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 20 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 340 352 349
Rank change year-on-year +12 -3 +9
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 115 62 151
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.47% 0.38% 0.65%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.58% 0.41% 0.74%
Number of salaries quoted 82 54 103
10th Percentile £45,000 £51,250 £42,500
25th Percentile £51,875 £61,563 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £76,000 £69,384 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year +9.54% +11.01% -
75th Percentile £86,250 £79,688 £73,125
90th Percentile £107,500 £88,333 £87,500
UK median annual salary £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
% change year-on-year +3.70% +3.85% +4.00%

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 19,914 15,166 20,533
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 81.38% 93.21% 87.84%
Number of salaries quoted 14,271 8,607 12,553
10th Percentile £34,000 £30,000 £35,250
25th Percentile £44,972 £40,903 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £78,750 £80,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £100,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -4.17%

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 20 September 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 (0.87%) Apache
1 1 (0.87%) Confluence
1 1 (0.87%) Drupal
1 1 (0.87%) IIS
1 1 (0.87%) nginx
1 1 (0.87%) SharePoint
1 1 (0.87%) WordPress
Business Applications
1 1 (0.87%) Magento
Cloud Services
1 30 (26.09%) AWS
2 29 (25.22%) Azure
3 14 (12.17%) GCP
4 5 (4.35%) Microsoft 365
5 4 (3.48%) SaaS
6 3 (2.61%) Amazon EKS
6 3 (2.61%) AWS CloudFormation
6 3 (2.61%) Entra ID
7 2 (1.74%) Azure DevOps
8 1 (0.87%) Amazon ECS
8 1 (0.87%) Amazon GuardDuty
8 1 (0.87%) AWS CodePipeline
8 1 (0.87%) AWS Control Tower
8 1 (0.87%) Azure Key Vault
8 1 (0.87%) Copilot Studio
8 1 (0.87%) Figma
8 1 (0.87%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (0.87%) Power Automate
8 1 (0.87%) Power Platform
8 1 (0.87%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 31 (26.96%) Firewall
2 12 (10.43%) Cisco Nexus
2 12 (10.43%) Wi-Fi
3 9 (7.83%) Wireless
4 8 (6.96%) Network Security
5 3 (2.61%) DNS
5 3 (2.61%) VLAN
5 3 (2.61%) VPN
6 2 (1.74%) Broadband
6 2 (1.74%) TCP/IP
6 2 (1.74%) Wireless Security
7 1 (0.87%) DKIM
7 1 (0.87%) DMARC
7 1 (0.87%) HTTP
7 1 (0.87%) Internet
7 1 (0.87%) Intrusion Detection
7 1 (0.87%) LAN
7 1 (0.87%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.87%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (0.87%) Electronic Patient Records
1 1 (0.87%) InterSystems Cache
1 1 (0.87%) Redis
1 1 (0.87%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 12 (10.43%) Burp Suite
2 11 (9.57%) Metasploit
3 5 (4.35%) JIRA
4 2 (1.74%) Gatling
4 2 (1.74%) Git
4 2 (1.74%) Jenkins
4 2 (1.74%) Maven
4 2 (1.74%) Team Foundation Server
5 1 (0.87%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.87%) Cucumber
5 1 (0.87%) GitLab
5 1 (0.87%) IDA Disassembler
5 1 (0.87%) JMeter
5 1 (0.87%) JUnit
5 1 (0.87%) NUnit
5 1 (0.87%) Postman
5 1 (0.87%) Selenium
5 1 (0.87%) Vagrant
General
1 49 (42.61%) Social Skills
2 16 (13.91%) Analytical Skills
3 14 (12.17%) Law
4 11 (9.57%) Finance
5 10 (8.70%) Banking
5 10 (8.70%) Retail
6 8 (6.96%) Public Sector
7 6 (5.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 4 (3.48%) Influencing Skills
8 4 (3.48%) Legal
9 2 (1.74%) Back Office
9 2 (1.74%) Financial Institution
9 2 (1.74%) Marketing
10 1 (0.87%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.87%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 37 (32.17%) Penetration Tester
1 37 (32.17%) Tester
2 27 (23.48%) Senior
3 20 (17.39%) Analyst
4 16 (13.91%) Senior Analyst
5 14 (12.17%) Security Analyst
6 12 (10.43%) Network Analyst
6 12 (10.43%) Senior Network Analyst
7 11 (9.57%) Cybersecurity Analyst
8 10 (8.70%) Senior Cybersecurity Analyst
8 10 (8.70%) Senior Security Analyst
9 9 (7.83%) Consultant
9 9 (7.83%) Security Consultant
10 8 (6.96%) Architect
11 7 (6.09%) Head of Security
12 6 (5.22%) Network Security Analyst
12 6 (5.22%) Security Manager
12 6 (5.22%) Security Penetration Tester
12 6 (5.22%) Security Tester
13 5 (4.35%) Head of Information
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (2.61%) RESTful
1 3 (2.61%) Terraform
2 2 (1.74%) .NET
2 2 (1.74%) .NET Framework
3 1 (0.87%) AngularJS
3 1 (0.87%) ARM Templates
3 1 (0.87%) ASP.NET
3 1 (0.87%) ASP.NET Core
3 1 (0.87%) CSS
3 1 (0.87%) Entity Framework
3 1 (0.87%) HTML
3 1 (0.87%) Lightning Web Components
3 1 (0.87%) Memcached
3 1 (0.87%) OAuth
3 1 (0.87%) OpenAPI
3 1 (0.87%) Playwright
3 1 (0.87%) RxJS
3 1 (0.87%) Swagger
3 1 (0.87%) Vitest
Miscellaneous
1 35 (30.43%) Security Posture
2 15 (13.04%) Cyber Threat
3 12 (10.43%) Mobile App
4 9 (7.83%) Management Information System
5 8 (6.96%) Operational Technology
6 4 (3.48%) Cloud Native
6 4 (3.48%) Cyber Kill Chain
6 4 (3.48%) Insider Threat
6 4 (3.48%) Security Operations Centre
6 4 (3.48%) Self-Motivation
7 2 (1.74%) Blog
7 2 (1.74%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (1.74%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 2 (1.74%) Distributed Systems
7 2 (1.74%) PMI
7 2 (1.74%) Public Cloud
7 2 (1.74%) Social Media
8 1 (0.87%) Cyber Security Posture
8 1 (0.87%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (0.87%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 16 (13.91%) Linux
1 16 (13.91%) Windows
2 14 (12.17%) Android
2 14 (12.17%) Apple iOS
3 5 (4.35%) Kali Linux
3 5 (4.35%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.74%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 71 (61.74%) Cybersecurity
2 51 (44.35%) Vulnerability Management
3 36 (31.30%) Incident Response
4 35 (30.43%) Information Security
5 33 (28.70%) Cloud Security
6 28 (24.35%) Security Testing
7 27 (23.48%) Red Team
8 23 (20.00%) Risk Management
8 23 (20.00%) SIEM
9 20 (17.39%) AI
9 20 (17.39%) Offensive Security
10 19 (16.52%) Problem-Solving
11 18 (15.65%) Application Security
11 18 (15.65%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
11 18 (15.65%) Data Security
11 18 (15.65%) Threat Intelligence
11 18 (15.65%) Threat Modelling
12 16 (13.91%) Security Architecture
12 16 (13.91%) Security Operations
12 16 (13.91%) Vulnerability Assessment
Programming Languages
1 19 (16.52%) Python
2 11 (9.57%) PowerShell
3 8 (6.96%) Go
3 8 (6.96%) Java
4 3 (2.61%) JavaScript
4 3 (2.61%) PHP
5 2 (1.74%) Bash
5 2 (1.74%) C
5 2 (1.74%) C#
5 2 (1.74%) C++
5 2 (1.74%) Objective-C
5 2 (1.74%) Perl
5 2 (1.74%) Ruby
5 2 (1.74%) Rust
6 1 (0.87%) Apex Code
6 1 (0.87%) Bicep
6 1 (0.87%) SQL
6 1 (0.87%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 33 (28.70%) Security Cleared
2 29 (25.22%) SC Cleared
3 24 (20.87%) CREST Certified
4 21 (18.26%) CISM
4 21 (18.26%) CISSP
5 16 (13.91%) OSCP
6 12 (10.43%) CHECK Team Member
7 8 (6.96%) Degree
7 8 (6.96%) GIAC
8 7 (6.09%) CHECK Team Leader
9 5 (4.35%) CEH
9 5 (4.35%) CompTIA Security+
10 3 (2.61%) DV Cleared
11 2 (1.74%) AWS Certification
11 2 (1.74%) CISA
11 2 (1.74%) Cisco Certification
11 2 (1.74%) GPEN
11 2 (1.74%) Microsoft Certification
11 2 (1.74%) OSCE
11 2 (1.74%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (39.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 28 (24.35%) NIST
3 19 (16.52%) GDPR
4 18 (15.65%) Cyber Essentials
5 15 (13.04%) GRC
6 14 (12.17%) PCI DSS
7 4 (3.48%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 4 (3.48%) Def Stans
7 4 (3.48%) NCSC
7 4 (3.48%) NIST 800
7 4 (3.48%) SOC 2
8 3 (2.61%) Actionable Recommendations
9 2 (1.74%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 2 (1.74%) QA
10 1 (0.87%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.87%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 1 (0.87%) WCAG
System Software
1 5 (4.35%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.74%) Docker
Systems Management
1 11 (9.57%) Nmap
2 9 (7.83%) Kubernetes
3 3 (2.61%) Progress Chef
4 2 (1.74%) Nessus
5 1 (0.87%) Ansible
5 1 (0.87%) Consul
5 1 (0.87%) Network Intrusion Detection System
5 1 (0.87%) OpenVAS
5 1 (0.87%) Packer
5 1 (0.87%) Puppet
Vendors
1 21 (18.26%) Microsoft
2 18 (15.65%) Qualys
3 14 (12.17%) Palo Alto
4 12 (10.43%) Aruba
4 12 (10.43%) Cisco
5 5 (4.35%) CrowdStrike
6 4 (3.48%) Splunk
7 3 (2.61%) New Relic
7 3 (2.61%) SolarWinds
7 3 (2.61%) Zerto
8 2 (1.74%) Fortinet
8 2 (1.74%) Sophos
9 1 (0.87%) DevExpress
9 1 (0.87%) Foundry
9 1 (0.87%) Google
9 1 (0.87%) MuleSoft
9 1 (0.87%) OpenAI
9 1 (0.87%) Salesforce
9 1 (0.87%) TOWER Software
9 1 (0.87%) Zscaler