Penetration Tester
UK

The median Penetration Tester salary in the UK is £62,500 per year according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months to 15 May 2024.

The first table below provides salary benchmarking and summary statistics including a comparison to same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
15 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 746 827 1129
Rank change year-on-year +81 +302 -263
Permanent jobs requiring a Penetration Tester 149 150 104
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.15% 0.15% 0.065%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.16% 0.16% 0.068%
Number of salaries quoted 118 78 86
10th Percentile £45,000 £43,275 £35,000
25th Percentile £48,750 £52,500 £46,563
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £68,750 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +14.58% -11.76%
75th Percentile £82,500 £91,250 £80,000
90th Percentile - £98,875 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - +41.18%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
UK

The following table is for comparison with the above and includes summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 93,908 91,208 153,609
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.68% 91.47% 96.09%
Number of salaries quoted 67,161 57,434 84,375
10th Percentile £28,500 £32,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £38,500 £45,000 £42,521
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -12.50% - +9.09%
75th Percentile £71,250 £80,500 £78,750
90th Percentile £90,000 £100,000 £95,950
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £53,000 £50,173
% change year-on-year -5.66% +5.64% +5.63%

Penetration Tester
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Penetration Tester in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Penetration Tester in the UK

Penetration Tester
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing Penetration Tester.

Salary trend for Penetration Tester in the UK

Penetration Tester
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Penetration Tester over the 6 months to 15 May 2024.

Salary histogram for Penetration Tester in the UK

Penetration Tester
Top 14 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Penetration Tester within the UK over the 6 months to 15 May 2024. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +81 129 £70,000 +3.70% 24
London +164 83 £70,000 -20.00% 7
Work from Home +11 63 £55,000 -18.52% 23
UK excluding London -79 45 £55,000 -8.33% 15
South West -24 19 £45,000 -5.26% 5
North of England +37 11 £50,000 -16.67% 4
Midlands -12 9 £55,000 -12.00% 3
West Midlands +12 8 £55,000 -12.00% 3
North West +1 6 £50,000 -20.00% 2
Yorkshire +89 5 £38,750 -35.42% 2
South East -11 3 £57,500 +15.00% 1
Scotland -71 2 £65,000 +8.33% 1
Northern Ireland +26 1 £57,500 -20.69% 1
East Midlands -17 1 £60,000 -

Penetration Tester Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 15 May 2024, Penetration Tester job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads featuring Penetration Tester in the job title.

1 133 (89.26%) Penetration Testing
2 112 (75.17%) Cybersecurity
3 61 (40.94%) Social Skills
4 60 (40.27%) OSCP
5 57 (38.26%) Security Testing
5 57 (38.26%) Red Team
5 57 (38.26%) Problem-Solving
6 55 (36.91%) Information Security
7 53 (35.57%) CREST Certified
8 47 (31.54%) Degree
9 46 (30.87%) Application Security
10 44 (29.53%) Computer Science
11 41 (27.52%) Analytical Skills
12 38 (25.50%) Metasploit
13 36 (24.16%) Reverse Engineering
14 35 (23.49%) Vulnerability Scanning
14 35 (23.49%) Burp Suite
14 35 (23.49%) Kali Linux
15 33 (22.15%) Computer Science Degree
16 31 (20.81%) CHECK Team Member
17 30 (20.13%) Malware Analysis
18 29 (19.46%) Network Security
19 28 (18.79%) Linux
19 28 (18.79%) Critical Thinking
20 26 (17.45%) Mobile App
21 24 (16.11%) SC Cleared
21 24 (16.11%) Security Cleared
22 22 (14.77%) Offensive Security
23 20 (13.42%) Law
23 20 (13.42%) Presentation Skills

Penetration Tester Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Cloud Services
1 15 (10.07%) AWS
2 14 (9.40%) Azure
3 12 (8.05%) GCP
4 4 (2.68%) Dynamics 365
4 4 (2.68%) Microsoft 365
5 1 (0.67%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 29 (19.46%) Network Security
2 16 (10.74%) Firewall
3 13 (8.72%) Wireless
4 8 (5.37%) Wi-Fi
5 4 (2.68%) Wireshark
6 3 (2.01%) Wireless Security
7 2 (1.34%) Internet
7 2 (1.34%) TCP/IP
Development Applications
1 38 (25.50%) Metasploit
2 35 (23.49%) Burp Suite
3 1 (0.67%) AppScan
General
1 61 (40.94%) Social Skills
2 41 (27.52%) Analytical Skills
3 20 (13.42%) Law
3 20 (13.42%) Presentation Skills
4 10 (6.71%) Public Sector
5 9 (6.04%) Retail
6 8 (5.37%) Legal
7 7 (4.70%) Marketing
8 6 (4.03%) Banking
9 5 (3.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (2.68%) Games
Miscellaneous
1 26 (17.45%) Mobile App
2 20 (13.42%) Security Posture
3 6 (4.03%) Onboarding
4 5 (3.36%) Cyber Threat
4 5 (3.36%) Cyberattack
4 5 (3.36%) IoT
5 4 (2.68%) Cyber Security Posture
6 3 (2.01%) Operational Technology
6 3 (2.01%) Virtual Team
7 2 (1.34%) Client/Server
7 2 (1.34%) Embedded Systems
7 2 (1.34%) Greenfield Project
8 1 (0.67%) Mainframe
8 1 (0.67%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 35 (23.49%) Kali Linux
2 28 (18.79%) Linux
3 18 (12.08%) Android
3 18 (12.08%) Apple iOS
4 2 (1.34%) Unix
4 2 (1.34%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 133 (89.26%) Penetration Testing
2 112 (75.17%) Cybersecurity
3 57 (38.26%) Problem-Solving
3 57 (38.26%) Red Team
3 57 (38.26%) Security Testing
4 55 (36.91%) Information Security
5 46 (30.87%) Application Security
6 44 (29.53%) Computer Science
7 36 (24.16%) Reverse Engineering
8 35 (23.49%) Vulnerability Scanning
9 30 (20.13%) Malware Analysis
10 28 (18.79%) Critical Thinking
11 22 (14.77%) Offensive Security
12 19 (12.75%) Ethical Hacking
13 17 (11.41%) Data Privacy
13 17 (11.41%) Mentoring
14 16 (10.74%) Incident Response
15 15 (10.07%) Vulnerability Assessment
16 14 (9.40%) Cloud Security
17 13 (8.72%) Risk Analysis
Programming Languages
1 9 (6.04%) Python
2 8 (5.37%) Java
3 5 (3.36%) Bash
3 5 (3.36%) Go
4 4 (2.68%) JavaScript
5 2 (1.34%) C#
Qualifications
1 60 (40.27%) OSCP
2 53 (35.57%) CREST Certified
3 47 (31.54%) Degree
4 33 (22.15%) Computer Science Degree
5 31 (20.81%) CHECK Team Member
6 24 (16.11%) SC Cleared
6 24 (16.11%) Security Cleared
7 12 (8.05%) Cyber Scheme
8 10 (6.71%) CHECK Team Leader
9 7 (4.70%) CEH
9 7 (4.70%) GPEN
10 6 (4.03%) GIAC
10 6 (4.03%) OSCE
10 6 (4.03%) PCI QSA
10 6 (4.03%) Tigerscheme
11 5 (3.36%) CCSAM
11 5 (3.36%) CISSP
12 4 (2.68%) BPSS Clearance
13 3 (2.01%) CompTIA Security+
14 2 (1.34%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (9.40%) GRC
1 14 (9.40%) PCI DSS
2 9 (6.04%) NIST
3 6 (4.03%) Actionable Recommendations
4 3 (2.01%) GDPR
4 3 (2.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
Systems Management
1 8 (5.37%) Nessus
2 6 (4.03%) Nmap
3 5 (3.36%) Kubernetes
4 4 (2.68%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
Vendors
1 7 (4.70%) Microsoft
2 4 (2.68%) Google
2 4 (2.68%) Qualys
3 1 (0.67%) Red Hat
3 1 (0.67%) Trustwave