User Experience Contract Job Trends

UX
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring User Experience skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 83 66 77
Rank change year-on-year -17 +11 -18
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,594 1,198 1,107
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.02% 3.65% 2.65%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.55% 4.04% 3.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 983 778 725
10th Percentile £313 £305 £313
25th Percentile £402 £384 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £586 £577 £600
90th Percentile £680 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £465 £447 £475
% change year-on-year +4.03% -5.89% +2.43%
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 36 40
10th Percentile £16.15 £17.88 £15.98
25th Percentile £25.00 £34.48 £25.00
Median hourly rate £33.99 £49.25 £32.39
Median % change year-on-year -30.98% +52.05% -0.92%
75th Percentile £67.84 £64.06 £52.56
90th Percentile £84.60 £77.73 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £70.00 £25.00
% change year-on-year -51.44% +180.00% +41.08%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 44,857 29,633 35,662
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.99% 90.35% 85.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,817 18,625 22,863
10th Percentile £325 £300 £306
25th Percentile £419 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.02%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,658 1,571 2,253
10th Percentile £14.84 £14.20 £13.00
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.44 £16.82
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -34.02% -10.31%
75th Percentile £68.50 £51.05 £62.00
90th Percentile £82.41 £70.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £24.00 £38.12
% change year-on-year +87.50% -37.04% -6.09%

User Experience
Job Vacancy Trend

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

User Experience job vacancy trend in the UK

User Experience
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

User Experience
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing User Experience over the 6 months to 20 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for User Experience in the UK

User Experience
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

User Experience
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing User Experience over the 6 months to 20 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for User Experience in the UK

User Experience
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

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 UK over the 6 months to 20 July 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
England -11 1,375 £475 - 610
UK excluding London -3 744 £465 +4.03% 390
London -24 694 £525 +2.74% 303
Work from Home -26 412 £500 +4.17% 284
North of England -16 221 £440 -2.22% 111
Midlands +7 156 £475 +11.24% 46
South East -28 134 £490 +3.16% 122
West Midlands -14 117 £475 -5.00% 32
North West -24 116 £425 -5.56% 61
Scotland +15 94 £525 +13.82% 15
South West -7 81 £475 +18.75% 52
Yorkshire -36 59 £500 +23.08% 30
North East -8 46 £388 -19.27% 20
East of England +14 45 £410 -13.68% 43
East Midlands 0 39 £550 +54.49% 14
Wales -11 16 £579 +89.22% 5
Northern Ireland +3 3 - - 7

User Experience
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:

Application Platforms
1 66 (4.14%) SharePoint
2 55 (3.45%) CMS
3 44 (2.76%) Confluence
4 27 (1.69%) Microsoft Exchange
5 13 (0.82%) WordPress
6 8 (0.50%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 7 (0.44%) Apache
8 6 (0.38%) Drupal
8 6 (0.38%) Mendix
9 5 (0.31%) Skype for Business
10 4 (0.25%) Ethereum
10 4 (0.25%) Headless CMS
10 4 (0.25%) Hyperledger
10 4 (0.25%) Kentico
11 3 (0.19%) Apache Airflow
11 3 (0.19%) Camunda
11 3 (0.19%) Moodle
11 3 (0.19%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
12 2 (0.13%) IIS
Applications
1 38 (2.38%) Sketch
2 33 (2.07%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 31 (1.94%) Microsoft Excel
4 21 (1.32%) Chatbot
5 20 (1.25%) Photoshop
6 19 (1.19%) Adobe After Effects
7 17 (1.07%) Microsoft Office
8 16 (1.00%) Adobe XD
9 15 (0.94%) Adobe Illustrator
10 11 (0.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 11 (0.69%) MS Visio
11 6 (0.38%) Final Cut Pro
12 4 (0.25%) Adobe Captivate
13 3 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
13 3 (0.19%) UserZoom
14 2 (0.13%) InVision
14 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
14 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
15 1 (0.063%) Blender
15 1 (0.063%) Trello
Business Applications
1 13 (0.82%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (0.69%) Dynamics CRM
2 11 (0.69%) Workday HCM
3 7 (0.44%) Shopify
4 6 (0.38%) Sage X3
5 4 (0.25%) NetSuite
5 4 (0.25%) Oracle iProcurement
6 3 (0.19%) iTrent
6 3 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
6 3 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
7 2 (0.13%) Remedy ITSM
7 2 (0.13%) ResourceLink
8 1 (0.063%) Magento
8 1 (0.063%) Oracle EBS R12
8 1 (0.063%) SAP ERP
8 1 (0.063%) SAP HR
8 1 (0.063%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 251 (15.75%) Azure
2 223 (13.99%) Figma
3 132 (8.28%) AWS
4 124 (7.78%) Microsoft 365
5 115 (7.21%) Power Platform
6 63 (3.95%) Entra ID
7 60 (3.76%) Azure DevOps
8 59 (3.70%) GitHub
8 59 (3.70%) SaaS
9 49 (3.07%) Microsoft Copilot
10 48 (3.01%) GCP
11 39 (2.45%) PowerApps
12 31 (1.94%) OneDrive
12 31 (1.94%) Power Automate
13 30 (1.88%) Serverless
14 27 (1.69%) Copilot Studio
14 27 (1.69%) GitHub Actions
15 25 (1.57%) Azure AI
16 17 (1.07%) Snowflake
17 13 (0.82%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 40 (2.51%) DNS
2 32 (2.01%) DHCP
3 28 (1.76%) TCP/IP
4 24 (1.51%) Wi-Fi
5 20 (1.25%) Wireless
6 19 (1.19%) LAN
7 13 (0.82%) Firewall
7 13 (0.82%) Internet
7 13 (0.82%) VPN
7 13 (0.82%) WAN
8 10 (0.63%) Intranet
8 10 (0.63%) SD-WAN
9 8 (0.50%) Cisco Wireless
9 8 (0.50%) Network Security
10 7 (0.44%) HTTP
10 7 (0.44%) Skype
10 7 (0.44%) SNMP
11 6 (0.38%) 5G
11 6 (0.38%) WLAN
12 5 (0.31%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (4.52%) Power BI
2 25 (1.57%) NoSQL
3 24 (1.51%) Metadata
3 24 (1.51%) PostgreSQL
4 22 (1.38%) Relational Database
5 19 (1.19%) Power Query
6 16 (1.00%) SQL Server
7 13 (0.82%) MongoDB
8 12 (0.75%) Data Warehouse
9 11 (0.69%) Big Data
10 10 (0.63%) MySQL
10 10 (0.63%) Tableau
11 7 (0.44%) Oracle Database
11 7 (0.44%) Snowflake Schema
12 6 (0.38%) Azure SQL Database
12 6 (0.38%) DynamoDB
12 6 (0.38%) Elasticsearch
12 6 (0.38%) Redis
12 6 (0.38%) ZAP BI
13 5 (0.31%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 95 (5.96%) JIRA
2 86 (5.40%) Git
3 27 (1.69%) Cypress.io
4 25 (1.57%) Jenkins
4 25 (1.57%) Vite
5 18 (1.13%) GitLab
6 12 (0.75%) Claude Code
6 12 (0.75%) JUnit
7 10 (0.63%) Android Studio
7 10 (0.63%) Browser DevTools
7 10 (0.63%) fastlane
7 10 (0.63%) Selenium
7 10 (0.63%) Storybook
8 9 (0.56%) webpack
8 9 (0.56%) Xcode
9 8 (0.50%) Gradle
10 7 (0.44%) Postman
11 6 (0.38%) JMeter
11 6 (0.38%) Visual Studio
12 5 (0.31%) Crashlytics
General
1 497 (31.18%) Social Skills
2 286 (17.94%) Finance
3 213 (13.36%) Public Sector
4 160 (10.04%) Analytical Skills
5 124 (7.78%) Banking
6 85 (5.33%) Retail
7 73 (4.58%) Marketing
8 47 (2.95%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 41 (2.57%) Legal
10 35 (2.20%) Influencing Skills
11 31 (1.94%) Presentation Skills
12 29 (1.82%) Publishing
13 27 (1.69%) Automotive
14 26 (1.63%) Manufacturing
15 25 (1.57%) Organisational Skills
16 22 (1.38%) Documentation Skills
17 18 (1.13%) Investment Banking
18 17 (1.07%) Military
19 12 (0.75%) Games
19 12 (0.75%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 345 (21.64%) Designer
2 232 (14.55%) Senior
3 207 (12.99%) Developer
4 149 (9.35%) UX Designer
5 120 (7.53%) Lead
6 115 (7.21%) Analyst
7 91 (5.71%) UI Designer
8 79 (4.96%) Consultant
9 70 (4.39%) Senior Designer
10 68 (4.27%) Architect
11 63 (3.95%) User Researcher
12 62 (3.89%) Product Designer
13 59 (3.70%) Business Analyst
14 54 (3.39%) UI/UX Designer
15 52 (3.26%) Content Designer
16 50 (3.14%) Product Manager
17 48 (3.01%) User Experience Researcher
18 46 (2.89%) IT Support
19 43 (2.70%) Full-Stack Engineer
20 42 (2.63%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 156 (9.79%) React
2 119 (7.47%) CSS
3 107 (6.71%) REST
4 105 (6.59%) HTML
5 77 (4.83%) RESTful
6 57 (3.58%) AngularJS
7 51 (3.20%) .NET
8 43 (2.70%) Spring
9 42 (2.63%) Spring Boot
10 41 (2.57%) GraphQL
11 39 (2.45%) HTML5
12 36 (2.26%) CSS3
13 34 (2.13%) Jest
13 34 (2.13%) Redux
14 33 (2.07%) Node.js
15 32 (2.01%) Kafka
16 28 (1.76%) Next.js
17 27 (1.69%) JSON
18 26 (1.63%) Playwright
19 22 (1.38%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 166 (10.41%) Product Ownership
2 95 (5.96%) Mobile App
3 79 (4.96%) Onboarding
4 46 (2.89%) Cloud Native
5 45 (2.82%) AI Agents
6 34 (2.13%) Enterprise Software
6 34 (2.13%) Self-Motivation
7 32 (2.01%) Data Structures
8 29 (1.82%) Data Protection Act
9 25 (1.57%) Legacy Systems
10 23 (1.44%) Animation
11 21 (1.32%) Data Centre
12 19 (1.19%) Analytical Mindset
12 19 (1.19%) Social Media
13 17 (1.07%) Graphic Design
14 16 (1.00%) Algorithms
14 16 (1.00%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 15 (0.94%) Greenfield Project
15 15 (0.94%) Taxonomies
16 14 (0.88%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 127 (7.97%) Windows
2 56 (3.51%) Android
2 56 (3.51%) Apple iOS
3 38 (2.38%) Windows 10
4 26 (1.63%) Mac OS
5 18 (1.13%) Windows Server
6 17 (1.07%) Linux
7 9 (0.56%) Unix
8 7 (0.44%) Windows 7
9 5 (0.31%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 529 (33.19%) UX Design
2 473 (29.67%) Agile
3 308 (19.32%) AI
4 251 (15.75%) Problem-Solving
5 234 (14.68%) Stakeholder Management
6 227 (14.24%) Continuous Improvement
7 218 (13.68%) User Research
8 204 (12.80%) Analytics
9 191 (11.98%) CI/CD
10 181 (11.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 167 (10.48%) Roadmaps
12 156 (9.79%) Prototyping
13 153 (9.60%) Decision-Making
14 151 (9.47%) DevOps
15 145 (9.10%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
16 136 (8.53%) Wireframes
17 130 (8.16%) Service Design
18 128 (8.03%) UX Research
19 116 (7.28%) Workshop Facilitation
20 115 (7.21%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 141 (8.85%) JavaScript
2 131 (8.22%) TypeScript
3 128 (8.03%) Python
4 119 (7.47%) SQL
5 112 (7.03%) Java
6 54 (3.39%) C#
7 48 (3.01%) PowerShell
8 34 (2.13%) Kotlin
9 26 (1.63%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 17 (1.07%) Swift
11 16 (1.00%) Bash
12 12 (0.75%) C++
13 9 (0.56%) Lua
14 8 (0.50%) Go
14 8 (0.50%) Korn
15 7 (0.44%) Apex Code
15 7 (0.44%) R
16 6 (0.38%) VBA
16 6 (0.38%) VBScript
17 5 (0.31%) VB
Qualifications
1 242 (15.18%) Security Cleared
2 182 (11.42%) SC Cleared
3 153 (9.60%) Degree
4 36 (2.26%) Computer Science Degree
5 32 (2.01%) BPSS Clearance
6 26 (1.63%) DV Cleared
7 24 (1.51%) Azure Certification
8 22 (1.38%) Microsoft Certification
9 12 (0.75%) PMP
10 10 (0.63%) Cisco Certification
10 10 (0.63%) Master's Degree
11 9 (0.56%) ITIL Certification
12 8 (0.50%) AWS Certification
13 7 (0.44%) CCA
13 7 (0.44%) CCNP
13 7 (0.44%) Citrix Certification
13 7 (0.44%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 6 (0.38%) CCIE
14 6 (0.38%) DBS Check
14 6 (0.38%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 278 (17.44%) Accessibility
2 96 (6.02%) QA
3 92 (5.77%) WCAG
4 47 (2.95%) Data Quality
5 25 (1.57%) GDPR
6 18 (1.13%) Actionable Recommendations
7 11 (0.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 10 (0.63%) SLA
9 9 (0.56%) PMO
10 7 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 6 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials
12 4 (0.25%) GRC
12 4 (0.25%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 3 (0.19%) GMP
13 3 (0.19%) GxP
14 2 (0.13%) HIPAA
14 2 (0.13%) NIST
14 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
14 2 (0.13%) PSD2
15 1 (0.063%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 82 (5.14%) Active Directory
2 49 (3.07%) Docker
3 28 (1.76%) Virtual Desktop
4 18 (1.13%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (0.44%) vSphere
6 6 (0.38%) Firmware
7 5 (0.31%) BitLocker
7 5 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (0.25%) Microsoft App-V
9 3 (0.19%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.19%) UAG
9 3 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
10 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
10 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
10 2 (0.13%) XenApp
10 2 (0.13%) XenDesktop
11 1 (0.063%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 51 (3.20%) Terraform
2 50 (3.14%) Kubernetes
3 46 (2.89%) Microsoft Intune
4 35 (2.20%) Grafana
5 34 (2.13%) SCCM
6 17 (1.07%) Single Sign-On
7 16 (1.00%) Ansible
8 14 (0.88%) Jamf Pro
9 13 (0.82%) Prometheus
10 5 (0.31%) vCenter Server
11 4 (0.25%) Clonezilla
12 3 (0.19%) Podman
12 3 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 3 (0.19%) WSUS
13 2 (0.13%) Argo
13 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
13 2 (0.13%) Packer
13 2 (0.13%) SCOM
13 2 (0.13%) vMotion
14 1 (0.063%) AirWatch
Vendors
1 274 (17.19%) Microsoft
2 92 (5.77%) Adobe
3 74 (4.64%) ServiceNow
4 61 (3.83%) Google
5 46 (2.89%) SAP
6 43 (2.70%) Oracle
7 36 (2.26%) Salesforce
8 23 (1.44%) Citrix
8 23 (1.44%) Databricks
9 22 (1.38%) Dynatrace
9 22 (1.38%) Splunk
10 21 (1.32%) VMware
10 21 (1.32%) Workday
11 17 (1.07%) Apple
11 17 (1.07%) Cisco
11 17 (1.07%) Foundry
11 17 (1.07%) OpenAI
12 14 (0.88%) Zscaler
13 11 (0.69%) Aruba
14 8 (0.50%) Okta