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 leading to 28 May 2025.

The table below provides salary benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 687 737 815
Rank change year-on-year +50 +78 +322
Permanent jobs requiring a Penetration Tester 24 173 149
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.044% 0.17% 0.15%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.049% 0.18% 0.17%
Number of salaries quoted 10 130 76
10th Percentile £49,375 £45,000 £42,125
25th Percentile £58,750 £48,750 £52,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £67,500 £65,000 £67,500
Median % change year-on-year +3.85% -3.70% +12.50%
75th Percentile £77,125 £82,500 £90,313
90th Percentile £90,000 - £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £67,500 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +22.73% -8.33% -

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides 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 49,435 96,820 89,564
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.41% 94.78% 91.46%
Number of salaries quoted 25,727 69,155 56,824
10th Percentile £28,822 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,000 £38,500 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £52,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -12.50% -
75th Percentile £73,750 £70,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £96,250 £90,000 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £51,399 £50,000 £53,500
% change year-on-year +2.80% -6.54% +6.63%

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 28 May 2025.

Salary histogram for Penetration Tester in the UK

Penetration Tester
Top 9 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 28 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
England +34 23 £67,500 -3.57% 32
Work from Home +55 13 £62,500 +13.64% 36
London +44 11 £72,500 +3.57% 12
UK excluding London +140 8 £67,500 +22.73% 22
West Midlands +60 5 - - 5
Midlands +55 5 - - 5
South West +98 2 £67,500 +50.00% 2
Yorkshire +54 1 - -
North of England +23 1 - - 1

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

For the 6 months to 28 May 2025, 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 18 (75.00%) Penetration Testing
2 16 (66.67%) Cybersecurity
3 9 (37.50%) Red Team
3 9 (37.50%) Security Testing
4 8 (33.33%) Telecoms
5 7 (29.17%) CREST Certified
5 7 (29.17%) Vulnerability Assessment
6 6 (25.00%) CHECK Team Leader
6 6 (25.00%) Social Skills
6 6 (25.00%) Actionable Insight
7 5 (20.83%) Application Security
7 5 (20.83%) Mobile App
7 5 (20.83%) Burp Suite
7 5 (20.83%) Degree
7 5 (20.83%) Information Security
7 5 (20.83%) Wi-Fi
8 4 (16.67%) Python
8 4 (16.67%) Computer Science
8 4 (16.67%) SC Cleared
8 4 (16.67%) Security Cleared
8 4 (16.67%) OSCP
8 4 (16.67%) Mentoring
8 4 (16.67%) CHECK Team Member
8 4 (16.67%) Problem-Solving
9 3 (12.50%) NCSC
9 3 (12.50%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (12.50%) Offensive Security
9 3 (12.50%) Vulnerability Research
9 3 (12.50%) Vulnerability Scanning
9 3 (12.50%) Analytical Skills

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 2 (8.33%) IaaS
1 2 (8.33%) PaaS
1 2 (8.33%) SaaS
2 1 (4.17%) AWS
2 1 (4.17%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 5 (20.83%) Wi-Fi
2 3 (12.50%) 3GPP
2 3 (12.50%) 5G
2 3 (12.50%) Network Security
2 3 (12.50%) Wireless
3 2 (8.33%) Firewall
3 2 (8.33%) Internet
3 2 (8.33%) TCP/IP
Development Applications
1 5 (20.83%) Burp Suite
2 3 (12.50%) Metasploit
3 1 (4.17%) SoapUI
General
1 8 (33.33%) Telecoms
2 6 (25.00%) Social Skills
3 3 (12.50%) Analytical Skills
3 3 (12.50%) Finance
4 2 (8.33%) Aerospace
4 2 (8.33%) Law
4 2 (8.33%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (4.17%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 5 (20.83%) Mobile App
2 2 (8.33%) Cyber Threat
2 2 (8.33%) Management Information System
2 2 (8.33%) Security Posture
3 1 (4.17%) Cyber Security Posture
3 1 (4.17%) Data Protection Act
3 1 (4.17%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 1 (4.17%) Android
1 1 (4.17%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 18 (75.00%) Penetration Testing
2 16 (66.67%) Cybersecurity
3 9 (37.50%) Red Team
3 9 (37.50%) Security Testing
4 7 (29.17%) Vulnerability Assessment
5 6 (25.00%) Actionable Insight
6 5 (20.83%) Application Security
6 5 (20.83%) Information Security
7 4 (16.67%) Computer Science
7 4 (16.67%) Mentoring
7 4 (16.67%) Problem-Solving
8 3 (12.50%) Offensive Security
8 3 (12.50%) OWASP
8 3 (12.50%) Risk Analysis
8 3 (12.50%) Test Automation
8 3 (12.50%) Vulnerability Research
8 3 (12.50%) Vulnerability Scanning
9 2 (8.33%) Continuous Improvement
9 2 (8.33%) Cryptography
9 2 (8.33%) Manual Testing
Programming Languages
1 4 (16.67%) Python
2 2 (8.33%) Bash
2 2 (8.33%) C#
2 2 (8.33%) JavaScript
2 2 (8.33%) Ruby
2 2 (8.33%) SQL
Qualifications
1 7 (29.17%) CREST Certified
2 6 (25.00%) CHECK Team Leader
3 5 (20.83%) Degree
4 4 (16.67%) CHECK Team Member
4 4 (16.67%) OSCP
4 4 (16.67%) SC Cleared
4 4 (16.67%) Security Cleared
5 2 (8.33%) CCNA
5 2 (8.33%) CCNP
5 2 (8.33%) Cisco Certification
5 2 (8.33%) Computer Science Degree
5 2 (8.33%) Cyber Scheme
5 2 (8.33%) Master's Degree
6 1 (4.17%) CEH
6 1 (4.17%) OSCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (12.50%) Actionable Recommendations
1 3 (12.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 3 (12.50%) NCSC
2 1 (4.17%) NIST
2 1 (4.17%) PCI DSS
Systems Management
1 2 (8.33%) Nessus
1 2 (8.33%) Nmap
Vendors
1 2 (8.33%) Cisco
1 2 (8.33%) F5
1 2 (8.33%) Fortinet
1 2 (8.33%) Palo Alto
2 1 (4.17%) Microsoft