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

6 months to
25 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 326 371 348
Rank change year-on-year +45 -23 +3
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 127 66 174
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.58% 0.40% 0.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.70% 0.43% 0.71%
Number of salaries quoted 89 58 149
10th Percentile £45,000 £50,875 £37,500
25th Percentile £51,250 £56,563 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £71,250 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% +18.75% -4.00%
75th Percentile £95,000 £88,333 £75,000
90th Percentile £108,000 £98,000 £93,500
UK median annual salary £70,000 £67,500 £64,000
% change year-on-year +3.70% +5.47% +6.67%

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 18,035 15,327 24,491
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 82.95% 93.18% 88.34%
Number of salaries quoted 13,088 9,060 18,139
10th Percentile £35,000 £29,750 £34,981
25th Percentile £44,972 £41,250 £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 £78,750 £77,181
90th Percentile £100,000 £101,250 £96,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.33%

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 25 July 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 (0.79%) Apache
1 1 (0.79%) Confluence
1 1 (0.79%) Drupal
1 1 (0.79%) IIS
1 1 (0.79%) nginx
1 1 (0.79%) SharePoint
1 1 (0.79%) WordPress
Business Applications
1 1 (0.79%) Magento
Cloud Services
1 39 (30.71%) AWS
2 38 (29.92%) Azure
3 18 (14.17%) GCP
4 4 (3.15%) Amazon EKS
4 4 (3.15%) AWS CloudFormation
4 4 (3.15%) Azure DevOps
4 4 (3.15%) Microsoft 365
4 4 (3.15%) Mimecast
4 4 (3.15%) SaaS
5 3 (2.36%) Entra ID
6 2 (1.57%) Azure Key Vault
6 2 (1.57%) Figma
7 1 (0.79%) Amazon ECS
7 1 (0.79%) Amazon GuardDuty
7 1 (0.79%) Azure Monitor
7 1 (0.79%) Azure Sentinel
7 1 (0.79%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (0.79%) Power Automate
7 1 (0.79%) Power Platform
7 1 (0.79%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 39 (30.71%) Firewall
2 16 (12.60%) Cisco Nexus
3 12 (9.45%) Network Security
3 12 (9.45%) Wi-Fi
4 7 (5.51%) VPN
5 4 (3.15%) Cisco ISE
5 4 (3.15%) DNS
5 4 (3.15%) Intrusion Detection
6 3 (2.36%) VLAN
6 3 (2.36%) Wireless
7 2 (1.57%) Broadband
8 1 (0.79%) HTTP
8 1 (0.79%) Internet
8 1 (0.79%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.79%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (0.79%) InterSystems Cache
1 1 (0.79%) Redis
1 1 (0.79%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 10 (7.87%) Burp Suite
2 9 (7.09%) Metasploit
3 4 (3.15%) JIRA
4 3 (2.36%) Git
5 2 (1.57%) Bitbucket
5 2 (1.57%) Gatling
5 2 (1.57%) NUnit
6 1 (0.79%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.79%) GitLab
6 1 (0.79%) IDA Disassembler
6 1 (0.79%) JMeter
6 1 (0.79%) JUnit
6 1 (0.79%) Postman
6 1 (0.79%) Selenium
6 1 (0.79%) Vagrant
General
1 52 (40.94%) Social Skills
2 15 (11.81%) Analytical Skills
3 14 (11.02%) Public Sector
4 13 (10.24%) Law
5 12 (9.45%) Banking
6 11 (8.66%) Finance
6 11 (8.66%) Retail
7 7 (5.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 4 (3.15%) Legal
9 3 (2.36%) Back Office
9 3 (2.36%) Financial Institution
10 2 (1.57%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (1.57%) Social Housing
11 1 (0.79%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 30 (23.62%) Penetration Tester
1 30 (23.62%) Tester
2 26 (20.47%) Senior
3 22 (17.32%) Analyst
4 16 (12.60%) Security Analyst
4 16 (12.60%) Senior Analyst
5 14 (11.02%) Consultant
5 14 (11.02%) Security Consultant
6 13 (10.24%) Cybersecurity Analyst
7 12 (9.45%) Network Analyst
7 12 (9.45%) Senior Network Analyst
8 10 (7.87%) Security Manager
8 10 (7.87%) Senior Cybersecurity Analyst
8 10 (7.87%) Senior Security Analyst
9 9 (7.09%) Architect
10 8 (6.30%) Security Specialist
11 7 (5.51%) Client Director
11 7 (5.51%) Services Director
12 6 (4.72%) Network Security Analyst
12 6 (4.72%) Security Penetration Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.15%) .NET
1 4 (3.15%) RESTful
2 3 (2.36%) .NET Framework
3 2 (1.57%) AngularJS
3 2 (1.57%) ASP.NET
3 2 (1.57%) ASP.NET Core
3 2 (1.57%) Entity Framework
3 2 (1.57%) OpenAPI
3 2 (1.57%) RxJS
3 2 (1.57%) Swagger
3 2 (1.57%) Vitest
4 1 (0.79%) ARM Templates
4 1 (0.79%) Memcached
4 1 (0.79%) OAuth
4 1 (0.79%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 31 (24.41%) Security Posture
2 20 (15.75%) Cyber Threat
3 14 (11.02%) Mobile App
4 8 (6.30%) Management Information System
5 7 (5.51%) Blog
6 6 (4.72%) Cloud Native
7 4 (3.15%) Cyber Defence
7 4 (3.15%) Insider Threat
7 4 (3.15%) Public Cloud
8 3 (2.36%) Cyber Kill Chain
8 3 (2.36%) Operational Technology
8 3 (2.36%) Self-Motivation
9 2 (1.57%) Distributed Systems
9 2 (1.57%) Enterprise Software
9 2 (1.57%) Housing Association
9 2 (1.57%) Security Operations Centre
9 2 (1.57%) Social Media
10 1 (0.79%) AI Agents
10 1 (0.79%) Cyberattack
10 1 (0.79%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 20 (15.75%) Linux
2 19 (14.96%) Windows
3 15 (11.81%) Android
3 15 (11.81%) Apple iOS
4 5 (3.94%) Kali Linux
5 4 (3.15%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.79%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 80 (62.99%) Cybersecurity
2 44 (34.65%) Incident Response
2 44 (34.65%) Vulnerability Management
3 33 (25.98%) Information Security
4 32 (25.20%) Cloud Security
5 30 (23.62%) Red Team
6 26 (20.47%) SIEM
7 22 (17.32%) Problem-Solving
7 22 (17.32%) Risk Management
7 22 (17.32%) Security Testing
8 20 (15.75%) Threat Modelling
9 18 (14.17%) OWASP
10 17 (13.39%) AI
10 17 (13.39%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
10 17 (13.39%) Disaster Recovery
10 17 (13.39%) Security Architecture
10 17 (13.39%) Threat Intelligence
11 16 (12.60%) Data Security
11 16 (12.60%) Mentoring
12 15 (11.81%) Security Operations
Programming Languages
1 20 (15.75%) Python
2 14 (11.02%) PowerShell
3 11 (8.66%) Java
4 10 (7.87%) Go
5 5 (3.94%) C
5 5 (3.94%) C#
5 5 (3.94%) C++
6 4 (3.15%) Bash
6 4 (3.15%) Perl
6 4 (3.15%) Ruby
7 3 (2.36%) Objective-C
7 3 (2.36%) PHP
7 3 (2.36%) Rust
8 2 (1.57%) Bicep
8 2 (1.57%) JavaScript
8 2 (1.57%) SQL
8 2 (1.57%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 32 (25.20%) Security Cleared
2 30 (23.62%) CREST Certified
3 29 (22.83%) SC Cleared
4 21 (16.54%) CISSP
5 20 (15.75%) OSCP
6 17 (13.39%) CISM
7 9 (7.09%) CHECK Team Member
7 9 (7.09%) Degree
8 8 (6.30%) CEH
8 8 (6.30%) GIAC
9 7 (5.51%) DV Cleared
10 6 (4.72%) CCNP
10 6 (4.72%) CHECK Team Leader
10 6 (4.72%) Cisco Certification
11 5 (3.94%) GPEN
11 5 (3.94%) GXPN
12 4 (3.15%) CCNA
12 4 (3.15%) CompTIA Security+
12 4 (3.15%) OSCE
13 3 (2.36%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (42.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 31 (24.41%) NIST
3 26 (20.47%) GDPR
4 23 (18.11%) PCI DSS
5 21 (16.54%) Cyber Essentials
6 12 (9.45%) GRC
7 11 (8.66%) Actionable Recommendations
8 8 (6.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 7 (5.51%) NCSC
10 4 (3.15%) Def Stans
10 4 (3.15%) NIST 800
10 4 (3.15%) SOC 2
11 3 (2.36%) Data Quality
12 2 (1.57%) Accessibility
12 2 (1.57%) QA
13 1 (0.79%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 1 (0.79%) WCAG
System Software
1 10 (7.87%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.57%) Docker
Systems Management
1 10 (7.87%) Kubernetes
2 8 (6.30%) Nmap
3 5 (3.94%) Terraform
4 3 (2.36%) CSIRT
4 3 (2.36%) Nessus
5 1 (0.79%) Ansible
5 1 (0.79%) Consul
5 1 (0.79%) OpenVAS
5 1 (0.79%) Packer
5 1 (0.79%) Progress Chef
5 1 (0.79%) Puppet
Vendors
1 25 (19.69%) Microsoft
2 16 (12.60%) Cisco
2 16 (12.60%) Qualys
3 15 (11.81%) Palo Alto
4 12 (9.45%) Aruba
5 7 (5.51%) Fortinet
5 7 (5.51%) Sophos
5 7 (5.51%) Splunk
6 4 (3.15%) CheckPoint
6 4 (3.15%) CrowdStrike
6 4 (3.15%) Okta
6 4 (3.15%) Zscaler
7 3 (2.36%) New Relic
7 3 (2.36%) SolarWinds
7 3 (2.36%) Zerto
8 2 (1.57%) DevExpress
8 2 (1.57%) Google
9 1 (0.79%) Foundry
9 1 (0.79%) OpenAI
9 1 (0.79%) TOWER Software