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

6 months to
13 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 337 356 353
Rank change year-on-year +19 -3 -1
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 123 62 142
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.51% 0.38% 0.61%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.63% 0.41% 0.69%
Number of salaries quoted 88 54 99
10th Percentile £45,000 £51,250 £42,500
25th Percentile £50,000 £61,563 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,500 £69,692 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% +11.51% +2.04%
75th Percentile £86,563 £85,582 £73,125
90th Percentile £102,250 £96,500 £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 19,520 15,159 20,523
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 81.55% 93.09% 87.70%
Number of salaries quoted 14,031 8,684 12,914
10th Percentile £34,000 £29,867 £35,341
25th Percentile £44,852 £40,500 £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 13 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 (0.81%) 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 34 (27.64%) AWS
2 32 (26.02%) Azure
3 15 (12.20%) GCP
4 5 (4.07%) Microsoft 365
5 3 (2.44%) Amazon EKS
5 3 (2.44%) AWS CloudFormation
5 3 (2.44%) Entra ID
5 3 (2.44%) SaaS
6 2 (1.63%) Azure DevOps
6 2 (1.63%) Mimecast
7 1 (0.81%) Amazon EC2
7 1 (0.81%) Amazon ECS
7 1 (0.81%) Amazon ElastiCache
7 1 (0.81%) Amazon EMR
7 1 (0.81%) Amazon S3
7 1 (0.81%) CloudFront
7 1 (0.81%) Figma
7 1 (0.81%) GitHub
7 1 (0.81%) Power Automate
7 1 (0.81%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 33 (26.83%) Firewall
2 13 (10.57%) Cisco Nexus
3 12 (9.76%) Wi-Fi
4 11 (8.94%) Network Security
5 8 (6.50%) Wireless
6 5 (4.07%) VPN
7 4 (3.25%) DNS
7 4 (3.25%) VLAN
8 2 (1.63%) Broadband
8 2 (1.63%) Intrusion Detection
8 2 (1.63%) TCP/IP
8 2 (1.63%) Wireless Security
9 1 (0.81%) Cisco ISE
9 1 (0.81%) DKIM
9 1 (0.81%) DMARC
9 1 (0.81%) HTTP
9 1 (0.81%) Internet
9 1 (0.81%) LAN
9 1 (0.81%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.81%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (0.81%) Electronic Patient Records
1 1 (0.81%) InterSystems Cache
1 1 (0.81%) Redis
1 1 (0.81%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 11 (8.94%) Burp Suite
2 10 (8.13%) Metasploit
3 5 (4.07%) JIRA
4 2 (1.63%) Gatling
4 2 (1.63%) Git
4 2 (1.63%) Jenkins
4 2 (1.63%) Maven
4 2 (1.63%) Team Foundation Server
5 1 (0.81%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.81%) Cucumber
5 1 (0.81%) GitLab
5 1 (0.81%) IDA Disassembler
5 1 (0.81%) JMeter
5 1 (0.81%) JUnit
5 1 (0.81%) NUnit
5 1 (0.81%) Postman
5 1 (0.81%) Selenium
5 1 (0.81%) Vagrant
General
1 50 (40.65%) Social Skills
2 16 (13.01%) Analytical Skills
3 13 (10.57%) Law
4 12 (9.76%) Finance
5 11 (8.94%) Banking
5 11 (8.94%) Public Sector
6 10 (8.13%) Retail
7 6 (4.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 4 (3.25%) Influencing Skills
9 3 (2.44%) Legal
10 2 (1.63%) Back Office
10 2 (1.63%) Financial Institution
10 2 (1.63%) Marketing
10 2 (1.63%) Social Housing
11 1 (0.81%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 36 (29.27%) Penetration Tester
1 36 (29.27%) Tester
2 27 (21.95%) Senior
3 20 (16.26%) Analyst
4 16 (13.01%) Senior Analyst
5 14 (11.38%) Security Analyst
6 12 (9.76%) Network Analyst
6 12 (9.76%) Senior Network Analyst
7 11 (8.94%) Consultant
7 11 (8.94%) Cybersecurity Analyst
7 11 (8.94%) Security Consultant
8 10 (8.13%) Senior Cybersecurity Analyst
8 10 (8.13%) Senior Security Analyst
9 8 (6.50%) Architect
10 7 (5.69%) Client Director
10 7 (5.69%) Security Manager
10 7 (5.69%) Services Director
11 6 (4.88%) Network Security Analyst
11 6 (4.88%) Security Penetration Tester
11 6 (4.88%) Security Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (2.44%) RESTful
1 3 (2.44%) Terraform
2 2 (1.63%) .NET
2 2 (1.63%) .NET Framework
3 1 (0.81%) AngularJS
3 1 (0.81%) ARM Templates
3 1 (0.81%) ASP.NET
3 1 (0.81%) ASP.NET Core
3 1 (0.81%) CSS
3 1 (0.81%) Entity Framework
3 1 (0.81%) HTML
3 1 (0.81%) Lightning Web Components
3 1 (0.81%) Memcached
3 1 (0.81%) OAuth
3 1 (0.81%) OpenAPI
3 1 (0.81%) Playwright
3 1 (0.81%) RxJS
3 1 (0.81%) Swagger
3 1 (0.81%) Vitest
Miscellaneous
1 37 (30.08%) Security Posture
2 16 (13.01%) Cyber Threat
3 12 (9.76%) Mobile App
4 10 (8.13%) Management Information System
5 8 (6.50%) Operational Technology
6 4 (3.25%) Blog
6 4 (3.25%) Cloud Native
6 4 (3.25%) Cyber Kill Chain
6 4 (3.25%) Insider Threat
6 4 (3.25%) Security Operations Centre
6 4 (3.25%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (2.44%) Public Cloud
8 2 (1.63%) Cyber Defence
8 2 (1.63%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (1.63%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 2 (1.63%) Distributed Systems
8 2 (1.63%) Housing Association
8 2 (1.63%) PMI
8 2 (1.63%) Social Media
9 1 (0.81%) Cyber Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 18 (14.63%) Linux
1 18 (14.63%) Windows
2 14 (11.38%) Android
2 14 (11.38%) Apple iOS
3 5 (4.07%) Kali Linux
3 5 (4.07%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.81%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 75 (60.98%) Cybersecurity
2 53 (43.09%) Vulnerability Management
3 38 (30.89%) Incident Response
4 35 (28.46%) Information Security
5 33 (26.83%) Cloud Security
6 31 (25.20%) Red Team
7 29 (23.58%) Security Testing
8 25 (20.33%) Risk Management
9 24 (19.51%) SIEM
10 21 (17.07%) Offensive Security
11 20 (16.26%) AI
12 19 (15.45%) Application Security
12 19 (15.45%) Problem-Solving
13 18 (14.63%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
13 18 (14.63%) Data Security
13 18 (14.63%) Mentoring
13 18 (14.63%) Threat Intelligence
13 18 (14.63%) Threat Modelling
14 17 (13.82%) Vulnerability Assessment
15 16 (13.01%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 20 (16.26%) Python
2 13 (10.57%) PowerShell
3 9 (7.32%) Go
3 9 (7.32%) Java
4 3 (2.44%) Bash
4 3 (2.44%) C
4 3 (2.44%) C#
4 3 (2.44%) C++
4 3 (2.44%) JavaScript
4 3 (2.44%) Objective-C
4 3 (2.44%) Perl
4 3 (2.44%) PHP
4 3 (2.44%) Ruby
4 3 (2.44%) Rust
5 1 (0.81%) Apex Code
5 1 (0.81%) Bicep
5 1 (0.81%) SQL
5 1 (0.81%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 34 (27.64%) Security Cleared
2 30 (24.39%) SC Cleared
3 27 (21.95%) CREST Certified
4 21 (17.07%) CISM
4 21 (17.07%) CISSP
5 17 (13.82%) OSCP
6 12 (9.76%) CHECK Team Member
7 10 (8.13%) Degree
8 8 (6.50%) GIAC
9 7 (5.69%) CHECK Team Leader
10 6 (4.88%) CEH
11 5 (4.07%) CompTIA Security+
11 5 (4.07%) DV Cleared
12 4 (3.25%) CCNP
12 4 (3.25%) Cisco Certification
13 3 (2.44%) CCSAM
13 3 (2.44%) GPEN
13 3 (2.44%) GXPN
13 3 (2.44%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
13 3 (2.44%) OSCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 48 (39.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 31 (25.20%) NIST
3 19 (15.45%) Cyber Essentials
3 19 (15.45%) GDPR
4 16 (13.01%) PCI DSS
5 15 (12.20%) GRC
6 5 (4.07%) Actionable Recommendations
7 4 (3.25%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 4 (3.25%) Def Stans
7 4 (3.25%) NCSC
7 4 (3.25%) NIST 800
7 4 (3.25%) SOC 2
8 2 (1.63%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 2 (1.63%) QA
9 1 (0.81%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.81%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 1 (0.81%) WCAG
System Software
1 7 (5.69%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.63%) Docker
Systems Management
1 10 (8.13%) Nmap
2 9 (7.32%) Kubernetes
3 3 (2.44%) Progress Chef
4 2 (1.63%) Nessus
5 1 (0.81%) Ansible
5 1 (0.81%) Consul
5 1 (0.81%) Network Intrusion Detection System
5 1 (0.81%) OpenVAS
5 1 (0.81%) Packer
5 1 (0.81%) Puppet
Vendors
1 22 (17.89%) Microsoft
2 18 (14.63%) Qualys
3 15 (12.20%) Palo Alto
4 13 (10.57%) Cisco
5 12 (9.76%) Aruba
6 5 (4.07%) CrowdStrike
6 5 (4.07%) Splunk
7 4 (3.25%) Fortinet
7 4 (3.25%) Sophos
8 3 (2.44%) New Relic
8 3 (2.44%) SolarWinds
8 3 (2.44%) Zerto
9 2 (1.63%) Zscaler
10 1 (0.81%) DevExpress
10 1 (0.81%) Foundry
10 1 (0.81%) Google
10 1 (0.81%) MuleSoft
10 1 (0.81%) Okta
10 1 (0.81%) OpenAI
10 1 (0.81%) Tenable