Penetration Testing
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies with a requirement for Penetration Testing skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered in vacancies that have cited Penetration Testing over the 6 months to 9 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
9 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 458 472 550
Rank change year-on-year +14 +78 -128
Permanent jobs citing Penetration Testing 519 631 930
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.52% 0.62% 0.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.61% 0.65% 0.62%
Number of salaries quoted 406 422 649
10th Percentile £38,987 £43,477 £37,286
25th Percentile £47,500 £50,156 £50,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £67,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.70% +12.50% -
75th Percentile £82,500 £90,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £103,750 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year - -8.33% +9.09%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Penetration Testing is in the Processes and Methodologies category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 84,809 96,894 150,102
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 85.57% 95.61% 95.67%
Number of salaries quoted 59,843 56,945 82,179
10th Percentile £29,000 £34,000 £33,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £45,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £61,180 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.10% +1.97% +9.09%
75th Percentile £72,500 £81,250 £80,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £100,000 £96,550
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -9.09% +4.76% +9.38%

Penetration Testing
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Penetration Testing as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Penetration Testing in the UK

Penetration Testing
Salary Trend

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

Salary trend for Penetration Testing in the UK

Penetration Testing
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Penetration Testing over the 6 months to 9 May 2024.

Salary histogram for Penetration Testing in the UK

Penetration Testing
Top 16 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Penetration Testing within the UK over the 6 months to 9 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 +53 470 £65,000 -3.70% 111
UK excluding London -52 240 £55,000 - 66
London +58 228 £75,000 -8.46% 46
Work from Home -21 215 £60,000 -11.11% 65
South East -10 66 £43,750 -37.50% 14
Midlands -16 53 £55,000 -8.33% 6
North of England +34 51 £58,750 +11.64% 17
South West -6 51 £58,750 +15.20% 19
North West +23 39 £60,000 +12.15% 10
West Midlands -8 31 £55,000 -8.33% 2
East Midlands 0 22 £65,000 - 4
Yorkshire +65 12 £44,250 -15.71% 6
East of England +6 8 £41,250 -25.00%
Scotland -85 7 £60,000 +7.75% 4
Wales +1 3 £90,000 +50.00% 3
Channel Islands - 1 £100,000 -

Penetration Testing
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:

Application Platforms
1 5 (0.96%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (0.77%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.19%) Apache
3 1 (0.19%) Confluence
3 1 (0.19%) IIS
3 1 (0.19%) WebSphere
Applications
1 2 (0.39%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.19%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 110 (21.19%) Azure
2 81 (15.61%) AWS
3 49 (9.44%) Microsoft 365
4 26 (5.01%) GCP
5 22 (4.24%) Cloud Computing
6 11 (2.12%) Entra ID
6 11 (2.12%) Google Workspace
7 8 (1.54%) Amazon ECS
7 8 (1.54%) Cloudflare
7 8 (1.54%) PaaS
7 8 (1.54%) SaaS
8 7 (1.35%) Dynamics 365
8 7 (1.35%) IaaS
9 6 (1.16%) Azure Sentinel
10 5 (0.96%) Azure DevOps
11 4 (0.77%) Azure Service Bus
11 4 (0.77%) Mimecast
12 3 (0.58%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 3 (0.58%) Power Platform
12 3 (0.58%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 127 (24.47%) Firewall
2 73 (14.07%) Network Security
3 39 (7.51%) Wireless
4 33 (6.36%) Intrusion Detection
5 32 (6.17%) DNS
6 18 (3.47%) Wi-Fi
7 17 (3.28%) TCP/IP
8 14 (2.70%) VPN
9 11 (2.12%) Broadband
9 11 (2.12%) NAS
10 10 (1.93%) Internet
10 10 (1.93%) Wireshark
11 9 (1.73%) SSL
12 6 (1.16%) BGP
12 6 (1.16%) LAN
13 5 (0.96%) HTTP
13 5 (0.96%) IPsec
13 5 (0.96%) OSPF
13 5 (0.96%) SMTP
13 5 (0.96%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (1.93%) SQL Server
2 6 (1.16%) MongoDB
2 6 (1.16%) NoSQL
3 4 (0.77%) InfluxDB
4 3 (0.58%) Data Lake
5 2 (0.39%) Azure SQL Database
6 1 (0.19%) Redis
Development Applications
1 39 (7.51%) Burp Suite
1 39 (7.51%) Metasploit
2 8 (1.54%) Git
2 8 (1.54%) Jenkins
3 6 (1.16%) JIRA
4 5 (0.96%) Postman
5 4 (0.77%) JMeter
5 4 (0.77%) SoapUI
6 3 (0.58%) Cucumber
6 3 (0.58%) SpecFlow
7 2 (0.39%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.39%) Selenium
8 1 (0.19%) GitLab
8 1 (0.19%) Snyk
General
1 164 (31.60%) Social Skills
2 93 (17.92%) Analytical Skills
3 74 (14.26%) Finance
4 47 (9.06%) Legal
5 35 (6.74%) Law
6 30 (5.78%) Retail
7 29 (5.59%) Presentation Skills
8 26 (5.01%) Telecoms
9 25 (4.82%) Games
10 24 (4.62%) Banking
11 21 (4.05%) Aerospace
12 20 (3.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 18 (3.47%) Marketing
13 18 (3.47%) Public Sector
14 14 (2.70%) Influencing Skills
14 14 (2.70%) Military
15 8 (1.54%) Manufacturing
16 7 (1.35%) Automotive
16 7 (1.35%) Aviation
16 7 (1.35%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 132 (25.43%) Penetration Tester
1 132 (25.43%) Tester
2 76 (14.64%) Analyst
3 67 (12.91%) Lead
3 67 (12.91%) Senior
4 58 (11.18%) Security Analyst
5 40 (7.71%) Consultant
6 37 (7.13%) Security Engineer
7 32 (6.17%) Security Manager
7 32 (6.17%) Team Leader
8 27 (5.20%) Security Consultant
9 26 (5.01%) Cybersecurity Analyst
10 25 (4.82%) Architect
11 22 (4.24%) Senior Penetration Tester
11 22 (4.24%) Senior Tester
12 21 (4.05%) Security Tester
12 21 (4.05%) Test Team Leader
13 20 (3.85%) Security Architect
13 20 (3.85%) Security Penetration Tester
14 18 (3.47%) Cybersecurity Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (2.70%) OAuth
2 12 (2.31%) OAuth2
3 8 (1.54%) Laravel
4 5 (0.96%) Web Services
5 4 (0.77%) EDI
5 4 (0.77%) OpenID
5 4 (0.77%) SOAP
5 4 (0.77%) XML
6 3 (0.58%) RESTful
6 3 (0.58%) WPF
7 2 (0.39%) Kafka
7 2 (0.39%) SAML
8 1 (0.19%) .NET
8 1 (0.19%) HTML
8 1 (0.19%) JSON
8 1 (0.19%) Loki
8 1 (0.19%) React
8 1 (0.19%) SignalR
8 1 (0.19%) Spring Boot
8 1 (0.19%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 58 (11.18%) Cyber Threat
2 45 (8.67%) Security Posture
3 43 (8.29%) Management Information System
4 38 (7.32%) Cyberattack
5 28 (5.39%) Mobile App
6 27 (5.20%) Onboarding
7 23 (4.43%) Self-Motivation
8 20 (3.85%) Operational Technology
9 16 (3.08%) Data Centre
10 14 (2.70%) Cyber Defence
10 14 (2.70%) Hybrid Cloud
11 13 (2.50%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 13 (2.50%) IoT
12 11 (2.12%) Video Conferencing
13 8 (1.54%) Cyber Security Posture
14 7 (1.35%) Analytical Mindset
14 7 (1.35%) Data Protection Act
15 6 (1.16%) Embedded Systems
16 5 (0.96%) Data Structures
16 5 (0.96%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 72 (13.87%) Windows
2 60 (11.56%) Linux
3 41 (7.90%) Kali Linux
4 26 (5.01%) Apple iOS
5 25 (4.82%) Android
6 22 (4.24%) Windows Server
7 15 (2.89%) Unix
8 12 (2.31%) Mac OS
9 3 (0.58%) Mac OS X
10 2 (0.39%) AIX
10 2 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (0.39%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.19%) VMS
11 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 379 (73.03%) Cybersecurity
2 156 (30.06%) Information Security
3 120 (23.12%) Computer Science
4 115 (22.16%) Problem-Solving
5 106 (20.42%) Incident Response
6 97 (18.69%) Application Security
7 91 (17.53%) Vulnerability Scanning
8 87 (16.76%) Red Team
9 85 (16.38%) Security Testing
10 74 (14.26%) SIEM
11 67 (12.91%) Vulnerability Management
12 63 (12.14%) Mentoring
13 61 (11.75%) Vulnerability Assessment
14 59 (11.37%) Security Operations
15 55 (10.60%) OWASP
16 47 (9.06%) Patch Management
16 47 (9.06%) Risk Management
17 43 (8.29%) Data Protection
18 41 (7.90%) Malware Analysis
18 41 (7.90%) Reverse Engineering
Programming Languages
1 48 (9.25%) Python
2 31 (5.97%) Bash
3 14 (2.70%) Java
4 13 (2.50%) PowerShell
5 12 (2.31%) SQL
6 8 (1.54%) PHP
6 8 (1.54%) Rust
7 7 (1.35%) C#
7 7 (1.35%) Go
7 7 (1.35%) JavaScript
8 2 (0.39%) Ruby
9 1 (0.19%) Bicep
9 1 (0.19%) C++
9 1 (0.19%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 123 (23.70%) Degree
2 108 (20.81%) CISSP
3 87 (16.76%) CREST Certified
4 70 (13.49%) OSCP
5 67 (12.91%) Computer Science Degree
6 61 (11.75%) CISM
7 49 (9.44%) Security Cleared
8 40 (7.71%) SC Cleared
9 39 (7.51%) CompTIA Security+
10 37 (7.13%) CEH
11 31 (5.97%) CHECK Team Member
11 31 (5.97%) GIAC
12 29 (5.59%) CISA
13 26 (5.01%) CompTIA CySA+
14 25 (4.82%) Cisco Certification
15 24 (4.62%) CHECK Team Leader
16 19 (3.66%) Network+ Certification
17 18 (3.47%) GPEN
18 16 (3.08%) Cyber Scheme
19 15 (2.89%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 102 (19.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 63 (12.14%) NIST
3 59 (11.37%) Cyber Essentials
4 30 (5.78%) GRC
5 28 (5.39%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 26 (5.01%) GDPR
6 26 (5.01%) PCI DSS
6 26 (5.01%) SOC 2
7 24 (4.62%) QA
8 9 (1.73%) NCSC
9 8 (1.54%) NIST 800
10 7 (1.35%) Actionable Recommendations
10 7 (1.35%) DO-254
11 6 (1.16%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 5 (0.96%) COBIT
12 5 (0.96%) HIPAA
13 4 (0.77%) Accessibility
13 4 (0.77%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 3 (0.58%) JSP 440
14 3 (0.58%) JTAG
System Software
1 47 (9.06%) Active Directory
2 27 (5.20%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (1.73%) Virtual Machines
4 7 (1.35%) Docker
5 2 (0.39%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.39%) Virtual Servers
6 1 (0.19%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 20 (3.85%) Nessus
2 18 (3.47%) Kubernetes
3 13 (2.50%) WSUS
4 11 (2.12%) Ansible
4 11 (2.12%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
4 11 (2.12%) Single Sign-On
5 8 (1.54%) Microsoft Intune
5 8 (1.54%) Nmap
5 8 (1.54%) QRadar
6 7 (1.35%) SCCM
7 5 (0.96%) CASB
7 5 (0.96%) Grafana
7 5 (0.96%) Progress Chef
7 5 (0.96%) Suricata
7 5 (0.96%) Terraform
8 4 (0.77%) DatAdvantage
8 4 (0.77%) HP Fortify
9 3 (0.58%) FortiGate
10 2 (0.39%) CSIRT
11 1 (0.19%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 91 (17.53%) Microsoft
2 27 (5.20%) VMware
3 22 (4.24%) Cisco
3 22 (4.24%) Qualys
4 19 (3.66%) Google
5 15 (2.89%) Splunk
6 11 (2.12%) Apple
7 8 (1.54%) Palo Alto
8 6 (1.16%) HubSpot
8 6 (1.16%) Oracle
8 6 (1.16%) Rapid7
9 5 (0.96%) IBM
9 5 (0.96%) Juniper
9 5 (0.96%) Kenna
9 5 (0.96%) Red Hat
9 5 (0.96%) Veeam
10 4 (0.77%) Alibaba
10 4 (0.77%) Darktrace
10 4 (0.77%) ServiceNow
10 4 (0.77%) Varonis