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

6 months to
20 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 303 359 387
Rank change year-on-year +56 +28 -22
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 122 70 209
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.61% 0.45% 0.60%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.74% 0.48% 0.68%
Number of salaries quoted 85 60 187
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% -7.69%
75th Percentile £92,500 £89,562 £75,000
90th Percentile £109,000 £105,250 £105,000
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 16,496 14,625 30,850
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 81.89% 94.51% 88.84%
Number of salaries quoted 11,943 8,513 23,831
10th Percentile £35,000 £29,750 £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% -8.00%
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% -9.54%

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 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 (0.82%) Apache
1 1 (0.82%) Confluence
1 1 (0.82%) Drupal
1 1 (0.82%) IIS
1 1 (0.82%) nginx
1 1 (0.82%) SharePoint
1 1 (0.82%) WordPress
Business Applications
1 1 (0.82%) Magento
Cloud Services
1 42 (34.43%) AWS
2 40 (32.79%) Azure
3 20 (16.39%) GCP
4 4 (3.28%) Amazon EKS
4 4 (3.28%) AWS CloudFormation
4 4 (3.28%) Azure DevOps
4 4 (3.28%) Mimecast
4 4 (3.28%) SaaS
5 3 (2.46%) Entra ID
5 3 (2.46%) Microsoft 365
6 2 (1.64%) Azure Key Vault
6 2 (1.64%) Figma
7 1 (0.82%) Amazon ECS
7 1 (0.82%) Amazon GuardDuty
7 1 (0.82%) AWS Control Tower
7 1 (0.82%) Azure Monitor
7 1 (0.82%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (0.82%) Power Automate
7 1 (0.82%) Power Platform
7 1 (0.82%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 33 (27.05%) Firewall
2 13 (10.66%) Network Security
3 12 (9.84%) Cisco Nexus
4 8 (6.56%) Wi-Fi
5 7 (5.74%) VPN
6 4 (3.28%) Cisco ISE
6 4 (3.28%) DNS
6 4 (3.28%) Intrusion Detection
7 3 (2.46%) DMARC
7 3 (2.46%) VLAN
8 1 (0.82%) Broadband
8 1 (0.82%) HTTP
8 1 (0.82%) Internet
8 1 (0.82%) TCP/IP
8 1 (0.82%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.82%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (0.82%) InterSystems Cache
1 1 (0.82%) Redis
1 1 (0.82%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 11 (9.02%) Burp Suite
2 10 (8.20%) Metasploit
3 3 (2.46%) Git
3 3 (2.46%) JIRA
4 2 (1.64%) Bitbucket
4 2 (1.64%) Gatling
4 2 (1.64%) NUnit
5 1 (0.82%) Cucumber
5 1 (0.82%) GitLab
5 1 (0.82%) IDA Disassembler
5 1 (0.82%) JMeter
5 1 (0.82%) JUnit
5 1 (0.82%) Postman
5 1 (0.82%) Selenium
5 1 (0.82%) Vagrant
General
1 58 (47.54%) Social Skills
2 16 (13.11%) Banking
2 16 (13.11%) Retail
3 15 (12.30%) Law
3 15 (12.30%) Public Sector
4 14 (11.48%) Analytical Skills
5 13 (10.66%) Finance
6 10 (8.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 4 (3.28%) Marketing
8 3 (2.46%) Back Office
8 3 (2.46%) Financial Institution
8 3 (2.46%) Legal
9 2 (1.64%) Social Housing
10 1 (0.82%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 27 (22.13%) Penetration Tester
1 27 (22.13%) Tester
2 25 (20.49%) Senior
3 18 (14.75%) Analyst
4 16 (13.11%) Security Analyst
5 14 (11.48%) Consultant
5 14 (11.48%) Security Consultant
6 13 (10.66%) Cybersecurity Analyst
7 12 (9.84%) Security Specialist
7 12 (9.84%) Senior Analyst
8 11 (9.02%) Security Manager
9 10 (8.20%) Senior Cybersecurity Analyst
9 10 (8.20%) Senior Security Analyst
10 9 (7.38%) Architect
11 8 (6.56%) Network Analyst
11 8 (6.56%) Senior Network Analyst
11 8 (6.56%) Senior Penetration Tester
11 8 (6.56%) Senior Tester
12 7 (5.74%) Cybersecurity Manager
12 7 (5.74%) Services Director
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.28%) .NET
2 3 (2.46%) .NET Framework
2 3 (2.46%) RESTful
3 2 (1.64%) AngularJS
3 2 (1.64%) ASP.NET
3 2 (1.64%) ASP.NET Core
3 2 (1.64%) Entity Framework
3 2 (1.64%) OpenAPI
3 2 (1.64%) RxJS
3 2 (1.64%) Swagger
3 2 (1.64%) Vitest
4 1 (0.82%) ARM Templates
4 1 (0.82%) Memcached
4 1 (0.82%) OAuth
4 1 (0.82%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 35 (28.69%) Security Posture
2 18 (14.75%) Cyber Threat
3 16 (13.11%) Mobile App
4 7 (5.74%) Blog
4 7 (5.74%) Insider Threat
4 7 (5.74%) Management Information System
4 7 (5.74%) Self-Motivation
5 5 (4.10%) Cloud Native
6 4 (3.28%) Cyber Defence
6 4 (3.28%) Public Cloud
7 3 (2.46%) Data Centre
7 3 (2.46%) Operational Technology
8 2 (1.64%) Cyber Kill Chain
8 2 (1.64%) Enterprise Software
8 2 (1.64%) Housing Association
8 2 (1.64%) Security Operations Centre
9 1 (0.82%) Cyberattack
9 1 (0.82%) Distributed Systems
9 1 (0.82%) Social Media
9 1 (0.82%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 17 (13.93%) Android
1 17 (13.93%) Apple iOS
1 17 (13.93%) Linux
2 16 (13.11%) Windows
3 3 (2.46%) Kali Linux
3 3 (2.46%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.82%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 80 (65.57%) Cybersecurity
2 41 (33.61%) Incident Response
3 38 (31.15%) Vulnerability Management
4 33 (27.05%) Information Security
5 32 (26.23%) Red Team
6 28 (22.95%) Cloud Security
7 23 (18.85%) Problem-Solving
8 22 (18.03%) Security Testing
8 22 (18.03%) SIEM
9 20 (16.39%) Offensive Security
10 18 (14.75%) OWASP
10 18 (14.75%) Threat Intelligence
10 18 (14.75%) Threat Modelling
11 17 (13.93%) Disaster Recovery
11 17 (13.93%) Risk Management
11 17 (13.93%) Security Architecture
12 16 (13.11%) Mentoring
13 15 (12.30%) Actionable Insight
13 15 (12.30%) Application Security
13 15 (12.30%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 16 (13.11%) Python
2 13 (10.66%) Java
3 12 (9.84%) Go
4 11 (9.02%) PowerShell
5 5 (4.10%) C
5 5 (4.10%) C#
5 5 (4.10%) C++
6 4 (3.28%) Bash
6 4 (3.28%) Perl
6 4 (3.28%) Ruby
7 3 (2.46%) Objective-C
7 3 (2.46%) Rust
8 2 (1.64%) Bicep
8 2 (1.64%) PHP
8 2 (1.64%) SQL
8 2 (1.64%) TypeScript
9 1 (0.82%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 35 (28.69%) CREST Certified
2 30 (24.59%) Security Cleared
3 25 (20.49%) OSCP
3 25 (20.49%) SC Cleared
4 19 (15.57%) CISSP
5 15 (12.30%) Degree
6 12 (9.84%) CISM
7 10 (8.20%) CEH
7 10 (8.20%) GIAC
8 9 (7.38%) CHECK Team Member
8 9 (7.38%) Cisco Certification
9 8 (6.56%) GPEN
10 7 (5.74%) CCNA
10 7 (5.74%) CompTIA Security+
10 7 (5.74%) DV Cleared
11 6 (4.92%) CCNP
11 6 (4.92%) CHECK Team Leader
12 5 (4.10%) CCSAS
12 5 (4.10%) GXPN
12 5 (4.10%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (40.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 26 (21.31%) NIST
3 24 (19.67%) GDPR
4 20 (16.39%) Cyber Essentials
5 18 (14.75%) PCI DSS
6 15 (12.30%) Actionable Recommendations
7 11 (9.02%) GRC
8 9 (7.38%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 7 (5.74%) NCSC
10 4 (3.28%) Def Stans
10 4 (3.28%) NIST 800
11 3 (2.46%) Data Quality
12 2 (1.64%) Accessibility
12 2 (1.64%) QA
13 1 (0.82%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 1 (0.82%) SOC 2
13 1 (0.82%) WCAG
System Software
1 10 (8.20%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.64%) Docker
Systems Management
1 11 (9.02%) Kubernetes
2 9 (7.38%) Nmap
3 5 (4.10%) Terraform
4 3 (2.46%) CSIRT
4 3 (2.46%) Nessus
5 1 (0.82%) Ansible
5 1 (0.82%) Consul
5 1 (0.82%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (0.82%) OpenVAS
5 1 (0.82%) Packer
5 1 (0.82%) Progress Chef
5 1 (0.82%) Puppet
Vendors
1 27 (22.13%) Microsoft
2 15 (12.30%) Cisco
3 11 (9.02%) Palo Alto
3 11 (9.02%) Qualys
4 8 (6.56%) Aruba
5 7 (5.74%) Fortinet
5 7 (5.74%) Sophos
6 6 (4.92%) Splunk
7 4 (3.28%) CheckPoint
7 4 (3.28%) CrowdStrike
7 4 (3.28%) Okta
7 4 (3.28%) Zscaler
8 3 (2.46%) Veeam
9 2 (1.64%) DevExpress
9 2 (1.64%) Google
9 2 (1.64%) New Relic
9 2 (1.64%) SolarWinds
9 2 (1.64%) Zerto
10 1 (0.82%) Foundry
10 1 (0.82%) TOWER Software