Hybrid/Remote Penetration Testing Job Trends

Penetration Testing
UK > Work from Home

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for remote or hybrid work requiring Penetration Testing skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 322 327 305
Rank change year-on-year +5 -22 +174
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 73 145 188
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.46% 0.73% 0.86%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.51% 0.82% 0.91%
Number of salaries quoted 64 86 172
10th Percentile £48,165 £49,375 £42,500
25th Percentile £52,000 £56,250 £52,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £65,000 £64,902
Median % change year-on-year - +0.15% -3.85%
75th Percentile £74,258 £77,500 £80,313
90th Percentile £79,625 £88,875 £90,000
UK median annual salary £69,384 £65,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year +6.74% +4.00% -9.68%

All Process and Methodology Skills
Work from Home

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 with remote or hybrid options requiring process or methodology skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 14,455 17,637 20,651
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 91.89% 88.60% 94.99%
Number of salaries quoted 8,789 10,534 16,696
10th Percentile £29,250 £36,250 £36,950
25th Percentile £40,000 £46,250 £46,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £62,500 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.00% - -
75th Percentile £77,500 £81,250 £80,627
90th Percentile £98,150 £100,000 £97,500
UK median annual salary £54,793 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.68% - -

Penetration Testing
Job Vacancy Trend for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Penetration Testing and offering remote or hybrid work options relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Penetration Testing job vacancy trend for remote/hybrid jobs

Penetration Testing
Salary Trend for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Salary distribution trend for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing Penetration Testing.

Salary distribution trend for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing Penetration Testing

Penetration Testing
Salary Histogram for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Salary distribution for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing Penetration Testing over the 6 months to 14 November 2025.

Penetration Testing salary histogram for jobs with remote/hybrid work options

Penetration Testing
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Remote/Hybrid Jobs 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 3 (4.11%) Microsoft Exchange
1 3 (4.11%) SharePoint
2 1 (1.37%) Confluence
Applications
1 7 (9.59%) Microsoft Excel
1 7 (9.59%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.37%) GNU Octave
Cloud Services
1 15 (20.55%) Azure
2 8 (10.96%) AWS
3 7 (9.59%) Entra ID
3 7 (9.59%) Power Platform
4 4 (5.48%) Microsoft 365
5 3 (4.11%) IBM Cloud
6 2 (2.74%) Azure Key Vault
6 2 (2.74%) Azure Logic Apps
6 2 (2.74%) Azure Stack
6 2 (2.74%) PaaS
7 1 (1.37%) Azure Sentinel
7 1 (1.37%) GitHub
7 1 (1.37%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 21 (28.77%) Firewall
2 20 (27.40%) Network Security
3 13 (17.81%) TCP/IP
4 8 (10.96%) VPN
4 8 (10.96%) Wireshark
5 7 (9.59%) Wi-Fi
6 4 (5.48%) Ethernet
7 3 (4.11%) VLAN
8 2 (2.74%) DNS
8 2 (2.74%) HTTP
9 1 (1.37%) ICMP
9 1 (1.37%) Intrusion Detection
9 1 (1.37%) Modbus
9 1 (1.37%) NAS
9 1 (1.37%) SAN
9 1 (1.37%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (9.59%) Power BI
1 7 (9.59%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 7 (9.59%) Burp Suite
1 7 (9.59%) Metasploit
2 1 (1.37%) GitLab
2 1 (1.37%) IDA Disassembler
2 1 (1.37%) JIRA
General
1 34 (46.58%) Social Skills
2 15 (20.55%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (13.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 5 (6.85%) Finance
4 5 (6.85%) Public Sector
5 4 (5.48%) Electronics
5 4 (5.48%) Retail
6 3 (4.11%) Law
6 3 (4.11%) Manufacturing
7 2 (2.74%) Banking
7 2 (2.74%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (1.37%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (1.37%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (1.37%) Legal
8 1 (1.37%) Military
Job Titles
1 14 (19.18%) Analyst
1 14 (19.18%) Security Engineer
2 12 (16.44%) Cybersecurity Engineer
2 12 (16.44%) Senior
3 11 (15.07%) Tester
4 10 (13.70%) Penetration Tester
5 9 (12.33%) Lead
5 9 (12.33%) Security Analyst
5 9 (12.33%) Senior Security Engineer
6 8 (10.96%) Architect
6 8 (10.96%) IT Manager
6 8 (10.96%) Security Architect
7 7 (9.59%) Audit Manager
7 7 (9.59%) Auditor
7 7 (9.59%) Internal Audit Manager
7 7 (9.59%) Internal Auditor
7 7 (9.59%) IT Audit Manager
7 7 (9.59%) IT Auditor
7 7 (9.59%) Lead Architect
7 7 (9.59%) Lead Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.37%) JSON
1 1 (1.37%) ModSecurity
1 1 (1.37%) PyTorch
1 1 (1.37%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 10 (13.70%) Security Operations Centre
2 8 (10.96%) Security Posture
3 7 (9.59%) Cyber Threat
3 7 (9.59%) Operational Technology
4 6 (8.22%) Cyber Defence
4 6 (8.22%) Cyber Kill Chain
4 6 (8.22%) Self-Motivation
5 5 (6.85%) Analytical Mindset
6 4 (5.48%) Enterprise Software
6 4 (5.48%) Mobile App
6 4 (5.48%) SCADA
7 3 (4.11%) Cyberattack
7 3 (4.11%) Insider Threat
7 3 (4.11%) Management Information System
7 3 (4.11%) PKI
7 3 (4.11%) Virtual Team
8 2 (2.74%) Cloud Native
9 1 (1.37%) Algorithms
9 1 (1.37%) Data Centre
9 1 (1.37%) Raspberry Pi
Operating Systems
1 17 (23.29%) Windows
2 13 (17.81%) Linux
3 7 (9.59%) Unix
4 3 (4.11%) Windows Server
5 2 (2.74%) VMS
6 1 (1.37%) Android
6 1 (1.37%) Apple iOS
6 1 (1.37%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 53 (72.60%) Cybersecurity
2 26 (35.62%) Incident Response
3 21 (28.77%) SIEM
4 19 (26.03%) Information Security
5 17 (23.29%) Problem-Solving
6 15 (20.55%) ITIL
6 15 (20.55%) Security Operations
7 14 (19.18%) Vulnerability Management
8 12 (16.44%) Analytics
8 12 (16.44%) Security Management
9 11 (15.07%) Data Analysis
9 11 (15.07%) Risk Management
10 10 (13.70%) Business Intelligence
10 10 (13.70%) Risk Assessment
11 9 (12.33%) Data Loss Prevention
11 9 (12.33%) Information Security Management
11 9 (12.33%) SDLC
11 9 (12.33%) Security Architecture
11 9 (12.33%) TOGAF
11 9 (12.33%) Vulnerability Assessment
Programming Languages
1 15 (20.55%) Python
2 9 (12.33%) SQL
3 7 (9.59%) R
4 5 (6.85%) C
4 5 (6.85%) C++
5 2 (2.74%) JavaScript
5 2 (2.74%) PowerShell
6 1 (1.37%) C#
6 1 (1.37%) Java
Qualifications
1 27 (36.99%) Security Cleared
2 24 (32.88%) CISSP
2 24 (32.88%) SC Cleared
3 13 (17.81%) CompTIA Security+
4 12 (16.44%) GCIA
5 11 (15.07%) CCNA
5 11 (15.07%) Cisco Certification
5 11 (15.07%) Degree
6 9 (12.33%) OSCP
6 9 (12.33%) SANS
7 8 (10.96%) CCNP
7 8 (10.96%) CISA
7 8 (10.96%) GIAC
8 7 (9.59%) ACCA
8 7 (9.59%) CEH
8 7 (9.59%) CHECK Team Member
8 7 (9.59%) CIMA
8 7 (9.59%) CREST Certified
9 6 (8.22%) MCP
9 6 (8.22%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (50.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 19 (26.03%) NIST
3 12 (16.44%) Cyber Essentials
4 9 (12.33%) NCSC
5 6 (8.22%) GDPR
6 3 (4.11%) Actionable Recommendations
7 2 (2.74%) NIST 800
7 2 (2.74%) QA
8 1 (1.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 1 (1.37%) GRC
System Software
1 5 (6.85%) Active Directory
2 3 (4.11%) Firmware
2 3 (4.11%) VMware ESXi
2 3 (4.11%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 8 (10.96%) Nessus
2 6 (8.22%) Nmap
3 4 (5.48%) QRadar
4 3 (4.11%) Proxmox
5 1 (1.37%) Kubernetes
5 1 (1.37%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (1.37%) Progress Chef
5 1 (1.37%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 20 (27.40%) Microsoft
2 8 (10.96%) Oracle
3 6 (8.22%) Cisco
4 4 (5.48%) Splunk
5 3 (4.11%) Fortinet
5 3 (4.11%) IBM
5 3 (4.11%) VMware
6 1 (1.37%) Apple
6 1 (1.37%) Palo Alto
6 1 (1.37%) Qualys
6 1 (1.37%) Tanium
6 1 (1.37%) Tenable
6 1 (1.37%) Zscaler