Lead Designer Contracts in England

Lead Designer
UK > England

The median Lead Designer daily rate in England is £575, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 15 August 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Aug 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 495 509 584
Rank change year-on-year +14 +75 +160
Contract jobs requiring a Lead Designer 12 19 32
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.043% 0.057% 0.072%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.047% 0.062% 0.076%
Number of daily rates quoted 12 10 22
10th Percentile £311 £450 £506
25th Percentile £501 £471 £582
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £556 £650
Median % change year-on-year +3.37% -14.42% +18.18%
75th Percentile £589 £611 £705
90th Percentile £630 £626 £738
UK median daily rate £425 £569 £675
% change year-on-year -25.27% -15.74% +22.73%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in England. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in England with a recognized job title 25,356 30,888 41,894
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.58% 92.86% 94.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 16,377 20,261 29,558
10th Percentile £285 £300 £305
25th Percentile £400 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £535
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.87% -0.93%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,342 1,792 1,303
10th Percentile £13.51 £14.25 £14.67
25th Percentile £17.48 £21.25 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.23 £45.00 £42.00
Median % change year-on-year -43.94% +7.14% +63.55%
75th Percentile £55.00 £65.01 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £42.16
% change year-on-year -41.51% +2.00% +64.15%

Lead Designer
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings that featured Lead Designer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for Lead Designer in England

Lead Designer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Lead Designer in England.

Daily rate trend for Lead Designer in England

Lead Designer
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Lead Designer in England over the 6 months to 15 August 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Lead Designer in England

Lead Designer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Lead Designer in England.

Hourly rate trend for Lead Designer in England

Lead Designer
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Lead Designer within the England region over the 6 months to 15 August 2025. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
London +11 10 £575 +4.55% 32
North of England -22 2 £480 - 5
North East - 1 £534 -
North West - 1 £425 - 3
Lead Designer
UK

Lead Designer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 15 August 2025, Lead Designer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the England region featuring Lead Designer in the job title.

1 5 (41.67%) Service Design
1 5 (41.67%) Figma
2 4 (33.33%) Wireframes
2 4 (33.33%) Mobile App
2 4 (33.33%) Agile
2 4 (33.33%) Banking
2 4 (33.33%) High-Fidelity Prototypes
3 3 (25.00%) VMFS
4 2 (16.67%) Finance
4 2 (16.67%) Azure
4 2 (16.67%) Coaching
4 2 (16.67%) User Experience
4 2 (16.67%) NIST
4 2 (16.67%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
5 1 (8.33%) Design Thinking
5 1 (8.33%) Digital Transformation Programme
5 1 (8.33%) Product Ownership
5 1 (8.33%) Digital Health
5 1 (8.33%) Public Sector
5 1 (8.33%) Social Skills
5 1 (8.33%) User Research
5 1 (8.33%) UX Research
5 1 (8.33%) Journey Map
5 1 (8.33%) Zero Trust
5 1 (8.33%) Low-Code
5 1 (8.33%) Culture Change
5 1 (8.33%) GCP
5 1 (8.33%) Cybersecurity
5 1 (8.33%) Mentoring
5 1 (8.33%) Prototyping

Lead Designer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Cloud Services
1 5 (41.67%) Figma
2 2 (16.67%) Azure
3 1 (8.33%) AWS
3 1 (8.33%) GCP
General
1 4 (33.33%) Banking
2 2 (16.67%) Finance
3 1 (8.33%) Digital Health
3 1 (8.33%) Pharmaceutical
3 1 (8.33%) Public Sector
3 1 (8.33%) Social Skills
Miscellaneous
1 4 (33.33%) Mobile App
2 1 (8.33%) Data Protection Act
2 1 (8.33%) Low-Code
2 1 (8.33%) NHS
2 1 (8.33%) Product Ownership
Processes & Methodologies
1 5 (41.67%) Service Design
2 4 (33.33%) Agile
2 4 (33.33%) High-Fidelity Prototypes
2 4 (33.33%) Wireframes
3 2 (16.67%) Coaching
3 2 (16.67%) User Experience
3 2 (16.67%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
4 1 (8.33%) Cybersecurity
4 1 (8.33%) Data Protection
4 1 (8.33%) Design Thinking
4 1 (8.33%) Digital Transformation Programme
4 1 (8.33%) Journey Map
4 1 (8.33%) Mentoring
4 1 (8.33%) Prototyping
4 1 (8.33%) Rapid Prototyping
4 1 (8.33%) Service Delivery
4 1 (8.33%) User Research
4 1 (8.33%) UX Design
4 1 (8.33%) UX Research
4 1 (8.33%) Zero Trust
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (16.67%) NIST
System Software
1 3 (25.00%) VMFS