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 22 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 301 311 317
Rank change year-on-year +10 +6 +115
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 70 139 201
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.45% 0.85% 0.84%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.52% 0.90% 0.90%
Number of salaries quoted 57 87 175
10th Percentile £40,000 £50,750 £42,882
25th Percentile £48,165 £58,750 £52,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £65,000 £67,500
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% -3.70% -
75th Percentile £70,000 £87,500 £87,500
90th Percentile £77,500 £93,250 £91,500
UK median annual salary £70,000 £66,250 £65,500
% change year-on-year +5.66% +1.15% -2.96%

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 13,454 15,421 22,310
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 86.93% 94.05% 93.16%
Number of salaries quoted 8,565 9,081 18,236
10th Percentile £30,000 £36,250 £35,125
25th Percentile £42,000 £47,500 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £62,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% +4.17% -4.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £102,500 £96,539
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -8.00%

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 22 January 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 3 (4.29%) Microsoft Exchange
1 3 (4.29%) SharePoint
2 1 (1.43%) Confluence
Applications
1 6 (8.57%) Microsoft Excel
1 6 (8.57%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.43%) GNU Octave
Cloud Services
1 15 (21.43%) AWS
1 15 (21.43%) Azure
2 6 (8.57%) Power Platform
3 5 (7.14%) Entra ID
4 4 (5.71%) GCP
4 4 (5.71%) Microsoft 365
5 3 (4.29%) IBM Cloud
6 1 (1.43%) GitHub
6 1 (1.43%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 14 (20.00%) TCP/IP
2 13 (18.57%) Firewall
3 9 (12.86%) Network Security
3 9 (12.86%) Wireshark
4 8 (11.43%) VPN
5 4 (5.71%) Ethernet
5 4 (5.71%) Wi-Fi
6 3 (4.29%) VLAN
7 2 (2.86%) DMARC
7 2 (2.86%) DNS
7 2 (2.86%) HTTP
8 1 (1.43%) ICMP
8 1 (1.43%) Modbus
8 1 (1.43%) SSH
8 1 (1.43%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (8.57%) Power BI
1 6 (8.57%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 15 (21.43%) Burp Suite
1 15 (21.43%) Metasploit
2 1 (1.43%) IDA Disassembler
2 1 (1.43%) JIRA
General
1 31 (44.29%) Social Skills
2 12 (17.14%) Analytical Skills
3 11 (15.71%) Public Sector
4 10 (14.29%) Retail
5 9 (12.86%) Banking
6 7 (10.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 6 (8.57%) Finance
8 4 (5.71%) Electronics
9 3 (4.29%) Law
10 2 (2.86%) Marketing
11 1 (1.43%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (1.43%) Investment Banking
11 1 (1.43%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 16 (22.86%) Tester
2 15 (21.43%) Penetration Tester
3 12 (17.14%) Analyst
4 11 (15.71%) Security Specialist
5 10 (14.29%) Senior
6 9 (12.86%) IT Manager
7 8 (11.43%) Security Analyst
8 7 (10.00%) Auditor
8 7 (10.00%) Cybersecurity Engineer
8 7 (10.00%) IT Auditor
8 7 (10.00%) Security Engineer
8 7 (10.00%) Threat Intelligence Specialist
9 6 (8.57%) Audit Manager
9 6 (8.57%) Internal Audit Manager
9 6 (8.57%) Internal Auditor
9 6 (8.57%) IT Audit Manager
10 5 (7.14%) Senior Penetration Tester
10 5 (7.14%) Senior Security Engineer
10 5 (7.14%) Senior Tester
11 4 (5.71%) Security Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.43%) JSON
1 1 (1.43%) PyTorch
1 1 (1.43%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 18 (25.71%) Security Posture
2 7 (10.00%) Cyber Threat
2 7 (10.00%) Insider Threat
2 7 (10.00%) Security Operations Centre
3 6 (8.57%) Cyber Defence
3 6 (8.57%) Cyber Kill Chain
3 6 (8.57%) Self-Motivation
4 5 (7.14%) Operational Technology
5 4 (5.71%) Analytical Mindset
5 4 (5.71%) Enterprise Software
6 3 (4.29%) Data Centre
6 3 (4.29%) Mobile App
6 3 (4.29%) PKI
6 3 (4.29%) SCADA
7 2 (2.86%) Cloud Native
7 2 (2.86%) Cyberattack
8 1 (1.43%) Arduino
8 1 (1.43%) Driving Licence
8 1 (1.43%) Public Cloud
8 1 (1.43%) Raspberry Pi
Operating Systems
1 15 (21.43%) Windows
2 13 (18.57%) Linux
3 6 (8.57%) Unix
4 4 (5.71%) Android
4 4 (5.71%) Apple iOS
5 3 (4.29%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 45 (64.29%) Cybersecurity
2 28 (40.00%) Incident Response
3 20 (28.57%) Information Security
4 16 (22.86%) SIEM
5 15 (21.43%) Problem-Solving
5 15 (21.43%) Red Team
6 14 (20.00%) Threat Intelligence
7 13 (18.57%) Vulnerability Management
8 12 (17.14%) Application Security
8 12 (17.14%) ITIL
8 12 (17.14%) Offensive Security
9 11 (15.71%) SDLC
9 11 (15.71%) Security Operations
10 10 (14.29%) Analytics
10 10 (14.29%) Data Analysis
11 9 (12.86%) Ethical Hacking
12 8 (11.43%) Actionable Insight
12 8 (11.43%) Data Loss Prevention
12 8 (11.43%) Security Monitoring
12 8 (11.43%) Vulnerability Assessment
Programming Languages
1 13 (18.57%) Python
2 6 (8.57%) C
2 6 (8.57%) C++
2 6 (8.57%) R
2 6 (8.57%) SQL
3 3 (4.29%) Go
3 3 (4.29%) Java
4 1 (1.43%) Bash
4 1 (1.43%) C#
4 1 (1.43%) JavaScript
4 1 (1.43%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 23 (32.86%) CISSP
2 22 (31.43%) Security Cleared
3 21 (30.00%) CREST Certified
4 19 (27.14%) Degree
4 19 (27.14%) OSCP
5 17 (24.29%) SC Cleared
6 13 (18.57%) CHECK Team Member
6 13 (18.57%) CompTIA Security+
7 12 (17.14%) CCNA
7 12 (17.14%) Cisco Certification
7 12 (17.14%) GIAC
8 10 (14.29%) MCP
8 10 (14.29%) Microsoft Certification
9 9 (12.86%) Cyber Scheme
9 9 (12.86%) GCIA
10 8 (11.43%) CEH
10 8 (11.43%) CISA
10 8 (11.43%) GPEN
11 7 (10.00%) CISMP
11 7 (10.00%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (37.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 11 (15.71%) NIST
3 9 (12.86%) Cyber Essentials
4 8 (11.43%) Actionable Recommendations
4 8 (11.43%) GDPR
5 5 (7.14%) GRC
6 3 (4.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 2 (2.86%) NIST 800
8 1 (1.43%) PCI DSS
8 1 (1.43%) QA
System Software
1 5 (7.14%) Active Directory
2 3 (4.29%) VMware ESXi
2 3 (4.29%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 15 (21.43%) Nmap
2 12 (17.14%) Nessus
3 4 (5.71%) QRadar
4 3 (4.29%) Kubernetes
4 3 (4.29%) Proxmox
5 2 (2.86%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (1.43%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 20 (28.57%) Microsoft
2 7 (10.00%) Cisco
3 6 (8.57%) Oracle
4 4 (5.71%) Splunk
5 3 (4.29%) IBM
5 3 (4.29%) VMware
6 2 (2.86%) Qualys
6 2 (2.86%) Veeam