Free Access No Registration Updated: 2026-06-01

Penetration Tester Career Market Report 2026

201 active jobs. 117 companies. Median salary $120K. Data from Greenhouse, Lever, Workday, Ashby, SmartRecruiters, Workable, and 14 additional ATS sources. Last computed: 2026-06-01.

201
Active Job Openings
117
Companies Hiring
$120K
Median Salary (US)
80%
With Salary Data

About This Report

The Penetration Tester market data on this page is updated daily from 800,000+ active job postings across 20 ATS platforms.

Greenhouse Lever Workday Ashby SmartRecruiters Workable + 14 more ATS sources

Salary: Extracted via NLP. Only USD $5K-$3M included. Skills: Named entity recognition, noise-filtered (generic soft skills excluded). Experience: Inferred from title + description. Coverage: 80% of positions include salary data.

Key Findings

Median salary: $120K in the US

Middle 50% of salaries range from $87K to $195K.

Remote roles pay 8% below the US national median

Remote positions in this field tend to be at companies with lower average pay scales, or reflect geographic salary adjustments.

Python is the most-demanded skill at 41%

Packetlabs leads hiring with 6 open positions

Biggest salary jump: Mid-Level → Senior (+$44K, +51%)

Salary increase: +$44K · Sample: Mid-Level → Senior

AI automation risk: medium (score 55/100)

Score: 55/100 · AI/LLM demand: 76% of postings

Salary by Experience Level

LevelJobsP25MedianP90
Senior13$110K$131K$195K
Lead6$120K$131K$150K
Manager6$75K$98K$275K
Junior4$70K$80K$95K
Mid-Level3$87K$87K$87K

What jumps out

Mid-Level → Senior: +$44K (51%) — the biggest single-step increase. The salary curve is back-loaded: the largest raises come at transitions where scope changes from executing tasks to owning outcomes, or from owning outcomes to shaping architecture across teams.

Salary by Country

CountryJobsMedianCurrency
United States19$130KUSD
Canada5$98KUSD
Remote4$120KCAD

Work Mode

ModeShare
On-Site3.0%
Remote19.4%
Hybrid1.0%

~80% of postings do not specify work mode. Figures show only positions where it is explicitly stated.

Top Skills in Demand

Python
41%
AI/LLM
35%
AWS
34%
Azure
22%
Linux
22%
GCP
21%
Kubernetes
18%
CISSP
16%
JavaScript
14%
Bash
14%
CI/CD
12%
iOS
12%

Top Companies Hiring

CompanyOpeningsShare
Packetlabs63.0%
Trenchant63.0%
Rsm52.5%
Cobaltio31.5%
Soprasteria31.5%
Bitmex31.5%
Leidos31.5%
Michelinhr31.5%

Top Countries by Job Volume

CountryJobs
United States61
Remote33
India10
Canada7
United Kingdom7
Netherlands4
France4
Poland3

Education Requirements

LevelSharePositions
Associate Degree58.8%94
Bachelor's Degree16.2%26
Master's Degree7.5%12

Certifications

CEH (19%)CISSP (14%)AWS Certified (2%)CISA (2%)CISM (1%)Kubernetes Certified (1%)CCNA (1%)

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