User Experience Contract Job Trends in the South East

UX
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South East requiring User Experience skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 15 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 84 80 102
Rank change year-on-year -4 +22 +2
Contract jobs citing User Experience 105 86 104
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.39% 2.55% 2.10%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.83% 2.85% 2.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 83 54 71
10th Percentile £204 £250 £363
25th Percentile £213 £385 £418
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £500 £501
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% -0.10% -4.67%
75th Percentile £538 £603 £574
90th Percentile £595 £651 £688
England median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 2 6
10th Percentile - £54.98 £19.25
25th Percentile £25.15 £60.56 £22.25
Median hourly rate £47.66 £72.25 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -34.04% +80.63% -39.62%
75th Percentile £73.12 £85.06 £64.74
90th Percentile £78.45 £91.33 £86.47
England median hourly rate £35.60 £42.21 £60.50
% change year-on-year -15.65% -30.24% -5.10%

All Process & Methodology Skills
South East

User Experience falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 3,706 3,015 4,387
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 84.25% 89.25% 88.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,439 1,864 2,788
10th Percentile £231 £250 £213
25th Percentile £400 £401 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £515
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% -0.97% +0.98%
75th Percentile £600 £621 £614
90th Percentile £688 £675 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 334 116 255
10th Percentile £14.83 £19.64 £18.20
25th Percentile £17.00 £25.93 £26.00
Median hourly rate £23.58 £42.69 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -44.78% -22.38% +22.22%
75th Percentile £53.46 £62.50 £66.13
90th Percentile £75.00 £73.38 £76.53
England median hourly rate £25.15 £34.75 £42.50
% change year-on-year -27.63% -18.24% +21.43%

User Experience
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing User Experience relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

User Experience job vacancy trend in the South East

User Experience
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing User Experience.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing User Experience

User Experience
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing User Experience in the South East over the 6 months to 15 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for User Experience in the South East

User Experience
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing User Experience.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing User Experience

User Experience
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing User Experience in the South East over the 6 months to 15 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for User Experience in the South East

User Experience
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing User Experience within the South East region over the 6 months to 15 January 2026. 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
Surrey +25 46 £363 -27.50% 18
Thames Valley -33 33 £521 +4.15% 88
Berkshire -27 20 £513 +17.61% 59
Hampshire -8 17 £364 -19.34% 24
Buckinghamshire -6 11 £538 -20.37% 15
Kent - 6 £338 - 15
Oxfordshire -15 2 £517 +8.74% 14
East Sussex +4 1 £600 +33.33% 12
West Sussex -9 1 £213 - 14
User Experience
England

User Experience
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 4 (3.81%) SharePoint
2 3 (2.86%) CMS
3 2 (1.90%) Adobe Experience Manager
3 2 (1.90%) Confluence
4 1 (0.95%) Apache
4 1 (0.95%) Umbraco
Applications
1 2 (1.90%) InVision
1 2 (1.90%) Sketch
2 1 (0.95%) Adobe Illustrator
2 1 (0.95%) Adobe XD
2 1 (0.95%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.95%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.95%) OmniGraffle
2 1 (0.95%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 1 (0.95%) Salesforce CRM
1 1 (0.95%) SAP CO
1 1 (0.95%) SAP FI
1 1 (0.95%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 22 (20.95%) SaaS
2 18 (17.14%) Sauce Labs
3 16 (15.24%) Azure
4 9 (8.57%) GitHub
5 8 (7.62%) GitHub Actions
6 7 (6.67%) AWS
6 7 (6.67%) Microsoft 365
6 7 (6.67%) Tricentis Tosca
7 5 (4.76%) Entra ID
7 5 (4.76%) GCP
7 5 (4.76%) Power Platform
8 4 (3.81%) Azure Functions
8 4 (3.81%) Serverless
9 3 (2.86%) Azure API Management
9 3 (2.86%) Azure DevOps
9 3 (2.86%) Azure Monitor
9 3 (2.86%) Figma
10 2 (1.90%) Google Workspace
10 2 (1.90%) OCI
10 2 (1.90%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 16 (15.24%) Wireless
2 4 (3.81%) NFC
2 4 (3.81%) PPP
3 3 (2.86%) Wi-Fi
4 2 (1.90%) DNS
4 2 (1.90%) SSL
5 1 (0.95%) HTTP
5 1 (0.95%) Network Security
5 1 (0.95%) Software-Defined Radio
5 1 (0.95%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.95%) Unified Communications
5 1 (0.95%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (20.95%) MySQL
2 20 (19.05%) Relational Database
3 3 (2.86%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (2.86%) SQL Server
4 2 (1.90%) Power BI
4 2 (1.90%) Tableau
5 1 (0.95%) BigQuery
5 1 (0.95%) DynamoDB
5 1 (0.95%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.95%) NoSQL
5 1 (0.95%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 22 (20.95%) Eclipse
2 19 (18.10%) Browser DevTools
3 18 (17.14%) Android Studio
3 18 (17.14%) JIRA
3 18 (17.14%) Xcode
4 9 (8.57%) GitLab
4 9 (8.57%) Jenkins
5 5 (4.76%) Git
6 4 (3.81%) JUnit
6 4 (3.81%) Valgrind
7 3 (2.86%) Storybook
8 2 (1.90%) Axure RP
8 2 (1.90%) Postman
8 2 (1.90%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 1 (0.95%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.95%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.95%) Selenium
9 1 (0.95%) SoapUI
General
1 55 (52.38%) Social Skills
2 14 (13.33%) Finance
3 8 (7.62%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (6.67%) Marketing
5 5 (4.76%) Manufacturing
5 5 (4.76%) Public Sector
5 5 (4.76%) Retail
6 4 (3.81%) Electronics
6 4 (3.81%) Telecoms
7 3 (2.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 2 (1.90%) Billing
8 2 (1.90%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (1.90%) Legal
9 1 (0.95%) Automotive
9 1 (0.95%) French Language
9 1 (0.95%) Games
9 1 (0.95%) Law
9 1 (0.95%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 22 (20.95%) Support Engineer
2 20 (19.05%) UX Engineer
3 19 (18.10%) Technical Engineer
3 19 (18.10%) Technical Support
3 19 (18.10%) Technical Support Engineer
4 15 (14.29%) Front-End Engineer (Client-Side Engineer)
5 14 (13.33%) Developer
6 12 (11.43%) Analyst
6 12 (11.43%) Senior
7 8 (7.62%) Lead
8 7 (6.67%) QA Engineer
9 6 (5.71%) Business Analyst
9 6 (5.71%) Designer
9 6 (5.71%) IT Engineer
10 5 (4.76%) C++ Software Engineer
10 5 (4.76%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
10 5 (4.76%) Senior C++ Software Engineer
10 5 (4.76%) Senior Software Engineer
10 5 (4.76%) Software Engineer
11 4 (3.81%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (26.67%) React
2 27 (25.71%) CSS
3 22 (20.95%) GraphQL
4 21 (20.00%) AngularJS
5 19 (18.10%) Ajax
6 11 (10.48%) REST
7 8 (7.62%) HTML
7 8 (7.62%) RESTful
8 7 (6.67%) Oracle Fusion
9 6 (5.71%) JSON
9 6 (5.71%) XML
10 5 (4.76%) .NET
10 5 (4.76%) Spring
10 5 (4.76%) Spring Boot
11 4 (3.81%) Web Services
12 3 (2.86%) .NET Framework
12 3 (2.86%) OAuth
12 3 (2.86%) OAuth2
12 3 (2.86%) OpenID
12 3 (2.86%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 27 (25.71%) Mobile App
2 7 (6.67%) Synthetic Data
3 5 (4.76%) Product Ownership
4 4 (3.81%) Smartcard
5 3 (2.86%) Linux Command Line
5 3 (2.86%) Video Conferencing
6 2 (1.90%) Cloud Native
6 2 (1.90%) Data Centre
6 2 (1.90%) Virtual Team
7 1 (0.95%) AS400
7 1 (0.95%) Distributed Architecture
7 1 (0.95%) Distributed Systems
7 1 (0.95%) Graphic Design
7 1 (0.95%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (0.95%) Management Information System
7 1 (0.95%) Manufacturing Execution System
7 1 (0.95%) Onboarding
7 1 (0.95%) Smartphone
7 1 (0.95%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 27 (25.71%) Windows
2 23 (21.90%) Android
2 23 (21.90%) Linux
3 22 (20.95%) Unix
4 5 (4.76%) Apple iOS
5 4 (3.81%) Ubuntu
5 4 (3.81%) Windows 10
6 2 (1.90%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.95%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (35.24%) Agile
2 24 (22.86%) Problem-Solving
3 22 (20.95%) CI/CD
3 22 (20.95%) Mobile Application Development
4 18 (17.14%) OO
4 18 (17.14%) UX Design
5 17 (16.19%) DevOps
6 15 (14.29%) Acceptance Criteria
6 15 (14.29%) Front End Development
7 13 (12.38%) Test Automation
8 12 (11.43%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
9 11 (10.48%) Validation
10 10 (9.52%) AI
10 10 (9.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 9 (8.57%) CRM
11 9 (8.57%) User Stories
12 8 (7.62%) Analytics
12 8 (7.62%) Data Privacy
12 8 (7.62%) Digital Transformation Programme
12 8 (7.62%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 34 (32.38%) JavaScript
2 33 (31.43%) Java
3 29 (27.62%) Python
4 19 (18.10%) Perl
5 16 (15.24%) SQL
6 10 (9.52%) C#
7 7 (6.67%) PL/SQL
8 6 (5.71%) PowerShell
9 5 (4.76%) C++
9 5 (4.76%) Kotlin
10 4 (3.81%) Bash
10 4 (3.81%) Swift
10 4 (3.81%) TypeScript
11 3 (2.86%) Objective-C
11 3 (2.86%) PHP
12 1 (0.95%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 9 (8.57%) Degree
2 8 (7.62%) Security Cleared
3 7 (6.67%) OCA
3 7 (6.67%) Oracle Certification
3 7 (6.67%) SC Cleared
4 4 (3.81%) Computer Science Degree
5 2 (1.90%) Microsoft Certification
6 1 (0.95%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (15.24%) QA
2 10 (9.52%) GDPR
3 4 (3.81%) Data Quality
4 2 (1.90%) Accessibility
4 2 (1.90%) Actionable Recommendations
4 2 (1.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (1.90%) PMO
5 1 (0.95%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 1 (0.95%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.95%) EU AI Act
5 1 (0.95%) HIPAA
5 1 (0.95%) SLA
5 1 (0.95%) SOC 2
System Software
1 7 (6.67%) Active Directory
2 3 (2.86%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (1.90%) Docker
4 1 (0.95%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.95%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 5 (4.76%) Microsoft Intune
2 4 (3.81%) SCCM
2 4 (3.81%) Terraform
3 3 (2.86%) Kubernetes
4 1 (0.95%) Ansible
4 1 (0.95%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.95%) Kibana
4 1 (0.95%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 29 (27.62%) Microsoft
2 26 (24.76%) Oracle
3 23 (21.90%) ServiceNow
4 20 (19.05%) Splunk
5 5 (4.76%) Adobe
5 5 (4.76%) Apple
6 4 (3.81%) SAP
7 3 (2.86%) Citrix
7 3 (2.86%) VMware
8 2 (1.90%) Dell
8 2 (1.90%) Google
8 2 (1.90%) Okta
8 2 (1.90%) Salesforce
9 1 (0.95%) CrowdStrike
9 1 (0.95%) NetApp
9 1 (0.95%) Openreach
9 1 (0.95%) Rapid7
9 1 (0.95%) Veeam
9 1 (0.95%) Virgin Media
9 1 (0.95%) Zscaler