
2 13 (6.28%) Cisco
3 12 (5.80%) ServiceNow
3 12 (5.80%) Tenable
4 9 (4.35%) VMware
5 7 (3.38%) Splunk
6 5 (2.42%) CheckPoint
6 5 (2.42%) Zscaler
7 4 (1.93%) Oracle
7 4 (1.93%) Qualys
7 4 (1.93%) Sophos
8 3 (1.45%) ArcSight
8 3 (1.45%) CrowdStrike
8 3 (1.45%) Dell
8 3 (1.45%) Fortinet
8 3 (1.45%) IBM
8 3 (1.45%) LogLogic
8 3 (1.45%) McAfee
8 3 (1.45%) Veeam
9 2 (0.97%) Okta