Penetration Testing Jobs in the North West

Penetration Testing
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies advertised in the North West requiring Penetration Testing skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the annual salaries offered in vacancies that cited Penetration Testing over the 6 months leading up to 30 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 270 263 266
Rank change year-on-year -7 +3 -6
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 20 36 30
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 0.26% 0.35% 0.40%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.27% 0.43% 0.41%
Number of salaries quoted 18 31 23
10th Percentile £25,750 £36,250 £42,500
25th Percentile £43,155 £49,375 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £61,000 £60,000 £53,500
Median % change year-on-year +1.67% +12.15% -23.57%
75th Percentile £78,438 £65,000 £63,125
90th Percentile £89,958 £75,000 £68,700
England median annual salary £67,500 £65,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year +3.85% - -

All Process and Methodology Skills
North West

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 West.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 7,486 8,394 7,245
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 95.93% 81.13% 95.44%
Number of salaries quoted 3,793 6,316 3,841
10th Percentile £25,750 £27,500 £31,125
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,055 £50,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +0.11% -9.09% +4.76%
75th Percentile £61,000 £65,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £76,840 £80,000 £81,250
England median annual salary £57,500 £55,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year +4.55% -12.00% +4.17%

Penetration Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Job postings citing Penetration Testing as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Job vacancy trend for Penetration Testing in the North West

Penetration Testing
Salary Trend in the North West

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing Penetration Testing in the North West.

Salary trend for Penetration Testing in the North West

Penetration Testing
Salary Histogram in the North West

Salary distribution for jobs citing Penetration Testing in the North West over the 6 months to 30 May 2025.

Salary histogram for Penetration Testing in the North West

Penetration Testing
Job Locations in the North West

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 West region over the 6 months to 30 May 2025. 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
Manchester +51 18 £65,192 +10.96% 76
Cheshire -1 2 £55,000 -8.33% 51
Penetration Testing
England

Penetration Testing
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the North West by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Cloud Services
1 7 (35.00%) Azure
2 4 (20.00%) AWS
2 4 (20.00%) Microsoft 365
3 2 (10.00%) AWS KMS
4 1 (5.00%) Entra ID
4 1 (5.00%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 3 (15.00%) Firewall
1 3 (15.00%) Network Security
2 2 (10.00%) DNS
2 2 (10.00%) HTTP
2 2 (10.00%) Intrusion Detection
2 2 (10.00%) SMTP
2 2 (10.00%) TCP/IP
3 1 (5.00%) VoIP
General
1 10 (50.00%) Social Skills
2 7 (35.00%) Analytical Skills
3 4 (20.00%) Finance
3 4 (20.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 3 (15.00%) Organisational Skills
5 2 (10.00%) Banking
5 2 (10.00%) Influencing Skills
5 2 (10.00%) Legal
6 1 (5.00%) Public Sector
6 1 (5.00%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 5 (25.00%) Security Manager
2 4 (20.00%) Help Desk Support
2 4 (20.00%) Help Desk Support Technician
2 4 (20.00%) Help Desk Technician
2 4 (20.00%) Support Technician
3 3 (15.00%) Analyst
3 3 (15.00%) Architect
3 3 (15.00%) Lead
3 3 (15.00%) Security Analyst
3 3 (15.00%) Security Architect
4 2 (10.00%) Cybersecurity Analyst
4 2 (10.00%) Cybersecurity Engineer
4 2 (10.00%) Information Manager
4 2 (10.00%) Information Security Manager
4 2 (10.00%) IT Manager
4 2 (10.00%) IT Security Manager
4 2 (10.00%) Principal Architect
4 2 (10.00%) Principal Security Architect
4 2 (10.00%) Security Engineer
5 1 (5.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (10.00%) PyTorch
1 2 (10.00%) scikit-learn
1 2 (10.00%) TensorFlow
2 1 (5.00%) EDI
2 1 (5.00%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 6 (30.00%) Security Posture
2 5 (25.00%) Management Information System
3 2 (10.00%) Algorithms
3 2 (10.00%) Cyberattack
3 2 (10.00%) Hybrid Cloud
3 2 (10.00%) Public Cloud
3 2 (10.00%) Security Operations Centre
4 1 (5.00%) Cyber Threat
4 1 (5.00%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
4 1 (5.00%) NHS
4 1 (5.00%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 4 (20.00%) Linux
1 4 (20.00%) Windows
1 4 (20.00%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 12 (60.00%) Information Security
3 9 (45.00%) Incident Response
4 8 (40.00%) Risk Management
5 7 (35.00%) Cloud Security
6 5 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
6 5 (25.00%) Vulnerability Management
7 4 (20.00%) Customer Service
7 4 (20.00%) ITSM
7 4 (20.00%) Risk Analysis
7 4 (20.00%) Security Management
7 4 (20.00%) Service Management
7 4 (20.00%) Vulnerability Assessment
8 3 (15.00%) Continuous Improvement
8 3 (15.00%) Incident Management
8 3 (15.00%) Information Security Management
8 3 (15.00%) Mentoring
8 3 (15.00%) SABSA
8 3 (15.00%) Security Architecture
8 3 (15.00%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 3 (15.00%) PowerShell
2 2 (10.00%) Kusto Query Language
2 2 (10.00%) Python
Qualifications
1 8 (40.00%) CISM
1 8 (40.00%) CISSP
2 5 (25.00%) CEH
3 4 (20.00%) CISA
3 4 (20.00%) CRISC
3 4 (20.00%) Degree
4 3 (15.00%) SC Cleared
4 3 (15.00%) Security Cleared
5 2 (10.00%) CompTIA Security+
5 2 (10.00%) GCIH
5 2 (10.00%) GIAC
5 2 (10.00%) GISF
5 2 (10.00%) ISACA
5 2 (10.00%) SANS
5 2 (10.00%) SSCP
6 1 (5.00%) MCSA
6 1 (5.00%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (50.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (35.00%) NIST
3 3 (15.00%) NCSC
4 2 (10.00%) GDPR
4 2 (10.00%) GRC
4 2 (10.00%) PCI DSS
4 2 (10.00%) QA
5 1 (5.00%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 5 (25.00%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 1 (5.00%) Active Directory Federation Services
1 1 (5.00%) Microsoft Intune
1 1 (5.00%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 10 (50.00%) Microsoft
2 2 (10.00%) Google
3 1 (5.00%) Monzo
3 1 (5.00%) Samsung