Penetration Tester salary
What a penetration tester actually earns, from 209 live job postings blended with the official US OEWS (Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics) wage anchor. Pick a market for its median and range, then read the seniority split, the trend, and the country comparison below. Updated 2026-07-26.
Switch the market above to see penetration tester pay in the 2 countries our sources cover, each with its own cost of living. The trend, seniority, and state detail below are United States data, where the official record runs deepest.
What the number means
A penetration tester earns a blended US median near 124,240 dollars, with the typical middle running from 101,020 dollars to 156,819 dollars. The official OEWS median is higher, 124,910 dollars, because job ads skew toward the roles that pay below the occupation-wide average. The official trend has moved up about 25 percent since 2019. By seniority, posted pay runs from roughly 114,493 dollars to 123,000 dollars. Demand is rated moderate, and 4% of postings are fully remote. The nearest adjacent move on our skill graph is security engineer, at 38 percent coverage; the instrument maps the rest.
Open penetration tester roles
Live openings tagged to this occupation, from company career pages and remote boards. Apply at the source.
GenAI Security Researcher (Open Ranks), VulcanAIFT · China; Japan; Singapore; South Korea; TaiwanRemoteJul 24
Offensive Security Agent EngineerOpenAI · Remote - US$347k–$490kRemoteJul 22
Senior Penetration TesterExperian · Hyderabad, INJul 22- Ethical Hacker - OT SecurityPacketlabs Ltd. · Canada$57k–$86kRemoteJul 20
Red Team Engineer, SafeguardsAnthropic · Remote-Friendly (Travel Required) | San Francisco, CA$320kRemoteJul 10
Staff Engineer - Offensive SecurityTwilio · Remote - US$183kRemoteJul 8
By seniority
Posted-median pay by seniority signal in the title, from our corpus. Noisy at the edges where sample sizes are small.
By country
- United States$101,020 – $156,819 · median $124,240
- United Kingdom$60,495 – $87,382 · median $72,042
Top-paying US states
OEWS median by state, highest first.
- Washingtonmedian $142,920
- Californiamedian $140,660
- Marylandmedian $140,480
- Virginiamedian $132,460
- New Yorkmedian $131,100
- Coloradomedian $130,570
Is your offer fair?
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Related salaries
- Security Engineer salary$141,457 median
- Systems Administrator salary$103,051 median
- Developer Advocate salary$161,455 median
Quick answers
How much does a penetration tester make?
The blended US median is about 124,240 dollars, with a typical range from 101,020 dollars to 156,819 dollars, against an official OEWS median of 124,910 dollars.
Is penetration tester a good career in 2026?
Demand for the role is rated moderate in our July 2026 corpus, with 4% of postings fully remote. The pay is shown above by seniority and by country.
What can a penetration tester move into?
The nearest adjacent role on our skill graph is security engineer, at 38 percent skill coverage. Run the instrument for the full set of reachable moves.
Method: bands are the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of live US postings with stated pay, shrunk toward the official OEWS anchor by sample size (the “blended” figure). Trend is the OEWS annual median for SOC (Standard Occupational Classification) code 15-1212. Live corpus 209 observations, 2026-07-26. Definitions in the glossary.