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

6 months to
17 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 94 64 80
Rank change year-on-year -30 +16 -21
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,509 1,247 1,004
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.82% 3.77% 2.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.33% 4.16% 3.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 908 789 630
10th Percentile £313 £302 £300
25th Percentile £393 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -1.53%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £449 £475
% change year-on-year +0.33% -5.58% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 47 32
10th Percentile £16.83 £23.10 £16.25
25th Percentile £26.00 £33.74 £29.14
Median hourly rate £33.99 £47.50 £40.84
Median % change year-on-year -28.44% +16.31% +54.10%
75th Percentile £67.84 £63.75 £71.29
90th Percentile £73.50 £72.20 £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 45,350 29,954 33,125
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.75% 90.50% 85.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,857 18,668 21,203
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £424 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.31%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,845 1,726 1,796
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £14.03
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.31 £18.23
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £40.97
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -38.61% -1.28%
75th Percentile £68.00 £48.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £81.25 £68.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £23.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year +91.13% -45.88% +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 17 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 17 August 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 17 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 -26 1,310 £475 - 1,437
UK excluding London -19 700 £450 +0.33% 745
London -26 669 £520 +4.00% 885
Work from Home -37 380 £492 +0.92% 696
North of England -16 225 £430 -3.80% 205
Midlands -12 141 £475 +9.83% 102
West Midlands -18 112 £475 -8.65% 74
South East -46 112 £419 -9.46% 186
North West -29 104 £400 -10.81% 118
Scotland +6 90 £544 +17.57% 60
South West -19 73 £475 +18.75% 88
Yorkshire -14 71 £500 +25.00% 53
North East -6 49 £363 -24.48% 34
East of England +6 47 £410 -14.14% 58
East Midlands -13 29 £468 +31.69% 28
Wales -11 15 £579 +89.22% 22
Northern Ireland +5 2 £644 +76.98% 37

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 (4.24%) SharePoint
2 58 (3.84%) CMS
3 40 (2.65%) Confluence
4 31 (2.05%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (1.06%) WordPress
6 8 (0.53%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 8 (0.53%) Apache
7 7 (0.46%) Skype for Business
8 6 (0.40%) Drupal
8 6 (0.40%) Mendix
9 5 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
9 5 (0.33%) Headless CMS
10 4 (0.27%) Kentico
10 4 (0.27%) Oracle Workflow
11 3 (0.20%) Moodle
11 3 (0.20%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.13%) Camunda
12 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
12 2 (0.13%) IIS
12 2 (0.13%) nginx
Applications
1 35 (2.32%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 34 (2.25%) Sketch
3 26 (1.72%) Microsoft Excel
4 22 (1.46%) Chatbot
5 19 (1.26%) Microsoft Office
5 19 (1.26%) Photoshop
6 18 (1.19%) Adobe After Effects
7 15 (0.99%) Adobe Illustrator
7 15 (0.99%) Adobe XD
8 8 (0.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
9 6 (0.40%) Final Cut Pro
9 6 (0.40%) MS Visio
10 2 (0.13%) Adobe Captivate
10 2 (0.13%) InVision
10 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
10 2 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
10 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
11 1 (0.066%) Blender
11 1 (0.066%) Camtasia
11 1 (0.066%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 8 (0.53%) SAP S/4HANA
1 8 (0.53%) Workday HCM
2 7 (0.46%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (0.40%) Shopify
4 4 (0.27%) NetSuite
4 4 (0.27%) Oracle iProcurement
4 4 (0.27%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.27%) Sage X3
5 3 (0.20%) iTrent
5 3 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
5 3 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
6 2 (0.13%) ResourceLink
7 1 (0.066%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.066%) Magento
7 1 (0.066%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.066%) SAP HR
7 1 (0.066%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 224 (14.84%) Azure
2 191 (12.66%) Figma
3 141 (9.34%) Microsoft 365
4 132 (8.75%) AWS
5 111 (7.36%) Power Platform
6 67 (4.44%) Entra ID
7 58 (3.84%) GitHub
8 51 (3.38%) SaaS
9 50 (3.31%) Azure DevOps
9 50 (3.31%) Microsoft Copilot
10 42 (2.78%) GCP
11 32 (2.12%) OneDrive
12 31 (2.05%) PowerApps
13 26 (1.72%) Serverless
14 25 (1.66%) Power Automate
15 23 (1.52%) Azure AI
16 22 (1.46%) Copilot Studio
16 22 (1.46%) GitHub Actions
17 16 (1.06%) GitHub Copilot
17 16 (1.06%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 45 (2.98%) DNS
2 37 (2.45%) DHCP
3 31 (2.05%) TCP/IP
3 31 (2.05%) Wi-Fi
4 22 (1.46%) Wireless
5 21 (1.39%) LAN
6 16 (1.06%) Firewall
6 16 (1.06%) VPN
7 15 (0.99%) WAN
8 12 (0.80%) Internet
9 11 (0.73%) SD-WAN
10 9 (0.60%) Cisco Wireless
10 9 (0.60%) Intranet
10 9 (0.60%) Skype
11 8 (0.53%) Network Security
12 7 (0.46%) 5G
12 7 (0.46%) SNMP
12 7 (0.46%) WLAN
13 6 (0.40%) SSL
14 5 (0.33%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 69 (4.57%) Power BI
2 26 (1.72%) Metadata
3 18 (1.19%) NoSQL
4 16 (1.06%) PostgreSQL
4 16 (1.06%) Power Query
5 14 (0.93%) Tableau
6 13 (0.86%) Relational Database
7 11 (0.73%) Big Data
7 11 (0.73%) Data Warehouse
7 11 (0.73%) SQL Server
8 10 (0.66%) Looker
9 9 (0.60%) MongoDB
10 7 (0.46%) Elasticsearch
10 7 (0.46%) MySQL
10 7 (0.46%) Snowflake Schema
11 6 (0.40%) BigQuery
11 6 (0.40%) Flink
11 6 (0.40%) Qlik Sense
11 6 (0.40%) Redis
11 6 (0.40%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 84 (5.57%) JIRA
2 74 (4.90%) Git
3 29 (1.92%) Cypress.io
4 27 (1.79%) Jenkins
5 24 (1.59%) Vite
6 19 (1.26%) GitLab
7 14 (0.93%) Claude Code
8 11 (0.73%) Storybook
9 10 (0.66%) Android Studio
9 10 (0.66%) Browser DevTools
9 10 (0.66%) fastlane
10 9 (0.60%) Selenium
10 9 (0.60%) Xcode
11 7 (0.46%) Gradle
11 7 (0.46%) JMeter
11 7 (0.46%) webpack
12 6 (0.40%) JUnit
12 6 (0.40%) Postman
13 5 (0.33%) MSI
13 5 (0.33%) Visual Studio
General
1 474 (31.41%) Social Skills
2 260 (17.23%) Finance
3 200 (13.25%) Public Sector
4 153 (10.14%) Analytical Skills
5 112 (7.42%) Banking
6 77 (5.10%) Retail
7 74 (4.90%) Marketing
8 52 (3.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 36 (2.39%) Legal
10 35 (2.32%) Influencing Skills
11 28 (1.86%) Publishing
12 27 (1.79%) Automotive
12 27 (1.79%) Presentation Skills
13 26 (1.72%) Organisational Skills
14 25 (1.66%) Manufacturing
15 23 (1.52%) Documentation Skills
16 18 (1.19%) Investment Banking
17 16 (1.06%) Military
18 10 (0.66%) Front Office
19 9 (0.60%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 329 (21.80%) Designer
2 217 (14.38%) Senior
3 192 (12.72%) Developer
4 132 (8.75%) UX Designer
5 121 (8.02%) Lead
6 101 (6.69%) Analyst
7 84 (5.57%) UI Designer
8 78 (5.17%) Consultant
9 65 (4.31%) User Researcher
10 64 (4.24%) Senior Designer
11 56 (3.71%) Architect
12 53 (3.51%) Content Designer
12 53 (3.51%) Support Engineer
13 52 (3.45%) IT Support
14 50 (3.31%) Business Analyst
15 49 (3.25%) Product Manager
16 48 (3.18%) UI/UX Designer
17 43 (2.85%) Product Designer
17 43 (2.85%) User Experience Researcher
18 36 (2.39%) IT Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 137 (9.08%) React
2 109 (7.22%) CSS
3 97 (6.43%) HTML
4 93 (6.16%) REST
5 62 (4.11%) RESTful
6 47 (3.11%) AngularJS
7 43 (2.85%) HTML5
8 41 (2.72%) GraphQL
9 40 (2.65%) CSS3
10 35 (2.32%) .NET
11 33 (2.19%) Jest
11 33 (2.19%) Node.js
12 29 (1.92%) Kafka
12 29 (1.92%) Playwright
13 26 (1.72%) Redux
14 25 (1.66%) Next.js
14 25 (1.66%) OAuth
14 25 (1.66%) Spring
15 24 (1.59%) Spring Boot
16 19 (1.26%) Android SDK
Miscellaneous
1 141 (9.34%) Product Ownership
2 96 (6.36%) Mobile App
3 86 (5.70%) Onboarding
4 50 (3.31%) Cloud Native
5 42 (2.78%) AI Agents
6 33 (2.19%) Self-Motivation
7 32 (2.12%) Enterprise Software
8 28 (1.86%) Data Protection Act
9 27 (1.79%) Data Structures
9 27 (1.79%) Legacy Systems
10 22 (1.46%) Social Media
11 21 (1.39%) Animation
12 20 (1.33%) Data Centre
12 20 (1.33%) NHS
13 19 (1.26%) Educational Technology
13 19 (1.26%) Management Information System
14 18 (1.19%) Analytical Mindset
15 17 (1.13%) Graphic Design
16 15 (0.99%) Virtual Reality
17 14 (0.93%) Algorithms
Operating Systems
1 142 (9.41%) Windows
2 64 (4.24%) Android
3 60 (3.98%) Apple iOS
4 51 (3.38%) Windows 10
5 30 (1.99%) Mac OS
6 21 (1.39%) Windows Server
7 18 (1.19%) Linux
8 10 (0.66%) Unix
8 10 (0.66%) Windows 7
9 4 (0.27%) Windows Server 2016
9 4 (0.27%) Windows Server 2019
10 3 (0.20%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.066%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 487 (32.27%) UX Design
2 429 (28.43%) Agile
3 301 (19.95%) AI
4 246 (16.30%) Problem-Solving
5 245 (16.24%) Stakeholder Management
6 217 (14.38%) Continuous Improvement
7 204 (13.52%) User Research
8 200 (13.25%) Analytics
9 176 (11.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 173 (11.46%) CI/CD
11 149 (9.87%) Roadmaps
12 141 (9.34%) Decision-Making
12 141 (9.34%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
13 132 (8.75%) Prototyping
14 124 (8.22%) DevOps
15 119 (7.89%) Service Design
16 115 (7.62%) Wireframes
17 114 (7.55%) Scrum
18 113 (7.49%) Workshop Facilitation
19 104 (6.89%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 137 (9.08%) JavaScript
2 124 (8.22%) Python
3 113 (7.49%) TypeScript
4 98 (6.49%) SQL
5 92 (6.10%) Java
6 54 (3.58%) PowerShell
7 35 (2.32%) C#
8 29 (1.92%) Kotlin
9 21 (1.39%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 19 (1.26%) Bash
11 17 (1.13%) Swift
12 9 (0.60%) C++
13 8 (0.53%) Go
13 8 (0.53%) PHP
13 8 (0.53%) VBScript
14 7 (0.46%) VB
15 6 (0.40%) Apex Code
15 6 (0.40%) Lua
15 6 (0.40%) Scala
15 6 (0.40%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 237 (15.71%) Security Cleared
2 179 (11.86%) SC Cleared
3 130 (8.61%) Degree
4 37 (2.45%) Computer Science Degree
5 33 (2.19%) BPSS Clearance
6 27 (1.79%) DV Cleared
7 23 (1.52%) Azure Certification
8 21 (1.39%) Microsoft Certification
9 13 (0.86%) PMP
10 10 (0.66%) Cisco Certification
11 8 (0.53%) AWS Certification
11 8 (0.53%) CCA
11 8 (0.53%) Citrix Certification
11 8 (0.53%) ITIL Certification
11 8 (0.53%) Master's Degree
11 8 (0.53%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 6 (0.40%) CCIE
12 6 (0.40%) CCNP
12 6 (0.40%) DBS Check
12 6 (0.40%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 260 (17.23%) Accessibility
2 94 (6.23%) WCAG
3 89 (5.90%) QA
4 45 (2.98%) Data Quality
5 19 (1.26%) GDPR
6 13 (0.86%) Actionable Recommendations
7 9 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 8 (0.53%) PMO
8 8 (0.53%) SLA
9 7 (0.46%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 5 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials
11 4 (0.27%) GRC
11 4 (0.27%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 3 (0.20%) GMP
12 3 (0.20%) GxP
13 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.13%) PSD2
14 1 (0.066%) ISO 20022
14 1 (0.066%) NIST
14 1 (0.066%) WAI-ARIA
System Software
1 98 (6.49%) Active Directory
2 46 (3.05%) Docker
3 29 (1.92%) Virtual Desktop
4 16 (1.06%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (0.46%) BitLocker
5 7 (0.46%) vSphere
6 6 (0.40%) Firmware
6 6 (0.40%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (0.27%) 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 (0.066%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 52 (3.45%) Terraform
2 50 (3.31%) Microsoft Intune
3 48 (3.18%) Kubernetes
4 34 (2.25%) Grafana
5 33 (2.19%) SCCM
6 19 (1.26%) Single Sign-On
7 18 (1.19%) Ansible
8 15 (0.99%) Jamf Pro
8 15 (0.99%) Prometheus
9 5 (0.33%) vCenter Server
10 4 (0.27%) Clonezilla
10 4 (0.27%) Podman
11 3 (0.20%) Kibana
11 3 (0.20%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 3 (0.20%) 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
Vendors
1 259 (17.16%) Microsoft
2 92 (6.10%) Adobe
3 82 (5.43%) ServiceNow
4 52 (3.45%) Google
5 43 (2.85%) Oracle
6 33 (2.19%) SAP
7 31 (2.05%) Salesforce
8 25 (1.66%) Dynatrace
9 24 (1.59%) Citrix
10 22 (1.46%) Databricks
11 21 (1.39%) Splunk
12 19 (1.26%) Apple
12 19 (1.26%) VMware
13 18 (1.19%) Cisco
13 18 (1.19%) Workday
14 15 (0.99%) Foundry
14 15 (0.99%) OpenAI
15 14 (0.93%) Zscaler
16 12 (0.80%) Aruba
17 10 (0.66%) Okta