Senior Penetration Tester – Contract

Employment International; Essex; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Employment International is seeking an experienced Senior Penetration Tester to support a cybersecurity engagement in the Essex area. The role is hybrid/remote with immediate start and Inside IR35 contract terms.

The successful candidate will perform hands-on validation beyond automated testing, analyze attack paths, and provide remediation guidance while communicating findings clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Hands-on security professional with expertise in validating vulnerabilities beyond automated tooling.
• Ability to reproduce vulnerabilities and demonstrate exploit paths.
• Strong ability to assess business and technical impact of findings.
• Experience identifying false positives and contextual vulnerability assessment.
• Proven ability to communicate findings to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Validate and investigate findings from automated security testing platforms.
• Differentiate genuine vulnerabilities from false positives and edge cases.
• Reproduce and demonstrate vulnerabilities when required.
• Analyse attack paths and potential exploitation scenarios.
• Assess risk and impact to business and technology.
• Prioritise remediation based on risk and exploitability.
• Recommend remediation measures and compensating controls.
• Explain findings to technical teams and stakeholders.
• Produce high-quality technical reports and documentation.
• Apply manual testing to complement automated testing.
• Demonstrate strong commercial experience in penetration testing.

Skills

Penetration testing

Offensive security

Manual testing

Risk assessment

Vulnerability analysis

Report writing

Communication

Job description

We are looking for an experienced Senior Penetration Tester to support a cybersecurity engagement involving automated security testing and validation.

Location: hybrid/remote location is Essex areas

Engagement: Contract (Inside IR35)

Start: Immediate / Short Notice Preferred

The role requires a hands-on security professional who can go beyond automated tooling — validating vulnerabilities, understanding attack paths, assessing real-world risk and providing clear remediation guidance.

Key Responsibilities

• Validate and investigate penetration testing findings generated through automated security testing platforms.
• Distinguish genuine vulnerabilities from false positives, edge cases and low-risk findings.
• Reproduce and demonstrate vulnerabilities where required.
• Analyse attack paths and potential exploitation scenarios.
• Assess the business and technical impact of identified vulnerabilities.
• Prioritise remediation based on risk and exploitability.
• Recommend appropriate remediation and compensating controls.
• Work with technical and security teams to explain findings clearly.
• Provide high-quality technical documentation and reports.
• Apply manual penetration testing expertise to complement automated testing.
• Strong commercial experience in penetration testing / offensive security.
• Proven ability to manually validate automated security findings.
• Strong understanding of vulnerability assessment, exploitation and attack paths.
• Experience identifying false positives and assessing vulnerabilities in context.
• Ability to communicate technical security findings to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong knowledge of common attack techniques, vulnerabilities and security controls.