SaaS Salary Benchmarks

Penetration Tester Salary Benchmarks

Compensation data for the Penetration Tester role at US SaaS companies, based on 30 verified salaries.

Quartile breakdownAll SaaS roles
Base salary · US SaaS30 salaries
$71,038
Median base salary
Bottom 25% avg$53,560Top 25% avg$89,455
Average base salary
$72,923
Typical range (P25–P75)
$65,776–$81,562
Salaries analyzed
30

Hiring for this role? At the median, one Penetration Tester costs $71,038 a year in base salary.

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Overview
30 salaries

Penetration Tester Salary Overview

Bottom 25% AverageAverage of the lowest-paid quarter · 7 salaries
$53,560
Middle 50% AverageAverage of the middle half · 14 salaries
$71,978
Top 25% AverageAverage of the highest-paid quarter · 9 salaries
$89,455

Median Penetration Tester base pay by pay period

Per year
$71,038
Per month
$5,920
Every two weeks
$2,732
Per hour
$34.15
Base-pay equivalents before tax; hourly assumes 2,080 working hours a year.

Penetration Tester salaries at SaaS companies average $72,923, with typical salaries ranging from $65,776 to $81,562. Based on 30 real salary data points from SaaS companies.

Quartile bands
Employees · annualized base

Detailed Penetration Tester Compensation Breakdown

Penetration Tester base salary by percentile band
Percentile BandSalary rangeAverage Base Salary# of salaries
Top 25%$81,562 and up$89,4559 salaries
Middle 50%$65,776–$81,562$71,97814 salaries
Bottom 25%Under $65,776$53,5607 salaries
Hiring budget
Base salary · fully loaded

What Does a Penetration Tester Cost to Hire?

Budget for Penetration Tester hires at the 25th percentile, median and 75th percentile of this benchmark, as base salary and as fully loaded cost.

Pay level
Hires
1

One Penetration Tester hire at the median: $71,038 a year in base salary, $88,798–$99,453 fully loaded.

Cost of one hire by pay level
Per hireP25MedianP75
Base salary / year$65,776$71,038$81,562
Base salary / month$5,481$5,920$6,797
Fully loaded / year1.25–1.4× base$82,220–$92,086$88,798–$99,453$101,953–$114,187
Fully loaded / month1.25–1.4× base$6,852–$7,674$7,400–$8,288$8,496–$9,516
Fully loaded adds employer payroll taxes, health and retirement benefits, software seats, and equipment at 1.25–1.4× base salary. That multiplier is a planning rule of thumb applied to this benchmark, not a surveyed cost figure. Commission, bonus, equity, and recruiting fees are not included.

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Key insights

Penetration Tester Pay by the Numbers

  • The middle half of Penetration Tester salaries spans $65,776–$81,562: a $15,786 spread, 22% of the $71,038 median.
  • A 75th-percentile Penetration Tester earns 1.2× the 25th-percentile salary.
  • The Penetration Tester median is 5% above the median Operations, Finance & People role ($67,760 across 114 roles).

What Drives Higher Penetration Tester Pay?

  • Years of experience and proven track record
  • Company stage and funding (later stage typically pays more)
  • Technical expertise and specialization
  • Location and remote work policies
FAQ
Penetration Tester salary

On a median base salary of $71,038, a Penetration Tester at a US SaaS company makes about $5,920 a month, $2,732 every two weeks, or $34.15 an hour over 2,080 working hours a year. The middle half of salaries (25th–75th percentile) works out to $5,481–$6,797 a month. These are base-pay equivalents before tax, and they leave out bonus, commission, and equity.

Expect the lower half of this benchmark. Across 30 verified SaaS Penetration Tester salaries, the 25th percentile is $65,776 and the median is $71,038. A Penetration Tester at a seed or Series A startup, or at a bootstrapped company under roughly $10M ARR, will often land between those two figures. Base pay typically moves toward and past the $81,562 75th percentile as the company adds headcount and ARR. Those stage bands are a rule of thumb applied to this benchmark, not a breakdown by company size, which the dataset does not report.

Budget for more than base salary. On a median base of $71,038, the fully loaded cost of a US Penetration Tester is roughly $88,798–$99,453 per year once employer payroll taxes (~7.65% FICA plus federal and state unemployment), health and retirement benefits, software seats, and equipment are added. That 1.25–1.4x multiplier is a planning rule of thumb applied to the benchmark on this page, not a surveyed cost figure. Commission, bonuses, and equity sit on top where the role carries them. Also budget one-off hiring costs: agency recruiting fees commonly run 15–25% of first-year base, and a new hire takes weeks to months to reach full productivity.

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