Senior Designer Contracts

Senior Designer
UK

The median Senior Designer daily rate in the UK is £515, 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 442 494 569
Rank change year-on-year +52 +75 -78
Contract jobs requiring a Senior Designer 78 88 149
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.27% 0.20% 0.25%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.29% 0.22% 0.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 58 53 99
10th Percentile £360 £370 £400
25th Percentile £450 £450 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £544 £575
Median % change year-on-year -5.33% -5.39% +4.55%
75th Percentile £598 £550 £644
90th Percentile £745 £657 £718
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £575
% change year-on-year -5.00% -13.04% +5.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 1
Median hourly rate £30.40 - £60.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.40 - -

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%

Senior Designer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Senior Designer in the UK

Senior Designer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for Senior Designer in the UK

Senior Designer
Daily Rate Histogram

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

Daily rate histogram for Senior Designer in the UK

Senior Designer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for Senior Designer in the UK

Senior Designer
Top 13 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Senior 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
England +55 70 £513 -2.38% 118
London +41 56 £515 -6.36% 86
UK excluding London +49 17 £475 -5.00% 47
Work from Home +22 12 £500 -9.09% 65
Midlands +27 7 £390 +4.00% 2
West Midlands +18 6 £313 -16.67% 2
South West +47 3 £588 +15.20% 4
North of England +11 3 £350 -30.00% 14
Scotland +4 3 £650 +22.64% 4
North West +15 2 £350 - 10
Yorkshire +2 1 - - 3
East Midlands - 1 £468 -
East of England - 1 £475 - 6

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

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Senior 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 Senior Designer in the job title.

1 38 (48.72%) User Experience
2 33 (42.31%) Figma
3 28 (35.90%) Social Skills
3 28 (35.90%) UX Design
4 22 (28.21%) Agile
5 21 (26.92%) Adobe
6 19 (24.36%) Service Design
7 18 (23.08%) User Research
7 18 (23.08%) Prototyping
8 16 (20.51%) Finance
9 15 (19.23%) Interaction Design
9 15 (19.23%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
10 14 (17.95%) Accessibility
10 14 (17.95%) Public Sector
10 14 (17.95%) Banking
11 12 (15.38%) Animation
12 11 (14.10%) Adobe Creative Suite
13 9 (11.54%) Motion Graphics
13 9 (11.54%) Adobe Illustrator
13 9 (11.54%) E-Commerce
13 9 (11.54%) Problem-Solving
13 9 (11.54%) Wireframes
13 9 (11.54%) Strategic Thinking
14 8 (10.26%) UX Research
14 8 (10.26%) B2B
14 8 (10.26%) Photoshop
14 8 (10.26%) Adobe Premiere
14 8 (10.26%) Games
14 8 (10.26%) Mobile App
15 7 (8.97%) Mentoring

Senior 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:

Application Platforms
1 6 (7.69%) SharePoint
2 1 (1.28%) Adobe Experience Manager
2 1 (1.28%) nginx
2 1 (1.28%) Umbraco
Applications
1 11 (14.10%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 9 (11.54%) Adobe Illustrator
3 8 (10.26%) Adobe Premiere
3 8 (10.26%) Photoshop
4 7 (8.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (7.69%) InDesign
6 5 (6.41%) Sketch
7 4 (5.13%) Adobe After Effects
7 4 (5.13%) Adobe XD
7 4 (5.13%) CINEMA 4D
7 4 (5.13%) Final Cut Pro
8 2 (2.56%) Blender
9 1 (1.28%) Microsoft Office
9 1 (1.28%) OmniGraffle
9 1 (1.28%) Zeplin
Business Applications
1 2 (2.56%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 33 (42.31%) Figma
2 3 (3.85%) Miro
3 2 (2.56%) AWS
3 2 (2.56%) BigCommerce
3 2 (2.56%) Slack
4 1 (1.28%) Azure
4 1 (1.28%) GCP
4 1 (1.28%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 1 (1.28%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.28%) Mixpanel
1 1 (1.28%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 1 (1.28%) Git
General
1 28 (35.90%) Social Skills
2 16 (20.51%) Finance
3 14 (17.95%) Banking
3 14 (17.95%) Public Sector
4 8 (10.26%) Games
5 5 (6.41%) Marketing
6 4 (5.13%) Polish Language
7 3 (3.85%) Retail
8 2 (2.56%) Legal
8 2 (2.56%) Police
9 1 (1.28%) Analytical Skills
9 1 (1.28%) Health Technology
9 1 (1.28%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (6.41%) Unreal Engine
2 4 (5.13%) Unity (Game Engine)
3 2 (2.56%) CSS
3 2 (2.56%) Framer.js
3 2 (2.56%) HTML
3 2 (2.56%) Node.js
3 2 (2.56%) React
3 2 (2.56%) VML
4 1 (1.28%) .NET
4 1 (1.28%) Bootstrap
4 1 (1.28%) jQuery
4 1 (1.28%) RESTful
4 1 (1.28%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 12 (15.38%) Animation
2 9 (11.54%) Motion Graphics
3 8 (10.26%) Mobile App
4 7 (8.97%) Photography
5 5 (6.41%) Mobile Games
5 5 (6.41%) Virtual Reality
6 3 (3.85%) Graphic Design
6 3 (3.85%) Product Ownership
7 2 (2.56%) Enterprise Software
7 2 (2.56%) Self-Motivation
7 2 (2.56%) Social Media
7 2 (2.56%) Video Editing
8 1 (1.28%) Analytical Mindset
8 1 (1.28%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (1.28%) e-Learning
8 1 (1.28%) Freedom of Information
8 1 (1.28%) iPhone
8 1 (1.28%) W3C
Operating Systems
1 2 (2.56%) Android
1 2 (2.56%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 38 (48.72%) User Experience
2 28 (35.90%) UX Design
3 22 (28.21%) Agile
4 19 (24.36%) Service Design
5 18 (23.08%) Prototyping
5 18 (23.08%) User Research
6 15 (19.23%) Interaction Design
6 15 (19.23%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
7 9 (11.54%) E-Commerce
7 9 (11.54%) Problem-Solving
7 9 (11.54%) Strategic Thinking
7 9 (11.54%) Wireframes
8 8 (10.26%) B2B
8 8 (10.26%) UX Research
9 7 (8.97%) Design Thinking
9 7 (8.97%) High-Fidelity Prototypes
9 7 (8.97%) Mentoring
9 7 (8.97%) Workshop Facilitation
10 6 (7.69%) Journey Map
10 6 (7.69%) Product Strategy
Programming Languages
1 5 (6.41%) TypeScript
2 3 (3.85%) Python
3 2 (2.56%) JavaScript
4 1 (1.28%) SQL
Qualifications
1 3 (3.85%) Degree
2 2 (2.56%) DV Cleared
2 2 (2.56%) Security Cleared
3 1 (1.28%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (17.95%) Accessibility
2 5 (6.41%) WCAG
System Software
1 1 (1.28%) Docker
Vendors
1 21 (26.92%) Adobe
2 2 (2.56%) Microsoft
2 2 (2.56%) Salesforce
2 2 (2.56%) SAP
2 2 (2.56%) Sitecore
2 2 (2.56%) YouTube
3 1 (1.28%) CA Agile Central
3 1 (1.28%) Cisco
3 1 (1.28%) Optimizely
3 1 (1.28%) Oracle
3 1 (1.28%) Samsung