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

6 months to
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 334 373 359
Rank change year-on-year +39 -14 +4
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 123 65 154
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.55% 0.39% 0.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.67% 0.42% 0.67%
Number of salaries quoted 85 57 133
10th Percentile £45,000 £50,750 £41,250
25th Percentile £51,250 £56,250 £48,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £70,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% +16.67% -4.00%
75th Percentile £94,750 £88,333 £73,750
90th Percentile £109,000 £102,000 £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 18,446 15,378 22,855
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 83.04% 92.99% 87.83%
Number of salaries quoted 13,393 9,086 16,698
10th Percentile £35,000 £29,750 £35,000
25th Percentile £44,972 £41,000 £42,725
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £57,965
Median % change year-on-year - +3.51% -7.26%
75th Percentile £80,000 £78,750 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £101,250 £97,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.41%

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 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 (0.81%) Apache
1 1 (0.81%) Confluence
1 1 (0.81%) Drupal
1 1 (0.81%) IIS
1 1 (0.81%) nginx
1 1 (0.81%) SharePoint
1 1 (0.81%) WordPress
Business Applications
1 1 (0.81%) Magento
Cloud Services
1 37 (30.08%) AWS
2 36 (29.27%) Azure
3 17 (13.82%) GCP
4 4 (3.25%) Amazon EKS
4 4 (3.25%) AWS CloudFormation
4 4 (3.25%) Azure DevOps
4 4 (3.25%) Microsoft 365
4 4 (3.25%) Mimecast
4 4 (3.25%) SaaS
5 3 (2.44%) Entra ID
6 2 (1.63%) Azure Key Vault
6 2 (1.63%) Figma
7 1 (0.81%) Amazon GuardDuty
7 1 (0.81%) AWS Control Tower
7 1 (0.81%) Azure AI
7 1 (0.81%) Azure Monitor
7 1 (0.81%) Azure Sentinel
7 1 (0.81%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (0.81%) Microsoft Copilot
7 1 (0.81%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 37 (30.08%) Firewall
2 16 (13.01%) Cisco Nexus
3 12 (9.76%) Network Security
3 12 (9.76%) Wi-Fi
4 7 (5.69%) VPN
5 4 (3.25%) Cisco ISE
5 4 (3.25%) DNS
5 4 (3.25%) Intrusion Detection
6 3 (2.44%) VLAN
6 3 (2.44%) Wireless
7 2 (1.63%) Broadband
8 1 (0.81%) HTTP
8 1 (0.81%) Internet
8 1 (0.81%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.81%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (0.81%) InterSystems Cache
1 1 (0.81%) Redis
1 1 (0.81%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 9 (7.32%) Burp Suite
2 8 (6.50%) Metasploit
3 4 (3.25%) JIRA
4 3 (2.44%) Git
5 2 (1.63%) Bitbucket
5 2 (1.63%) Gatling
5 2 (1.63%) NUnit
6 1 (0.81%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.81%) GitLab
6 1 (0.81%) IDA Disassembler
6 1 (0.81%) JMeter
6 1 (0.81%) JUnit
6 1 (0.81%) Postman
6 1 (0.81%) Selenium
6 1 (0.81%) Vagrant
General
1 49 (39.84%) Social Skills
2 15 (12.20%) Analytical Skills
3 14 (11.38%) Public Sector
4 13 (10.57%) Law
5 12 (9.76%) Banking
6 11 (8.94%) Finance
6 11 (8.94%) Retail
7 7 (5.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 3 (2.44%) Back Office
8 3 (2.44%) Financial Institution
8 3 (2.44%) Legal
9 2 (1.63%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.63%) Social Housing
10 1 (0.81%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 29 (23.58%) Penetration Tester
1 29 (23.58%) Tester
2 25 (20.33%) Senior
3 22 (17.89%) Analyst
4 16 (13.01%) Security Analyst
4 16 (13.01%) Senior Analyst
5 13 (10.57%) Consultant
5 13 (10.57%) Cybersecurity Analyst
5 13 (10.57%) Security Consultant
6 12 (9.76%) Network Analyst
6 12 (9.76%) Senior Network Analyst
7 10 (8.13%) Senior Cybersecurity Analyst
7 10 (8.13%) Senior Security Analyst
8 9 (7.32%) Architect
9 8 (6.50%) Security Manager
9 8 (6.50%) Security Specialist
10 7 (5.69%) Client Director
10 7 (5.69%) Services Director
11 6 (4.88%) Network Security Analyst
11 6 (4.88%) Security Penetration Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.25%) RESTful
2 3 (2.44%) .NET
2 3 (2.44%) .NET Framework
3 2 (1.63%) AngularJS
3 2 (1.63%) ASP.NET
3 2 (1.63%) ASP.NET Core
3 2 (1.63%) Entity Framework
3 2 (1.63%) OpenAPI
3 2 (1.63%) RxJS
3 2 (1.63%) Swagger
3 2 (1.63%) Vitest
4 1 (0.81%) ARM Templates
4 1 (0.81%) Memcached
4 1 (0.81%) OAuth
4 1 (0.81%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 30 (24.39%) Security Posture
2 18 (14.63%) Cyber Threat
3 12 (9.76%) Mobile App
4 8 (6.50%) Management Information System
5 6 (4.88%) Blog
5 6 (4.88%) Cloud Native
6 4 (3.25%) Cyber Defence
6 4 (3.25%) Insider Threat
6 4 (3.25%) Public Cloud
7 3 (2.44%) Cyber Kill Chain
7 3 (2.44%) Operational Technology
7 3 (2.44%) Self-Motivation
8 2 (1.63%) Distributed Systems
8 2 (1.63%) Enterprise Software
8 2 (1.63%) Housing Association
8 2 (1.63%) Security Operations Centre
8 2 (1.63%) Social Media
9 1 (0.81%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 19 (15.45%) Linux
2 18 (14.63%) Windows
3 14 (11.38%) Android
3 14 (11.38%) Apple iOS
4 4 (3.25%) Kali Linux
4 4 (3.25%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 76 (61.79%) Cybersecurity
2 44 (35.77%) Vulnerability Management
3 42 (34.15%) Incident Response
4 33 (26.83%) Information Security
5 30 (24.39%) Cloud Security
6 29 (23.58%) Red Team
7 26 (21.14%) SIEM
8 22 (17.89%) Problem-Solving
8 22 (17.89%) Risk Management
9 21 (17.07%) Security Testing
10 20 (16.26%) Threat Modelling
11 17 (13.82%) AI
11 17 (13.82%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
11 17 (13.82%) Security Architecture
11 17 (13.82%) Threat Intelligence
12 16 (13.01%) OWASP
13 15 (12.20%) Data Security
13 15 (12.20%) Disaster Recovery
13 15 (12.20%) Mentoring
13 15 (12.20%) Security Operations
Programming Languages
1 18 (14.63%) Python
2 14 (11.38%) PowerShell
3 10 (8.13%) Go
3 10 (8.13%) Java
4 4 (3.25%) Bash
5 3 (2.44%) C
5 3 (2.44%) C#
5 3 (2.44%) C++
5 3 (2.44%) Objective-C
5 3 (2.44%) Perl
5 3 (2.44%) PHP
5 3 (2.44%) Ruby
5 3 (2.44%) Rust
6 2 (1.63%) Bicep
6 2 (1.63%) JavaScript
6 2 (1.63%) SQL
6 2 (1.63%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 33 (26.83%) Security Cleared
2 30 (24.39%) SC Cleared
3 29 (23.58%) CREST Certified
4 20 (16.26%) CISSP
5 18 (14.63%) OSCP
6 17 (13.82%) CISM
7 9 (7.32%) CHECK Team Member
7 9 (7.32%) Degree
8 8 (6.50%) CEH
9 7 (5.69%) DV Cleared
9 7 (5.69%) GIAC
10 6 (4.88%) CCNP
10 6 (4.88%) CHECK Team Leader
10 6 (4.88%) Cisco Certification
11 4 (3.25%) CCNA
11 4 (3.25%) CompTIA Security+
12 3 (2.44%) CCSAM
12 3 (2.44%) GXPN
12 3 (2.44%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 3 (2.44%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 52 (42.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 31 (25.20%) NIST
3 24 (19.51%) GDPR
4 23 (18.70%) PCI DSS
5 19 (15.45%) Cyber Essentials
6 12 (9.76%) GRC
7 9 (7.32%) Actionable Recommendations
8 7 (5.69%) NCSC
9 6 (4.88%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 4 (3.25%) Def Stans
10 4 (3.25%) NIST 800
10 4 (3.25%) SOC 2
11 3 (2.44%) Data Quality
12 2 (1.63%) Accessibility
12 2 (1.63%) QA
13 1 (0.81%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 1 (0.81%) WCAG
System Software
1 9 (7.32%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.63%) Docker
Systems Management
1 9 (7.32%) Kubernetes
2 8 (6.50%) Nmap
3 5 (4.07%) Terraform
4 3 (2.44%) CSIRT
5 2 (1.63%) Nessus
6 1 (0.81%) Ansible
6 1 (0.81%) Consul
6 1 (0.81%) OpenVAS
6 1 (0.81%) Packer
6 1 (0.81%) Progress Chef
6 1 (0.81%) Puppet
Vendors
1 25 (20.33%) Microsoft
2 16 (13.01%) Cisco
2 16 (13.01%) Qualys
3 15 (12.20%) Palo Alto
4 12 (9.76%) Aruba
5 7 (5.69%) Fortinet
5 7 (5.69%) Sophos
5 7 (5.69%) Splunk
6 4 (3.25%) CheckPoint
6 4 (3.25%) CrowdStrike
6 4 (3.25%) Okta
6 4 (3.25%) Zscaler
7 3 (2.44%) New Relic
7 3 (2.44%) SolarWinds
7 3 (2.44%) Zerto
8 2 (1.63%) DevExpress
8 2 (1.63%) Google
9 1 (0.81%) Foundry
9 1 (0.81%) OpenAI
9 1 (0.81%) TOWER Software