Security Testing Job Trends

Security Testing
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring Security Testing skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 15 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 511 452 548
Rank change year-on-year -59 +96 -86
Permanent jobs citing Security Testing 138 273 166
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.23% 0.51% 0.30%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.28% 0.56% 0.33%
Number of salaries quoted 84 92 143
10th Percentile £50,000 £46,500 £46,500
25th Percentile £63,750 £59,125 £56,809
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £81,250 £72,500
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% +12.07% +3.57%
75th Percentile £90,000 £93,250 £82,500
90th Percentile - £113,125 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £75,000 £75,000 £63,750
% change year-on-year - +17.65% +10.87%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

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.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 48,808 48,616 49,870
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 80.95% 90.71% 89.93%
Number of salaries quoted 28,796 23,669 37,967
10th Percentile £28,500 £35,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £77,715
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £51,971
% change year-on-year -9.09% +5.83% -5.51%

Security Testing
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Security Testing job vacancy trend in the UK

Security Testing
Salary Trend

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

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Security Testing

Security Testing
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Security Testing over the 6 months to 15 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Security Testing in the UK

Security Testing
Top 17 Job Locations

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 over the 6 months to 15 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
England -64 118 £74,750 -12.06% 127
UK excluding London -1 79 £75,000 - 122
London -24 54 £77,000 -9.41% 22
Work from Home +55 43 £80,000 +14.29% 81
South West +8 19 £90,000 - 17
South East -4 16 £48,924 -34.77% 37
Scotland +13 14 £90,000 +44.00% 7
North of England +5 14 £54,250 -9.58% 23
Yorkshire -17 9 £53,500 -10.83% 10
East of England +18 7 £65,000 - 21
Midlands +15 7 £56,250 +2.27% 12
West Midlands +13 4 £70,542 +28.26% 2
North East +13 3 £62,539 - 4
East Midlands -11 3 £45,000 - 9
North West +19 2 £57,539 +33.04% 9
Wales +3 1 £70,079 -26.23% 7
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 3

Security Testing
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 (4.35%) Apache Airflow
2 5 (3.62%) SharePoint
3 3 (2.17%) Apache
3 3 (2.17%) Appian
4 1 (0.72%) Confluence
4 1 (0.72%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 1 (0.72%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (2.17%) SAP CX
2 2 (1.45%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 60 (43.48%) Azure
2 43 (31.16%) AWS
3 33 (23.91%) GCP
4 32 (23.19%) PaaS
5 30 (21.74%) Azure DevOps
6 26 (18.84%) GitHub
6 26 (18.84%) GitHub Actions
7 21 (15.22%) SaaS
8 10 (7.25%) Datadog
9 7 (5.07%) dbt
9 7 (5.07%) IaaS
9 7 (5.07%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 4 (2.90%) Microsoft 365
11 3 (2.17%) Amazon S3
11 3 (2.17%) Cloud Run
11 3 (2.17%) Entra ID
11 3 (2.17%) Google Compute Engine
11 3 (2.17%) MinIO
11 3 (2.17%) Power Platform
11 3 (2.17%) Vercel
Communications & Networking
1 10 (7.25%) Firewall
2 5 (3.62%) Network Security
3 4 (2.90%) Intrusion Detection
4 1 (0.72%) Unified Communications
4 1 (0.72%) Wireless
4 1 (0.72%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.17%) Airbyte
1 3 (2.17%) BigQuery
1 3 (2.17%) Elasticsearch
1 3 (2.17%) Pinecone
2 2 (1.45%) MongoDB
2 2 (1.45%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 29 (21.01%) Jenkins
2 20 (14.49%) JMeter
2 20 (14.49%) Selenium
3 14 (10.14%) Cucumber
4 12 (8.70%) GitLab
5 8 (5.80%) LoadRunner
5 8 (5.80%) Postman
6 7 (5.07%) Locust
7 6 (4.35%) JIRA
8 5 (3.62%) Burp Suite
8 5 (3.62%) Cypress.io
8 5 (3.62%) Robot Framework
9 4 (2.90%) Git
9 4 (2.90%) NeoLoad
9 4 (2.90%) SpecFlow
9 4 (2.90%) TeamCity
10 3 (2.17%) CircleCI
10 3 (2.17%) Gatling
10 3 (2.17%) SoapUI
10 3 (2.17%) SonarQube
General
1 58 (42.03%) Finance
2 18 (13.04%) Law
2 18 (13.04%) Social Skills
3 15 (10.87%) Banking
4 12 (8.70%) Retail
5 8 (5.80%) Financial Institution
5 8 (5.80%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 5 (3.62%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (2.90%) Back Office
8 3 (2.17%) Aerospace
8 3 (2.17%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.45%) Analytical Skills
9 2 (1.45%) Avionics
9 2 (1.45%) Marketing
9 2 (1.45%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.45%) Public Sector
9 2 (1.45%) Public Speaking
10 1 (0.72%) Automotive
10 1 (0.72%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 50 (36.23%) Security Engineer
2 41 (29.71%) Lead
3 24 (17.39%) Applications Engineer
4 20 (14.49%) Senior
5 13 (9.42%) Test Engineer
5 13 (9.42%) Test Leader
6 12 (8.70%) Automation Engineer
6 12 (8.70%) Cloud Engineer
6 12 (8.70%) Tester
7 11 (7.97%) Architect
7 11 (7.97%) Cloud Automation Engineer
7 11 (7.97%) Cloud Security Engineer
8 10 (7.25%) DevSecOps Engineer
8 10 (7.25%) Test Automation Engineer
9 7 (5.07%) Automation Test Lead
9 7 (5.07%) AWS Engineer
9 7 (5.07%) Azure Engineer
9 7 (5.07%) GCP Engineer
9 7 (5.07%) Penetration Tester
9 7 (5.07%) Python Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (13.77%) YAML
2 9 (6.52%) Playwright
3 8 (5.80%) REST
4 7 (5.07%) Gherkin
4 7 (5.07%) Kafka
5 6 (4.35%) JSON
5 6 (4.35%) Middleware
5 6 (4.35%) React
5 6 (4.35%) Spring Boot
6 5 (3.62%) RESTful
7 3 (2.17%) Apache NiFi
7 3 (2.17%) LangChain
7 3 (2.17%) Next.js
8 2 (1.45%) .NET
8 2 (1.45%) Elastic Stack
9 1 (0.72%) Blazor
9 1 (0.72%) PyTorch
9 1 (0.72%) RabbitMQ
9 1 (0.72%) SAML
9 1 (0.72%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 29 (21.01%) Security Posture
2 12 (8.70%) Cloud Native
2 12 (8.70%) Management Information System
3 7 (5.07%) Hedge funds
4 4 (2.90%) Blog
4 4 (2.90%) Cyberattack
4 4 (2.90%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
4 4 (2.90%) Insider Threat
4 4 (2.90%) Self-Motivation
5 3 (2.17%) Cyber Threat
5 3 (2.17%) Low-Code
5 3 (2.17%) Mobile App
5 3 (2.17%) Onboarding
6 2 (1.45%) Data Centre
6 2 (1.45%) Driving Licence
6 2 (1.45%) Enterprise Software
6 2 (1.45%) Greenfield Project
6 2 (1.45%) Hybrid Cloud
6 2 (1.45%) Product Ownership
7 1 (0.72%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 10 (7.25%) Linux
1 10 (7.25%) Windows
2 7 (5.07%) Unix
3 5 (3.62%) Windows Server
4 4 (2.90%) Mac OS
5 3 (2.17%) Android
5 3 (2.17%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 68 (49.28%) CI/CD
2 67 (48.55%) Test Automation
3 54 (39.13%) Application Security
4 50 (36.23%) Agile
4 50 (36.23%) DevOps
5 44 (31.88%) OWASP
6 42 (30.43%) Cybersecurity
6 42 (30.43%) Threat Modelling
7 36 (26.09%) DevSecOps
8 35 (25.36%) Cloud Security
8 35 (25.36%) Infrastructure as Code
9 33 (23.91%) Continuous Improvement
9 33 (23.91%) SDLC
10 32 (23.19%) Mentoring
11 28 (20.29%) Penetration Testing
12 23 (16.67%) AI
12 23 (16.67%) Vulnerability Management
13 22 (15.94%) Containerisation
13 22 (15.94%) Test Strategy
14 21 (15.22%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 54 (39.13%) Python
2 36 (26.09%) PowerShell
3 31 (22.46%) Bash
4 28 (20.29%) Java
5 8 (5.80%) JavaScript
6 7 (5.07%) SQL
7 6 (4.35%) C#
7 6 (4.35%) Go
8 4 (2.90%) Kotlin
9 2 (1.45%) C
9 2 (1.45%) C++
9 2 (1.45%) Perl
9 2 (1.45%) Ruby
9 2 (1.45%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 28 (20.29%) Degree
2 27 (19.57%) CISSP
3 24 (17.39%) Security Cleared
4 21 (15.22%) Computer Science Degree
5 20 (14.49%) CREST Certified
6 16 (11.59%) SC Cleared
7 13 (9.42%) Master's Degree
8 12 (8.70%) OSCP
8 12 (8.70%) SANS
9 10 (7.25%) DV Cleared
10 8 (5.80%) ISTQB
11 7 (5.07%) CCSK
11 7 (5.07%) CISA
12 5 (3.62%) Azure Certification
12 5 (3.62%) CISM
13 4 (2.90%) AWS Certification
13 4 (2.90%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 4 (2.90%) OSCE
14 2 (1.45%) CEH
14 2 (1.45%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 41 (29.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 35 (25.36%) NIST
3 25 (18.12%) NCSC
3 25 (18.12%) QA
4 23 (16.67%) Accessibility
5 11 (7.97%) GRC
5 11 (7.97%) SOC 2
6 8 (5.80%) WCAG
7 7 (5.07%) PCI DSS
8 6 (4.35%) GDPR
9 4 (2.90%) Actionable Recommendations
9 4 (2.90%) EU AI Act
10 3 (2.17%) Cyber Essentials
11 1 (0.72%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.72%) Def Stans
11 1 (0.72%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 22 (15.94%) Docker
2 4 (2.90%) Virtual Machines
2 4 (2.90%) VMware NSX
3 3 (2.17%) Active Directory
4 2 (1.45%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 33 (23.91%) Terraform
2 32 (23.19%) Kubernetes
3 13 (9.42%) Grafana
4 7 (5.07%) Ansible
5 4 (2.90%) Cilium
5 4 (2.90%) vRealize
6 3 (2.17%) HP Fortify
6 3 (2.17%) Nessus
6 3 (2.17%) Prometheus
7 2 (1.45%) Control-M
7 2 (1.45%) Nmap
8 1 (0.72%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 1 (0.72%) Forefront Identity Manager
8 1 (0.72%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 20 (14.49%) Microsoft
2 10 (7.25%) Google
3 7 (5.07%) VMware
4 6 (4.35%) Qualys
5 4 (2.90%) Carbon Black
5 4 (2.90%) Darktrace
5 4 (2.90%) UiPath
6 3 (2.17%) BiZZdesign
6 3 (2.17%) Black Duck
6 3 (2.17%) Blue Prism
6 3 (2.17%) Coverity
6 3 (2.17%) IBM
6 3 (2.17%) Oracle
6 3 (2.17%) SAP
7 2 (1.45%) Guidewire
7 2 (1.45%) Splunk
8 1 (0.72%) CyberArk
8 1 (0.72%) Proofpoint
8 1 (0.72%) ServiceNow