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 2 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 96 65 79
Rank change year-on-year -31 +14 -14
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,563 1,239 1,053
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.85% 3.74% 2.77%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.37% 4.13% 3.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 932 792 624
10th Percentile £313 £300 £313
25th Percentile £402 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.05% -5.00% -2.44%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £588
90th Percentile £700 £675 £699
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £475
% change year-on-year - -5.26% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 78 52 27
10th Percentile £19.18 £15.50 £28.10
25th Percentile £27.45 £25.11 £30.51
Median hourly rate £38.77 £36.05 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +7.53% -15.18% -10.53%
75th Percentile £67.96 £54.06 £72.20
90th Percentile £77.00 £63.75 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £34.61 £31.25 £51.77
% change year-on-year +10.74% -39.64% +58.75%

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 46,382 30,011 32,696
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.49% 90.62% 85.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,976 18,637 19,780
10th Percentile £325 £300 £308
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £734 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,269 1,869 1,352
10th Percentile £13.69 £14.32 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.17 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £38.72 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +53.96% -40.82% -
75th Percentile £65.60 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £65.00 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.02 £22.32 £43.00
% change year-on-year +74.86% -48.10% +1.18%

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 2 October 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 2 October 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 2 October 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 -30 1,356 £475 - 3,296
UK excluding London -13 735 £450 - 1,567
London -26 692 £513 +4.59% 1,988
Work from Home -36 384 £498 +3.38% 1,449
North of England -8 264 £425 - 445
Midlands -9 151 £463 +2.89% 203
North West -32 134 £400 -5.88% 262
West Midlands +2 120 £463 -7.40% 127
South East -60 94 £403 -10.26% 343
Scotland -7 92 £538 +18.13% 131
Yorkshire -2 82 £500 +23.08% 129
South West -1 80 £475 - 176
North East -1 47 £325 -27.78% 55
East of England -8 43 £410 -21.90% 145
East Midlands -15 31 £475 +18.16% 76
Wales -13 13 £530 +66.36% 67
Northern Ireland +10 4 £638 +2.00% 63

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 74 (4.73%) SharePoint
2 66 (4.22%) CMS
3 49 (3.13%) Confluence
4 31 (1.98%) Microsoft Exchange
5 17 (1.09%) WordPress
6 8 (0.51%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 7 (0.45%) Headless CMS
7 7 (0.45%) Skype for Business
7 7 (0.45%) Traefik
8 6 (0.38%) Apache
8 6 (0.38%) Drupal
8 6 (0.38%) Oracle Workflow
9 5 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
10 4 (0.26%) Kentico
10 4 (0.26%) Mendix
11 3 (0.19%) ColdFusion
11 3 (0.19%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
12 2 (0.13%) IIS
12 2 (0.13%) Moodle
Applications
1 32 (2.05%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 27 (1.73%) Sketch
3 25 (1.60%) Microsoft Office
4 21 (1.34%) Microsoft Excel
5 19 (1.22%) Photoshop
6 18 (1.15%) Adobe After Effects
7 17 (1.09%) Adobe Illustrator
8 16 (1.02%) Chatbot
9 12 (0.77%) Adobe XD
10 10 (0.64%) MS Visio
11 8 (0.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
12 7 (0.45%) Final Cut Pro
13 3 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
14 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
14 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
15 1 (0.064%) Adobe Captivate
15 1 (0.064%) Adobe Premiere
15 1 (0.064%) Blender
15 1 (0.064%) InVision
15 1 (0.064%) Trello
Business Applications
1 9 (0.58%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.45%) Workday HCM
3 5 (0.32%) NetSuite
3 5 (0.32%) Salesforce CRM
4 4 (0.26%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 4 (0.26%) Oracle iProcurement
4 4 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.26%) Shopify
5 3 (0.19%) iTrent
5 3 (0.19%) SAP HR
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.13%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.13%) SAP HCM
6 2 (0.13%) SAP Payroll
7 1 (0.064%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.064%) Eloqua
7 1 (0.064%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.064%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.064%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 224 (14.33%) Azure
2 183 (11.71%) Figma
3 152 (9.72%) Microsoft 365
4 149 (9.53%) AWS
5 121 (7.74%) Power Platform
6 72 (4.61%) Entra ID
7 64 (4.09%) GitHub
8 60 (3.84%) Microsoft Copilot
9 58 (3.71%) SaaS
10 45 (2.88%) Azure DevOps
11 39 (2.50%) GCP
12 36 (2.30%) PowerApps
13 33 (2.11%) OneDrive
14 29 (1.86%) Copilot Studio
14 29 (1.86%) Power Automate
15 28 (1.79%) GitHub Actions
16 25 (1.60%) Serverless
17 21 (1.34%) Azure AI
18 18 (1.15%) GitHub Copilot
19 16 (1.02%) Miro
Communications & Networking
1 46 (2.94%) DNS
2 39 (2.50%) DHCP
3 37 (2.37%) TCP/IP
4 28 (1.79%) Wi-Fi
5 22 (1.41%) VPN
6 19 (1.22%) Wireless
7 18 (1.15%) Firewall
8 17 (1.09%) LAN
9 16 (1.02%) WAN
10 14 (0.90%) NetScaler
11 11 (0.70%) Network Security
12 9 (0.58%) Internet
13 8 (0.51%) Cisco Wireless
13 8 (0.51%) SD-WAN
14 7 (0.45%) Skype
14 7 (0.45%) SNMP
15 6 (0.38%) Intranet
16 5 (0.32%) 5G
16 5 (0.32%) SSL
17 4 (0.26%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (4.67%) Power BI
2 25 (1.60%) Metadata
3 19 (1.22%) NoSQL
4 18 (1.15%) PostgreSQL
4 18 (1.15%) Power Query
5 17 (1.09%) SQL Server
6 14 (0.90%) MongoDB
7 13 (0.83%) MySQL
7 13 (0.83%) Tableau
8 12 (0.77%) Relational Database
9 11 (0.70%) Big Data
9 11 (0.70%) Elasticsearch
10 10 (0.64%) Redis
11 9 (0.58%) Looker
12 8 (0.51%) Qlik Sense
13 7 (0.45%) Snowflake Schema
13 7 (0.45%) Star Schema
14 6 (0.38%) BigQuery
14 6 (0.38%) Flink
14 6 (0.38%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 91 (5.82%) Git
2 87 (5.57%) JIRA
3 34 (2.18%) Jenkins
4 26 (1.66%) Cypress.io
4 26 (1.66%) Vite
5 23 (1.47%) Storybook
6 16 (1.02%) Claude Code
7 15 (0.96%) GitLab
8 12 (0.77%) fastlane
9 9 (0.58%) Android Studio
9 9 (0.58%) webpack
10 8 (0.51%) Browser DevTools
10 8 (0.51%) Xcode
11 7 (0.45%) REST Assured
12 6 (0.38%) Bitbucket
12 6 (0.38%) JMeter
12 6 (0.38%) Postman
13 5 (0.32%) Gradle
13 5 (0.32%) MSI
13 5 (0.32%) TeamCity
General
1 510 (32.63%) Social Skills
2 256 (16.38%) Finance
3 216 (13.82%) Public Sector
4 150 (9.60%) Analytical Skills
5 99 (6.33%) Banking
6 82 (5.25%) Marketing
7 79 (5.05%) Retail
8 54 (3.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 46 (2.94%) Legal
10 43 (2.75%) Influencing Skills
11 28 (1.79%) Automotive
12 27 (1.73%) Publishing
13 25 (1.60%) Organisational Skills
14 24 (1.54%) Presentation Skills
15 22 (1.41%) Manufacturing
16 21 (1.34%) Military
17 19 (1.22%) Documentation Skills
18 18 (1.15%) Investment Banking
19 12 (0.77%) Front Office
20 9 (0.58%) Law
Job Titles
1 310 (19.83%) Designer
2 234 (14.97%) Developer
3 215 (13.76%) Senior
4 136 (8.70%) Lead
5 134 (8.57%) UX Designer
6 95 (6.08%) Analyst
7 78 (4.99%) UI Designer
8 67 (4.29%) Architect
9 66 (4.22%) Senior Designer
10 63 (4.03%) User Researcher
11 61 (3.90%) Consultant
12 53 (3.39%) IT Support
13 52 (3.33%) Support Engineer
14 51 (3.26%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
14 51 (3.26%) Product Manager
15 49 (3.13%) Business Analyst
16 44 (2.82%) Product Designer
16 44 (2.82%) User Experience Researcher
17 43 (2.75%) UI/UX Designer
18 40 (2.56%) Content Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 163 (10.43%) React
2 118 (7.55%) CSS
3 107 (6.85%) HTML
4 95 (6.08%) REST
5 65 (4.16%) RESTful
6 46 (2.94%) HTML5
6 46 (2.94%) Terraform
7 44 (2.82%) AngularJS
8 41 (2.62%) CSS3
8 41 (2.62%) GraphQL
9 36 (2.30%) Node.js
10 35 (2.24%) .NET
11 32 (2.05%) Next.js
11 32 (2.05%) OAuth
11 32 (2.05%) Playwright
12 31 (1.98%) Spring
12 31 (1.98%) Spring Boot
13 29 (1.86%) Jest
14 25 (1.60%) Redux
15 24 (1.54%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 162 (10.36%) Product Ownership
2 98 (6.27%) Mobile App
3 81 (5.18%) Onboarding
4 63 (4.03%) Cloud Native
5 50 (3.20%) AI Agents
6 32 (2.05%) Management Information System
6 32 (2.05%) Self-Motivation
7 30 (1.92%) Enterprise Software
8 29 (1.86%) Data Protection Act
8 29 (1.86%) Legacy Systems
9 22 (1.41%) Data Centre
9 22 (1.41%) Social Media
10 21 (1.34%) Data Structures
11 20 (1.28%) NHS
12 19 (1.22%) Educational Technology
13 17 (1.09%) Animation
14 16 (1.02%) Graphic Design
15 15 (0.96%) Taxonomies
16 14 (0.90%) Analytical Mindset
16 14 (0.90%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 156 (9.98%) Windows
2 73 (4.67%) Apple iOS
3 67 (4.29%) Android
4 60 (3.84%) Windows 10
5 37 (2.37%) Windows Server
6 31 (1.98%) Mac OS
7 18 (1.15%) Linux
8 14 (0.90%) Unix
9 9 (0.58%) Windows 7
10 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.19%) AIX
12 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 488 (31.22%) UX Design
2 460 (29.43%) Agile
3 302 (19.32%) Stakeholder Management
4 299 (19.13%) AI
5 248 (15.87%) Continuous Improvement
5 248 (15.87%) Problem-Solving
6 216 (13.82%) User Research
7 212 (13.56%) Analytics
8 184 (11.77%) CI/CD
9 180 (11.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 169 (10.81%) Decision-Making
11 168 (10.75%) Roadmaps
12 150 (9.60%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
13 133 (8.51%) Service Design
14 123 (7.87%) DevOps
14 123 (7.87%) Scrum
14 123 (7.87%) Workshop Facilitation
15 122 (7.81%) Prototyping
16 117 (7.49%) Service Management
17 113 (7.23%) UX Research
Programming Languages
1 149 (9.53%) JavaScript
2 137 (8.77%) TypeScript
3 100 (6.40%) Python
3 100 (6.40%) SQL
4 98 (6.27%) Java
5 52 (3.33%) PowerShell
6 32 (2.05%) C#
7 31 (1.98%) Kotlin
8 23 (1.47%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 20 (1.28%) Bash
9 20 (1.28%) Swift
10 10 (0.64%) Go
11 8 (0.51%) Shell Script
12 7 (0.45%) PHP
12 7 (0.45%) VB
12 7 (0.45%) VBScript
13 6 (0.38%) Scala
14 5 (0.32%) Apex Code
14 5 (0.32%) C++
14 5 (0.32%) Perl
Qualifications
1 253 (16.19%) Security Cleared
2 196 (12.54%) SC Cleared
3 115 (7.36%) Degree
4 48 (3.07%) BPSS Clearance
5 31 (1.98%) Computer Science Degree
6 24 (1.54%) DV Cleared
7 20 (1.28%) Azure Certification
8 17 (1.09%) PMP
9 15 (0.96%) Microsoft Certification
10 8 (0.51%) AWS Certification
10 8 (0.51%) DBS Check
10 8 (0.51%) ITIL Certification
11 7 (0.45%) Cisco Certification
11 7 (0.45%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 6 (0.38%) Master's Degree
12 6 (0.38%) PMI Certification
13 5 (0.32%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 5 (0.32%) CCA
13 5 (0.32%) CISSP
13 5 (0.32%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 272 (17.40%) Accessibility
2 104 (6.65%) WCAG
3 103 (6.59%) QA
4 50 (3.20%) Data Quality
5 19 (1.22%) Actionable Recommendations
5 19 (1.22%) GDPR
6 15 (0.96%) SLA
7 12 (0.77%) PMO
8 6 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials
9 5 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 4 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 3 (0.19%) GRC
12 2 (0.13%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 2 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 2 (0.13%) GMP
12 2 (0.13%) GxP
12 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.13%) PSD2
12 2 (0.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 1 (0.064%) HIPAA
System Software
1 115 (7.36%) Active Directory
2 52 (3.33%) Docker
3 29 (1.86%) Virtual Desktop
4 27 (1.73%) VMware Infrastructure
5 16 (1.02%) Hyper-V
6 11 (0.70%) Citrix Hypervisor
7 10 (0.64%) XenApp
8 9 (0.58%) XenDesktop
9 7 (0.45%) BitLocker
9 7 (0.45%) vSphere
10 5 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
11 4 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
12 3 (0.19%) UAG
12 3 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
13 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
13 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
14 1 (0.064%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 55 (3.52%) Microsoft Intune
2 54 (3.45%) Kubernetes
3 35 (2.24%) Grafana
4 29 (1.86%) SCCM
5 20 (1.28%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (1.09%) Ansible
7 15 (0.96%) Jamf Pro
8 14 (0.90%) Prometheus
9 7 (0.45%) Istio
10 6 (0.38%) SysTrack
10 6 (0.38%) vCenter Server
11 4 (0.26%) Clonezilla
12 3 (0.19%) Kibana
12 3 (0.19%) Podman
12 3 (0.19%) WSUS
13 2 (0.13%) Argo
13 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
13 2 (0.13%) SCOM
13 2 (0.13%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
13 2 (0.13%) vMotion
Vendors
1 280 (17.91%) Microsoft
2 91 (5.82%) ServiceNow
3 78 (4.99%) Adobe
4 52 (3.33%) Google
5 50 (3.20%) Oracle
6 31 (1.98%) Salesforce
6 31 (1.98%) SAP
7 30 (1.92%) VMware
8 27 (1.73%) Citrix
8 27 (1.73%) Splunk
9 26 (1.66%) Dynatrace
10 21 (1.34%) Apple
11 20 (1.28%) Databricks
12 19 (1.22%) OpenAI
13 16 (1.02%) Zscaler
14 15 (0.96%) Cisco
14 15 (0.96%) Workday
15 14 (0.90%) Foundry
16 9 (0.58%) Aruba
16 9 (0.58%) Okta