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 13 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 303 352 373
Rank change year-on-year +49 +21 -1
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 117 71 206
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.59% 0.47% 0.60%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.72% 0.49% 0.67%
Number of salaries quoted 81 60 185
10th Percentile £45,000 £52,150 £37,500
25th Percentile £48,165 £62,188 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £72,500 £75,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.33% +25.00% -10.78%
75th Percentile £94,750 £89,562 £75,000
90th Percentile £110,000 £105,250 £105,000
UK median annual salary £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
% change year-on-year +3.70% +3.85% -

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 16,195 14,419 30,697
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 82.01% 94.61% 89.25%
Number of salaries quoted 11,649 8,373 23,770
10th Percentile £35,000 £29,913 £33,750
25th Percentile £45,000 £42,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year - +4.35% -8.73%
75th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £105,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -9.69%

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 13 June 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 (0.85%) Apache
1 1 (0.85%) Confluence
1 1 (0.85%) Drupal
1 1 (0.85%) IIS
1 1 (0.85%) nginx
1 1 (0.85%) WordPress
Business Applications
1 1 (0.85%) Magento
Cloud Services
1 43 (36.75%) AWS
2 37 (31.62%) Azure
3 22 (18.80%) GCP
4 4 (3.42%) Amazon EKS
4 4 (3.42%) AWS CloudFormation
4 4 (3.42%) Azure DevOps
4 4 (3.42%) Mimecast
4 4 (3.42%) SaaS
5 2 (1.71%) Azure Key Vault
5 2 (1.71%) Entra ID
5 2 (1.71%) Figma
6 1 (0.85%) Amazon EC2
6 1 (0.85%) Amazon ElastiCache
6 1 (0.85%) Amazon S3
6 1 (0.85%) Azure Sentinel
6 1 (0.85%) CloudFront
6 1 (0.85%) GitHub
6 1 (0.85%) GitHub Actions
6 1 (0.85%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (0.85%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 29 (24.79%) Firewall
2 13 (11.11%) Network Security
3 10 (8.55%) Cisco Nexus
4 7 (5.98%) VPN
5 6 (5.13%) Wi-Fi
6 4 (3.42%) Cisco ISE
6 4 (3.42%) Intrusion Detection
7 3 (2.56%) DMARC
7 3 (2.56%) DNS
7 3 (2.56%) VLAN
8 1 (0.85%) Broadband
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.85%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (0.85%) InterSystems Cache
1 1 (0.85%) Redis
1 1 (0.85%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 9 (7.69%) Burp Suite
2 8 (6.84%) Metasploit
3 3 (2.56%) Git
4 2 (1.71%) Bitbucket
4 2 (1.71%) Gatling
4 2 (1.71%) JIRA
4 2 (1.71%) NUnit
5 1 (0.85%) Cucumber
5 1 (0.85%) GitLab
5 1 (0.85%) IDA Disassembler
5 1 (0.85%) JMeter
5 1 (0.85%) JUnit
5 1 (0.85%) Postman
5 1 (0.85%) Selenium
5 1 (0.85%) Vagrant
General
1 56 (47.86%) Social Skills
2 18 (15.38%) Retail
3 17 (14.53%) Banking
3 17 (14.53%) Law
4 13 (11.11%) Public Sector
5 12 (10.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 11 (9.40%) Analytical Skills
6 11 (9.40%) Finance
7 3 (2.56%) Back Office
7 3 (2.56%) Financial Institution
7 3 (2.56%) Marketing
8 2 (1.71%) Legal
8 2 (1.71%) Social Housing
9 1 (0.85%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 26 (22.22%) Penetration Tester
1 26 (22.22%) Tester
2 24 (20.51%) Senior
3 15 (12.82%) Consultant
3 15 (12.82%) Security Consultant
4 14 (11.97%) Analyst
4 14 (11.97%) Security Specialist
5 13 (11.11%) Security Analyst
6 11 (9.40%) Cybersecurity Analyst
7 10 (8.55%) Security Manager
7 10 (8.55%) Senior Penetration Tester
7 10 (8.55%) Senior Tester
8 9 (7.69%) Architect
8 9 (7.69%) Senior Analyst
9 8 (6.84%) Senior Cybersecurity Analyst
9 8 (6.84%) Senior Security Analyst
10 7 (5.98%) Client Director
10 7 (5.98%) Cybersecurity Consultant
10 7 (5.98%) Services Director
10 7 (5.98%) Threat Intelligence Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.42%) .NET
2 3 (2.56%) .NET Framework
2 3 (2.56%) RESTful
3 2 (1.71%) AngularJS
3 2 (1.71%) ASP.NET
3 2 (1.71%) ASP.NET Core
3 2 (1.71%) Entity Framework
3 2 (1.71%) OpenAPI
3 2 (1.71%) RxJS
3 2 (1.71%) Swagger
3 2 (1.71%) Vitest
4 1 (0.85%) ARM Templates
4 1 (0.85%) Memcached
4 1 (0.85%) OAuth
4 1 (0.85%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 33 (28.21%) Security Posture
2 16 (13.68%) Cyber Threat
3 15 (12.82%) Mobile App
4 7 (5.98%) Blog
4 7 (5.98%) Insider Threat
5 6 (5.13%) Management Information System
5 6 (5.13%) Self-Motivation
6 5 (4.27%) Cloud Native
7 4 (3.42%) Cyber Defence
7 4 (3.42%) Public Cloud
8 3 (2.56%) Data Centre
8 3 (2.56%) Operational Technology
9 2 (1.71%) Enterprise Software
9 2 (1.71%) Housing Association
9 2 (1.71%) Security Operations Centre
10 1 (0.85%) Cyber Kill Chain
10 1 (0.85%) Cyberattack
10 1 (0.85%) Distributed Systems
10 1 (0.85%) Social Media
10 1 (0.85%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 19 (16.24%) Android
1 19 (16.24%) Apple iOS
2 14 (11.97%) Linux
3 13 (11.11%) Windows
4 2 (1.71%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.85%) Kali Linux
5 1 (0.85%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 73 (62.39%) Cybersecurity
2 38 (32.48%) Incident Response
3 35 (29.91%) Information Security
4 33 (28.21%) Vulnerability Management
5 32 (27.35%) Red Team
6 27 (23.08%) Cloud Security
7 22 (18.80%) Security Testing
8 21 (17.95%) Problem-Solving
8 21 (17.95%) Threat Modelling
9 20 (17.09%) SIEM
10 19 (16.24%) Application Security
10 19 (16.24%) Offensive Security
11 17 (14.53%) OWASP
12 16 (13.68%) Actionable Insight
12 16 (13.68%) Disaster Recovery
12 16 (13.68%) Threat Intelligence
13 15 (12.82%) Risk Management
13 15 (12.82%) SDLC
13 15 (12.82%) Security Architecture
13 15 (12.82%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 15 (12.82%) Java
2 14 (11.97%) Go
3 13 (11.11%) Python
4 8 (6.84%) PowerShell
5 5 (4.27%) C
5 5 (4.27%) C#
5 5 (4.27%) C++
6 4 (3.42%) Bash
6 4 (3.42%) Perl
6 4 (3.42%) Ruby
7 3 (2.56%) Objective-C
7 3 (2.56%) Rust
8 2 (1.71%) Bicep
8 2 (1.71%) PHP
8 2 (1.71%) SQL
8 2 (1.71%) TypeScript
9 1 (0.85%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 33 (28.21%) CREST Certified
2 25 (21.37%) OSCP
2 25 (21.37%) Security Cleared
3 21 (17.95%) SC Cleared
4 17 (14.53%) CISSP
5 15 (12.82%) Degree
6 10 (8.55%) CEH
6 10 (8.55%) Cisco Certification
7 9 (7.69%) CISM
7 9 (7.69%) GIAC
7 9 (7.69%) GPEN
8 8 (6.84%) CCNA
9 7 (5.98%) CompTIA Security+
10 6 (5.13%) CCNP
10 6 (5.13%) CHECK Team Member
10 6 (5.13%) DV Cleared
11 5 (4.27%) GXPN
11 5 (4.27%) Microsoft Certification
12 4 (3.42%) CCSAS
12 4 (3.42%) CHECK Team Leader
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (37.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 22 (18.80%) NIST
3 21 (17.95%) GDPR
4 18 (15.38%) Cyber Essentials
5 17 (14.53%) PCI DSS
6 16 (13.68%) Actionable Recommendations
7 9 (7.69%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 9 (7.69%) GRC
8 5 (4.27%) NCSC
9 4 (3.42%) Def Stans
9 4 (3.42%) NIST 800
10 3 (2.56%) Data Quality
11 2 (1.71%) Accessibility
11 2 (1.71%) QA
12 1 (0.85%) SOC 2
12 1 (0.85%) WCAG
System Software
1 9 (7.69%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.71%) Docker
Systems Management
1 12 (10.26%) Kubernetes
2 7 (5.98%) Nmap
3 5 (4.27%) Terraform
4 3 (2.56%) CSIRT
5 2 (1.71%) Nessus
6 1 (0.85%) Ansible
6 1 (0.85%) Consul
6 1 (0.85%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (0.85%) Packer
6 1 (0.85%) Progress Chef
6 1 (0.85%) Puppet
Vendors
1 25 (21.37%) Microsoft
2 14 (11.97%) Cisco
3 9 (7.69%) Palo Alto
4 7 (5.98%) Fortinet
4 7 (5.98%) Qualys
4 7 (5.98%) Sophos
5 6 (5.13%) Aruba
6 5 (4.27%) Splunk
7 4 (3.42%) CheckPoint
7 4 (3.42%) CrowdStrike
7 4 (3.42%) Okta
7 4 (3.42%) Zscaler
8 3 (2.56%) Veeam
9 2 (1.71%) DevExpress
9 2 (1.71%) Google
10 1 (0.85%) New Relic
10 1 (0.85%) SolarWinds
10 1 (0.85%) Tenable
10 1 (0.85%) TOWER Software
10 1 (0.85%) Zerto