Lead Designer Contracts

Lead Designer
UK

The median Lead Designer daily rate in the UK is £412, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 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
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 499 546 675
Rank change year-on-year +47 +129 +102
Contract jobs requiring a Lead Designer 21 36 43
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.072% 0.083% 0.072%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.078% 0.089% 0.076%
Number of daily rates quoted 18 18 27
10th Percentile £303 £450 £458
25th Percentile £305 £503 £613
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £412 £581 £675
Median % change year-on-year -29.12% -13.89% +17.39%
75th Percentile £533 £625 £700
90th Percentile £655 - £719
UK excluding London median daily rate £306 £600 £650
% change year-on-year -49.00% -7.69% +8.33%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. 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 the UK with a recognized job title 27,084 40,415 56,464
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.52% 92.78% 94.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,692 26,309 39,470
10th Percentile £300 £275 £313
25th Percentile £406 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £492 £500
% change year-on-year -3.46% -1.60% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,035 2,664 1,570
10th Percentile £14.07 £12.86 £14.29
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.30 £19.50
Median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%
75th Percentile £62.50 £60.75 £65.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £39.55 £42.50
% change year-on-year -29.20% -6.94% +117.95%

Lead Designer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Lead Designer in the UK

Lead Designer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for Lead Designer in the UK

Lead Designer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Lead Designer over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Lead Designer in the UK

Lead Designer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for Lead Designer in the UK

Lead Designer
Top 11 Contract Locations

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 UK over the 6 months to 1 May 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
UK excluding London +58 12 £306 -49.00% 13
England +35 12 £525 -10.64% 21
London +31 8 £472 -3.18% 19
Wales - 7 £305 - 8
Work from Home +36 6 £520 -9.57% 22
Scotland +14 2 £534 - 1
South East +31 1 £850 +41.67% 3
West Midlands - 1 £463 -
Midlands - 1 £463 -
North East - 1 £534 -
North of England - 1 £534 - 1

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

For the 6 months to 1 May 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 featuring Lead Designer in the job title.

1 13 (61.90%) Agile
2 11 (52.38%) User Experience
3 10 (47.62%) Service Design
4 9 (42.86%) Mentoring
5 6 (28.57%) Coaching
5 6 (28.57%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
5 6 (28.57%) Degree
6 5 (23.81%) Finance
6 5 (23.81%) Pharmaceutical
6 5 (23.81%) Interaction Design
6 5 (23.81%) Master's Degree
7 4 (19.05%) Prototyping
7 4 (19.05%) Decision-Making
7 4 (19.05%) DevOps
7 4 (19.05%) UX Design
7 4 (19.05%) Public Sector
7 4 (19.05%) Business Case
8 3 (14.29%) Social Skills
8 3 (14.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 3 (14.29%) NHS
8 3 (14.29%) Azure
8 3 (14.29%) Problem-Solving
8 3 (14.29%) NIST
8 3 (14.29%) Strategic Thinking
9 2 (9.52%) Case Management
9 2 (9.52%) Dynamics 365
9 2 (9.52%) Client Onboarding
9 2 (9.52%) Systems Thinking
9 2 (9.52%) Cybersecurity
9 2 (9.52%) Microsoft

Lead Designer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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:

Business Applications
1 2 (9.52%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 3 (14.29%) Azure
2 2 (9.52%) Dynamics 365
3 1 (4.76%) Figma
3 1 (4.76%) Power Platform
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (4.76%) Data Lake
1 1 (4.76%) Data Warehouse
1 1 (4.76%) Power BI
General
1 5 (23.81%) Finance
1 5 (23.81%) Pharmaceutical
2 4 (19.05%) Public Sector
3 3 (14.29%) Social Skills
4 2 (9.52%) Banking
4 2 (9.52%) Corporate Banking
4 2 (9.52%) Investment Banking
4 2 (9.52%) Organisational Skills
4 2 (9.52%) Publishing
4 2 (9.52%) Retail
4 2 (9.52%) Retail Banking
4 2 (9.52%) Welsh Language
5 1 (4.76%) Analytical Skills
5 1 (4.76%) Games
5 1 (4.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 1 (4.76%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (4.76%) Unity (Game Engine)
Miscellaneous
1 3 (14.29%) NHS
2 2 (9.52%) Onboarding
3 1 (4.76%) Data Structures
3 1 (4.76%) Virtual Reality
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (61.90%) Agile
2 11 (52.38%) User Experience
3 10 (47.62%) Service Design
4 9 (42.86%) Mentoring
5 6 (28.57%) Coaching
5 6 (28.57%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
6 5 (23.81%) Interaction Design
7 4 (19.05%) Business Case
7 4 (19.05%) Decision-Making
7 4 (19.05%) DevOps
7 4 (19.05%) Prototyping
7 4 (19.05%) UX Design
8 3 (14.29%) Problem-Solving
8 3 (14.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 3 (14.29%) Strategic Thinking
9 2 (9.52%) Case Management
9 2 (9.52%) Client Onboarding
9 2 (9.52%) Cybersecurity
9 2 (9.52%) Systems Thinking
9 2 (9.52%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 1 (4.76%) Python
1 1 (4.76%) SQL
Qualifications
1 6 (28.57%) Degree
2 5 (23.81%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (14.29%) NIST
2 1 (4.76%) Accessibility
2 1 (4.76%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 1 (4.76%) VMFS
Vendors
1 2 (9.52%) Microsoft
2 1 (4.76%) Databricks