Security Testing Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Security Testing
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Security Testing skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 429 405 589
Rank change year-on-year -24 +184 -79
Permanent jobs citing Security Testing 106 117 101
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.20% 0.42% 0.17%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.27% 0.45% 0.20%
Number of salaries quoted 80 39 97
10th Percentile £50,250 £44,325 £37,750
25th Percentile £65,000 £56,250 £41,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £71,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.63% +42.00% -13.04%
75th Percentile £90,000 £90,000 £67,500
90th Percentile - £93,250 £85,000
UK median annual salary £75,000 £75,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year - +20.00% -11.35%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

Security 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 UK excluding London.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 39,938 25,822 50,259
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 75.31% 92.26% 85.87%
Number of salaries quoted 23,898 13,431 37,626
10th Percentile £28,250 £30,000 £27,250
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £66,250 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £82,500 £83,750 £77,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -11.86%

Security Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Security Testing relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Security Testing job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Security Testing
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Security Testing.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Security Testing

Security Testing
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Security Testing in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 14 March 2026.

Salary histogram for Security Testing in the UK excluding London

Security Testing
Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Security Testing within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 14 March 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
South West -11 31 £87,500 +9.38% 15
Scotland +6 21 £87,500 +40.00% 6
South East -40 19 £65,000 -13.33% 12
North of England -43 16 £57,500 +32.95% 22
Midlands -25 12 £67,500 +50.00% 8
Yorkshire -35 10 £53,500 -10.83% 9
West Midlands +4 9 £70,079 - 5
East of England -3 4 £65,000 - 3
North West -14 4 £60,000 +38.73% 9
East Midlands -36 3 £45,000 - 3
Wales -7 2 £70,079 - 1
North East -19 2 £62,539 - 4
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 1
Security Testing
UK

Security Testing
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 6 (5.66%) SharePoint
2 2 (1.89%) Apache
2 2 (1.89%) Apache Airflow
2 2 (1.89%) Appian
3 1 (0.94%) Confluence
3 1 (0.94%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 1 (0.94%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (1.89%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 31 (29.25%) GitHub
1 31 (29.25%) GitHub Actions
2 27 (25.47%) Azure
3 24 (22.64%) AWS
4 16 (15.09%) Datadog
5 15 (14.15%) PaaS
6 13 (12.26%) Azure DevOps
7 12 (11.32%) GCP
7 12 (11.32%) SaaS
8 9 (8.49%) dbt
9 3 (2.83%) AWS CloudFormation
9 3 (2.83%) Microsoft 365
10 2 (1.89%) Amazon S3
10 2 (1.89%) Azure Pipelines
10 2 (1.89%) BrowserStack
10 2 (1.89%) MinIO
10 2 (1.89%) Power Platform
10 2 (1.89%) Sauce Labs
11 1 (0.94%) Azure Stack
11 1 (0.94%) ShareGate
Communications & Networking
1 6 (5.66%) Firewall
2 1 (0.94%) Unified Communications
2 1 (0.94%) Wireless
2 1 (0.94%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.89%) Airbyte
1 2 (1.89%) Tableau
2 1 (0.94%) ZAP BI
Development Applications
1 34 (32.08%) Jenkins
2 15 (14.15%) JMeter
3 14 (13.21%) Selenium
4 11 (10.38%) Cucumber
5 9 (8.49%) Locust
6 8 (7.55%) GitLab
7 6 (5.66%) CircleCI
7 6 (5.66%) Cypress.io
7 6 (5.66%) Postman
7 6 (5.66%) REST Assured
8 4 (3.77%) Appium
8 4 (3.77%) JIRA
8 4 (3.77%) LoadRunner
8 4 (3.77%) Robot Framework
8 4 (3.77%) SonarQube
9 3 (2.83%) Burp Suite
9 3 (2.83%) Git
9 3 (2.83%) TestRail
10 2 (1.89%) Gatling
10 2 (1.89%) Snyk
General
1 39 (36.79%) Finance
2 16 (15.09%) Social Skills
3 5 (4.72%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 5 (4.72%) Public Sector
4 4 (3.77%) Law
5 3 (2.83%) Aerospace
5 3 (2.83%) Analytical Skills
6 2 (1.89%) Avionics
6 2 (1.89%) Influencing Skills
6 2 (1.89%) Marketing
6 2 (1.89%) Organisational Skills
6 2 (1.89%) Public Speaking
7 1 (0.94%) Automotive
7 1 (0.94%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 37 (34.91%) Security Engineer
2 29 (27.36%) Applications Engineer
3 26 (24.53%) Lead
4 13 (12.26%) Consultant
4 13 (12.26%) Security Consultant
4 13 (12.26%) Senior
5 11 (10.38%) Architect
6 9 (8.49%) Test Leader
6 9 (8.49%) Tester
7 8 (7.55%) DevSecOps Engineer
7 8 (7.55%) Test Automation Engineer
7 8 (7.55%) Test Engineer
7 8 (7.55%) Testing Consultant
8 5 (4.72%) Automation Test Lead
8 5 (4.72%) Lead Architect
8 5 (4.72%) Lead Test Engineer
9 4 (3.77%) Penetration Tester
10 3 (2.83%) Cybersecurity Consultant
11 2 (1.89%) QA Engineer
11 2 (1.89%) QA Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (10.38%) Playwright
2 9 (8.49%) Gherkin
3 7 (6.60%) React
4 6 (5.66%) .NET
4 6 (5.66%) Spring Boot
5 5 (4.72%) Kafka
5 5 (4.72%) YAML
6 3 (2.83%) Middleware
7 2 (1.89%) Apache NiFi
7 2 (1.89%) Elastic Stack
7 2 (1.89%) REST
7 2 (1.89%) RESTful
8 1 (0.94%) Backbone.js
8 1 (0.94%) JWT
8 1 (0.94%) Node.js
8 1 (0.94%) OAuth
8 1 (0.94%) SAML
8 1 (0.94%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 11 (10.38%) Security Posture
2 5 (4.72%) Cloud Native
3 4 (3.77%) Mobile App
3 4 (3.77%) Product Ownership
3 4 (3.77%) Self-Motivation
4 3 (2.83%) Cyber Threat
4 3 (2.83%) Low-Code
5 2 (1.89%) Management Information System
5 2 (1.89%) Virtual Team
6 1 (0.94%) Augmented Reality
6 1 (0.94%) Blockchain
6 1 (0.94%) Data Centre
6 1 (0.94%) Driving Licence
6 1 (0.94%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (0.94%) Hybrid Cloud
6 1 (0.94%) Legacy Systems
6 1 (0.94%) N-Tier
6 1 (0.94%) PKI
6 1 (0.94%) Private Cloud
6 1 (0.94%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 10 (9.43%) Linux
2 7 (6.60%) Windows
3 6 (5.66%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.89%) Android
4 2 (1.89%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.94%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 46 (43.40%) Test Automation
2 42 (39.62%) CI/CD
3 39 (36.79%) Application Security
3 39 (36.79%) DevOps
4 35 (33.02%) Agile
5 31 (29.25%) Continuous Improvement
6 30 (28.30%) Threat Modelling
7 29 (27.36%) OWASP
8 27 (25.47%) Cybersecurity
8 27 (25.47%) Penetration Testing
8 27 (25.47%) Roadmaps
9 22 (20.75%) Infrastructure as Code
10 21 (19.81%) Strategic Roadmap
11 20 (18.87%) Technology Transformation
12 19 (17.92%) Containerisation
12 19 (17.92%) DevSecOps
12 19 (17.92%) Test Strategy
13 16 (15.09%) End-to-End Testing
13 16 (15.09%) Performance Testing
14 15 (14.15%) BDD
Programming Languages
1 50 (47.17%) Python
2 32 (30.19%) PowerShell
3 31 (29.25%) Bash
4 25 (23.58%) Java
5 6 (5.66%) JavaScript
6 5 (4.72%) C#
7 2 (1.89%) C
7 2 (1.89%) C++
7 2 (1.89%) Perl
7 2 (1.89%) Ruby
7 2 (1.89%) TypeScript
8 1 (0.94%) JCL
8 1 (0.94%) SQL
Qualifications
1 29 (27.36%) Security Cleared
2 23 (21.70%) CISSP
3 21 (19.81%) CREST Certified
3 21 (19.81%) SC Cleared
4 20 (18.87%) SANS
5 10 (9.43%) Degree
5 10 (9.43%) DV Cleared
6 5 (4.72%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (4.72%) Master's Degree
7 4 (3.77%) ISTQB
7 4 (3.77%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 4 (3.77%) OSCP
8 2 (1.89%) CEH
8 2 (1.89%) CISA
8 2 (1.89%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
9 1 (0.94%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (0.94%) CHECK Team Member
9 1 (0.94%) GPEN
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (33.96%) Accessibility
2 23 (21.70%) QA
3 17 (16.04%) NIST
4 12 (11.32%) NCSC
5 11 (10.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 11 (10.38%) WCAG
6 3 (2.83%) Cyber Essentials
6 3 (2.83%) GDPR
6 3 (2.83%) GRC
6 3 (2.83%) PCI DSS
6 3 (2.83%) SOC 2
7 1 (0.94%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (0.94%) Def Stans
System Software
1 24 (22.64%) Docker
2 5 (4.72%) VMware NSX
3 2 (1.89%) Active Directory
3 2 (1.89%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 24 (22.64%) Kubernetes
1 24 (22.64%) Terraform
2 18 (16.98%) Grafana
3 8 (7.55%) Ansible
4 5 (4.72%) vRealize
5 4 (3.77%) HP Fortify
6 3 (2.83%) Nessus
7 2 (1.89%) Control-M
7 2 (1.89%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.94%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 1 (0.94%) CASB
8 1 (0.94%) Forefront Identity Manager
8 1 (0.94%) Nmap
8 1 (0.94%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 10 (9.43%) Microsoft
2 7 (6.60%) VMware
3 3 (2.83%) IBM
3 3 (2.83%) Oracle
4 2 (1.89%) BiZZdesign
4 2 (1.89%) Black Duck
4 2 (1.89%) Blue Prism
4 2 (1.89%) Coverity
4 2 (1.89%) Guidewire
4 2 (1.89%) Qualys
4 2 (1.89%) Splunk
4 2 (1.89%) UiPath
5 1 (0.94%) AppDynamics
5 1 (0.94%) Google
5 1 (0.94%) Pega
5 1 (0.94%) Proofpoint
5 1 (0.94%) ServiceNow
5 1 (0.94%) Veracode