Lead Designer Contract Job Trends

Lead Designer
UK

The median Lead Designer daily rate in the UK is £550, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 29 December 2025.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 578 508 572
Rank change year-on-year -70 +64 +205
Contract jobs requiring a Lead Designer 15 28 23
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.041% 0.084% 0.053%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.045% 0.091% 0.057%
Number of daily rates quoted 14 13 16
10th Percentile £352 £471 £463
25th Percentile £413 £513 £559
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £613 £600
Median % change year-on-year -10.20% +2.08% +9.09%
75th Percentile £575 £680 £713
90th Percentile £675 £700 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £680 £600
% change year-on-year -41.18% +13.33% +15.66%

All Contract IT Job Roles
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 33,636 30,890 40,421
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.16% 92.72% 93.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,275 18,962 27,109
10th Percentile £295 £300 £282
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £640
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £487 £500
% change year-on-year -2.41% -2.65% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,972 959 1,551
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.52 £14.50
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.05 £19.15
Median hourly rate £25.47 £32.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.63% -27.78% +41.93%
75th Percentile £58.06 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.97 £73.75 £77.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £45.94
% change year-on-year -22.62% -29.26% +77.99%

Lead Designer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Lead Designer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Lead Designer job vacancy trend in the UK

Lead Designer
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Lead Designer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Lead Designer job vacancies in the UK

Lead Designer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Lead Designer over the 6 months to 29 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Lead Designer in the UK

Lead Designer
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Lead Designer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Lead Designer job vacancies in the UK

Lead Designer
Top 8 Contract Job 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 29 December 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
England -58 12 £575 - 49
London -23 10 £575 - 10
UK excluding London -48 5 £400 -41.18% 40
Work from Home -7 3 £316 -39.89% 42
Scotland +3 2 £563 -17.28%
Midlands - 2 £400 - 7
West Midlands - 2 £400 - 4
Wales - 1 £331 - 1

Lead Designer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 29 December 2025, Lead Designer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Lead Designer in the job title.

1 7 (46.67%) Figma
1 7 (46.67%) Service Design
2 6 (40.00%) User Experience
2 6 (40.00%) Wireframes
3 5 (33.33%) High-Fidelity Prototypes
3 5 (33.33%) User Research
4 4 (26.67%) Prototyping
4 4 (26.67%) UX Design
5 3 (20.00%) Agile
5 3 (20.00%) Customer Experience
5 3 (20.00%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
6 2 (13.33%) Accessibility
6 2 (13.33%) Adobe
6 2 (13.33%) Adobe XD
6 2 (13.33%) AngularJS
6 2 (13.33%) CI/CD
6 2 (13.33%) Coaching
6 2 (13.33%) CSS
6 2 (13.33%) CSS3
6 2 (13.33%) Decision-Making
6 2 (13.33%) Degree
6 2 (13.33%) Design Thinking
6 2 (13.33%) Git
6 2 (13.33%) HTML
6 2 (13.33%) HTML5
6 2 (13.33%) JavaScript
6 2 (13.33%) Master's Degree
6 2 (13.33%) MuleSoft
6 2 (13.33%) Project Delivery
6 2 (13.33%) React

Lead Designer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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:

Applications
1 2 (13.33%) Adobe XD
1 2 (13.33%) Sketch
Cloud Services
1 7 (46.67%) Figma
2 1 (6.67%) SaaS
Development Applications
1 2 (13.33%) Git
General
1 5 (33.33%) Banking
1 5 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 3 (20.00%) Public Sector
3 2 (13.33%) Finance
3 2 (13.33%) Local Government
3 2 (13.33%) Telecoms
4 1 (6.67%) Analytical Skills
4 1 (6.67%) Digital Health
4 1 (6.67%) Financial Institution
4 1 (6.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 1 (6.67%) Presentation Skills
4 1 (6.67%) Social Science
4 1 (6.67%) Welsh Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (13.33%) AngularJS
1 2 (13.33%) CSS
1 2 (13.33%) CSS3
1 2 (13.33%) HTML
1 2 (13.33%) HTML5
1 2 (13.33%) React
1 2 (13.33%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 5 (33.33%) Mobile App
2 1 (6.67%) NHS
2 1 (6.67%) Product Ownership
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (46.67%) Service Design
2 6 (40.00%) User Experience
2 6 (40.00%) Wireframes
3 5 (33.33%) High-Fidelity Prototypes
3 5 (33.33%) User Research
4 4 (26.67%) Prototyping
4 4 (26.67%) UX Design
5 3 (20.00%) Agile
5 3 (20.00%) Customer Experience
5 3 (20.00%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
6 2 (13.33%) CI/CD
6 2 (13.33%) Coaching
6 2 (13.33%) Decision-Making
6 2 (13.33%) Design Thinking
6 2 (13.33%) Project Delivery
6 2 (13.33%) Responsive Web Design
6 2 (13.33%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 1 (6.67%) Analytics
7 1 (6.67%) Cybersecurity
7 1 (6.67%) Qualitative Research
Programming Languages
1 2 (13.33%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 2 (13.33%) Degree
1 2 (13.33%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (13.33%) Accessibility
1 2 (13.33%) WCAG
Vendors
1 2 (13.33%) Adobe
1 2 (13.33%) MuleSoft