Reconnaissance
Importance: Essential (5 of 5)
Maps attack surfaces through passive and active information gathering.
Course coverage
- Penetration Testing Fundamentals, Reconnaissance and OSINT (planned)
← All career guides5 of 8 skills7 of 14 courses
Security
Penetration Tester
Simulates real-world attacks against systems, networks, and applications to expose exploitable weaknesses before adversaries do.
Skill coverage
63%
Course coverage
50%
Skill coverage shows how much of the role's capability map already has a published course. Course coverage shows how much of the mapped course pipeline for this role has shipped.
- Role skills
- 8
- Published coverage
- 5
- Relevant courses
- 7
Capability map
Skills
Importance describes how central each capability is to the role. Course coverage shows where you can build the skill in the current OpenSkills catalog.
01
Offensive techniques
5 capabilities
Exploitation
Importance: Essential (5 of 5)
Identifies and safely exploits vulnerabilities within agreed scope.
Course coverage
- Ethical Hacking Fundamentals
- AI Red Teaming
- Mobile Application Penetration Testing
- Red Team Operations
- Penetration Testing Fundamentals (planned)
Web application testing
Importance: Essential (5 of 5)
Probes web applications and APIs for injection, auth, and logic flaws.
Course coverage
- API Security
- OWASP Top 10
- Web Application Penetration Testing (planned)
Network penetration
Importance: Very important (4 of 5)
Attacks network services, protocols, and segmentation controls.
Course coverage
- Cloud Penetration Testing
- Network Penetration Testing (planned)
Social engineering
Importance: Important (3 of 5)
Tests human-layer defenses through phishing and pretexting engagements.
Course coverage
- Social Engineering Assessments (planned)
02
Engagement practice
3 capabilities
Scoping and ethics
Importance: Essential (5 of 5)
Defines rules of engagement and operates within legal boundaries.
Course coverage
- Ethical Hacking Fundamentals
- Penetration Testing Fundamentals (planned)
Reporting
Importance: Essential (5 of 5)
Documents findings with impact, evidence, and actionable remediation.
Course coverage
- Ethical Hacking Fundamentals
- Penetration Testing Fundamentals (planned)
Scripting and tooling
Importance: Very important (4 of 5)
Automates testing workflows and adapts offensive tooling.
Course coverage
- Linux Shell Scripting, Offensive Security Scripting and Tooling (planned)
Learning path
Relevant courses
Core foundations
The concepts this role is built on.
- Network Penetration Testing, Penetration Testing Fundamentals, Reconnaissance and OSINT, Web Application Penetration Testing (planned)
Supporting knowledge
Adjacent knowledge that improves day-to-day judgment.
- API Security
- Ethical Hacking Fundamentals
- OWASP Top 10
- Linux Shell Scripting, Offensive Security Scripting and Tooling (planned)
Specializations
Deeper paths for particular environments or directions.
- AI Red Teaming
- Cloud Penetration Testing
- Mobile Application Penetration Testing
- Red Team Operations
- Social Engineering Assessments (planned)
Put the map to work
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Search multiple job sources at once with queries tailored to this career, then use the skill map above to evaluate what each role actually asks for.