Security Penetration Tester Jobs

Penetration/Security Tester
UK

The median Penetration/Security Tester salary in the UK is £62,500 per year according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months to 9 June 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
9 Jun 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 899 916 1264
Rank change year-on-year +17 +348 -309
Permanent jobs requiring a Security Penetration Tester 23 29 17
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.021% 0.031% 0.010%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.022% 0.034% 0.010%
Number of salaries quoted 12 20 17
10th Percentile £39,500 £56,250 -
25th Percentile £57,500 £83,750 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £87,500 £54,500
Median % change year-on-year -28.57% +60.55% -31.88%
75th Percentile £66,250 £121,563 £58,750
90th Percentile £70,000 £122,500 £68,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £67,500 £40,000
% change year-on-year -11.11% +68.75% +14.29%

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 102,753 84,908 164,946
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.75% 91.21% 95.96%
Number of salaries quoted 72,538 55,143 85,388
10th Percentile £28,500 £32,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £38,524 £45,000 £42,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -12.50% - +9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £80,000 £78,750
90th Percentile £90,000 £100,000 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £53,500 £50,296
% change year-on-year -6.54% +6.37% +5.89%

Security Penetration Tester
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Security Penetration Tester in the UK

Security Penetration Tester
Salary Trend

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

Salary trend for Security Penetration Tester in the UK

Security Penetration Tester
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Security Penetration Tester over the 6 months to 9 June 2024.

Salary histogram for Security Penetration Tester in the UK

Security Penetration Tester
Top 11 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Security Penetration Tester within the UK over the 6 months to 9 June 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 +19 21 £60,000 -31.43% 1
UK excluding London -55 15 £60,000 -11.11%
Work from Home +41 11 £65,000 -25.71% 1
South West -20 10 £45,000 -
London +54 8 £65,000 -25.71% 1
North of England +23 2 £30,000 -55.56%
Scotland - 2 £65,000 -
Yorkshire +63 1 £30,000 -
North West -9 1 - -
Midlands -31 1 £60,000 -
East Midlands - 1 £60,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 9 June 2024, Security 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 Security Penetration Tester in the job title.

1 20 (86.96%) Penetration Testing
2 19 (82.61%) Cybersecurity
3 16 (69.57%) Problem-Solving
4 15 (65.22%) OSCP
5 14 (60.87%) CHECK Team Member
6 10 (43.48%) Security Testing
6 10 (43.48%) Computer Science
6 10 (43.48%) Social Skills
7 9 (39.13%) Incident Response
7 9 (39.13%) Risk Analysis
7 9 (39.13%) Degree
8 8 (34.78%) Information Security
8 8 (34.78%) CREST Certified
9 7 (30.43%) Presentation Skills
9 7 (30.43%) Wireless
9 7 (30.43%) Marketing
9 7 (30.43%) OWASP
9 7 (30.43%) Cloud Security
10 6 (26.09%) Application Security
10 6 (26.09%) PCI DSS
10 6 (26.09%) PCI QSA
10 6 (26.09%) Firewall
10 6 (26.09%) Vulnerability Assessment
10 6 (26.09%) GRC
10 6 (26.09%) Thought Leadership
10 6 (26.09%) NIST
10 6 (26.09%) Actionable Insight
10 6 (26.09%) Actionable Recommendations
10 6 (26.09%) Tigerscheme
10 6 (26.09%) Cyber Scheme

Security 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 1 (4.35%) AWS
1 1 (4.35%) Azure
1 1 (4.35%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 7 (30.43%) Wireless
2 6 (26.09%) Firewall
3 1 (4.35%) HTTP
3 1 (4.35%) SSH
3 1 (4.35%) SSL
Development Applications
1 1 (4.35%) Burp Suite
1 1 (4.35%) Metasploit
General
1 10 (43.48%) Social Skills
2 7 (30.43%) Marketing
2 7 (30.43%) Presentation Skills
3 1 (4.35%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (4.35%) Documentation Skills
3 1 (4.35%) Games
3 1 (4.35%) Law
Miscellaneous
1 2 (8.70%) Mobile App
2 1 (4.35%) IoT
2 1 (4.35%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 1 (4.35%) Android
1 1 (4.35%) Apple iOS
1 1 (4.35%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (86.96%) Penetration Testing
2 19 (82.61%) Cybersecurity
3 16 (69.57%) Problem-Solving
4 10 (43.48%) Computer Science
4 10 (43.48%) Security Testing
5 9 (39.13%) Incident Response
5 9 (39.13%) Risk Analysis
6 8 (34.78%) Information Security
7 7 (30.43%) Cloud Security
7 7 (30.43%) OWASP
8 6 (26.09%) Actionable Insight
8 6 (26.09%) Application Security
8 6 (26.09%) Data Privacy
8 6 (26.09%) Security Architecture
8 6 (26.09%) Thought Leadership
8 6 (26.09%) Vulnerability Assessment
9 2 (8.70%) Red Team
10 1 (4.35%) Collaborative Working
10 1 (4.35%) Containerisation
10 1 (4.35%) White-Box Testing
Qualifications
1 15 (65.22%) OSCP
2 14 (60.87%) CHECK Team Member
3 9 (39.13%) Degree
4 8 (34.78%) CREST Certified
5 6 (26.09%) CHECK Team Leader
5 6 (26.09%) Cyber Scheme
5 6 (26.09%) PCI QSA
5 6 (26.09%) Tigerscheme
6 1 (4.35%) Computer Science Degree
6 1 (4.35%) OSCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (26.09%) Actionable Recommendations
1 6 (26.09%) GRC
1 6 (26.09%) NIST
1 6 (26.09%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 1 (4.35%) Docker
Systems Management
1 1 (4.35%) Nessus
1 1 (4.35%) Nmap
Vendors
1 1 (4.35%) Google
1 1 (4.35%) Qualys