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 30 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 331 359 359
Rank change year-on-year +28 0 -14
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 127 62 151
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.54% 0.38% 0.62%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.66% 0.40% 0.71%
Number of salaries quoted 91 55 116
10th Percentile £45,000 £51,250 £41,624
25th Percentile £49,875 £59,375 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £69,384 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.09% +15.64% -4.00%
75th Percentile £86,875 £84,388 £72,813
90th Percentile £105,000 £95,333 £87,500
UK median annual salary £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
% change year-on-year +3.70% +3.85% +8.33%

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 19,177 15,355 21,215
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 82.02% 93.03% 87.59%
Number of salaries quoted 13,861 8,958 14,299
10th Percentile £34,674 £29,750 £35,000
25th Percentile £44,972 £40,750 £44,106
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £59,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +1.69% -1.67% -4.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £79,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £100,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,465
% change year-on-year +9.09% -0.84% -7.56%

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 30 August 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 1 (0.79%) Apache
1 1 (0.79%) Confluence
1 1 (0.79%) Drupal
1 1 (0.79%) IIS
1 1 (0.79%) nginx
1 1 (0.79%) SharePoint
1 1 (0.79%) WordPress
Business Applications
1 1 (0.79%) Magento
Cloud Services
1 36 (28.35%) AWS
1 36 (28.35%) Azure
2 15 (11.81%) GCP
3 5 (3.94%) Microsoft 365
4 4 (3.15%) Azure DevOps
4 4 (3.15%) Entra ID
4 4 (3.15%) SaaS
5 3 (2.36%) Amazon EKS
5 3 (2.36%) AWS CloudFormation
5 3 (2.36%) Mimecast
6 2 (1.57%) Azure Key Vault
6 2 (1.57%) Figma
7 1 (0.79%) Amazon ECS
7 1 (0.79%) Amazon GuardDuty
7 1 (0.79%) Azure Monitor
7 1 (0.79%) Azure Sentinel
7 1 (0.79%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (0.79%) Power Automate
7 1 (0.79%) Power Platform
7 1 (0.79%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 36 (28.35%) Firewall
2 14 (11.02%) Cisco Nexus
3 13 (10.24%) Network Security
4 12 (9.45%) Wi-Fi
5 7 (5.51%) Wireless
6 6 (4.72%) VPN
7 4 (3.15%) DNS
7 4 (3.15%) VLAN
8 3 (2.36%) Intrusion Detection
9 2 (1.57%) Broadband
9 2 (1.57%) Cisco ISE
9 2 (1.57%) TCP/IP
9 2 (1.57%) Wireless Security
10 1 (0.79%) DKIM
10 1 (0.79%) DMARC
10 1 (0.79%) HTTP
10 1 (0.79%) Internet
10 1 (0.79%) LAN
10 1 (0.79%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.79%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (0.79%) Electronic Patient Records
1 1 (0.79%) InterSystems Cache
1 1 (0.79%) Redis
1 1 (0.79%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 10 (7.87%) Burp Suite
2 9 (7.09%) Metasploit
3 5 (3.94%) JIRA
4 3 (2.36%) Git
5 2 (1.57%) Bitbucket
5 2 (1.57%) Gatling
5 2 (1.57%) Jenkins
5 2 (1.57%) Maven
5 2 (1.57%) NUnit
5 2 (1.57%) Team Foundation Server
6 1 (0.79%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.79%) GitLab
6 1 (0.79%) IDA Disassembler
6 1 (0.79%) JMeter
6 1 (0.79%) JUnit
6 1 (0.79%) Postman
6 1 (0.79%) Selenium
6 1 (0.79%) Vagrant
General
1 51 (40.16%) Social Skills
2 16 (12.60%) Analytical Skills
3 13 (10.24%) Finance
3 13 (10.24%) Law
3 13 (10.24%) Public Sector
4 11 (8.66%) Banking
5 10 (7.87%) Retail
6 6 (4.72%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 4 (3.15%) Influencing Skills
8 3 (2.36%) Legal
9 2 (1.57%) Back Office
9 2 (1.57%) Financial Institution
9 2 (1.57%) Marketing
9 2 (1.57%) Social Housing
10 1 (0.79%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 34 (26.77%) Penetration Tester
1 34 (26.77%) Tester
2 27 (21.26%) Senior
3 20 (15.75%) Analyst
4 16 (12.60%) Senior Analyst
5 14 (11.02%) Security Analyst
6 13 (10.24%) Consultant
6 13 (10.24%) Security Consultant
7 12 (9.45%) Network Analyst
7 12 (9.45%) Senior Network Analyst
8 11 (8.66%) Cybersecurity Analyst
9 10 (7.87%) Senior Cybersecurity Analyst
9 10 (7.87%) Senior Security Analyst
10 8 (6.30%) Architect
11 7 (5.51%) Client Director
11 7 (5.51%) Security Manager
11 7 (5.51%) Security Specialist
11 7 (5.51%) Services Director
12 6 (4.72%) Network Security Analyst
12 6 (4.72%) Security Penetration Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.15%) RESTful
1 4 (3.15%) Terraform
2 3 (2.36%) .NET
2 3 (2.36%) .NET Framework
3 2 (1.57%) AngularJS
3 2 (1.57%) ASP.NET
3 2 (1.57%) ASP.NET Core
3 2 (1.57%) Entity Framework
3 2 (1.57%) OpenAPI
3 2 (1.57%) RxJS
3 2 (1.57%) Swagger
3 2 (1.57%) Vitest
4 1 (0.79%) ARM Templates
4 1 (0.79%) CSS
4 1 (0.79%) HTML
4 1 (0.79%) Lightning Web Components
4 1 (0.79%) Memcached
4 1 (0.79%) OAuth
4 1 (0.79%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 34 (26.77%) Security Posture
2 17 (13.39%) Cyber Threat
3 12 (9.45%) Mobile App
4 8 (6.30%) Management Information System
5 7 (5.51%) Operational Technology
6 6 (4.72%) Blog
7 4 (3.15%) Cloud Native
7 4 (3.15%) Cyber Kill Chain
7 4 (3.15%) Insider Threat
7 4 (3.15%) Security Operations Centre
7 4 (3.15%) Self-Motivation
8 3 (2.36%) Cyber Defence
8 3 (2.36%) Public Cloud
9 2 (1.57%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 2 (1.57%) Distributed Systems
9 2 (1.57%) Enterprise Software
9 2 (1.57%) Housing Association
9 2 (1.57%) PMI
9 2 (1.57%) Social Media
10 1 (0.79%) Cyber Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 19 (14.96%) Linux
1 19 (14.96%) Windows
2 14 (11.02%) Android
2 14 (11.02%) Apple iOS
3 5 (3.94%) Windows Server
4 4 (3.15%) Kali Linux
5 1 (0.79%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 78 (61.42%) Cybersecurity
2 52 (40.94%) Vulnerability Management
3 40 (31.50%) Incident Response
4 35 (27.56%) Information Security
5 33 (25.98%) Cloud Security
6 31 (24.41%) Red Team
7 26 (20.47%) Security Testing
7 26 (20.47%) SIEM
8 23 (18.11%) Risk Management
9 19 (14.96%) AI
9 19 (14.96%) Problem-Solving
10 18 (14.17%) Application Security
10 18 (14.17%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
10 18 (14.17%) Mentoring
10 18 (14.17%) Offensive Security
10 18 (14.17%) OWASP
10 18 (14.17%) Security Operations
10 18 (14.17%) Threat Intelligence
10 18 (14.17%) Threat Modelling
11 17 (13.39%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 19 (14.96%) Python
2 13 (10.24%) PowerShell
3 9 (7.09%) Go
3 9 (7.09%) Java
4 3 (2.36%) Bash
4 3 (2.36%) C
4 3 (2.36%) C#
4 3 (2.36%) C++
4 3 (2.36%) JavaScript
4 3 (2.36%) Objective-C
4 3 (2.36%) Perl
4 3 (2.36%) PHP
4 3 (2.36%) Ruby
4 3 (2.36%) Rust
5 2 (1.57%) Bicep
5 2 (1.57%) SQL
5 2 (1.57%) TypeScript
6 1 (0.79%) Apex Code
Qualifications
1 35 (27.56%) Security Cleared
2 31 (24.41%) SC Cleared
3 28 (22.05%) CREST Certified
4 19 (14.96%) CISM
4 19 (14.96%) CISSP
5 16 (12.60%) OSCP
6 11 (8.66%) CHECK Team Member
7 10 (7.87%) Degree
8 8 (6.30%) GIAC
9 7 (5.51%) DV Cleared
10 6 (4.72%) CEH
10 6 (4.72%) CHECK Team Leader
11 5 (3.94%) CCNP
11 5 (3.94%) Cisco Certification
11 5 (3.94%) CompTIA Security+
12 3 (2.36%) CCNA
12 3 (2.36%) GPEN
12 3 (2.36%) GXPN
12 3 (2.36%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 3 (2.36%) OSCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 51 (40.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 30 (23.62%) NIST
3 20 (15.75%) GDPR
4 19 (14.96%) Cyber Essentials
5 18 (14.17%) PCI DSS
6 16 (12.60%) GRC
7 7 (5.51%) Actionable Recommendations
8 5 (3.94%) SOC 2
9 4 (3.15%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 4 (3.15%) Def Stans
9 4 (3.15%) NCSC
9 4 (3.15%) NIST 800
10 2 (1.57%) QA
11 1 (0.79%) Accessibility
11 1 (0.79%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 1 (0.79%) WCAG
System Software
1 9 (7.09%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.57%) Docker
Systems Management
1 9 (7.09%) Kubernetes
1 9 (7.09%) Nmap
2 3 (2.36%) Progress Chef
3 2 (1.57%) Nessus
4 1 (0.79%) Ansible
4 1 (0.79%) Consul
4 1 (0.79%) Network Intrusion Detection System
4 1 (0.79%) OpenVAS
4 1 (0.79%) Packer
4 1 (0.79%) Puppet
Vendors
1 25 (19.69%) Microsoft
2 18 (14.17%) Qualys
3 15 (11.81%) Palo Alto
4 14 (11.02%) Cisco
5 12 (9.45%) Aruba
6 6 (4.72%) Splunk
7 5 (3.94%) CrowdStrike
7 5 (3.94%) Fortinet
7 5 (3.94%) Sophos
8 3 (2.36%) New Relic
8 3 (2.36%) SolarWinds
8 3 (2.36%) Zerto
8 3 (2.36%) Zscaler
9 2 (1.57%) CheckPoint
9 2 (1.57%) DevExpress
9 2 (1.57%) Okta
10 1 (0.79%) Google
10 1 (0.79%) OpenAI
10 1 (0.79%) Salesforce
10 1 (0.79%) Tenable