Penetration Tester Jobs

Penetration Tester
UK

The median Penetration Tester salary in the UK is £67,500 per year according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months to 7 December 2023.

The first table below provides salary benchmarking and summary statistics including a comparison to same period in the previous 2 years.

 6 months to
7 Dec 2023		 Same period 2022 Same period 2021
Rank 677 982 992
Rank change year-on-year +305 +10 -281
Permanent jobs requiring a Penetration Tester 53 90 88
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.10% 0.073% 0.069%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.10% 0.077% 0.072%
Number of salaries quoted 41 71 78
10th Percentile £43,750 £40,000 £46,175
25th Percentile £50,000 £55,625 £51,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £67,500 £80,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -15.63% +33.33% -4.00%
75th Percentile £78,750 £93,125 £77,500
90th Percentile £87,500 £105,000 £88,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £75,000 £67,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year +11.11% +12.50% -4.00%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
UK

The following table is for comparison with the above and includes summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 50,561 117,203 121,950
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 95.43% 95.41% 95.16%
Number of salaries quoted 36,942 73,752 84,378
10th Percentile £31,250 £32,798 £32,125
25th Percentile £42,500 £45,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year - +4.35% +4.55%
75th Percentile £80,000 £81,250 £77,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £98,750 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year - +5.00% +5.26%

Penetration Tester
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Penetration Tester in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Penetration Tester in the UK

Penetration Tester
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing Penetration Tester.

Salary trend for Penetration Tester in the UK

Penetration Tester
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Penetration Tester over the 6 months to 7 December 2023.

Salary histogram for Penetration Tester in the UK

Penetration Tester
Top 13 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Penetration Tester within the UK over the 6 months to 7 December 2023. 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
England +301 50 £67,500 -15.63% 38
Work from Home +228 41 £75,000 +11.11% 41
UK excluding London +242 26 £75,000 +11.11% 29
London +246 25 £61,250 -27.94% 17
Midlands +134 8 £75,000 -6.25% 5
West Midlands +130 8 £75,000 -6.25% 3
South West +82 7 £75,000 +11.11% 2
North of England +139 3 £60,000 -25.00% 3
South East +136 3 £55,000 +37.50% 8
Northern Ireland - 3 £57,500 - 2
North West +117 2 £57,500 -20.69% 2
East of England - 2 £77,500 - 1
Yorkshire +101 1 £90,000 +14.29% 1

Penetration Tester Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 7 December 2023, Penetration Tester job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads featuring Penetration Tester in the job title.

1 48 (90.57%) Penetration Testing
2 33 (62.26%) Cybersecurity
3 28 (52.83%) OSCP
4 24 (45.28%) Vulnerability Assessment
5 23 (43.40%) CREST Certified
6 22 (41.51%) Security Testing
7 17 (32.08%) Application Security
8 16 (30.19%) Information Security
8 16 (30.19%) CISSP
9 15 (28.30%) Network Security
9 15 (28.30%) Mobile App
10 13 (24.53%) Burp Suite
10 13 (24.53%) Cybercrime
10 13 (24.53%) Server Building
10 13 (24.53%) CISMP
10 13 (24.53%) Red Team
11 11 (20.75%) Metasploit
12 10 (18.87%) OWASP
12 10 (18.87%) Law
13 9 (16.98%) Python
13 9 (16.98%) Nmap
13 9 (16.98%) Security Cleared
13 9 (16.98%) CHECK Team Member
13 9 (16.98%) Incident Response
14 8 (15.09%) Apple iOS
14 8 (15.09%) Android
15 7 (13.21%) SC Cleared
15 7 (13.21%) Wireshark
15 7 (13.21%) Nessus
15 7 (13.21%) Problem-Solving

Penetration Tester Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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 3 (5.66%) AWS
2 2 (3.77%) Azure
3 1 (1.89%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 15 (28.30%) Network Security
2 7 (13.21%) Wireshark
3 4 (7.55%) Wireless
4 3 (5.66%) Firewall
4 3 (5.66%) Internet
4 3 (5.66%) TCP/IP
4 3 (5.66%) Wireless Security
5 2 (3.77%) HTTP
5 2 (3.77%) HTTPS
6 1 (1.89%) Wi-Fi
Development Applications
1 13 (24.53%) Burp Suite
2 11 (20.75%) Metasploit
3 4 (7.55%) sqlmap
4 2 (3.77%) AppScan
4 2 (3.77%) SoapUI
5 1 (1.89%) IDA Disassembler
General
1 10 (18.87%) Law
2 6 (11.32%) Social Skills
3 3 (5.66%) Finance
3 3 (5.66%) Presentation Skills
3 3 (5.66%) Telecoms
4 2 (3.77%) Advertising
4 2 (3.77%) Aeronautics
4 2 (3.77%) Automotive
4 2 (3.77%) Banking
5 1 (1.89%) Analytical Skills
5 1 (1.89%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (3.77%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 15 (28.30%) Mobile App
2 13 (24.53%) Cybercrime
3 6 (11.32%) Embedded Systems
3 6 (11.32%) IoT
4 3 (5.66%) Operational Technology
5 2 (3.77%) Security Posture
6 1 (1.89%) Algorithms
6 1 (1.89%) Cyber Threat
6 1 (1.89%) Cyberattack
6 1 (1.89%) Data Structures
6 1 (1.89%) Distributed Systems
6 1 (1.89%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 8 (15.09%) Android
1 8 (15.09%) Apple iOS
2 6 (11.32%) Windows
3 5 (9.43%) Kali Linux
4 4 (7.55%) Linux
5 3 (5.66%) Unix
6 2 (3.77%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (90.57%) Penetration Testing
2 33 (62.26%) Cybersecurity
3 24 (45.28%) Vulnerability Assessment
4 22 (41.51%) Security Testing
5 17 (32.08%) Application Security
6 16 (30.19%) Information Security
7 13 (24.53%) Red Team
7 13 (24.53%) Server Building
8 10 (18.87%) OWASP
9 9 (16.98%) Incident Response
10 7 (13.21%) Problem-Solving
11 5 (9.43%) Cryptography
11 5 (9.43%) Malware Analysis
11 5 (9.43%) Reverse Engineering
12 4 (7.55%) Computer Science
12 4 (7.55%) Offensive Security
12 4 (7.55%) Web Testing
13 3 (5.66%) Cloud Security
13 3 (5.66%) Mentoring
13 3 (5.66%) Mobile Application Development
Programming Languages
1 9 (16.98%) Python
2 5 (9.43%) C#
3 4 (7.55%) Bash
4 2 (3.77%) Go
5 1 (1.89%) C
5 1 (1.89%) C++
5 1 (1.89%) PowerShell
5 1 (1.89%) SQL
Qualifications
1 28 (52.83%) OSCP
2 23 (43.40%) CREST Certified
3 16 (30.19%) CISSP
4 13 (24.53%) CISMP
5 9 (16.98%) CHECK Team Member
5 9 (16.98%) Security Cleared
6 7 (13.21%) SC Cleared
7 6 (11.32%) CHECK Team Leader
7 6 (11.32%) Degree
8 4 (7.55%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (5.66%) GPEN
10 2 (3.77%) CGEIT
10 2 (3.77%) CISA
10 2 (3.77%) CISM
10 2 (3.77%) CRISC
10 2 (3.77%) Master's Degree
10 2 (3.77%) SANS
10 2 (3.77%) SSCP
11 1 (1.89%) CEH
11 1 (1.89%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (7.55%) NIST
2 3 (5.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (5.66%) PCI DSS
3 1 (1.89%) Cyber Essentials
3 1 (1.89%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 1 (1.89%) ISA99
3 1 (1.89%) NCSC
3 1 (1.89%) QA
System Software
1 1 (1.89%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 9 (16.98%) Nmap
2 7 (13.21%) Nessus
Vendors
1 2 (3.77%) Trustwave
2 1 (1.89%) Microsoft
67 Penetration Tester jobs Nationwide