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

6 months to
18 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 297 286 329
Rank change year-on-year -11 +43 +73
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 92 116 231
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.55% 0.86% 0.77%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.64% 0.90% 0.84%
Number of salaries quoted 73 93 198
10th Percentile £42,500 £52,500 £40,800
25th Percentile £48,165 £61,250 £48,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £70,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +16.67% -11.11%
75th Percentile £77,500 £88,750 £87,500
90th Percentile £99,500 £94,800 £105,000
UK median annual salary £71,184 £68,500 £64,951
% change year-on-year +3.92% +5.46% -6.14%

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 14,333 12,855 27,649
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 85.00% 95.28% 92.07%
Number of salaries quoted 9,435 8,787 22,895
10th Percentile £31,250 £32,750 £34,000
25th Percentile £42,500 £46,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £62,500 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% +8.70% -8.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £81,250 £75,772
90th Percentile £100,000 £103,949 £95,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -11.29%

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 18 March 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 2 (2.17%) Microsoft Exchange
1 2 (2.17%) SharePoint
2 1 (1.09%) Confluence
Applications
1 3 (3.26%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (3.26%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 26 (28.26%) AWS
2 24 (26.09%) Azure
3 10 (10.87%) GCP
4 4 (4.35%) Entra ID
4 4 (4.35%) Mimecast
5 3 (3.26%) Power Platform
6 2 (2.17%) Azure DevOps
6 2 (2.17%) IBM Cloud
6 2 (2.17%) Microsoft 365
6 2 (2.17%) SaaS
7 1 (1.09%) Amazon EKS
7 1 (1.09%) AWS CloudFormation
7 1 (1.09%) Azure Key Vault
7 1 (1.09%) Azure Monitor
7 1 (1.09%) Azure Sentinel
7 1 (1.09%) Figma
7 1 (1.09%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 21 (22.83%) Firewall
2 10 (10.87%) TCP/IP
3 9 (9.78%) Network Security
4 8 (8.70%) VPN
5 5 (5.43%) Wireshark
6 4 (4.35%) Cisco ISE
6 4 (4.35%) Cisco Nexus
6 4 (4.35%) Ethernet
6 4 (4.35%) Intrusion Detection
6 4 (4.35%) Wi-Fi
7 3 (3.26%) DMARC
7 3 (3.26%) DNS
7 3 (3.26%) VLAN
8 2 (2.17%) HTTP
9 1 (1.09%) ICMP
9 1 (1.09%) Modbus
9 1 (1.09%) SSH
9 1 (1.09%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (3.26%) Power BI
1 3 (3.26%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 16 (17.39%) Burp Suite
1 16 (17.39%) Metasploit
2 1 (1.09%) Bitbucket
2 1 (1.09%) Git
2 1 (1.09%) IDA Disassembler
2 1 (1.09%) JIRA
2 1 (1.09%) NUnit
General
1 45 (48.91%) Social Skills
2 17 (18.48%) Public Sector
3 14 (15.22%) Retail
4 13 (14.13%) Banking
5 11 (11.96%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 9 (9.78%) Analytical Skills
7 8 (8.70%) Finance
8 7 (7.61%) Law
9 4 (4.35%) Electronics
10 3 (3.26%) Marketing
11 1 (1.09%) Back Office
11 1 (1.09%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (1.09%) Financial Institution
11 1 (1.09%) Investment Banking
11 1 (1.09%) Legal
11 1 (1.09%) Manufacturing
11 1 (1.09%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 22 (23.91%) Tester
2 21 (22.83%) Penetration Tester
3 15 (16.30%) Security Specialist
4 10 (10.87%) Security Manager
4 10 (10.87%) Senior
5 8 (8.70%) Analyst
5 8 (8.70%) Consultant
5 8 (8.70%) IT Manager
5 8 (8.70%) Security Consultant
5 8 (8.70%) Senior Penetration Tester
5 8 (8.70%) Senior Tester
6 7 (7.61%) Cybersecurity Consultant
6 7 (7.61%) Threat Intelligence Specialist
7 6 (6.52%) Head of Professional Services
8 5 (5.43%) Lead
9 4 (4.35%) Cybersecurity Manager
9 4 (4.35%) Data Analyst
9 4 (4.35%) IT Auditor
9 4 (4.35%) Security Analyst
9 4 (4.35%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (2.17%) .NET
2 1 (1.09%) .NET Framework
2 1 (1.09%) AngularJS
2 1 (1.09%) ASP.NET
2 1 (1.09%) ASP.NET Core
2 1 (1.09%) Entity Framework
2 1 (1.09%) JSON
2 1 (1.09%) OpenAPI
2 1 (1.09%) RESTful
2 1 (1.09%) RxJS
2 1 (1.09%) Swagger
2 1 (1.09%) Vitest
Miscellaneous
1 24 (26.09%) Security Posture
2 12 (13.04%) Cyber Threat
3 8 (8.70%) Cyber Defence
4 7 (7.61%) Insider Threat
5 6 (6.52%) Mobile App
6 5 (5.43%) Blog
7 4 (4.35%) Analytical Mindset
7 4 (4.35%) Data Centre
7 4 (4.35%) Enterprise Software
7 4 (4.35%) Operational Technology
7 4 (4.35%) Self-Motivation
8 3 (3.26%) Cloud Native
8 3 (3.26%) Cyberattack
8 3 (3.26%) Security Operations Centre
9 2 (2.17%) PKI
9 2 (2.17%) Public Cloud
10 1 (1.09%) Driving Licence
10 1 (1.09%) Embedded Systems
10 1 (1.09%) Management Information System
10 1 (1.09%) Raspberry Pi
Operating Systems
1 13 (14.13%) Linux
1 13 (14.13%) Windows
2 9 (9.78%) Android
2 9 (9.78%) Apple iOS
3 3 (3.26%) Unix
4 2 (2.17%) Windows Server
5 1 (1.09%) Kali Linux
5 1 (1.09%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 60 (65.22%) Cybersecurity
2 33 (35.87%) Incident Response
3 23 (25.00%) Information Security
4 18 (19.57%) Red Team
5 15 (16.30%) Actionable Insight
5 15 (16.30%) Problem-Solving
5 15 (16.30%) SIEM
6 14 (15.22%) Disaster Recovery
6 14 (15.22%) Offensive Security
7 13 (14.13%) Application Security
7 13 (14.13%) Cloud Security
7 13 (14.13%) Ethical Hacking
7 13 (14.13%) SDLC
7 13 (14.13%) Vulnerability Management
8 11 (11.96%) Decision-Making
8 11 (11.96%) Threat Modelling
9 10 (10.87%) Security Architecture
9 10 (10.87%) Security Monitoring
9 10 (10.87%) Security Testing
9 10 (10.87%) Threat Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 13 (14.13%) Python
2 8 (8.70%) C
2 8 (8.70%) C++
2 8 (8.70%) Java
3 7 (7.61%) Go
4 5 (5.43%) PowerShell
5 4 (4.35%) SQL
6 3 (3.26%) C#
6 3 (3.26%) R
7 2 (2.17%) Bash
8 1 (1.09%) Bicep
8 1 (1.09%) JavaScript
8 1 (1.09%) Perl
8 1 (1.09%) Ruby
8 1 (1.09%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 32 (34.78%) CREST Certified
2 25 (27.17%) OSCP
3 24 (26.09%) Security Cleared
4 20 (21.74%) CISSP
4 20 (21.74%) Degree
5 19 (20.65%) SC Cleared
6 14 (15.22%) CHECK Team Member
7 13 (14.13%) Cisco Certification
8 12 (13.04%) CCNA
8 12 (13.04%) CEH
9 10 (10.87%) GPEN
10 9 (9.78%) CompTIA Security+
10 9 (9.78%) Cyber Scheme
10 9 (9.78%) DV Cleared
10 9 (9.78%) GIAC
10 9 (9.78%) Microsoft Certification
10 9 (9.78%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 7 (7.61%) CISMP
11 7 (7.61%) MCSE
12 6 (6.52%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (41.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 21 (22.83%) GDPR
3 15 (16.30%) Actionable Recommendations
3 15 (16.30%) Cyber Essentials
4 14 (15.22%) PCI DSS
5 12 (13.04%) NIST
6 9 (9.78%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 6 (6.52%) GRC
8 3 (3.26%) Data Quality
8 3 (3.26%) NCSC
9 1 (1.09%) Accessibility
9 1 (1.09%) NIST 800
9 1 (1.09%) QA
9 1 (1.09%) SOC 2
System Software
1 10 (10.87%) Active Directory
2 2 (2.17%) VMware ESXi
2 2 (2.17%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 15 (16.30%) Nmap
2 12 (13.04%) Nessus
3 8 (8.70%) Kubernetes
4 3 (3.26%) CSIRT
5 2 (2.17%) Proxmox
5 2 (2.17%) Terraform
6 1 (1.09%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (1.09%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 24 (26.09%) Microsoft
2 11 (11.96%) Cisco
3 5 (5.43%) Fortinet
3 5 (5.43%) Sophos
4 4 (4.35%) CheckPoint
4 4 (4.35%) Okta
4 4 (4.35%) Splunk
4 4 (4.35%) Zscaler
5 3 (3.26%) Oracle
5 3 (3.26%) Veeam
6 2 (2.17%) IBM
6 2 (2.17%) Qualys
6 2 (2.17%) VMware
7 1 (1.09%) DevExpress
7 1 (1.09%) Google
7 1 (1.09%) Palo Alto