Penetration Tester salary: $216K median
From 32 open roles that publish a yearly US-dollar range. Advertised ranges, not verified pay.
$216Kmedian advertised salary
$187K – $250Kmiddle half of roles
$222Kaverage advertised salary
32roles counted
Top-paying companies
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | $259K | 3 |
| Horizon3ai | $219K | 3 |
| Accenture Federal Services | $156K | 3 |
Highest-paying open Penetration Tester roles
All penetration tester jobs- Enterprise Security Engineer, Vulnerability ManagementOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$347K - $445K
- Red Team Engineer, SafeguardsAnthropic · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA$320K - $405KMachine LearningLLM
- Member of Technical Staff (Offensive Security Engineer)Perplexity · 🇺🇸San Francisco$220K - $405KGoPythonGCP
- Research Scientist, Open Benchmarks Red TeamSnorkel AI · 🇺🇸New York City, NY (Hybrid); San Francisco, CA (Hybrid); U…$200K - $340KRemotePythonMachine LearningLLM
- Security Engineer, Offensive SecurityAnthropic · 🇺🇸Remote-Friendly, United States; San Francisco, CA | Seatt…$300K - $320KRemoteGoPythonGCP
- Red Team - CyberOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$198K - $320K
- Security Engineer, Vulnerability ManagementLiveKit · 🇺🇸United States (Remote)$200K - $300KRemoteGoPythonTerraform
- Senior Staff Security Engineer, Vulnerability ManagementZocdoc · 🇺🇸USA Remote$200K - $290KRemoteLeadRustGoPython
- AI Security ResearcherApolloresearch · 🇬🇧🇺🇸London & San Francisco$214K - $280KLLMCI/CDAI
- Principal Security ResearcherGitLab · 🇨🇦🇮🇱🇬🇧Remote, Canada; Remote, Israel; Remote, United Kingdom; R…$203K - $275KRemoteLeadRustGoPython
- Staff Software Engineer, Pentest ExperienceHorizon3ai · 🇺🇸US, Remote$230K - $270KRemoteLeadRustGoPython
- Senior Security Software Engineer, Vulnerability ManagementRoblox · 🇺🇸San Mateo, CA, United States$217K - $269KSeniorGoPythonJava
- Offensive Security EngineerStripe · 🇺🇸US - Remote$170K - $256KRemoteGoPythonGCP
- Senior Security Research EngineerElastic · 🇺🇸United States$133K - $253KSeniorPythonC++Machine Learning
- Senior Information Security Engineer, Offensive SecurityGRVTY · 🇺🇸Boulder, Colorado, United States$175K - $250KSeniorLinux
- Senior Security Engineer, Vulnerability ManagementCoreWeave · 🇺🇸Livingston, NJ / New York, NY / Sunnyvale, CA / Bellevue, WA$165K - $242KSeniorRustGoPython
- WebApp Offensive Security Software EngineerHorizon3ai · 🇺🇸US, Remote$196K - $242KRemotePostgreSQLLLMJira
- Senior Application Security Engineer (Red Team)Altruist · 🇺🇸San Francsico, CA$200K - $240KSeniorJavaTerraformKubernetes
- Principal Security Researcher - EDR (Windows)Huntress · 🇺🇸United States of America$200K - $230KLeadPythonC++C#
- Principal Product Security ResearcherChainguard · 🇺🇸United States - Remote$201K - $226KRemoteLeadSnowflake
Questions about Penetration Tester pay
- What is the average Penetration Tester salary?
- $222K a year on average and $216K at the median, across 32 open Penetration Tester postings at tech companies that state pay (November 2026). The median is the better guide: a few very high offers pull the average up.
- What is the typical range?
- The middle half of the postings offer $187K to $250K a year. A quarter offer less and a quarter offer more.
- Which companies advertise the highest Penetration Tester pay?
- OpenAI ($259K), Horizon3ai ($219K), Accenture Federal Services ($156K), by the median of their open postings that state pay (three postings or more).
- Where do these figures come from?
- From the pay ranges employers print in their own job postings, read from their careers pages every hour. The midpoint of each range is counted. These are advertised ranges for open roles, mostly in the United States and in US dollars, not what people are actually paid.
Writing about this? A sentence you can quote
The median advertised salary for Penetration Tester roles at tech companies is $216K a year, and the middle half of postings offer $187K to $250K. Counted from 32 open job postings that state pay, November 2026. Source: Hiring Right Now, https://jobseveryhour.com/salaries/penetration-tester/
Free to use with the link.