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OSCP, OSCE, GXPN, CRTO certified offensive security specialists for web, cloud, Active Directory, network, and full-spectrum red team engagements.
Penetration Testers and Red Team engineers operate on the offensive side of security — finding and demonstrating exploitable vulnerabilities so organisations can fix them before adversaries find the same gaps. The work splits into two distinct disciplines that share technical foundations but differ meaningfully in objective and engagement structure. Penetration testing is bounded vulnerability discovery — given a defined scope (an application, a network, an environment), find as many exploitable vulnerabilities as possible within the engagement window. Red team engagements are adversary emulation — simulate realistic threat-actor behaviour against an entire organisation to test whether detection and response capabilities can spot and contain a sophisticated attacker. Most senior practitioners can do both; many specialise in one as their primary engagement type.
The work has matured significantly since the early days of network-only testing. Modern engagements span web applications, REST and GraphQL APIs, OAuth and OIDC implementations, mobile applications, cloud environments (with their own offensive tooling — Pacu, ScoutSuite, Stormspotter), Active Directory (BloodHound, Mimikatz, Rubeus, Impacket), wireless networks, and physical assessments. Full red team engagements draw from this entire toolkit while emphasising the operational discipline required to operate quietly enough that a competent SOC has a fair chance of detecting (or missing) the simulated attacker.
The offensive security domain has grown wide enough that most practitioners specialise. Our bench breaks down by primary specialism, with cross-domain breadth at the senior tiers:
| Capability | Primary scope | Typical credentials | Engagement length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Web app + API | OWASP coverage + modern API attacks | OSCP, BSCP, GWAPT | 2–6 weeks |
| Cloud | AWS, Azure, GCP attacks | OSCP + cloud-specific cert | 3–6 weeks |
| Active Directory | Domain compromise + Kerberos | OSCP, OSEP, CRTO | 2–4 weeks |
| Mobile | iOS + Android app attacks | OSCP + mobile-specific cert | 2–4 weeks |
| Red team | Adversary emulation full-spectrum | OSCE, OSEP, CRTO + experience | 6–16 weeks |
A meaningful share of our penetration testing engagements are compliance-driven — required by a specific regulatory framework rather than optional security investment. Each framework has its own requirement shape: PCI-DSS requires both internal and external testing annually plus on significant changes to the cardholder data environment. SOC 2 trust services criteria include penetration testing as part of the security category. HIPAA includes penetration testing within the risk assessment requirement. FedRAMP system security plans require explicit penetration testing scope. ISO 27001 includes control testing as part of the management system. We match engagement scope, deliverable format, and report structure to the specific framework requirement so the output satisfies auditor expectations without requiring re-work.
We staff penetration testers and red team engineers across contract, direct hire, and engagement-delivery models. The dominant engagement shape is short-burst contract for specific testing scope — typically two-to-six weeks per engagement. For continuous testing programmes (which have grown more common in regulated industries) we also support quarterly or monthly recurring engagements with the same practitioner pool.
For full-engagement delivery (rather than staff augmentation), we typically place a lead-plus-team — one senior practitioner with engagement leadership responsibility, two-to-three additional testers with specialist depth in the engagement scope, and a part-time technical writer for the deliverable production phase. Our IAM Architect placement page covers the architecture-side that often consumes penetration testing output as input to remediation planning.
Continuous penetration testing — running recurring smaller engagements rather than annual large ones — has grown in popularity since 2022 as a more effective testing model for organisations with rapid release cadence. Continuous programmes typically run as quarterly or monthly recurring engagements with the same practitioner pool, allowing testers to develop deep familiarity with the application architecture and to focus on changes rather than re-testing baseline scope each cycle. The model fits SaaS organisations and cloud-native estates particularly well, where annual point-in-time testing tends to miss meaningful security regressions introduced between testing windows.
We support continuous testing programmes as a recurring engagement structure with named practitioners assigned to specific clients, typically alongside an annual deeper-scope engagement to cover areas that continuous testing does not reach (full red team simulation, comprehensive compliance scope, novel architecture changes).