Penetration Testing Job Trends in the South West

Penetration Testing
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the South West requiring Penetration Testing skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 9 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 151 175 174
Rank change year-on-year +24 -1 +87
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 33 14 49
As % of all permanent jobs in the South West 0.65% 0.33% 1.05%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.91% 0.39% 1.18%
Number of salaries quoted 33 8 24
10th Percentile £31,882 £31,775 £40,200
25th Percentile £55,000 £47,188 £43,583
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £65,000 £50,950
Median % change year-on-year +23.08% +27.58% -32.07%
75th Percentile £90,000 £72,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £94,200 £77,000 -
England median annual salary £70,000 £65,000 £64,000
% change year-on-year +7.69% +1.56% -7.51%

All Process & Methodology Skills
South 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 South West.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 3,628 3,583 4,166
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South West 71.73% 85.31% 89.55%
Number of salaries quoted 2,478 1,811 3,160
10th Percentile £27,750 £30,000 £30,500
25th Percentile £34,000 £40,000 £40,443
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +4.76% +2.94%
75th Percentile £66,250 £68,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £81,250 £81,250
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 South West

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

Penetration Testing job vacancy trend in the South West

Penetration Testing
Salary Trend in the South West

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Penetration Testing.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Penetration Testing

Penetration Testing
Salary Histogram in the South West

Salary distribution for jobs citing Penetration Testing in the South West over the 6 months to 9 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Penetration Testing in the South West

Penetration Testing
Job Locations in the South 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 South West region over the 6 months to 9 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
Bristol +14 13 £90,000 +71.43% 4
Gloucestershire - 13 £80,000 - 5
Wiltshire +11 6 £31,330 -55.24% 8
Devon +5 1 £72,500 +190.00% 7
Penetration Testing
England

Penetration Testing
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West 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 6 (18.18%) Azure
1 6 (18.18%) GitHub
1 6 (18.18%) GitHub Actions
2 4 (12.12%) AWS
3 2 (6.06%) Microsoft 365
3 2 (6.06%) Power Platform
4 1 (3.03%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 5 (15.15%) TCP/IP
2 4 (12.12%) Ethernet
2 4 (12.12%) Wi-Fi
2 4 (12.12%) Wireshark
3 2 (6.06%) DNS
3 2 (6.06%) Firewall
3 2 (6.06%) HTTP
3 2 (6.06%) ICMP
3 2 (6.06%) Network Security
3 2 (6.06%) VLAN
3 2 (6.06%) VoIP
4 1 (3.03%) 2G
4 1 (3.03%) 4G
4 1 (3.03%) 5G
4 1 (3.03%) Internet
4 1 (3.03%) Intrusion Detection
4 1 (3.03%) Software-Defined Radio
4 1 (3.03%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (6.06%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 6 (18.18%) Jenkins
2 2 (6.06%) Burp Suite
2 2 (6.06%) IDA Disassembler
2 2 (6.06%) Metasploit
General
1 12 (36.36%) Social Skills
2 8 (24.24%) Finance
3 6 (18.18%) Analytical Skills
4 4 (12.12%) Electronics
5 3 (9.09%) Military
6 2 (6.06%) Aerospace
6 2 (6.06%) Telecoms
7 1 (3.03%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 12 (36.36%) Consultant
1 12 (36.36%) Security Consultant
2 7 (21.21%) Cybersecurity Consultant
2 7 (21.21%) Security Engineer
3 6 (18.18%) Applications Engineer
4 4 (12.12%) Analyst
4 4 (12.12%) Data Analyst
4 4 (12.12%) Tester
5 3 (9.09%) Penetration Tester
6 2 (6.06%) Architect
6 2 (6.06%) Azure Architect
6 2 (6.06%) Solutions Architect
7 1 (3.03%) Cybersecurity Engineer
7 1 (3.03%) Cybersecurity Manager
7 1 (3.03%) Information Manager
7 1 (3.03%) Information Security Manager
7 1 (3.03%) Platform Engineer
7 1 (3.03%) Security Manager
7 1 (3.03%) Site Reliability Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 4 (12.12%) Analytical Mindset
1 4 (12.12%) Cyber Defence
2 3 (9.09%) Linux Command Line
2 3 (9.09%) Management Information System
2 3 (9.09%) PKI
3 2 (6.06%) Arduino
3 2 (6.06%) Cyber Threat
3 2 (6.06%) Embedded Systems
3 2 (6.06%) Mobile App
3 2 (6.06%) Raspberry Pi
4 1 (3.03%) Cyber Security Posture
4 1 (3.03%) Cyberattack
4 1 (3.03%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 4 (12.12%) Linux
2 2 (6.06%) Windows
3 1 (3.03%) Debian
3 1 (3.03%) Ubuntu
3 1 (3.03%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 16 (48.48%) Cybersecurity
2 11 (33.33%) Red Team
3 8 (24.24%) Roadmaps
4 6 (18.18%) Application Security
4 6 (18.18%) Business Development
4 6 (18.18%) Incident Response
4 6 (18.18%) Security Testing
4 6 (18.18%) Strategic Roadmap
4 6 (18.18%) Technology Transformation
4 6 (18.18%) Threat Modelling
5 5 (15.15%) Cloud Security
5 5 (15.15%) Problem-Solving
5 5 (15.15%) Security Architecture
6 4 (12.12%) Collaborative Working
6 4 (12.12%) Data Analysis
6 4 (12.12%) Fuzz Testing
6 4 (12.12%) Reverse Engineering
6 4 (12.12%) Systems Engineering
6 4 (12.12%) Systems Thinking
6 4 (12.12%) Technical Analysis
Programming Languages
1 16 (48.48%) Python
2 9 (27.27%) Bash
3 6 (18.18%) C
3 6 (18.18%) C++
3 6 (18.18%) PowerShell
4 2 (6.06%) C#
4 2 (6.06%) SQL
Qualifications
1 18 (54.55%) Security Cleared
2 16 (48.48%) SC Cleared
3 10 (30.30%) DV Cleared
4 9 (27.27%) CREST Certified
5 7 (21.21%) CISSP
6 6 (18.18%) SANS
7 5 (15.15%) Degree
8 3 (9.09%) CHECK Team Member
9 2 (6.06%) CEH
10 1 (3.03%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 1 (3.03%) AWS Certification
10 1 (3.03%) Azure Certification
10 1 (3.03%) CCSP
10 1 (3.03%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (3.03%) CISM
10 1 (3.03%) CompTIA Security+
10 1 (3.03%) Computer Science Degree
10 1 (3.03%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (18.18%) Accessibility
2 5 (15.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (9.09%) RMADS
4 2 (6.06%) NCSC
5 1 (3.03%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (3.03%) NIST
5 1 (3.03%) NIST 800
5 1 (3.03%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 2 (6.06%) Hyper-V
1 2 (6.06%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (3.03%) Active Directory
2 1 (3.03%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 2 (6.06%) Nmap
2 1 (3.03%) Ansible
2 1 (3.03%) Nessus
2 1 (3.03%) Terraform
Vendors
1 3 (9.09%) Microsoft
2 2 (6.06%) SonicWALL
2 2 (6.06%) VMware
3 1 (3.03%) Red Hat