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 10 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 92 64 79
Rank change year-on-year -28 +15 -19
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,533 1,238 1,010
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.87% 3.73% 2.60%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.39% 4.13% 3.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 932 788 636
10th Percentile £313 £304 £303
25th Percentile £400 £380 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -0.79%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £600
90th Percentile £688 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £475
% change year-on-year - -5.26% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 45 33
10th Percentile £16.88 £22.15 £16.25
25th Percentile £26.06 £33.00 £30.00
Median hourly rate £33.99 £47.50 £41.68
Median % change year-on-year -28.44% +13.98% +54.35%
75th Percentile £67.84 £63.75 £70.39
90th Percentile £73.38 £72.30 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £49.00 £66.00
% change year-on-year -30.63% -25.76% +272.46%

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 45,268 29,990 33,185
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.86% 90.46% 85.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,853 18,764 21,291
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £420 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £729 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,826 1,696 1,837
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £14.05
25th Percentile £18.89 £17.30 £18.35
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -38.57% -3.67%
75th Percentile £68.00 £48.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.25 £68.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £22.63 £42.50
% change year-on-year +94.26% -46.75% +13.33%

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 10 August 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 10 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for User Experience in the UK

User Experience
Top 16 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 10 August 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 -21 1,328 £475 - 1,158
UK excluding London -13 715 £450 - 568
London -29 673 £525 +5.00% 707
Work from Home -31 385 £495 +0.81% 492
North of England -11 222 £440 -2.22% 160
Midlands -10 143 £475 +10.27% 84
South East -49 119 £444 -6.53% 147
West Midlands -11 112 £475 -7.32% 66
North West -28 105 £425 -5.56% 82
Scotland +22 97 £525 +13.51% 38
South West -21 75 £475 +18.75% 66
Yorkshire -23 66 £500 +25.00% 50
East of England +12 50 £410 -16.33% 49
North East -4 50 £350 -27.08% 28
East Midlands -1 31 £468 +31.69% 18
Wales -14 14 £640 +108.99% 17

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 64 (4.17%) SharePoint
2 58 (3.78%) CMS
3 39 (2.54%) Confluence
4 28 (1.83%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (1.04%) WordPress
6 8 (0.52%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 8 (0.52%) Apache
7 6 (0.39%) Drupal
7 6 (0.39%) Mendix
7 6 (0.39%) Skype for Business
8 5 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
8 5 (0.33%) Headless CMS
9 4 (0.26%) Kentico
9 4 (0.26%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.20%) Moodle
10 3 (0.20%) Umbraco
11 2 (0.13%) Camunda
11 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
11 2 (0.13%) IIS
11 2 (0.13%) nginx
Applications
1 36 (2.35%) Sketch
2 35 (2.28%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 28 (1.83%) Microsoft Excel
4 22 (1.44%) Chatbot
5 19 (1.24%) Photoshop
6 18 (1.17%) Adobe After Effects
7 17 (1.11%) Microsoft Office
8 16 (1.04%) Adobe XD
9 15 (0.98%) Adobe Illustrator
10 9 (0.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 6 (0.39%) Final Cut Pro
11 6 (0.39%) MS Visio
12 3 (0.20%) Adobe Captivate
13 2 (0.13%) InVision
13 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
13 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
13 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
14 1 (0.065%) Blender
14 1 (0.065%) Camtasia
14 1 (0.065%) Trello
Business Applications
1 10 (0.65%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (0.59%) Workday HCM
3 7 (0.46%) Dynamics CRM
4 6 (0.39%) Shopify
5 5 (0.33%) Sage X3
6 4 (0.26%) NetSuite
6 4 (0.26%) Oracle iProcurement
6 4 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
7 3 (0.20%) iTrent
7 3 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
8 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
8 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
8 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.13%) ResourceLink
9 1 (0.065%) Eloqua
9 1 (0.065%) Magento
9 1 (0.065%) Oracle EBS R12
9 1 (0.065%) SAP HR
9 1 (0.065%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 238 (15.53%) Azure
2 202 (13.18%) Figma
3 139 (9.07%) Microsoft 365
4 134 (8.74%) AWS
5 116 (7.57%) Power Platform
6 68 (4.44%) Entra ID
7 60 (3.91%) GitHub
8 55 (3.59%) Azure DevOps
9 52 (3.39%) SaaS
10 51 (3.33%) Microsoft Copilot
11 45 (2.94%) GCP
12 33 (2.15%) PowerApps
13 31 (2.02%) OneDrive
14 30 (1.96%) Serverless
15 28 (1.83%) Power Automate
16 24 (1.57%) Azure AI
17 23 (1.50%) Copilot Studio
17 23 (1.50%) GitHub Actions
18 16 (1.04%) GitHub Copilot
18 16 (1.04%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 43 (2.80%) DNS
2 35 (2.28%) DHCP
3 31 (2.02%) Wi-Fi
4 29 (1.89%) TCP/IP
5 21 (1.37%) Wireless
6 20 (1.30%) LAN
7 16 (1.04%) Firewall
7 16 (1.04%) VPN
7 16 (1.04%) WAN
8 12 (0.78%) Internet
8 12 (0.78%) SD-WAN
9 10 (0.65%) Intranet
10 9 (0.59%) Network Security
11 8 (0.52%) Cisco Wireless
11 8 (0.52%) Skype
12 7 (0.46%) 5G
12 7 (0.46%) SNMP
13 6 (0.39%) WLAN
14 5 (0.33%) 802.11
14 5 (0.33%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (4.76%) Power BI
2 27 (1.76%) Metadata
3 19 (1.24%) NoSQL
4 17 (1.11%) PostgreSQL
4 17 (1.11%) Power Query
5 15 (0.98%) Relational Database
6 13 (0.85%) Tableau
7 11 (0.72%) Big Data
7 11 (0.72%) Data Warehouse
7 11 (0.72%) SQL Server
8 10 (0.65%) MongoDB
9 9 (0.59%) Looker
10 8 (0.52%) MySQL
11 7 (0.46%) Elasticsearch
11 7 (0.46%) Snowflake Schema
11 7 (0.46%) Star Schema
12 6 (0.39%) Azure SQL Database
12 6 (0.39%) BigQuery
12 6 (0.39%) Qlik Sense
12 6 (0.39%) Redis
Development Applications
1 87 (5.68%) JIRA
2 77 (5.02%) Git
3 28 (1.83%) Cypress.io
4 26 (1.70%) Jenkins
5 24 (1.57%) Vite
6 18 (1.17%) GitLab
7 14 (0.91%) Claude Code
8 10 (0.65%) Android Studio
8 10 (0.65%) Browser DevTools
8 10 (0.65%) fastlane
8 10 (0.65%) Selenium
8 10 (0.65%) Storybook
9 9 (0.59%) Xcode
10 8 (0.52%) Gradle
10 8 (0.52%) JUnit
11 7 (0.46%) JMeter
11 7 (0.46%) Postman
11 7 (0.46%) webpack
12 5 (0.33%) Crashlytics
12 5 (0.33%) Jasmine
General
1 483 (31.51%) Social Skills
2 268 (17.48%) Finance
3 205 (13.37%) Public Sector
4 152 (9.92%) Analytical Skills
5 114 (7.44%) Banking
6 78 (5.09%) Retail
7 75 (4.89%) Marketing
8 51 (3.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 36 (2.35%) Influencing Skills
9 36 (2.35%) Legal
10 29 (1.89%) Publishing
11 28 (1.83%) Organisational Skills
12 27 (1.76%) Automotive
12 27 (1.76%) Manufacturing
12 27 (1.76%) Presentation Skills
13 21 (1.37%) Documentation Skills
14 18 (1.17%) Investment Banking
15 16 (1.04%) Military
16 12 (0.78%) Front Office
17 11 (0.72%) Games
Job Titles
1 335 (21.85%) Designer
2 222 (14.48%) Senior
3 197 (12.85%) Developer
4 141 (9.20%) UX Designer
5 117 (7.63%) Lead
6 102 (6.65%) Analyst
7 85 (5.54%) UI Designer
8 81 (5.28%) Consultant
9 68 (4.44%) User Researcher
10 65 (4.24%) Senior Designer
11 61 (3.98%) Architect
12 53 (3.46%) Business Analyst
12 53 (3.46%) Content Designer
13 50 (3.26%) IT Support
13 50 (3.26%) Support Engineer
14 49 (3.20%) UI/UX Designer
15 45 (2.94%) Product Manager
16 44 (2.87%) Product Designer
16 44 (2.87%) User Experience Researcher
17 34 (2.22%) IT Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 137 (8.94%) React
2 110 (7.18%) CSS
3 97 (6.33%) HTML
3 97 (6.33%) REST
4 62 (4.04%) RESTful
5 50 (3.26%) AngularJS
6 42 (2.74%) GraphQL
7 41 (2.67%) HTML5
8 40 (2.61%) .NET
9 38 (2.48%) CSS3
10 34 (2.22%) Jest
11 33 (2.15%) Node.js
12 29 (1.89%) Kafka
13 28 (1.83%) Playwright
13 28 (1.83%) Redux
14 26 (1.70%) Spring
15 25 (1.63%) Next.js
15 25 (1.63%) OAuth
15 25 (1.63%) Spring Boot
16 22 (1.44%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 143 (9.33%) Product Ownership
2 97 (6.33%) Mobile App
3 87 (5.68%) Onboarding
4 48 (3.13%) Cloud Native
5 42 (2.74%) AI Agents
6 33 (2.15%) Self-Motivation
7 32 (2.09%) Enterprise Software
8 28 (1.83%) Data Protection Act
9 27 (1.76%) Data Structures
10 25 (1.63%) Legacy Systems
11 22 (1.44%) Animation
11 22 (1.44%) Data Centre
11 22 (1.44%) Social Media
12 19 (1.24%) Educational Technology
12 19 (1.24%) Management Information System
13 18 (1.17%) NHS
14 17 (1.11%) Analytical Mindset
14 17 (1.11%) Graphic Design
15 14 (0.91%) Taxonomies
16 13 (0.85%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 137 (8.94%) Windows
2 62 (4.04%) Android
3 57 (3.72%) Apple iOS
4 48 (3.13%) Windows 10
5 28 (1.83%) Mac OS
6 21 (1.37%) Windows Server
7 17 (1.11%) Linux
8 10 (0.65%) Unix
9 9 (0.59%) Windows 7
10 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.20%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 495 (32.29%) UX Design
2 440 (28.70%) Agile
3 305 (19.90%) AI
4 243 (15.85%) Problem-Solving
5 240 (15.66%) Stakeholder Management
6 218 (14.22%) Continuous Improvement
7 215 (14.02%) User Research
8 203 (13.24%) Analytics
9 181 (11.81%) CI/CD
10 174 (11.35%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 154 (10.05%) Roadmaps
12 143 (9.33%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
13 141 (9.20%) Decision-Making
14 138 (9.00%) Prototyping
15 134 (8.74%) DevOps
16 124 (8.09%) Service Design
17 123 (8.02%) Wireframes
18 116 (7.57%) Scrum
19 115 (7.50%) Workshop Facilitation
20 109 (7.11%) UX Research
Programming Languages
1 131 (8.55%) JavaScript
2 126 (8.22%) Python
3 111 (7.24%) TypeScript
4 103 (6.72%) SQL
5 94 (6.13%) Java
6 54 (3.52%) PowerShell
7 41 (2.67%) C#
8 34 (2.22%) Kotlin
9 23 (1.50%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 20 (1.30%) Bash
11 17 (1.11%) Swift
12 11 (0.72%) C++
13 8 (0.52%) Go
13 8 (0.52%) Lua
13 8 (0.52%) PHP
14 7 (0.46%) Apex Code
14 7 (0.46%) VBScript
15 6 (0.39%) Scala
15 6 (0.39%) Shell Script
15 6 (0.39%) VB
Qualifications
1 239 (15.59%) Security Cleared
2 181 (11.81%) SC Cleared
3 139 (9.07%) Degree
4 38 (2.48%) Computer Science Degree
5 31 (2.02%) BPSS Clearance
6 28 (1.83%) DV Cleared
7 23 (1.50%) Azure Certification
8 21 (1.37%) Microsoft Certification
9 12 (0.78%) PMP
10 11 (0.72%) Cisco Certification
11 8 (0.52%) AWS Certification
11 8 (0.52%) CCA
11 8 (0.52%) Citrix Certification
11 8 (0.52%) ITIL Certification
11 8 (0.52%) Master's Degree
11 8 (0.52%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 7 (0.46%) CCNP
13 6 (0.39%) CCIE
13 6 (0.39%) DBS Check
13 6 (0.39%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 265 (17.29%) Accessibility
2 96 (6.26%) WCAG
3 92 (6.00%) QA
4 48 (3.13%) Data Quality
5 19 (1.24%) GDPR
6 14 (0.91%) Actionable Recommendations
7 12 (0.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 9 (0.59%) PMO
9 8 (0.52%) SLA
10 7 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials
10 7 (0.46%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 4 (0.26%) GRC
11 4 (0.26%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 3 (0.20%) GMP
12 3 (0.20%) GxP
13 2 (0.13%) NIST
13 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.13%) PSD2
14 1 (0.065%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 1 (0.065%) EU AI Act
System Software
1 95 (6.20%) Active Directory
2 49 (3.20%) Docker
3 28 (1.83%) Virtual Desktop
4 16 (1.04%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (0.46%) vSphere
6 6 (0.39%) BitLocker
6 6 (0.39%) Firmware
6 6 (0.39%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
9 3 (0.20%) UAG
10 2 (0.13%) 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 (0.065%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 53 (3.46%) Terraform
2 48 (3.13%) Microsoft Intune
3 47 (3.07%) Kubernetes
4 37 (2.41%) Grafana
5 31 (2.02%) SCCM
6 20 (1.30%) Single Sign-On
7 17 (1.11%) Ansible
8 16 (1.04%) Jamf Pro
9 15 (0.98%) Prometheus
10 5 (0.33%) vCenter Server
11 4 (0.26%) Clonezilla
11 4 (0.26%) Podman
12 3 (0.20%) Kibana
12 3 (0.20%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 3 (0.20%) 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
Vendors
1 263 (17.16%) Microsoft
2 94 (6.13%) Adobe
3 83 (5.41%) ServiceNow
4 56 (3.65%) Google
5 41 (2.67%) Oracle
6 36 (2.35%) SAP
7 34 (2.22%) Salesforce
8 25 (1.63%) Dynatrace
9 24 (1.57%) Citrix
9 24 (1.57%) Splunk
10 22 (1.44%) Databricks
11 19 (1.24%) Cisco
11 19 (1.24%) VMware
11 19 (1.24%) Workday
12 18 (1.17%) Apple
13 16 (1.04%) OpenAI
14 15 (0.98%) Foundry
14 15 (0.98%) Zscaler
15 12 (0.78%) Aruba
16 11 (0.72%) Okta