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

6 months to
9 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 293 301 300
Rank change year-on-year +8 -1 +145
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 70 139 191
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.46% 0.84% 0.90%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.53% 0.90% 0.96%
Number of salaries quoted 60 89 166
10th Percentile £47,599 £50,000 £42,625
25th Percentile £51,250 £57,500 £51,938
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £65,000 £64,902
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% +0.15% -3.85%
75th Percentile £70,000 £87,500 £80,000
90th Percentile £77,500 £93,250 £90,000
UK median annual salary £70,000 £65,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year +7.69% - -5.80%

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 13,199 15,404 19,804
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 87.42% 93.53% 93.46%
Number of salaries quoted 8,377 9,084 15,996
10th Percentile £30,000 £36,250 £36,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £46,713 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £62,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% +4.17% -4.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £81,250 £80,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £97,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

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 9 January 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 3 (4.29%) Microsoft Exchange
1 3 (4.29%) SharePoint
2 1 (1.43%) Confluence
Applications
1 7 (10.00%) Microsoft Excel
1 7 (10.00%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.43%) GNU Octave
Cloud Services
1 17 (24.29%) Azure
2 14 (20.00%) AWS
3 7 (10.00%) Power Platform
4 5 (7.14%) Entra ID
5 4 (5.71%) Microsoft 365
6 3 (4.29%) GCP
6 3 (4.29%) IBM Cloud
7 1 (1.43%) Azure Sentinel
7 1 (1.43%) GitHub
7 1 (1.43%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 17 (24.29%) Firewall
1 17 (24.29%) TCP/IP
2 11 (15.71%) Network Security
3 9 (12.86%) Wireshark
4 8 (11.43%) VPN
5 5 (7.14%) Wi-Fi
6 4 (5.71%) Ethernet
7 3 (4.29%) VLAN
8 2 (2.86%) DNS
8 2 (2.86%) HTTP
9 1 (1.43%) DMARC
9 1 (1.43%) ICMP
9 1 (1.43%) Modbus
9 1 (1.43%) NAS
9 1 (1.43%) SAN
9 1 (1.43%) SSH
9 1 (1.43%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (10.00%) Power BI
1 7 (10.00%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 15 (21.43%) Burp Suite
1 15 (21.43%) Metasploit
2 1 (1.43%) IDA Disassembler
2 1 (1.43%) JIRA
General
1 29 (41.43%) Social Skills
2 13 (18.57%) Analytical Skills
3 9 (12.86%) Public Sector
3 9 (12.86%) Retail
4 6 (8.57%) Banking
5 5 (7.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 4 (5.71%) Electronics
6 4 (5.71%) Finance
7 2 (2.86%) Law
8 1 (1.43%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (1.43%) Investment Banking
8 1 (1.43%) Manufacturing
8 1 (1.43%) Marketing
8 1 (1.43%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 13 (18.57%) Tester
2 12 (17.14%) Analyst
2 12 (17.14%) Penetration Tester
3 11 (15.71%) Cybersecurity Engineer
3 11 (15.71%) Security Engineer
3 11 (15.71%) Senior
4 10 (14.29%) Security Specialist
5 9 (12.86%) IT Manager
6 8 (11.43%) Auditor
6 8 (11.43%) IT Auditor
6 8 (11.43%) Security Analyst
6 8 (11.43%) Senior Security Engineer
7 7 (10.00%) Audit Manager
7 7 (10.00%) Internal Audit Manager
7 7 (10.00%) Internal Auditor
7 7 (10.00%) IT Audit Manager
7 7 (10.00%) Threat Intelligence Specialist
8 4 (5.71%) Consultant
8 4 (5.71%) Cybersecurity Consultant
8 4 (5.71%) Security Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.43%) JSON
1 1 (1.43%) PyTorch
1 1 (1.43%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 16 (22.86%) Security Posture
2 11 (15.71%) Security Operations Centre
3 7 (10.00%) Insider Threat
4 6 (8.57%) Cyber Defence
4 6 (8.57%) Cyber Kill Chain
4 6 (8.57%) Cyber Threat
5 5 (7.14%) Operational Technology
5 5 (7.14%) Self-Motivation
6 4 (5.71%) Analytical Mindset
6 4 (5.71%) Enterprise Software
7 3 (4.29%) PKI
7 3 (4.29%) SCADA
8 2 (2.86%) Cloud Native
8 2 (2.86%) Cyberattack
8 2 (2.86%) Data Centre
9 1 (1.43%) Driving Licence
9 1 (1.43%) Linux Command Line
9 1 (1.43%) Public Cloud
9 1 (1.43%) Renewable Energy
9 1 (1.43%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 16 (22.86%) Windows
2 14 (20.00%) Linux
3 7 (10.00%) Unix
4 3 (4.29%) Android
4 3 (4.29%) Apple iOS
4 3 (4.29%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 44 (62.86%) Cybersecurity
2 27 (38.57%) Incident Response
3 19 (27.14%) Information Security
4 18 (25.71%) Problem-Solving
4 18 (25.71%) SIEM
5 16 (22.86%) ITIL
6 15 (21.43%) Red Team
6 15 (21.43%) Security Operations
7 14 (20.00%) Threat Intelligence
8 12 (17.14%) Application Security
9 11 (15.71%) Analytics
9 11 (15.71%) Data Analysis
9 11 (15.71%) SDLC
9 11 (15.71%) Vulnerability Management
10 10 (14.29%) Offensive Security
11 9 (12.86%) Ethical Hacking
11 9 (12.86%) Vulnerability Assessment
12 8 (11.43%) Business Intelligence
12 8 (11.43%) Data Loss Prevention
12 8 (11.43%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 14 (20.00%) Python
2 7 (10.00%) R
2 7 (10.00%) SQL
3 6 (8.57%) C
3 6 (8.57%) C++
4 2 (2.86%) Go
4 2 (2.86%) Java
5 1 (1.43%) Bash
5 1 (1.43%) C#
5 1 (1.43%) JavaScript
5 1 (1.43%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 27 (38.57%) CISSP
2 21 (30.00%) Security Cleared
3 18 (25.71%) CREST Certified
3 18 (25.71%) SC Cleared
4 16 (22.86%) CompTIA Security+
4 16 (22.86%) Degree
4 16 (22.86%) OSCP
5 15 (21.43%) CCNA
5 15 (21.43%) Cisco Certification
6 12 (17.14%) GCIA
6 12 (17.14%) GIAC
7 11 (15.71%) CHECK Team Member
8 10 (14.29%) MCP
8 10 (14.29%) Microsoft Certification
9 9 (12.86%) CISA
10 8 (11.43%) CCNP
10 8 (11.43%) CEH
10 8 (11.43%) GPEN
10 8 (11.43%) SANS
11 7 (10.00%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (40.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 11 (15.71%) Cyber Essentials
2 11 (15.71%) NIST
3 7 (10.00%) Actionable Recommendations
4 5 (7.14%) GDPR
5 3 (4.29%) GRC
6 2 (2.86%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 2 (2.86%) NIST 800
7 1 (1.43%) PCI DSS
7 1 (1.43%) QA
System Software
1 5 (7.14%) Active Directory
2 3 (4.29%) VMware ESXi
2 3 (4.29%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (1.43%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 15 (21.43%) Nmap
2 12 (17.14%) Nessus
3 4 (5.71%) QRadar
4 3 (4.29%) Proxmox
5 2 (2.86%) Kubernetes
6 1 (1.43%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (1.43%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 22 (31.43%) Microsoft
2 8 (11.43%) Cisco
3 7 (10.00%) Oracle
4 4 (5.71%) Splunk
5 3 (4.29%) IBM
5 3 (4.29%) VMware
6 2 (2.86%) Qualys
7 1 (1.43%) Fortinet
7 1 (1.43%) Palo Alto
7 1 (1.43%) Tanium
7 1 (1.43%) Tenable
7 1 (1.43%) Veeam
7 1 (1.43%) Zscaler