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 9 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 82 65 79
Rank change year-on-year -17 +14 -20
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,577 1,197 1,183
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.00% 3.71% 2.73%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.53% 4.09% 3.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 979 780 779
10th Percentile £313 £305 £306
25th Percentile £404 £385 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% -5.00% -1.96%
75th Percentile £583 £576 £600
90th Percentile £680 £676 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £449 £470
% change year-on-year +5.91% -4.57% -1.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 71 37 46
10th Percentile £16.00 £18.35 £16.25
25th Percentile £24.08 £34.48 £25.00
Median hourly rate £33.99 £49.50 £30.86
Median % change year-on-year -31.33% +60.43% +4.26%
75th Percentile £67.84 £65.00 £54.19
90th Percentile £85.00 £85.50 £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 44,694 29,246 37,042
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.15% 90.54% 85.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,812 18,436 23,663
10th Percentile £325 £300 £300
25th Percentile £415 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £505 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -3.81% -4.55%
75th Percentile £623 £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 2,657 1,477 2,496
10th Percentile £14.94 £14.20 £12.75
25th Percentile £20.09 £17.61 £16.06
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -32.93% -6.25%
75th Percentile £68.00 £53.50 £61.30
90th Percentile £82.25 £70.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.50 £24.66 £38.12
% change year-on-year +80.45% -35.31% -3.62%

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 9 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 9 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 9 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 -13 1,360 £475 -1.04% 949
UK excluding London -4 737 £475 +5.91% 536
London -26 680 £525 +5.00% 526
Work from Home -23 408 £500 +5.26% 430
North of England -21 211 £450 - 154
Midlands -1 155 £475 +13.10% 68
South East -18 140 £495 +4.21% 164
West Midlands -9 114 £475 -5.00% 38
North West -16 114 £435 -3.33% 81
Scotland +16 87 £510 +10.87% 25
South West -3 81 £475 +26.67% 57
Yorkshire -28 60 £500 +11.11% 38
East of England +5 46 £410 -13.68% 51
East Midlands +3 41 £550 +54.49% 29
North East -10 37 £413 -14.06% 35
Wales -8 18 £543 +77.29% 10
Northern Ireland +5 3 - - 15

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 70 (4.44%) SharePoint
2 52 (3.30%) CMS
3 46 (2.92%) Confluence
4 28 (1.78%) Microsoft Exchange
5 12 (0.76%) WordPress
6 8 (0.51%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 6 (0.38%) Drupal
7 6 (0.38%) Mendix
8 5 (0.32%) Apache
8 5 (0.32%) Skype for Business
9 4 (0.25%) Ethereum
9 4 (0.25%) Hyperledger
9 4 (0.25%) Kentico
9 4 (0.25%) Umbraco
10 3 (0.19%) Camunda
10 3 (0.19%) Headless CMS
10 3 (0.19%) Moodle
10 3 (0.19%) nginx
11 2 (0.13%) IIS
11 2 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 34 (2.16%) Sketch
2 30 (1.90%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 30 (1.90%) Microsoft Excel
3 20 (1.27%) Chatbot
3 20 (1.27%) Photoshop
4 19 (1.20%) Adobe After Effects
5 16 (1.01%) Adobe Illustrator
5 16 (1.01%) Adobe XD
6 15 (0.95%) Microsoft Office
7 13 (0.82%) MS Visio
8 10 (0.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
9 6 (0.38%) Final Cut Pro
10 4 (0.25%) Adobe Captivate
11 3 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
11 3 (0.19%) UserZoom
11 3 (0.19%) UXPin
12 2 (0.13%) InVision
12 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
13 1 (0.063%) Blender
13 1 (0.063%) Trello
Business Applications
1 13 (0.82%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (0.70%) Workday HCM
3 10 (0.63%) Dynamics CRM
4 9 (0.57%) Shopify
5 6 (0.38%) Sage X3
6 4 (0.25%) NetSuite
6 4 (0.25%) Oracle iProcurement
7 3 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
8 2 (0.13%) iTrent
8 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
8 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
8 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.13%) Remedy ITSM
8 2 (0.13%) ResourceLink
9 1 (0.063%) Magento
9 1 (0.063%) Oracle EBS R12
9 1 (0.063%) SAP ERP
9 1 (0.063%) SAP HR
9 1 (0.063%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 254 (16.11%) Azure
2 225 (14.27%) Figma
3 127 (8.05%) AWS
4 124 (7.86%) Microsoft 365
5 117 (7.42%) Power Platform
6 64 (4.06%) Entra ID
7 62 (3.93%) Azure DevOps
8 56 (3.55%) GitHub
8 56 (3.55%) SaaS
9 53 (3.36%) Microsoft Copilot
10 44 (2.79%) GCP
11 41 (2.60%) PowerApps
12 35 (2.22%) OneDrive
12 35 (2.22%) Power Automate
13 31 (1.97%) Serverless
14 30 (1.90%) Copilot Studio
15 29 (1.84%) GitHub Actions
16 25 (1.59%) Azure AI
17 17 (1.08%) Snowflake
18 15 (0.95%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 38 (2.41%) DNS
2 30 (1.90%) DHCP
3 26 (1.65%) TCP/IP
4 23 (1.46%) Wi-Fi
5 20 (1.27%) Wireless
6 19 (1.20%) LAN
7 14 (0.89%) Internet
8 13 (0.82%) WAN
9 12 (0.76%) Firewall
9 12 (0.76%) VPN
10 11 (0.70%) Intranet
10 11 (0.70%) SD-WAN
11 8 (0.51%) Cisco Wireless
11 8 (0.51%) Network Security
12 7 (0.44%) 5G
12 7 (0.44%) HTTP
12 7 (0.44%) Skype
12 7 (0.44%) SNMP
12 7 (0.44%) WLAN
13 5 (0.32%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (4.57%) Power BI
2 25 (1.59%) NoSQL
3 24 (1.52%) PostgreSQL
4 23 (1.46%) Relational Database
5 22 (1.40%) Metadata
6 19 (1.20%) Power Query
7 18 (1.14%) SQL Server
8 13 (0.82%) Data Warehouse
8 13 (0.82%) MongoDB
9 11 (0.70%) Big Data
9 11 (0.70%) MySQL
10 9 (0.57%) 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 (0.32%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 96 (6.09%) JIRA
2 86 (5.45%) Git
3 27 (1.71%) Cypress.io
4 26 (1.65%) Jenkins
5 25 (1.59%) Vite
6 21 (1.33%) GitLab
7 14 (0.89%) JUnit
8 11 (0.70%) Claude Code
9 10 (0.63%) Android Studio
9 10 (0.63%) Browser DevTools
9 10 (0.63%) fastlane
9 10 (0.63%) Selenium
10 9 (0.57%) Postman
10 9 (0.57%) Storybook
10 9 (0.57%) webpack
10 9 (0.57%) Xcode
11 8 (0.51%) Gradle
12 7 (0.44%) Visual Studio
13 6 (0.38%) JMeter
14 5 (0.32%) CircleCI
General
1 487 (30.88%) Social Skills
2 280 (17.76%) Finance
3 206 (13.06%) Public Sector
4 157 (9.96%) Analytical Skills
5 122 (7.74%) Banking
6 82 (5.20%) Retail
7 72 (4.57%) Marketing
8 44 (2.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 41 (2.60%) Legal
10 34 (2.16%) Influencing Skills
11 30 (1.90%) Presentation Skills
12 27 (1.71%) Automotive
12 27 (1.71%) Publishing
13 25 (1.59%) Manufacturing
14 24 (1.52%) Organisational Skills
15 23 (1.46%) Documentation Skills
16 18 (1.14%) Investment Banking
17 14 (0.89%) Military
18 13 (0.82%) Games
19 12 (0.76%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 338 (21.43%) Designer
2 232 (14.71%) Senior
3 210 (13.32%) Developer
4 148 (9.38%) UX Designer
5 118 (7.48%) Analyst
5 118 (7.48%) Lead
6 88 (5.58%) UI Designer
7 78 (4.95%) Consultant
8 72 (4.57%) Senior Designer
9 68 (4.31%) Architect
10 64 (4.06%) Business Analyst
11 62 (3.93%) Product Designer
12 59 (3.74%) User Researcher
13 53 (3.36%) Content Designer
14 52 (3.30%) UI/UX Designer
15 49 (3.11%) Product Manager
16 47 (2.98%) User Experience Researcher
17 45 (2.85%) IT Support
18 41 (2.60%) Full-Stack Engineer
19 38 (2.41%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 153 (9.70%) React
2 117 (7.42%) CSS
3 103 (6.53%) HTML
4 102 (6.47%) REST
5 77 (4.88%) RESTful
6 57 (3.61%) AngularJS
7 52 (3.30%) .NET
8 47 (2.98%) Spring
9 46 (2.92%) Spring Boot
10 41 (2.60%) GraphQL
11 35 (2.22%) HTML5
11 35 (2.22%) Node.js
12 34 (2.16%) Jest
12 34 (2.16%) Redux
13 32 (2.03%) CSS3
14 31 (1.97%) Kafka
15 28 (1.78%) JSON
16 27 (1.71%) Next.js
17 26 (1.65%) Playwright
18 23 (1.46%) ASP.NET
Miscellaneous
1 166 (10.53%) Product Ownership
2 87 (5.52%) Mobile App
3 72 (4.57%) Onboarding
4 48 (3.04%) AI Agents
5 44 (2.79%) Cloud Native
6 33 (2.09%) Enterprise Software
6 33 (2.09%) Self-Motivation
7 32 (2.03%) Data Structures
8 27 (1.71%) Data Protection Act
9 25 (1.59%) Legacy Systems
10 23 (1.46%) Animation
11 20 (1.27%) Analytical Mindset
11 20 (1.27%) Data Centre
12 18 (1.14%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 17 (1.08%) Graphic Design
13 17 (1.08%) Social Media
13 17 (1.08%) Taxonomies
14 16 (1.01%) Algorithms
15 15 (0.95%) Greenfield Project
16 14 (0.89%) Educational Technology
Operating Systems
1 125 (7.93%) Windows
2 55 (3.49%) Apple iOS
3 53 (3.36%) Android
4 37 (2.35%) Windows 10
5 26 (1.65%) Mac OS
6 18 (1.14%) Linux
7 17 (1.08%) Windows Server
8 8 (0.51%) Unix
9 6 (0.38%) Windows 7
10 5 (0.32%) Windows Server 2016
11 4 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.063%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 523 (33.16%) UX Design
2 475 (30.12%) Agile
3 298 (18.90%) AI
4 239 (15.16%) Problem-Solving
5 223 (14.14%) Stakeholder Management
6 212 (13.44%) Continuous Improvement
7 206 (13.06%) User Research
8 203 (12.87%) Analytics
9 185 (11.73%) CI/CD
10 175 (11.10%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 170 (10.78%) Roadmaps
12 155 (9.83%) DevOps
13 153 (9.70%) Prototyping
14 149 (9.45%) Decision-Making
15 141 (8.94%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
16 134 (8.50%) Wireframes
17 128 (8.12%) UX Research
18 126 (7.99%) Service Design
19 118 (7.48%) Workshop Facilitation
20 114 (7.23%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 142 (9.00%) JavaScript
2 128 (8.12%) TypeScript
3 124 (7.86%) Python
4 121 (7.67%) SQL
5 113 (7.17%) Java
6 56 (3.55%) C#
7 50 (3.17%) PowerShell
8 32 (2.03%) Kotlin
9 25 (1.59%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 17 (1.08%) Swift
11 16 (1.01%) Bash
12 13 (0.82%) C++
13 9 (0.57%) Lua
14 8 (0.51%) Korn
15 7 (0.44%) Apex Code
15 7 (0.44%) R
16 6 (0.38%) Go
16 6 (0.38%) VBA
16 6 (0.38%) VBScript
17 5 (0.32%) VB
Qualifications
1 230 (14.58%) Security Cleared
2 174 (11.03%) SC Cleared
3 152 (9.64%) Degree
4 35 (2.22%) Computer Science Degree
5 32 (2.03%) BPSS Clearance
6 25 (1.59%) DV Cleared
7 24 (1.52%) Azure Certification
8 22 (1.40%) Microsoft Certification
9 11 (0.70%) Cisco Certification
10 10 (0.63%) Master's Degree
11 9 (0.57%) ITIL Certification
12 8 (0.51%) CCNP
12 8 (0.51%) PMP
13 7 (0.44%) AWS Certification
13 7 (0.44%) CCA
13 7 (0.44%) CCIE
13 7 (0.44%) Citrix Certification
13 7 (0.44%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 6 (0.38%) DBS Check
15 5 (0.32%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 276 (17.50%) Accessibility
2 101 (6.40%) QA
3 90 (5.71%) WCAG
4 46 (2.92%) Data Quality
5 27 (1.71%) GDPR
6 20 (1.27%) Actionable Recommendations
7 11 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 9 (0.57%) PMO
9 8 (0.51%) SLA
10 7 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 6 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials
12 4 (0.25%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 3 (0.19%) GMP
13 3 (0.19%) GRC
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%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 79 (5.01%) Active Directory
2 50 (3.17%) Docker
3 25 (1.59%) Virtual Desktop
4 15 (0.95%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.38%) Firmware
6 5 (0.32%) BitLocker
6 5 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
6 5 (0.32%) vSphere
7 4 (0.25%) Microsoft App-V
8 3 (0.19%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.19%) UAG
8 3 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
9 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
9 2 (0.13%) XenApp
9 2 (0.13%) XenDesktop
10 1 (0.063%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 50 (3.17%) Kubernetes
2 47 (2.98%) Microsoft Intune
3 45 (2.85%) Terraform
4 35 (2.22%) SCCM
5 34 (2.16%) Grafana
6 17 (1.08%) Single Sign-On
7 14 (0.89%) Ansible
7 14 (0.89%) Jamf Pro
8 12 (0.76%) Prometheus
9 5 (0.32%) vCenter Server
10 4 (0.25%) Clonezilla
11 3 (0.19%) Podman
11 3 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 3 (0.19%) WSUS
12 2 (0.13%) Argo
12 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
12 2 (0.13%) Packer
12 2 (0.13%) SCOM
12 2 (0.13%) vMotion
13 1 (0.063%) HAProxy
Vendors
1 265 (16.80%) Microsoft
2 91 (5.77%) Adobe
3 70 (4.44%) ServiceNow
4 56 (3.55%) Google
5 46 (2.92%) SAP
6 42 (2.66%) Oracle
7 39 (2.47%) Salesforce
8 22 (1.40%) Dynatrace
9 21 (1.33%) Citrix
9 21 (1.33%) Databricks
10 20 (1.27%) Workday
11 19 (1.20%) Splunk
12 18 (1.14%) Cisco
12 18 (1.14%) VMware
13 17 (1.08%) Apple
13 17 (1.08%) Foundry
13 17 (1.08%) OpenAI
14 12 (0.76%) Aruba
15 11 (0.70%) Zscaler
16 8 (0.51%) Okta