Penetration Testing Job Trends in the North of England

Penetration Testing
England > North of England

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the North of England requiring Penetration Testing skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 12 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 251 237 252
Rank change year-on-year -14 +15 +94
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 11 37 37
As % of all permanent jobs in the North of England 0.10% 0.41% 0.43%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.13% 0.45% 0.49%
Number of salaries quoted 7 21 25
10th Percentile £51,700 - £37,750
25th Percentile - £40,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.35%
75th Percentile £66,250 £73,750 £63,000
90th Percentile £73,500 £93,750 £82,250
England median annual salary £70,000 £65,000 £64,902
% change year-on-year +7.69% +0.15% -6.21%

All Process & Methodology Skills
North of 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 the North of England.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 8,531 8,241 7,566
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North of England 80.17% 90.66% 88.34%
Number of salaries quoted 4,542 3,667 5,961
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £29,250
25th Percentile £32,500 £40,000 £38,856
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -0.94%
75th Percentile £67,500 £67,500 £67,500
90th Percentile £82,500 £82,040 £82,500
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

Penetration Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in the North of England

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Penetration Testing relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the North of England.

Penetration Testing job vacancy trend in the North of England

Penetration Testing
Salary Trend in the North of England

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Penetration Testing.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Penetration Testing

Penetration Testing
Salary Histogram in the North of England

Salary distribution for jobs citing Penetration Testing in the North of England over the 6 months to 12 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Penetration Testing in the North of England

Penetration Testing
Job Locations in the North of 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 North of England region over the 6 months to 12 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
Yorkshire -10 7 £60,000 +14.29% 15
North West +8 4 £55,000 -12.00% 15
Penetration Testing
England

Penetration Testing
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North of 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:

Cloud Services
1 2 (18.18%) Azure
2 1 (9.09%) Azure Sentinel
2 1 (9.09%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 3 (27.27%) Network Security
2 1 (9.09%) Firewall
2 1 (9.09%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (9.09%) Power BI
General
1 5 (45.45%) Social Skills
2 2 (18.18%) Finance
2 2 (18.18%) Marketing
2 2 (18.18%) Public Speaking
3 1 (9.09%) Presentation Skills
3 1 (9.09%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 3 (27.27%) Information Security Specialist
1 3 (27.27%) Information Specialist
1 3 (27.27%) Security Specialist
2 2 (18.18%) Analyst
2 2 (18.18%) Cybersecurity Analyst
2 2 (18.18%) Operational Security Analyst
2 2 (18.18%) Operations Analyst
2 2 (18.18%) Penetration Tester
2 2 (18.18%) Security Analyst
2 2 (18.18%) Security Engineer
2 2 (18.18%) Security Operations Analyst
2 2 (18.18%) Tester
3 1 (9.09%) Bid Manager
3 1 (9.09%) Cloud Engineer
3 1 (9.09%) Cloud Security Engineer
3 1 (9.09%) Cybersecurity Engineer
3 1 (9.09%) Head of Security
3 1 (9.09%) Head of Testing
3 1 (9.09%) Senior
3 1 (9.09%) Senior Security Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 4 (36.36%) Self-Motivation
2 3 (27.27%) Cyber Threat
3 2 (18.18%) Cyber Defence
3 2 (18.18%) Cyber Kill Chain
3 2 (18.18%) Mobile App
3 2 (18.18%) Operational Technology
3 2 (18.18%) SCADA
4 1 (9.09%) Security Operations Centre
4 1 (9.09%) Security Posture
Processes & Methodologies
1 5 (45.45%) Cybersecurity
1 5 (45.45%) Information Security
2 4 (36.36%) Application Security
2 4 (36.36%) Vulnerability Management
3 3 (27.27%) Business Development
3 3 (27.27%) Continuous Improvement
3 3 (27.27%) Incident Response
3 3 (27.27%) Red Team
3 3 (27.27%) Security Testing
3 3 (27.27%) Threat Analysis
3 3 (27.27%) Threat Modelling
4 2 (18.18%) Customer Experience
4 2 (18.18%) Customer Service
4 2 (18.18%) Data Acquisition
4 2 (18.18%) Presales
4 2 (18.18%) Proactive Monitoring
4 2 (18.18%) Problem-Solving
4 2 (18.18%) Security Monitoring
4 2 (18.18%) Social Engineering
4 2 (18.18%) Verification and Validation
Programming Languages
1 2 (18.18%) Perl
1 2 (18.18%) Python
1 2 (18.18%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 4 (36.36%) CISSP
2 3 (27.27%) OSCP
3 2 (18.18%) CEH
3 2 (18.18%) CISA
3 2 (18.18%) Degree
3 2 (18.18%) SC Cleared
3 2 (18.18%) Security Cleared
4 1 (9.09%) APMP
4 1 (9.09%) CCNA
4 1 (9.09%) CCNP
4 1 (9.09%) Cisco Certification
4 1 (9.09%) CompTIA Security+
4 1 (9.09%) GCIA
4 1 (9.09%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (27.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 3 (27.27%) NIST
2 2 (18.18%) Cyber Essentials
Systems Management
1 1 (9.09%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 2 (18.18%) Microsoft
2 1 (9.09%) Qualys