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 1 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 311 314 297
Rank change year-on-year +3 -17 +173
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 62 151 195
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.41% 0.78% 0.94%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.45% 0.86% 0.99%
Number of salaries quoted 53 93 177
10th Percentile £48,165 £50,000 £42,500
25th Percentile £51,250 £57,000 £52,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £65,000 £64,902
Median % change year-on-year - +0.15% -3.85%
75th Percentile £70,000 £80,000 £85,000
90th Percentile £77,500 £88,950 £90,000
UK median annual salary £70,000 £65,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year +7.69% +4.00% -10.20%

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 13,636 17,488 19,782
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 90.23% 90.62% 95.00%
Number of salaries quoted 8,573 10,553 16,034
10th Percentile £29,250 £36,250 £36,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £46,250 £46,306
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £62,500 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.00% - -
75th Percentile £77,500 £81,250 £80,070
90th Percentile £97,500 £100,000 £97,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -

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 1 December 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 (4.84%) Microsoft Exchange
1 3 (4.84%) SharePoint
2 1 (1.61%) Confluence
Applications
1 7 (11.29%) Microsoft Excel
1 7 (11.29%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.61%) GNU Octave
Cloud Services
1 16 (25.81%) Azure
2 7 (11.29%) AWS
2 7 (11.29%) Entra ID
2 7 (11.29%) Power Platform
3 4 (6.45%) Microsoft 365
4 3 (4.84%) IBM Cloud
5 2 (3.23%) Azure Key Vault
5 2 (3.23%) Azure Logic Apps
5 2 (3.23%) Azure Stack
5 2 (3.23%) PaaS
6 1 (1.61%) Azure Sentinel
6 1 (1.61%) GitHub
6 1 (1.61%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 21 (33.87%) Firewall
2 16 (25.81%) TCP/IP
3 12 (19.35%) Network Security
4 8 (12.90%) VPN
4 8 (12.90%) Wireshark
5 7 (11.29%) Wi-Fi
6 4 (6.45%) Ethernet
7 3 (4.84%) VLAN
8 2 (3.23%) DNS
8 2 (3.23%) HTTP
9 1 (1.61%) ICMP
9 1 (1.61%) Intrusion Detection
9 1 (1.61%) Modbus
9 1 (1.61%) NAS
9 1 (1.61%) SAN
9 1 (1.61%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (11.29%) Power BI
1 7 (11.29%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 10 (16.13%) Burp Suite
1 10 (16.13%) Metasploit
2 1 (1.61%) IDA Disassembler
2 1 (1.61%) JIRA
General
1 25 (40.32%) Social Skills
2 14 (22.58%) Analytical Skills
3 9 (14.52%) Public Sector
4 4 (6.45%) Electronics
4 4 (6.45%) Finance
5 3 (4.84%) Banking
5 3 (4.84%) Manufacturing
5 3 (4.84%) Retail
6 2 (3.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 2 (3.23%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (1.61%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 13 (20.97%) Security Engineer
2 12 (19.35%) Analyst
2 12 (19.35%) Tester
3 11 (17.74%) Cybersecurity Engineer
3 11 (17.74%) Penetration Tester
4 10 (16.13%) Senior
5 8 (12.90%) IT Manager
5 8 (12.90%) Security Analyst
5 8 (12.90%) Senior Security Engineer
6 7 (11.29%) Audit Manager
6 7 (11.29%) Auditor
6 7 (11.29%) Internal Audit Manager
6 7 (11.29%) Internal Auditor
6 7 (11.29%) IT Audit Manager
6 7 (11.29%) IT Auditor
7 5 (8.06%) Cloud Engineer
8 4 (6.45%) Data Analyst
8 4 (6.45%) Information Analyst
8 4 (6.45%) Infrastructure Manager
8 4 (6.45%) Security Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.61%) JSON
1 1 (1.61%) ModSecurity
1 1 (1.61%) PyTorch
1 1 (1.61%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 11 (17.74%) Security Operations Centre
2 10 (16.13%) Security Posture
3 7 (11.29%) Cyber Threat
4 6 (9.68%) Cyber Defence
4 6 (9.68%) Cyber Kill Chain
4 6 (9.68%) Operational Technology
4 6 (9.68%) Self-Motivation
5 5 (8.06%) Analytical Mindset
6 4 (6.45%) Enterprise Software
6 4 (6.45%) SCADA
7 3 (4.84%) Insider Threat
7 3 (4.84%) PKI
7 3 (4.84%) Virtual Team
8 2 (3.23%) Cloud Native
8 2 (3.23%) Cyberattack
9 1 (1.61%) Arduino
9 1 (1.61%) Embedded Systems
9 1 (1.61%) Linux Command Line
9 1 (1.61%) Raspberry Pi
9 1 (1.61%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 17 (27.42%) Windows
2 13 (20.97%) Linux
3 7 (11.29%) Unix
4 3 (4.84%) Windows Server
5 2 (3.23%) VMS
6 1 (1.61%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (64.52%) Cybersecurity
2 28 (45.16%) Incident Response
3 20 (32.26%) SIEM
4 17 (27.42%) Problem-Solving
5 16 (25.81%) ITIL
6 15 (24.19%) Security Operations
7 13 (20.97%) Vulnerability Management
8 11 (17.74%) Analytics
8 11 (17.74%) Data Analysis
9 10 (16.13%) Business Intelligence
9 10 (16.13%) Information Security
10 9 (14.52%) SDLC
10 9 (14.52%) Threat Intelligence
10 9 (14.52%) Vulnerability Assessment
11 8 (12.90%) Data Loss Prevention
11 8 (12.90%) DevOps
11 8 (12.90%) Security Monitoring
11 8 (12.90%) Threat Detection
12 7 (11.29%) Data Analytics
12 7 (11.29%) Data Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 14 (22.58%) Python
2 9 (14.52%) SQL
3 7 (11.29%) R
4 5 (8.06%) C
4 5 (8.06%) C++
5 2 (3.23%) PowerShell
6 1 (1.61%) C#
6 1 (1.61%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 24 (38.71%) CISSP
2 20 (32.26%) Security Cleared
3 16 (25.81%) SC Cleared
4 12 (19.35%) CompTIA Security+
4 12 (19.35%) Degree
4 12 (19.35%) GCIA
5 11 (17.74%) CCNA
5 11 (17.74%) CHECK Team Member
5 11 (17.74%) Cisco Certification
5 11 (17.74%) OSCP
6 10 (16.13%) CREST Certified
7 9 (14.52%) SANS
8 8 (12.90%) CCNP
8 8 (12.90%) CISA
8 8 (12.90%) GIAC
9 7 (11.29%) ACCA
9 7 (11.29%) CIMA
10 6 (9.68%) CEH
10 6 (9.68%) MCP
10 6 (9.68%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (48.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 12 (19.35%) NIST
3 11 (17.74%) Cyber Essentials
4 7 (11.29%) GDPR
5 3 (4.84%) Actionable Recommendations
6 2 (3.23%) GRC
6 2 (3.23%) NIST 800
7 1 (1.61%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (1.61%) NCSC
7 1 (1.61%) PCI DSS
7 1 (1.61%) QA
System Software
1 5 (8.06%) Active Directory
2 3 (4.84%) Firmware
2 3 (4.84%) VMware ESXi
2 3 (4.84%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 11 (17.74%) Nessus
2 9 (14.52%) Nmap
3 4 (6.45%) QRadar
4 3 (4.84%) Proxmox
5 1 (1.61%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (1.61%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 20 (32.26%) Microsoft
2 7 (11.29%) Oracle
3 6 (9.68%) Cisco
4 4 (6.45%) Splunk
5 3 (4.84%) Fortinet
5 3 (4.84%) IBM
5 3 (4.84%) VMware
6 1 (1.61%) Palo Alto
6 1 (1.61%) Qualys
6 1 (1.61%) Tanium
6 1 (1.61%) Tenable
6 1 (1.61%) Zscaler