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 31 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 294 289 343
Rank change year-on-year -5 +54 +54
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 95 108 231
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.57% 0.84% 0.74%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.68% 0.89% 0.81%
Number of salaries quoted 75 89 199
10th Percentile £42,500 £52,500 £38,500
25th Percentile £48,165 £61,250 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £70,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +16.67% -11.11%
75th Percentile £77,500 £88,750 £80,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £105,000
UK median annual salary £70,000 £67,500 £62,500
% change year-on-year +3.70% +8.00% -9.68%

All Process & 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 13,978 12,164 28,463
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 83.76% 94.81% 91.69%
Number of salaries quoted 9,715 8,801 23,226
10th Percentile £31,250 £32,500 £33,784
25th Percentile £42,500 £46,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £62,500 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% +8.70% -8.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £81,250 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £105,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -10.57%

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 31 March 2026.

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 2 (2.11%) Confluence
2 1 (1.05%) Apache
2 1 (1.05%) Drupal
2 1 (1.05%) IIS
2 1 (1.05%) nginx
2 1 (1.05%) WordPress
Applications
1 3 (3.16%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (3.16%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (1.05%) Magento
Cloud Services
1 29 (30.53%) AWS
2 26 (27.37%) Azure
3 13 (13.68%) GCP
4 4 (4.21%) Mimecast
5 3 (3.16%) Azure DevOps
5 3 (3.16%) Power Platform
6 2 (2.11%) Amazon EKS
6 2 (2.11%) AWS CloudFormation
6 2 (2.11%) Entra ID
6 2 (2.11%) SaaS
7 1 (1.05%) Amazon EC2
7 1 (1.05%) Amazon ECS
7 1 (1.05%) Amazon ElastiCache
7 1 (1.05%) Amazon GuardDuty
7 1 (1.05%) Amazon S3
7 1 (1.05%) Azure Key Vault
7 1 (1.05%) Azure Sentinel
7 1 (1.05%) CloudFront
7 1 (1.05%) GitHub
7 1 (1.05%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 20 (21.05%) Firewall
2 11 (11.58%) Network Security
3 9 (9.47%) TCP/IP
4 7 (7.37%) VPN
5 4 (4.21%) Cisco ISE
5 4 (4.21%) Cisco Nexus
5 4 (4.21%) DNS
5 4 (4.21%) Intrusion Detection
5 4 (4.21%) Wireshark
6 3 (3.16%) DMARC
6 3 (3.16%) Ethernet
6 3 (3.16%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (2.11%) HTTP
7 2 (2.11%) VLAN
8 1 (1.05%) ICMP
8 1 (1.05%) Modbus
8 1 (1.05%) SSH
8 1 (1.05%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (3.16%) Power BI
1 3 (3.16%) Tableau
2 1 (1.05%) Amazon RDS
2 1 (1.05%) InterSystems Cache
2 1 (1.05%) Redis
2 1 (1.05%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 16 (16.84%) Burp Suite
1 16 (16.84%) Metasploit
2 2 (2.11%) JIRA
3 1 (1.05%) Bitbucket
3 1 (1.05%) Gatling
3 1 (1.05%) Git
3 1 (1.05%) IDA Disassembler
3 1 (1.05%) JMeter
3 1 (1.05%) NUnit
3 1 (1.05%) Vagrant
General
1 44 (46.32%) Social Skills
2 19 (20.00%) Public Sector
3 14 (14.74%) Banking
3 14 (14.74%) Retail
4 11 (11.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 8 (8.42%) Analytical Skills
5 8 (8.42%) Finance
5 8 (8.42%) Law
6 3 (3.16%) Electronics
6 3 (3.16%) Marketing
7 2 (2.11%) Social Housing
8 1 (1.05%) Back Office
8 1 (1.05%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (1.05%) Financial Institution
8 1 (1.05%) Investment Banking
8 1 (1.05%) Legal
8 1 (1.05%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 23 (24.21%) Tester
2 22 (23.16%) Penetration Tester
3 15 (15.79%) Security Specialist
4 10 (10.53%) Consultant
4 10 (10.53%) Security Consultant
5 9 (9.47%) Security Manager
5 9 (9.47%) Senior
6 8 (8.42%) Cybersecurity Consultant
6 8 (8.42%) Senior Penetration Tester
6 8 (8.42%) Senior Tester
7 7 (7.37%) Analyst
7 7 (7.37%) IT Manager
7 7 (7.37%) Threat Intelligence Specialist
8 6 (6.32%) Head of Professional Services
9 5 (5.26%) Client Director
9 5 (5.26%) Cybersecurity Manager
9 5 (5.26%) Services Director
10 4 (4.21%) Auditor
10 4 (4.21%) Lead
10 4 (4.21%) Network Security Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (3.16%) .NET
2 2 (2.11%) .NET Framework
3 1 (1.05%) AngularJS
3 1 (1.05%) ARM Templates
3 1 (1.05%) ASP.NET
3 1 (1.05%) ASP.NET Core
3 1 (1.05%) Entity Framework
3 1 (1.05%) Memcached
3 1 (1.05%) OpenAPI
3 1 (1.05%) RESTful
3 1 (1.05%) RxJS
3 1 (1.05%) Swagger
3 1 (1.05%) Vitest
Miscellaneous
1 27 (28.42%) Security Posture
2 13 (13.68%) Cyber Threat
3 7 (7.37%) Cyber Defence
3 7 (7.37%) Insider Threat
3 7 (7.37%) Mobile App
4 6 (6.32%) Blog
5 4 (4.21%) Data Centre
5 4 (4.21%) Operational Technology
5 4 (4.21%) Public Cloud
5 4 (4.21%) Self-Motivation
6 3 (3.16%) Analytical Mindset
6 3 (3.16%) Cloud Native
6 3 (3.16%) Management Information System
7 2 (2.11%) Cyberattack
7 2 (2.11%) Enterprise Software
7 2 (2.11%) Housing Association
7 2 (2.11%) Security Operations Centre
8 1 (1.05%) Linux Command Line
8 1 (1.05%) Renewable Energy
8 1 (1.05%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 17 (17.89%) Linux
2 15 (15.79%) Windows
3 10 (10.53%) Android
3 10 (10.53%) Apple iOS
4 3 (3.16%) Unix
5 1 (1.05%) Kali Linux
5 1 (1.05%) Mac OS
5 1 (1.05%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (62.11%) Cybersecurity
2 32 (33.68%) Incident Response
3 25 (26.32%) Information Security
4 22 (23.16%) Red Team
5 18 (18.95%) Actionable Insight
6 15 (15.79%) Application Security
6 15 (15.79%) Cloud Security
6 15 (15.79%) Offensive Security
6 15 (15.79%) Problem-Solving
6 15 (15.79%) Vulnerability Management
7 14 (14.74%) Ethical Hacking
8 13 (13.68%) Disaster Recovery
8 13 (13.68%) SDLC
8 13 (13.68%) Security Testing
9 11 (11.58%) Decision-Making
9 11 (11.58%) SIEM
9 11 (11.58%) Threat Modelling
10 10 (10.53%) OWASP
10 10 (10.53%) Security Architecture
10 10 (10.53%) Security Monitoring
Programming Languages
1 14 (14.74%) Python
2 10 (10.53%) Java
3 9 (9.47%) C
3 9 (9.47%) C++
3 9 (9.47%) Go
4 7 (7.37%) PowerShell
5 4 (4.21%) Bash
5 4 (4.21%) C#
5 4 (4.21%) SQL
6 3 (3.16%) Perl
6 3 (3.16%) R
6 3 (3.16%) Ruby
7 2 (2.11%) Objective-C
7 2 (2.11%) Rust
8 1 (1.05%) Bicep
8 1 (1.05%) PHP
8 1 (1.05%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 35 (36.84%) CREST Certified
2 27 (28.42%) OSCP
3 25 (26.32%) Security Cleared
4 22 (23.16%) Degree
5 20 (21.05%) CISSP
6 19 (20.00%) SC Cleared
7 14 (14.74%) CHECK Team Member
8 13 (13.68%) CEH
8 13 (13.68%) Cisco Certification
9 12 (12.63%) GPEN
10 11 (11.58%) CCNA
11 9 (9.47%) Cyber Scheme
11 9 (9.47%) DV Cleared
11 9 (9.47%) GIAC
12 8 (8.42%) CompTIA Security+
12 8 (8.42%) Microsoft Certification
13 7 (7.37%) CISMP
13 7 (7.37%) MCSE
13 7 (7.37%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 6 (6.32%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (40.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 20 (21.05%) GDPR
3 18 (18.95%) Actionable Recommendations
4 16 (16.84%) Cyber Essentials
5 15 (15.79%) PCI DSS
6 14 (14.74%) NIST
7 10 (10.53%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 6 (6.32%) GRC
9 4 (4.21%) NCSC
10 3 (3.16%) Data Quality
11 1 (1.05%) Accessibility
11 1 (1.05%) NIST 800
11 1 (1.05%) SOC 2
System Software
1 10 (10.53%) Active Directory
2 1 (1.05%) Docker
Systems Management
1 15 (15.79%) Nmap
2 10 (10.53%) Nessus
3 8 (8.42%) Kubernetes
4 3 (3.16%) CSIRT
4 3 (3.16%) Terraform
5 1 (1.05%) Ansible
5 1 (1.05%) Consul
5 1 (1.05%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (1.05%) Packer
5 1 (1.05%) Progress Chef
5 1 (1.05%) Puppet
5 1 (1.05%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 23 (24.21%) Microsoft
2 11 (11.58%) Cisco
3 6 (6.32%) Fortinet
3 6 (6.32%) Sophos
4 4 (4.21%) CheckPoint
4 4 (4.21%) Okta
4 4 (4.21%) Splunk
4 4 (4.21%) Zscaler
5 3 (3.16%) Oracle
5 3 (3.16%) Veeam
6 2 (2.11%) Google
6 2 (2.11%) Palo Alto
6 2 (2.11%) Qualys
7 1 (1.05%) DevExpress
7 1 (1.05%) TOWER Software