Penetration Testing Jobs

Penetration Testing
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies 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 16 September 2024, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Sep 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 491 470 581
Rank change year-on-year -21 +111 -51
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 384 362 824
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.47% 0.56% 0.53%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.57% 0.59% 0.55%
Number of salaries quoted 225 329 604
10th Percentile £42,500 £42,500 £40,973
25th Percentile £51,250 £50,757 £53,375
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £62,500 £69,500
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -10.07% +15.83%
75th Percentile £82,500 £80,000 £85,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,500 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% -15.38% +18.18%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

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.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 67,815 61,292 148,812
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 82.13% 94.69% 96.32%
Number of salaries quoted 36,177 43,297 80,928
10th Percentile £32,000 £32,750 £33,750
25th Percentile £42,500 £45,000 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% - +4.35%
75th Percentile £76,250 £80,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £54,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -2.78% +2.86% +5.00%

Penetration Testing
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Penetration Testing as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Penetration Testing in the UK

Penetration Testing
Salary Trend

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

Salary trend for Penetration Testing in the UK

Penetration Testing
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Penetration Testing over the 6 months to 16 September 2024.

Salary histogram for Penetration Testing in the UK

Penetration Testing
Top 15 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Penetration Testing within the UK over the 6 months to 16 September 2024. 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 -19 323 £65,000 +8.33% 98
UK excluding London -31 193 £60,000 +9.09% 69
London +28 162 £72,500 -3.33% 33
Work from Home -6 149 £62,500 - 60
South East -19 49 £59,000 +0.85% 9
Midlands -17 48 £57,500 +4.55% 13
Scotland -25 34 £70,000 +12.00% 11
West Midlands -17 33 £55,000 - 13
North of England -25 30 £61,250 +16.67% 19
South West -10 29 £64,000 +25.04% 7
North West -18 25 £64,000 +28.00% 14
East Midlands -34 13 £57,500 +18.97%
Yorkshire +12 5 £52,500 - 3
East of England -33 2 £28,500 -59.29% 8
Wales +35 1 £90,000 +50.00% 2

Penetration Testing
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:

Application Platforms
1 4 (1.04%) Apache
1 4 (1.04%) nginx
2 3 (0.78%) IBM Notes
2 3 (0.78%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.52%) Confluence
4 1 (0.26%) CMS
Applications
1 8 (2.08%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.30%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 98 (25.52%) Azure
2 64 (16.67%) AWS
3 25 (6.51%) Microsoft 365
4 21 (5.47%) GCP
5 16 (4.17%) SaaS
6 13 (3.39%) Cloud Computing
7 11 (2.86%) Azure Sentinel
7 11 (2.86%) Entra ID
8 9 (2.34%) Azure DevOps
9 7 (1.82%) Azure Monitor
10 6 (1.56%) GitHub
11 5 (1.30%) Cloudflare
11 5 (1.30%) Google Workspace
12 4 (1.04%) Power Platform
13 3 (0.78%) AWS CloudTrail
13 3 (0.78%) Azure Key Vault
13 3 (0.78%) Datadog
13 3 (0.78%) GitHub Actions
13 3 (0.78%) Microsoft Purview
13 3 (0.78%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 78 (20.31%) Firewall
2 49 (12.76%) Network Security
3 27 (7.03%) Wireless
4 22 (5.73%) Wi-Fi
5 21 (5.47%) Intrusion Detection
6 15 (3.91%) SSL
7 14 (3.65%) HTTP
8 13 (3.39%) VPN
9 11 (2.86%) DNS
9 11 (2.86%) SSH
10 10 (2.60%) Internet
11 9 (2.34%) NGFW
12 8 (2.08%) LAN
12 8 (2.08%) WAN
13 7 (1.82%) IPsec
13 7 (1.82%) TCP/IP
14 5 (1.30%) Broadband
14 5 (1.30%) NAS
15 4 (1.04%) 3GPP
15 4 (1.04%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (2.34%) SQL Server
2 7 (1.82%) Azure SQL Database
3 6 (1.56%) MongoDB
4 4 (1.04%) InfluxDB
4 4 (1.04%) MySQL
4 4 (1.04%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (1.04%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 22 (5.73%) Burp Suite
2 18 (4.69%) Metasploit
3 12 (3.13%) Git
4 7 (1.82%) JIRA
5 5 (1.30%) Postman
6 4 (1.04%) Jenkins
6 4 (1.04%) JMeter
6 4 (1.04%) Mercurial
6 4 (1.04%) SoapUI
7 3 (0.78%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.78%) SpecFlow
8 1 (0.26%) Selenium
General
1 113 (29.43%) Social Skills
2 67 (17.45%) Finance
3 59 (15.36%) Analytical Skills
4 28 (7.29%) Law
5 22 (5.73%) Legal
6 20 (5.21%) Banking
7 17 (4.43%) Retail
8 16 (4.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 15 (3.91%) Presentation Skills
10 13 (3.39%) Telecoms
11 10 (2.60%) Automotive
12 9 (2.34%) Marketing
13 7 (1.82%) Games
13 7 (1.82%) Public Sector
14 6 (1.56%) Billing
15 5 (1.30%) Influencing Skills
16 4 (1.04%) Documentation Skills
16 4 (1.04%) Electronics
16 4 (1.04%) Investment Banking
16 4 (1.04%) Welsh Language
Job Titles
1 73 (19.01%) Tester
2 67 (17.45%) Penetration Tester
3 55 (14.32%) Analyst
4 47 (12.24%) Lead
4 47 (12.24%) Security Engineer
5 44 (11.46%) Security Analyst
6 42 (10.94%) Senior
7 36 (9.38%) Consultant
8 34 (8.85%) Security Manager
9 29 (7.55%) Security Consultant
10 21 (5.47%) Cybersecurity Analyst
11 20 (5.21%) Cybersecurity Manager
12 17 (4.43%) Architect
12 17 (4.43%) Security Architect
12 17 (4.43%) Security Tester
13 15 (3.91%) Cybersecurity Consultant
14 13 (3.39%) Senior Security Engineer
15 11 (2.86%) Azure Engineer
15 11 (2.86%) IT Manager
16 10 (2.60%) Junior
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (2.08%) Elastic Stack
1 8 (2.08%) OAuth
2 6 (1.56%) OAuth2
2 6 (1.56%) Web Services
3 4 (1.04%) LAMP
3 4 (1.04%) LAPP Stack
3 4 (1.04%) LEMP Stack
3 4 (1.04%) SOAP
3 4 (1.04%) XML
4 3 (0.78%) Loki
4 3 (0.78%) RESTful
4 3 (0.78%) WPF
5 2 (0.52%) Kafka
5 2 (0.52%) Laravel
5 2 (0.52%) OpenID
5 2 (0.52%) SAML
6 1 (0.26%) ARM Templates
6 1 (0.26%) JSON
6 1 (0.26%) SailPoint
6 1 (0.26%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 50 (13.02%) Management Information System
2 38 (9.90%) Cyber Threat
2 38 (9.90%) Security Posture
3 28 (7.29%) Cyberattack
4 25 (6.51%) IoT
5 24 (6.25%) Onboarding
6 20 (5.21%) Cloud Native
7 18 (4.69%) Mobile App
8 14 (3.65%) Driving Licence
8 14 (3.65%) Self-Motivation
9 13 (3.39%) Cyber Security Posture
10 10 (2.60%) CSOC
11 9 (2.34%) Analytical Mindset
11 9 (2.34%) Data Centre
11 9 (2.34%) Virtual Team
12 7 (1.82%) Operational Technology
13 5 (1.30%) CCTV
13 5 (1.30%) Data Protection Act
13 5 (1.30%) Hybrid Cloud
13 5 (1.30%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 33 (8.59%) Windows
2 23 (5.99%) Linux
3 17 (4.43%) Android
3 17 (4.43%) Apple iOS
4 14 (3.65%) Kali Linux
5 13 (3.39%) Windows Server
6 9 (2.34%) Mac OS
7 8 (2.08%) Unix
8 4 (1.04%) Ubuntu
8 4 (1.04%) Windows XP
9 1 (0.26%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 259 (67.45%) Cybersecurity
2 102 (26.56%) Information Security
3 99 (25.78%) SIEM
4 96 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
5 95 (24.74%) Incident Response
6 74 (19.27%) Computer Science
7 63 (16.41%) Security Operations
8 58 (15.10%) Vulnerability Management
9 56 (14.58%) Security Testing
10 54 (14.06%) Application Security
11 49 (12.76%) Cloud Security
11 49 (12.76%) Data Protection
11 49 (12.76%) Red Team
12 48 (12.50%) Vulnerability Assessment
13 47 (12.24%) Vulnerability Scanning
14 45 (11.72%) Threat Modelling
15 43 (11.20%) Risk Management
16 39 (10.16%) Mentoring
17 37 (9.64%) SDLC
18 35 (9.11%) Data Loss Prevention
Programming Languages
1 37 (9.64%) Python
2 28 (7.29%) PowerShell
3 19 (4.95%) Bash
4 15 (3.91%) SQL
5 13 (3.39%) Java
6 7 (1.82%) C++
6 7 (1.82%) Go
7 6 (1.56%) PHP
8 5 (1.30%) C#
9 3 (0.78%) JavaScript
9 3 (0.78%) Kusto Query Language
10 2 (0.52%) Ruby
10 2 (0.52%) Rust
11 1 (0.26%) Perl
Qualifications
1 90 (23.44%) CISSP
2 89 (23.18%) Degree
3 75 (19.53%) Security Cleared
4 59 (15.36%) OSCP
5 53 (13.80%) SC Cleared
6 48 (12.50%) CREST Certified
7 43 (11.20%) CISM
8 42 (10.94%) Computer Science Degree
9 37 (9.64%) CEH
10 24 (6.25%) CHECK Team Leader
11 18 (4.69%) CHECK Team Member
12 17 (4.43%) GIAC
13 16 (4.17%) Cisco Certification
14 15 (3.91%) AWS Certification
14 15 (3.91%) DV Cleared
15 14 (3.65%) CISA
16 13 (3.39%) Azure Certification
16 13 (3.39%) OSCE
17 12 (3.13%) (ISC)2 CCSP
18 10 (2.60%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 85 (22.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 60 (15.63%) NIST
3 57 (14.84%) Cyber Essentials
4 33 (8.59%) GDPR
5 26 (6.77%) PCI DSS
6 23 (5.99%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 22 (5.73%) SOC 2
8 19 (4.95%) GRC
9 14 (3.65%) NCSC
10 9 (2.34%) Accessibility
11 6 (1.56%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 5 (1.30%) Actionable Recommendations
12 5 (1.30%) NIST 800
13 4 (1.04%) JSP 440
13 4 (1.04%) QA
14 3 (0.78%) ISO 14001
14 3 (0.78%) ISO 9001
15 2 (0.52%) HIPAA
15 2 (0.52%) JTAG
15 2 (0.52%) SLA
System Software
1 32 (8.33%) Active Directory
2 13 (3.39%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (3.13%) Docker
4 8 (2.08%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (1.04%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.52%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 20 (5.21%) Kubernetes
2 16 (4.17%) Terraform
3 14 (3.65%) Nmap
4 13 (3.39%) Ansible
5 10 (2.60%) Nessus
6 7 (1.82%) Grafana
6 7 (1.82%) QRadar
6 7 (1.82%) Single Sign-On
7 5 (1.30%) Suricata
8 4 (1.04%) CASB
8 4 (1.04%) Microsoft Intune
9 3 (0.78%) McAfee ePO
9 3 (0.78%) Progress Chef
9 3 (0.78%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.78%) WSUS
10 2 (0.52%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
11 1 (0.26%) Check_MK
11 1 (0.26%) DatAdvantage
11 1 (0.26%) Oracle Identity Management
11 1 (0.26%) RSA Security Analytics
Vendors
1 60 (15.63%) Microsoft
2 17 (4.43%) Cisco
2 17 (4.43%) Splunk
3 13 (3.39%) VMware
4 12 (3.13%) Google
5 11 (2.86%) Palo Alto
6 10 (2.60%) Qualys
7 8 (2.08%) CrowdStrike
7 8 (2.08%) IBM
8 7 (1.82%) Veeam
9 5 (1.30%) Apple
9 5 (1.30%) Juniper
9 5 (1.30%) Oracle
9 5 (1.30%) Rapid7
10 4 (1.04%) Kenna
10 4 (1.04%) Zscaler
11 3 (0.78%) arcserve
11 3 (0.78%) HP
11 3 (0.78%) Salesforce
11 3 (0.78%) ShoreTel