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 28 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 68 65 70
Rank change year-on-year -3 +5 -3
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,346 1,062 1,289
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.51% 3.39% 2.92%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.01% 3.81% 3.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 924 657 878
10th Percentile £300 £313 £313
25th Percentile £380 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -5.48%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £650 £700 £696
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £454 £475
% change year-on-year -0.88% -4.42% -2.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 25 37
10th Percentile £15.50 £25.26 £22.26
25th Percentile £17.69 £30.59 £25.00
Median hourly rate £35.50 £41.91 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -15.29% -11.77% -22.13%
75th Percentile £59.38 £53.75 £72.90
90th Percentile £72.00 £74.26 £81.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.09 £32.21 £32.50
% change year-on-year -12.78% -0.90% -50.00%

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 33,541 27,883 38,559
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.38% 89.07% 87.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,255 16,908 25,386
10th Percentile £305 £306 £300
25th Percentile £406 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £643
90th Percentile £722 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £499 £500
% change year-on-year -3.81% -0.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,020 876 1,970
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.62 £13.50
25th Percentile £17.69 £21.00 £16.85
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £35.98
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -9.67% +12.44%
75th Percentile £58.00 £62.50 £62.49
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.71 £30.45 £37.50
% change year-on-year -18.85% -18.80% +44.23%

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 28 January 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 28 January 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 28 January 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 0 1,160 £475 -5.00% 770
London -8 604 £483 -8.10% 276
UK excluding London 0 585 £450 -0.88% 649
Work from Home -23 353 £475 -5.00% 424
North of England +12 205 £425 -5.56% 142
North West +19 134 £400 -11.11% 70
Midlands -2 115 £500 +17.65% 80
South East -5 110 £436 -12.80% 248
South West +2 64 £475 -13.64% 75
West Midlands -19 64 £456 -8.75% 47
Scotland -15 56 £450 - 19
Yorkshire -17 54 £500 +11.11% 47
East Midlands +2 51 £537 +50.84% 32
East of England -4 30 £460 +1.77% 65
North East -4 16 £393 -1.88% 25
Wales +6 14 £300 -29.41% 21
Northern Ireland -13 2 £625 +47.06% 9

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 59 (4.38%) Confluence
2 56 (4.16%) SharePoint
3 46 (3.42%) CMS
4 24 (1.78%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 13 (0.97%) Microsoft Exchange
6 12 (0.89%) Headless CMS
7 11 (0.82%) SugarCRM
8 8 (0.59%) Sitecore CMS
8 8 (0.59%) Umbraco
9 7 (0.52%) Apache
10 4 (0.30%) Camunda
10 4 (0.30%) Ethereum
10 4 (0.30%) Hyperledger
11 3 (0.22%) Anypoint
11 3 (0.22%) Apache Spark
11 3 (0.22%) Jupyter
12 2 (0.15%) Appian
12 2 (0.15%) Drupal
12 2 (0.15%) WordPress
13 1 (0.074%) nginx
Applications
1 49 (3.64%) Sketch
2 34 (2.53%) Adobe XD
3 23 (1.71%) MS Visio
4 22 (1.63%) Microsoft Office
5 18 (1.34%) Chatbot
6 14 (1.04%) InVision
6 14 (1.04%) Microsoft Excel
7 10 (0.74%) Adobe Illustrator
7 10 (0.74%) Photoshop
8 8 (0.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
9 6 (0.45%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.45%) Trello
10 5 (0.37%) Adobe After Effects
11 4 (0.30%) Camtasia
11 4 (0.30%) Microsoft Project
11 4 (0.30%) Spreadsheet
11 4 (0.30%) UXPin
12 3 (0.22%) UserZoom
13 2 (0.15%) Autodesk Smoke
13 2 (0.15%) Snagit
Business Applications
1 18 (1.34%) Dynamics CRM
1 18 (1.34%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (0.30%) Shopify
3 3 (0.22%) SAP CO
3 3 (0.22%) SAP FI
3 3 (0.22%) SAP FI/CO
3 3 (0.22%) Teamcenter
4 2 (0.15%) Adobe Campaign
4 2 (0.15%) iTrent
4 2 (0.15%) Magento
4 2 (0.15%) Oracle EBS
4 2 (0.15%) Salesforce CRM
4 2 (0.15%) SAP SD
4 2 (0.15%) SAP Travel Management
5 1 (0.074%) Elite 3E
5 1 (0.074%) Eloqua
5 1 (0.074%) NEC Housing
5 1 (0.074%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.074%) Sprinklr
5 1 (0.074%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 230 (17.09%) Azure
2 169 (12.56%) Figma
3 153 (11.37%) AWS
4 85 (6.32%) Power Platform
5 77 (5.72%) SaaS
6 75 (5.57%) Microsoft 365
7 62 (4.61%) GCP
8 51 (3.79%) Azure DevOps
8 51 (3.79%) Entra ID
8 51 (3.79%) GitHub
9 33 (2.45%) Miro
10 31 (2.30%) GitHub Actions
11 28 (2.08%) Serverless
12 27 (2.01%) Power Automate
13 26 (1.93%) PowerApps
14 24 (1.78%) Google Analytics
14 24 (1.78%) Google Workspace
15 22 (1.63%) Cloud Computing
16 20 (1.49%) Dynamics 365
17 19 (1.41%) Google Sheets
Communications & Networking
1 27 (2.01%) DNS
2 23 (1.71%) Wireless
3 17 (1.26%) HTTP
3 17 (1.26%) Internet
4 10 (0.74%) VPN
4 10 (0.74%) Wi-Fi
5 9 (0.67%) DHCP
5 9 (0.67%) Intranet
5 9 (0.67%) TCP/IP
6 8 (0.59%) BGP
6 8 (0.59%) Cisco ISE
7 7 (0.52%) Cisco Wireless
7 7 (0.52%) Firewall
7 7 (0.52%) NX-OS
7 7 (0.52%) VXLAN
8 6 (0.45%) Unified Communications
8 6 (0.45%) WAN
9 5 (0.37%) SSL
10 4 (0.30%) HTTPS
10 4 (0.30%) LAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 52 (3.86%) Power BI
2 42 (3.12%) MySQL
3 40 (2.97%) Relational Database
4 33 (2.45%) PostgreSQL
5 28 (2.08%) NoSQL
6 26 (1.93%) SQL Server
7 18 (1.34%) Data Warehouse
8 17 (1.26%) MongoDB
9 15 (1.11%) Tableau
10 14 (1.04%) BigQuery
11 12 (0.89%) Looker
12 11 (0.82%) Metadata
13 7 (0.52%) Mixpanel
14 6 (0.45%) Redis
15 5 (0.37%) DynamoDB
15 5 (0.37%) SAP HANA
16 4 (0.30%) Oracle Reports
16 4 (0.30%) Pinecone
16 4 (0.30%) Power Query
17 3 (0.22%) Hadoop
Development Applications
1 127 (9.44%) JIRA
2 96 (7.13%) Git
3 47 (3.49%) GitLab
4 41 (3.05%) Jenkins
5 33 (2.45%) Cypress.io
6 26 (1.93%) JUnit
6 26 (1.93%) Xcode
7 23 (1.71%) Android Studio
7 23 (1.71%) Axure RP
7 23 (1.71%) Eclipse
8 18 (1.34%) Browser DevTools
8 18 (1.34%) Gradle
9 14 (1.04%) Postman
10 11 (0.82%) CircleCI
11 9 (0.67%) Visual Website Optimizer
12 8 (0.59%) Artifactory
12 8 (0.59%) IntelliJ
12 8 (0.59%) Mocha
12 8 (0.59%) Mockito
12 8 (0.59%) Selenium
General
1 460 (34.18%) Social Skills
2 258 (19.17%) Finance
3 188 (13.97%) Public Sector
4 162 (12.04%) Analytical Skills
5 101 (7.50%) Banking
6 86 (6.39%) Marketing
7 37 (2.75%) Influencing Skills
8 29 (2.15%) Retail
9 26 (1.93%) Legal
10 24 (1.78%) Presentation Skills
11 20 (1.49%) Pharmaceutical
12 17 (1.26%) Manufacturing
13 16 (1.19%) Financial Institution
13 16 (1.19%) Telecoms
14 15 (1.11%) Documentation Skills
14 15 (1.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 13 (0.97%) Investment Banking
16 11 (0.82%) Automotive
17 9 (0.67%) Front Office
17 9 (0.67%) Games
Job Titles
1 246 (18.28%) Developer
2 233 (17.31%) Designer
3 185 (13.74%) Senior
4 131 (9.73%) UX Designer
5 114 (8.47%) Analyst
6 90 (6.69%) Lead
7 64 (4.75%) Business Analyst
8 53 (3.94%) Senior Designer
9 52 (3.86%) Consultant
10 47 (3.49%) Architect
10 47 (3.49%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
11 46 (3.42%) Product Designer
12 41 (3.05%) User Researcher
13 40 (2.97%) Full-Stack Developer
14 38 (2.82%) Support Engineer
15 37 (2.75%) Service Designer
16 36 (2.67%) Senior Developer
16 36 (2.67%) UI Designer
17 33 (2.45%) Front-End Engineer (Client-Side Engineer)
18 31 (2.30%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 184 (13.67%) CSS
2 182 (13.52%) React
3 168 (12.48%) HTML
4 113 (8.40%) REST
5 98 (7.28%) RESTful
6 97 (7.21%) AngularJS
7 57 (4.23%) .NET
8 54 (4.01%) Spring
9 53 (3.94%) Node.js
10 52 (3.86%) Spring Boot
11 46 (3.42%) GraphQL
11 46 (3.42%) HTML5
12 39 (2.90%) Jest
13 35 (2.60%) CSS3
14 28 (2.08%) Playwright
15 27 (2.01%) JSON
15 27 (2.01%) Next.js
15 27 (2.01%) Redux
15 27 (2.01%) SOAP
16 23 (1.71%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 131 (9.73%) Product Ownership
2 98 (7.28%) Mobile App
3 65 (4.83%) Onboarding
4 28 (2.08%) Analytical Mindset
5 27 (2.01%) Enterprise Software
6 21 (1.56%) AI Agents
7 19 (1.41%) Data Structures
8 18 (1.34%) Low-Code
8 18 (1.34%) NHS
9 17 (1.26%) Management Information System
10 15 (1.11%) Cloud Native
10 15 (1.11%) Distributed Systems
10 15 (1.11%) e-Learning
11 14 (1.04%) Data Protection Act
11 14 (1.04%) Legacy Systems
12 13 (0.97%) CMDB
12 13 (0.97%) Data Centre
12 13 (0.97%) Virtual Team
13 12 (0.89%) Greenfield Project
14 11 (0.82%) Mobile Banking
Operating Systems
1 123 (9.14%) Windows
2 69 (5.13%) Android
3 52 (3.86%) Apple iOS
4 36 (2.67%) Windows 10
5 35 (2.60%) Linux
6 21 (1.56%) Mac OS
6 21 (1.56%) Unix
7 6 (0.45%) Windows Server
8 3 (0.22%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.15%) VMS
10 1 (0.074%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 496 (36.85%) Agile
2 469 (34.84%) UX Design
3 224 (16.64%) Problem-Solving
4 215 (15.97%) Analytics
5 188 (13.97%) User Research
6 184 (13.67%) CI/CD
7 171 (12.70%) Stakeholder Management
8 159 (11.81%) DevOps
9 145 (10.77%) AI
9 145 (10.77%) Continuous Improvement
10 140 (10.40%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 140 (10.40%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
11 139 (10.33%) Roadmaps
12 118 (8.77%) Service Design
13 116 (8.62%) Front End Development
14 115 (8.54%) Wireframes
15 113 (8.40%) Decision-Making
16 112 (8.32%) Usability Testing
17 110 (8.17%) Prototyping
18 101 (7.50%) UX Research
Programming Languages
1 214 (15.90%) JavaScript
2 130 (9.66%) SQL
3 127 (9.44%) Java
4 116 (8.62%) TypeScript
5 111 (8.25%) Python
6 58 (4.31%) PowerShell
7 57 (4.23%) C#
8 33 (2.45%) Kotlin
9 24 (1.78%) Bash
10 22 (1.63%) Swift
11 21 (1.56%) Perl
12 20 (1.49%) PHP
13 12 (0.89%) C++
13 12 (0.89%) PL/SQL
14 10 (0.74%) Go
14 10 (0.74%) Objective-C
14 10 (0.74%) Scala
15 7 (0.52%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 7 (0.52%) Lisp
16 5 (0.37%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 158 (11.74%) Security Cleared
2 127 (9.44%) Degree
3 116 (8.62%) SC Cleared
4 37 (2.75%) BPSS Clearance
5 26 (1.93%) Computer Science Degree
6 18 (1.34%) Master's Degree
7 11 (0.82%) DV Cleared
7 11 (0.82%) Microsoft Certification
7 11 (0.82%) MOS
8 10 (0.74%) PMI Certification
9 9 (0.67%) CCNP
9 9 (0.67%) Cisco Certification
9 9 (0.67%) OCA
9 9 (0.67%) Oracle Certification
10 6 (0.45%) MCP
11 4 (0.30%) PMP
12 3 (0.22%) Azure Certification
13 2 (0.15%) AWS Certification
13 2 (0.15%) CISSP
13 2 (0.15%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 244 (18.13%) Accessibility
2 137 (10.18%) QA
3 72 (5.35%) WCAG
4 63 (4.68%) GDPR
5 36 (2.67%) Data Quality
6 25 (1.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 21 (1.56%) Actionable Recommendations
8 17 (1.26%) SLA
9 6 (0.45%) NCSC
9 6 (0.45%) PMO
10 5 (0.37%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 5 (0.37%) GxP
11 3 (0.22%) Disclosure Scotland
11 3 (0.22%) GMP
11 3 (0.22%) Government Security Classifications
11 3 (0.22%) NIST
11 3 (0.22%) SOC 2
12 2 (0.15%) GRC
12 2 (0.15%) ISO 20022
12 2 (0.15%) PSD2
System Software
1 69 (5.13%) Active Directory
2 67 (4.98%) Docker
3 20 (1.49%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (0.45%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.22%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.15%) ProxySG
7 1 (0.074%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.074%) ISA Server
7 1 (0.074%) Microsoft App-V
7 1 (0.074%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.074%) XenApp
7 1 (0.074%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 53 (3.94%) Kubernetes
2 43 (3.19%) Microsoft Intune
3 37 (2.75%) Terraform
4 34 (2.53%) SCCM
5 17 (1.26%) Ansible
6 16 (1.19%) Grafana
7 15 (1.11%) Single Sign-On
8 7 (0.52%) FortiGate
9 6 (0.45%) Prometheus
10 5 (0.37%) Jamf Pro
11 4 (0.30%) Argo
12 3 (0.22%) HP ALM
12 3 (0.22%) Nagios
12 3 (0.22%) Rancher
13 2 (0.15%) PingFederate
13 2 (0.15%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
13 2 (0.15%) SysTrack
14 1 (0.074%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 1 (0.074%) Istio
14 1 (0.074%) SCOM
Vendors
1 216 (16.05%) Microsoft
2 92 (6.84%) Adobe
3 84 (6.24%) Google
4 72 (5.35%) ServiceNow
5 52 (3.86%) Oracle
6 47 (3.49%) Salesforce
7 45 (3.34%) SAP
8 26 (1.93%) Splunk
9 21 (1.56%) VMware
10 17 (1.26%) Apple
11 16 (1.19%) Citrix
12 13 (0.97%) Cisco
12 13 (0.97%) Zscaler
13 11 (0.82%) Hotjar
13 11 (0.82%) Optimizely
13 11 (0.82%) Red Hat
14 10 (0.74%) Amplitude
14 10 (0.74%) MuleSoft
15 9 (0.67%) OpenAI
16 8 (0.59%) Ekahau