Penetration Testing Jobs in the South East

Penetration Testing
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies advertised in the South East 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 2 June 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Jun 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 276 334 321
Rank change year-on-year +58 -13 +70
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 38 65 71
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 0.39% 0.36% 0.52%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.42% 0.44% 0.55%
Number of salaries quoted 21 42 40
10th Percentile £37,500 £35,000 £43,500
25th Percentile £45,000 £41,250 £47,938
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £43,750 £60,500
Median % change year-on-year +60.00% -27.69% -6.92%
75th Percentile £80,000 £70,938 £80,313
90th Percentile £93,250 £95,000 £111,250
England median annual salary £67,500 £65,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year +3.85% - -

All Process and Methodology Skills
South East

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 South East.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 8,942 14,794 12,968
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 92.11% 83.07% 94.36%
Number of salaries quoted 4,325 10,162 7,667
10th Percentile £29,000 £27,750 £30,500
25th Percentile £39,000 £37,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £78,750 £78,396 £85,000
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 South East

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

Job vacancy trend for Penetration Testing in the South East

Penetration Testing
Salary Trend in the South East

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing Penetration Testing in the South East.

Salary trend for Penetration Testing in the South East

Penetration Testing
Salary Histogram in the South East

Salary distribution for jobs citing Penetration Testing in the South East over the 6 months to 2 June 2025.

Salary histogram for Penetration Testing in the South East

Penetration Testing
Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Penetration Testing within the South East region over the 6 months to 2 June 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
Thames Valley +67 19 £85,250 +17.59% 159
Buckinghamshire +44 15 £90,500 - 60
Hampshire +76 13 £40,000 -11.11% 75
Oxfordshire - 4 £80,000 - 31
Surrey +42 2 £60,000 +2.13% 47
Kent +27 2 £57,500 +35.29% 51
West Sussex +23 1 £77,500 +6.90% 25
Middlesex - 1 - -
Penetration Testing
England

Penetration Testing
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East 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:

Application Platforms
1 2 (5.26%) TPMS
2 1 (2.63%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 2 (5.26%) Azure
2 1 (2.63%) AWS
2 1 (2.63%) Azure DevOps
2 1 (2.63%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 10 (26.32%) Bluetooth
2 9 (23.68%) 5G
2 9 (23.68%) LTE
2 9 (23.68%) Wi-Fi
3 6 (15.79%) Wireshark
4 4 (10.53%) HTTP
4 4 (10.53%) HTTPS
4 4 (10.53%) TCP/IP
5 1 (2.63%) Firewall
5 1 (2.63%) ZigBee
Development Applications
1 2 (5.26%) Burp Suite
1 2 (5.26%) Metasploit
2 1 (2.63%) GitLab
2 1 (2.63%) Jenkins
2 1 (2.63%) JIRA
General
1 20 (52.63%) Social Skills
2 10 (26.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 9 (23.68%) Electronics
4 5 (13.16%) Analytical Skills
5 4 (10.53%) Finance
6 2 (5.26%) Aerospace
7 1 (2.63%) Automotive
7 1 (2.63%) Legal
7 1 (2.63%) Manufacturing
7 1 (2.63%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (2.63%) Retail
Job Titles
1 15 (39.47%) Lead
2 9 (23.68%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 9 (23.68%) Lead Infrastructure Engineer
3 8 (21.05%) Senior
4 6 (15.79%) NOC Engineer
5 4 (10.53%) Mobile Engineer
5 4 (10.53%) Security Engineer
5 4 (10.53%) Senior Security Engineer
6 2 (5.26%) Analyst
6 2 (5.26%) Information Assurance Specialist
6 2 (5.26%) Information Specialist
6 2 (5.26%) Security Analyst
6 2 (5.26%) Security Manager
6 2 (5.26%) Test Leader
7 1 (2.63%) DevOps Engineer
7 1 (2.63%) Head of Information Security
7 1 (2.63%) Head of Testing
7 1 (2.63%) IT Infrastructure Manager
7 1 (2.63%) IT Security Manager
7 1 (2.63%) Junior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (2.63%) pytest
1 1 (2.63%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 10 (26.32%) IoT
2 9 (23.68%) NB-IoT
3 6 (15.79%) Data Centre
4 4 (10.53%) Mobile App
4 4 (10.53%) Self-Motivation
5 2 (5.26%) Embedded Systems
5 2 (5.26%) Management Information System
6 1 (2.63%) Analytical Mindset
6 1 (2.63%) Cyber Defence
6 1 (2.63%) Cyberattack
6 1 (2.63%) e-Learning
6 1 (2.63%) Greenfield Project
6 1 (2.63%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 16 (42.11%) Linux
2 9 (23.68%) Windows
2 9 (23.68%) Windows Server
3 6 (15.79%) CentOS
3 6 (15.79%) Ubuntu
4 4 (10.53%) Android
4 4 (10.53%) Apple iOS
5 1 (2.63%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (31.58%) Information Security
1 12 (31.58%) Strategic Thinking
2 11 (28.95%) Cybersecurity
3 10 (26.32%) Infrastructure as Code
4 9 (23.68%) Asset Management
4 9 (23.68%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 9 (23.68%) Project Planning
4 9 (23.68%) Software Testing
5 8 (21.05%) Security Testing
6 7 (18.42%) Information Security Management
6 7 (18.42%) Security Management
7 6 (15.79%) Application Security
7 6 (15.79%) Coaching
7 6 (15.79%) Computer Science
7 6 (15.79%) Cryptography
7 6 (15.79%) Proactive Monitoring
7 6 (15.79%) Problem-Solving
7 6 (15.79%) Service Delivery
7 6 (15.79%) Stakeholder Management
7 6 (15.79%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 10 (26.32%) Bash
1 10 (26.32%) PowerShell
1 10 (26.32%) Python
2 4 (10.53%) C
2 4 (10.53%) C++
2 4 (10.53%) Java
2 4 (10.53%) Kotlin
2 4 (10.53%) Objective-C
3 1 (2.63%) C#
Qualifications
1 16 (42.11%) Degree
2 15 (39.47%) Network+ Certification
3 10 (26.32%) CompTIA Security+
4 8 (21.05%) CISSP
5 6 (15.79%) CCNA
5 6 (15.79%) CCNP
5 6 (15.79%) Cisco Certification
5 6 (15.79%) CISM
5 6 (15.79%) MCSA
5 6 (15.79%) MCSE
5 6 (15.79%) Microsoft Certification
5 6 (15.79%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 5 (13.16%) CEH
6 5 (13.16%) Master's Degree
7 4 (10.53%) OSCP
8 2 (5.26%) Computer Science Degree
8 2 (5.26%) GIAC
9 1 (2.63%) CISA
9 1 (2.63%) CompTIA CySA+
9 1 (2.63%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (26.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (18.42%) NIST
3 6 (15.79%) PCI DSS
4 4 (10.53%) SLA
5 2 (5.26%) GDPR
6 1 (2.63%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (2.63%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (2.63%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (2.63%) GRC
6 1 (2.63%) QA
System Software
1 15 (39.47%) VMware Infrastructure
2 9 (23.68%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 10 (26.32%) Terraform
2 9 (23.68%) Ansible
2 9 (23.68%) Puppet
3 2 (5.26%) Nessus
4 1 (2.63%) Kubernetes
4 1 (2.63%) OpenVAS
4 1 (2.63%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 16 (42.11%) Microsoft
2 15 (39.47%) VMware
3 6 (15.79%) Cisco
3 6 (15.79%) Palo Alto
3 6 (15.79%) Red Hat
4 1 (2.63%) Qualys