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

6 months to
27 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 354 368 358
Rank change year-on-year +14 -10 -4
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 113 62 140
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.46% 0.37% 0.62%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.56% 0.40% 0.70%
Number of salaries quoted 78 54 88
10th Percentile £44,550 £51,250 £45,383
25th Percentile £54,063 £61,563 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £76,000 £69,384 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year +9.54% +11.01% -3.85%
75th Percentile £86,250 £79,688 £74,063
90th Percentile £107,500 £88,333 £87,950
UK median annual salary £70,000 £68,442 £65,000
% change year-on-year +2.28% +5.30% +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 20,082 15,514 20,012
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 81.02% 93.49% 88.00%
Number of salaries quoted 14,336 8,545 11,983
10th Percentile £34,000 £29,913 £35,500
25th Percentile £44,972 £40,312 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £58,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -4.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £78,750 £80,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £100,600
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £58,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% -5.17% -3.33%

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 27 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 (0.88%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 29 (25.66%) AWS
2 27 (23.89%) Azure
3 15 (13.27%) GCP
4 5 (4.42%) Microsoft 365
5 4 (3.54%) SaaS
6 3 (2.65%) Entra ID
7 2 (1.77%) Amazon EKS
7 2 (1.77%) AWS CloudFormation
7 2 (1.77%) Power Platform
8 1 (0.88%) Azure AI
8 1 (0.88%) Azure Databricks
8 1 (0.88%) Azure DevOps
8 1 (0.88%) Azure Key Vault
8 1 (0.88%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 1 (0.88%) Copilot Studio
8 1 (0.88%) Microsoft Copilot
8 1 (0.88%) Microsoft Purview
8 1 (0.88%) Mimecast
8 1 (0.88%) Power Automate
8 1 (0.88%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 29 (25.66%) Firewall
2 12 (10.62%) Cisco Nexus
2 12 (10.62%) Wi-Fi
3 10 (8.85%) Wireless
4 7 (6.19%) Network Security
5 3 (2.65%) Wireless Security
6 2 (1.77%) Broadband
6 2 (1.77%) DNS
6 2 (1.77%) TCP/IP
6 2 (1.77%) VLAN
6 2 (1.77%) VPN
7 1 (0.88%) DKIM
7 1 (0.88%) DMARC
7 1 (0.88%) HTTP
7 1 (0.88%) Internet
7 1 (0.88%) Intrusion Detection
7 1 (0.88%) LAN
7 1 (0.88%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.88%) Data Lake
1 1 (0.88%) Data Vault
1 1 (0.88%) Electronic Patient Records
1 1 (0.88%) Power BI
1 1 (0.88%) Power Query
1 1 (0.88%) SQL Server
1 1 (0.88%) SQL Server Integration Services
1 1 (0.88%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 12 (10.62%) Burp Suite
2 11 (9.73%) Metasploit
3 4 (3.54%) JIRA
4 3 (2.65%) Git
4 3 (2.65%) Jenkins
4 3 (2.65%) Maven
4 3 (2.65%) Team Foundation Server
5 1 (0.88%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.88%) Cucumber
5 1 (0.88%) Gatling
5 1 (0.88%) GitLab
5 1 (0.88%) IDA Disassembler
5 1 (0.88%) JUnit
5 1 (0.88%) NUnit
5 1 (0.88%) Postman
5 1 (0.88%) Selenium
General
1 51 (45.13%) Social Skills
2 16 (14.16%) Analytical Skills
3 14 (12.39%) Law
4 12 (10.62%) Finance
5 11 (9.73%) Banking
5 11 (9.73%) Retail
6 7 (6.19%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 7 (6.19%) Public Sector
7 5 (4.42%) Influencing Skills
8 4 (3.54%) Legal
9 2 (1.77%) Back Office
9 2 (1.77%) Financial Institution
9 2 (1.77%) Marketing
10 1 (0.88%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 37 (32.74%) Penetration Tester
1 37 (32.74%) Tester
2 29 (25.66%) Senior
3 21 (18.58%) Analyst
4 16 (14.16%) Senior Analyst
5 15 (13.27%) Security Analyst
6 12 (10.62%) Cybersecurity Analyst
6 12 (10.62%) Network Analyst
6 12 (10.62%) Senior Network Analyst
7 10 (8.85%) Senior Cybersecurity Analyst
7 10 (8.85%) Senior Security Analyst
8 8 (7.08%) Architect
9 7 (6.19%) Consultant
9 7 (6.19%) Head of Security
9 7 (6.19%) Security Consultant
10 6 (5.31%) Network Security Analyst
10 6 (5.31%) Security Engineer
11 5 (4.42%) Security Specialist
11 5 (4.42%) Senior Penetration Tester
11 5 (4.42%) Senior Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (2.65%) RESTful
2 2 (1.77%) Terraform
3 1 (0.88%) .NET
3 1 (0.88%) .NET Framework
3 1 (0.88%) AngularJS
3 1 (0.88%) ASP.NET
3 1 (0.88%) ASP.NET Core
3 1 (0.88%) CSS
3 1 (0.88%) Entity Framework
3 1 (0.88%) HTML
3 1 (0.88%) Lightning Web Components
3 1 (0.88%) OAuth
3 1 (0.88%) OpenAPI
3 1 (0.88%) Playwright
3 1 (0.88%) PySpark
3 1 (0.88%) RxJS
3 1 (0.88%) Swagger
3 1 (0.88%) Vitest
Miscellaneous
1 35 (30.97%) Security Posture
2 15 (13.27%) Cyber Threat
3 11 (9.73%) Mobile App
4 9 (7.96%) Management Information System
5 8 (7.08%) Operational Technology
6 5 (4.42%) Cloud Native
6 5 (4.42%) Security Operations Centre
7 4 (3.54%) Cyber Kill Chain
7 4 (3.54%) Insider Threat
7 4 (3.54%) Self-Motivation
8 3 (2.65%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 3 (2.65%) PMI
9 2 (1.77%) Data Protection Act
9 2 (1.77%) Distributed Systems
9 2 (1.77%) Public Cloud
9 2 (1.77%) Social Media
10 1 (0.88%) CSOC
10 1 (0.88%) Cyber Defence
10 1 (0.88%) Cyber Security Posture
10 1 (0.88%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 14 (12.39%) Android
1 14 (12.39%) Apple iOS
1 14 (12.39%) Linux
1 14 (12.39%) Windows
2 5 (4.42%) Kali Linux
3 4 (3.54%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.77%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 72 (63.72%) Cybersecurity
2 50 (44.25%) Vulnerability Management
3 37 (32.74%) Information Security
4 35 (30.97%) Incident Response
5 33 (29.20%) Cloud Security
6 29 (25.66%) Security Testing
7 25 (22.12%) Red Team
8 23 (20.35%) SIEM
9 22 (19.47%) Risk Management
10 21 (18.58%) AI
11 20 (17.70%) Application Security
11 20 (17.70%) Offensive Security
11 20 (17.70%) Problem-Solving
12 18 (15.93%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
12 18 (15.93%) Data Security
12 18 (15.93%) Security Operations
12 18 (15.93%) Threat Intelligence
12 18 (15.93%) Threat Modelling
13 16 (14.16%) Security Architecture
14 15 (13.27%) Vulnerability Assessment
Programming Languages
1 21 (18.58%) Python
2 11 (9.73%) PowerShell
3 9 (7.96%) Go
3 9 (7.96%) Java
4 3 (2.65%) JavaScript
5 2 (1.77%) Bash
5 2 (1.77%) C
5 2 (1.77%) C#
5 2 (1.77%) C++
5 2 (1.77%) Objective-C
5 2 (1.77%) Perl
5 2 (1.77%) PHP
5 2 (1.77%) Ruby
5 2 (1.77%) Rust
5 2 (1.77%) SQL
6 1 (0.88%) Apex Code
6 1 (0.88%) Bicep
6 1 (0.88%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 1 (0.88%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 31 (27.43%) Security Cleared
2 28 (24.78%) SC Cleared
3 25 (22.12%) CREST Certified
4 20 (17.70%) CISM
4 20 (17.70%) CISSP
5 17 (15.04%) OSCP
6 12 (10.62%) CHECK Team Member
7 8 (7.08%) GIAC
8 7 (6.19%) CHECK Team Leader
8 7 (6.19%) Degree
9 5 (4.42%) CompTIA Security+
10 4 (3.54%) CEH
11 3 (2.65%) PMI Certification
12 2 (1.77%) CISA
12 2 (1.77%) DV Cleared
12 2 (1.77%) GPEN
12 2 (1.77%) GXPN
12 2 (1.77%) Microsoft Certification
12 2 (1.77%) OSCE
12 2 (1.77%) Tigerscheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (38.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 26 (23.01%) NIST
3 18 (15.93%) Cyber Essentials
3 18 (15.93%) GDPR
4 15 (13.27%) GRC
5 13 (11.50%) PCI DSS
6 5 (4.42%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 4 (3.54%) Def Stans
7 4 (3.54%) NIST 800
7 4 (3.54%) SOC 2
8 3 (2.65%) NCSC
9 2 (1.77%) Actionable Recommendations
9 2 (1.77%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 2 (1.77%) QA
10 1 (0.88%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.88%) IASME
10 1 (0.88%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.88%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 1 (0.88%) WCAG
System Software
1 3 (2.65%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.88%) Docker
Systems Management
1 11 (9.73%) Nmap
2 10 (8.85%) Kubernetes
3 3 (2.65%) Progress Chef
4 2 (1.77%) Nessus
5 1 (0.88%) Network Intrusion Detection System
5 1 (0.88%) OpenVAS
Vendors
1 21 (18.58%) Microsoft
2 18 (15.93%) Qualys
3 13 (11.50%) Palo Alto
4 12 (10.62%) Aruba
4 12 (10.62%) Cisco
5 5 (4.42%) CrowdStrike
6 4 (3.54%) Splunk
7 3 (2.65%) New Relic
7 3 (2.65%) SolarWinds
7 3 (2.65%) Zerto
8 1 (0.88%) Databricks
8 1 (0.88%) DevExpress
8 1 (0.88%) Fortinet
8 1 (0.88%) Foundry
8 1 (0.88%) MuleSoft
8 1 (0.88%) OpenAI
8 1 (0.88%) Salesforce
8 1 (0.88%) Sophos
8 1 (0.88%) Tenable
8 1 (0.88%) Zscaler