Inside Poland’s Pentesting Talent Market
Lara B. — Building Cyberr
Poland has a substantial pentesting talent pool.
Security salaries increased by around 9% in 2025 , pentesting remains among the skills employers are actively searching for, and remote work and B2B contracting continue to shape how the market operates.
The market gets more interesting as companies start looking for deeper seniority, leadership experience and very specific combinations of technical skills.
That was also one of the first things cybersecurity recruiter Agathe Malkani noticed after spending significant time sourcing pentesters and team leads in Poland.
“I was very surprised that there are as many pentesters in Poland.”
So the question isn't really whether Poland has pentesting talent. It is what that talent costs, where the market gets tight and what companies actually need to offer to attract it.
Security remains a specialised part of Polish IT
Security represented around 2.75% of Polish IT job postings in 2025 , according to Just Join IT, with pentesting, application security, cloud security, SOC and security automation among the areas companies were actively recruiting for.
Web and API pentesting were also among the most common requirements seen during the recent searches we discussed.
The availability of people changes as seniority increases.
Junior freelancers can be difficult to find because people early in their careers have rarely built enough commercial experience to operate independently.
Team leads create another challenge. There are plenty of strong technical people, while the pool gets smaller once the position requires technical depth together with real team leadership and management experience.
There is also natural movement out of pure pentesting. After four or five years, people often progress into red teaming, operational security and other security functions, which makes experienced long-term pentesters harder to find.
What are security professionals earning?
This is where the numbers become interesting.
Across the broader Polish Security category, average advertised monthly compensation in 2025 was approximately:
€3,770/month on employment contracts
€4,745/month on B2B
Both increased by close to 9% year on year . Security also ranked third among Polish IT categories for average B2B compensation.
By seniority, advertised salaries were approximately:
Level
Employment
B2B
Junior
€1,740/month
€2,980/month
Mid
€3,940/month
€4,930/month
Senior
€5,620/month
€6,330/month
The employment figures are gross salaries, while B2B figures are net invoice values before VAT, so they shouldn't be compared as identical compensation structures. These numbers also cover the whole Security category, rather than pentesting alone.
Interestingly, junior security candidates were expecting salaries around 60% above advertised junior employment-contract offers , while expectations at mid and senior levels were considerably closer to what employers were offering.
Current pentesting roles show how wide the range can get
A current fully remote Senior Penetration Tester role in Poland is offering approximately €30–36 per hour on B2B , with at least five years of offensive-security experience required. The scope includes web applications, APIs, infrastructure, cloud, mobile and Active Directory.
Another recent senior pentesting role was advertised at roughly €5,060–€5,840 per month on B2B .
That range makes sense when you look at what companies increasingly expect from senior people. “Pentester” can cover a very broad technical surface.
The recent searches we discussed showed the same pattern: plenty of people could be identified in the market, while salary quickly became a deciding factor when looking for stronger senior and team-lead profiles.
Remote and B2B still matter enormously
Poland's IT market remains highly flexible.
In the 2025 Polish IT Community Report, 59.9% of respondents worked remotely every day , with another 19.2% working remotely three or four days per week .
B2B is also deeply established: 38.5% of surveyed Polish IT professionals worked under B2B contracts , compared with 53.8% on standard employment contracts.
That matters when hiring security talent.
Working model becomes part of the package. In the searches we discussed, fully remote positions allowed more flexibility around compensation, while requiring office attendance was expected to push salary expectations higher.
So what does the Polish pentesting market look like?
The talent pool is real, salaries are moving upward and there is clear demand for offensive-security skills.
The harder part starts when the requirement becomes very specific.
Five-plus years of experience. Web, API, infrastructure and cloud. Strong English. Client communication. Leadership. Maybe Active Directory or mobile. And then the right contract, working model and compensation.
Every additional requirement changes the size of the available pool.
For companies hiring pentesters in Poland, that is probably the most useful takeaway:
there are plenty of pentesters in the market. How many are genuinely available to you depends on exactly who you need and what you are offering.
4 reactions · 2 comments
Comments
Koen M.: Interesting read. Poland always adopts slower. And B2B is the common model. Pushes most risk to the rep and not the company. In my experience a lot of AI is being levered though rather than experience first.
Mpostoli: It looks like Poland has more Pentesting skilled personnel, but when AI innovation enters the Pentesting system, the game changes, they have upgrade continuously with AI