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

6 months to
16 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 333 363 357
Rank change year-on-year +30 -6 -1
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 125 65 149
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.55% 0.39% 0.60%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.66% 0.42% 0.69%
Number of salaries quoted 90 57 125
10th Percentile £45,000 £51,250 £41,250
25th Percentile £50,313 £57,500 £48,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £76,000 £70,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.57% +16.67% -7.69%
75th Percentile £91,250 £86,776 £73,750
90th Percentile £107,750 £97,000 £87,500
UK median annual salary £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
% change year-on-year +3.70% +3.85% +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 18,835 15,419 21,621
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 82.48% 92.96% 87.61%
Number of salaries quoted 13,574 8,935 15,360
10th Percentile £35,000 £29,750 £35,000
25th Percentile £44,972 £40,584 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% -4.17% -4.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £78,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £97,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.71%

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 16 August 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 (0.80%) Apache
1 1 (0.80%) Confluence
1 1 (0.80%) Drupal
1 1 (0.80%) IIS
1 1 (0.80%) nginx
1 1 (0.80%) SharePoint
1 1 (0.80%) WordPress
Business Applications
1 1 (0.80%) Magento
Cloud Services
1 38 (30.40%) Azure
2 37 (29.60%) AWS
3 15 (12.00%) GCP
4 5 (4.00%) Microsoft 365
5 4 (3.20%) Azure DevOps
5 4 (3.20%) Entra ID
6 3 (2.40%) Amazon EKS
6 3 (2.40%) AWS CloudFormation
6 3 (2.40%) Mimecast
6 3 (2.40%) SaaS
7 2 (1.60%) Azure Key Vault
7 2 (1.60%) Figma
8 1 (0.80%) Amazon ECS
8 1 (0.80%) AWS CodePipeline
8 1 (0.80%) AWS Control Tower
8 1 (0.80%) Azure Monitor
8 1 (0.80%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (0.80%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (0.80%) Power Platform
8 1 (0.80%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 36 (28.80%) Firewall
2 15 (12.00%) Cisco Nexus
3 14 (11.20%) Network Security
4 12 (9.60%) Wi-Fi
5 7 (5.60%) VPN
6 4 (3.20%) DNS
6 4 (3.20%) Intrusion Detection
6 4 (3.20%) VLAN
6 4 (3.20%) Wireless
7 3 (2.40%) Cisco ISE
8 2 (1.60%) Broadband
8 2 (1.60%) TCP/IP
9 1 (0.80%) HTTP
9 1 (0.80%) Internet
9 1 (0.80%) LAN
9 1 (0.80%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.80%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (0.80%) Electronic Patient Records
1 1 (0.80%) InterSystems Cache
1 1 (0.80%) Redis
1 1 (0.80%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 9 (7.20%) Burp Suite
2 8 (6.40%) Metasploit
3 4 (3.20%) JIRA
4 3 (2.40%) Git
5 2 (1.60%) Bitbucket
5 2 (1.60%) Gatling
5 2 (1.60%) NUnit
6 1 (0.80%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.80%) GitLab
6 1 (0.80%) IDA Disassembler
6 1 (0.80%) JMeter
6 1 (0.80%) JUnit
6 1 (0.80%) Postman
6 1 (0.80%) Selenium
6 1 (0.80%) Vagrant
General
1 46 (36.80%) Social Skills
2 16 (12.80%) Analytical Skills
3 14 (11.20%) Public Sector
4 11 (8.80%) Law
5 10 (8.00%) Banking
5 10 (8.00%) Finance
6 9 (7.20%) Retail
7 5 (4.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 3 (2.40%) Legal
9 2 (1.60%) Back Office
9 2 (1.60%) Financial Institution
9 2 (1.60%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.60%) Social Housing
10 1 (0.80%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 31 (24.80%) Penetration Tester
1 31 (24.80%) Tester
2 24 (19.20%) Senior
3 20 (16.00%) Analyst
4 16 (12.80%) Senior Analyst
5 14 (11.20%) Security Analyst
6 13 (10.40%) Consultant
6 13 (10.40%) Security Consultant
7 12 (9.60%) Network Analyst
7 12 (9.60%) Senior Network Analyst
8 11 (8.80%) Cybersecurity Analyst
9 10 (8.00%) Senior Cybersecurity Analyst
9 10 (8.00%) Senior Security Analyst
10 9 (7.20%) Architect
11 8 (6.40%) Security Specialist
12 7 (5.60%) Client Director
12 7 (5.60%) Security Manager
12 7 (5.60%) Services Director
13 6 (4.80%) Network Security Analyst
13 6 (4.80%) Security Penetration Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.20%) RESTful
2 3 (2.40%) .NET
2 3 (2.40%) .NET Framework
3 2 (1.60%) AngularJS
3 2 (1.60%) ASP.NET
3 2 (1.60%) ASP.NET Core
3 2 (1.60%) Entity Framework
3 2 (1.60%) OpenAPI
3 2 (1.60%) RxJS
3 2 (1.60%) Swagger
3 2 (1.60%) Vitest
4 1 (0.80%) ARM Templates
4 1 (0.80%) Memcached
4 1 (0.80%) OAuth
4 1 (0.80%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 31 (24.80%) Security Posture
2 18 (14.40%) Cyber Threat
3 11 (8.80%) Mobile App
4 8 (6.40%) Management Information System
5 7 (5.60%) Operational Technology
6 6 (4.80%) Blog
7 5 (4.00%) Cloud Native
8 4 (3.20%) Cyber Defence
8 4 (3.20%) Cyber Kill Chain
8 4 (3.20%) Insider Threat
8 4 (3.20%) Public Cloud
9 3 (2.40%) Self-Motivation
10 2 (1.60%) Distributed Systems
10 2 (1.60%) Enterprise Software
10 2 (1.60%) Housing Association
10 2 (1.60%) Security Operations Centre
10 2 (1.60%) Social Media
11 1 (0.80%) AI Agents
11 1 (0.80%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 20 (16.00%) Linux
2 19 (15.20%) Windows
3 12 (9.60%) Android
3 12 (9.60%) Apple iOS
4 5 (4.00%) Windows Server
5 4 (3.20%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 77 (61.60%) Cybersecurity
2 49 (39.20%) Vulnerability Management
3 39 (31.20%) Incident Response
4 32 (25.60%) Information Security
5 31 (24.80%) Cloud Security
6 30 (24.00%) Red Team
7 28 (22.40%) SIEM
8 24 (19.20%) Risk Management
9 22 (17.60%) Security Testing
10 20 (16.00%) Problem-Solving
11 19 (15.20%) AI
12 18 (14.40%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
12 18 (14.40%) Security Architecture
12 18 (14.40%) Threat Intelligence
12 18 (14.40%) Threat Modelling
13 17 (13.60%) Offensive Security
14 16 (12.80%) Mentoring
14 16 (12.80%) OWASP
14 16 (12.80%) Security Operations
14 16 (12.80%) Vulnerability Remediation
Programming Languages
1 19 (15.20%) Python
2 14 (11.20%) PowerShell
3 8 (6.40%) Go
3 8 (6.40%) Java
4 4 (3.20%) Bash
5 3 (2.40%) C
5 3 (2.40%) C#
5 3 (2.40%) C++
5 3 (2.40%) Objective-C
5 3 (2.40%) Perl
5 3 (2.40%) PHP
5 3 (2.40%) Ruby
5 3 (2.40%) Rust
6 2 (1.60%) Bicep
6 2 (1.60%) JavaScript
6 2 (1.60%) SQL
6 2 (1.60%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 36 (28.80%) Security Cleared
2 32 (25.60%) SC Cleared
3 28 (22.40%) CREST Certified
4 20 (16.00%) CISSP
5 19 (15.20%) CISM
6 16 (12.80%) OSCP
7 10 (8.00%) CHECK Team Member
7 10 (8.00%) Degree
8 8 (6.40%) GIAC
9 7 (5.60%) CEH
9 7 (5.60%) DV Cleared
10 6 (4.80%) CCNP
10 6 (4.80%) CHECK Team Leader
10 6 (4.80%) Cisco Certification
11 5 (4.00%) CompTIA Security+
12 4 (3.20%) CCNA
13 3 (2.40%) CCSAM
13 3 (2.40%) GPEN
13 3 (2.40%) GXPN
13 3 (2.40%) OSCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (40.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 32 (25.60%) NIST
3 21 (16.80%) GDPR
4 20 (16.00%) PCI DSS
5 19 (15.20%) Cyber Essentials
6 15 (12.00%) GRC
7 7 (5.60%) Actionable Recommendations
8 5 (4.00%) NCSC
8 5 (4.00%) SOC 2
9 4 (3.20%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 4 (3.20%) Def Stans
9 4 (3.20%) NIST 800
10 2 (1.60%) Accessibility
10 2 (1.60%) QA
11 1 (0.80%) Data Quality
11 1 (0.80%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 1 (0.80%) WCAG
System Software
1 10 (8.00%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.60%) Docker
Systems Management
1 9 (7.20%) Kubernetes
2 8 (6.40%) Nmap
3 4 (3.20%) Terraform
4 2 (1.60%) Nessus
5 1 (0.80%) Ansible
5 1 (0.80%) Consul
5 1 (0.80%) CSIRT
5 1 (0.80%) Network Intrusion Detection System
5 1 (0.80%) OpenVAS
5 1 (0.80%) Packer
5 1 (0.80%) Progress Chef
5 1 (0.80%) Puppet
Vendors
1 25 (20.00%) Microsoft
2 17 (13.60%) Qualys
3 15 (12.00%) Cisco
3 15 (12.00%) Palo Alto
4 12 (9.60%) Aruba
5 7 (5.60%) Splunk
6 6 (4.80%) Fortinet
6 6 (4.80%) Sophos
7 4 (3.20%) CrowdStrike
8 3 (2.40%) CheckPoint
8 3 (2.40%) New Relic
8 3 (2.40%) Okta
8 3 (2.40%) SolarWinds
8 3 (2.40%) Zerto
8 3 (2.40%) Zscaler
9 2 (1.60%) DevExpress
9 2 (1.60%) Google
10 1 (0.80%) Foundry
10 1 (0.80%) OpenAI
10 1 (0.80%) TOWER Software