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

6 months to
4 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 66 68 71
Rank change year-on-year +2 +3 -6
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,317 1,048 1,260
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.58% 3.23% 2.93%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.07% 3.66% 3.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 895 639 863
10th Percentile £300 £312 £325
25th Percentile £375 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £561 £588 £592
90th Percentile £650 £700 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £454 £475
% change year-on-year -0.88% -4.42% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 25 25
10th Percentile £15.50 £25.26 £21.55
25th Percentile £17.69 £30.44 £31.71
Median hourly rate £35.60 £41.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -13.17% -31.67% -7.69%
75th Percentile £59.75 £50.75 £72.90
90th Percentile £70.16 £66.50 £80.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £31.25 £30.44 £71.00
% change year-on-year +2.67% -57.13% +9.23%

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 32,393 28,662 37,791
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 88.03% 88.45% 87.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,476 17,418 25,154
10th Percentile £304 £307 £305
25th Percentile £406 £413 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £650
90th Percentile £720 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,009 929 1,539
10th Percentile £14.64 £15.62 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.48 £18.72
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -23.53% +21.43%
75th Percentile £55.00 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.65 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.83 £30.45 £44.50
% change year-on-year -21.76% -31.57% +39.45%

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 4 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 4 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 4 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 +3 1,131 £475 -5.00% 1,469
London -7 589 £480 -8.57% 552
UK excluding London +11 577 £450 -0.88% 1,164
Work from Home -17 345 £475 -5.00% 1,057
North of England +22 203 £410 -8.89% 218
North West +17 132 £400 -11.11% 107
South East 0 108 £386 -19.74% 393
Midlands -2 108 £465 +9.41% 202
West Midlands -14 72 £435 -15.12% 103
South West +11 64 £513 -10.87% 123
Scotland -19 60 £466 +3.61% 54
Yorkshire -11 55 £500 +11.11% 90
East Midlands -3 36 £488 +36.94% 85
East of England -4 33 £460 -6.03% 165
North East +2 15 £410 - 21
Wales +4 12 £331 -22.08% 25
Northern Ireland -17 1 £625 +92.31% 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 60 (4.56%) Confluence
2 52 (3.95%) SharePoint
3 48 (3.64%) CMS
4 23 (1.75%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 12 (0.91%) Headless CMS
5 12 (0.91%) Microsoft Exchange
6 11 (0.84%) SugarCRM
7 10 (0.76%) Apache
8 8 (0.61%) Umbraco
9 7 (0.53%) Sitecore CMS
10 4 (0.30%) Jupyter
10 4 (0.30%) WordPress
11 3 (0.23%) Anypoint
11 3 (0.23%) Apache Airflow
11 3 (0.23%) Apache Spark
12 2 (0.15%) Appian
12 2 (0.15%) Camunda
12 2 (0.15%) Drupal
13 1 (0.076%) Moodle
13 1 (0.076%) SharePoint 2010
Applications
1 52 (3.95%) Sketch
2 33 (2.51%) Adobe XD
3 23 (1.75%) MS Visio
4 22 (1.67%) Microsoft Office
5 20 (1.52%) Chatbot
6 18 (1.37%) InVision
7 16 (1.21%) Microsoft Excel
8 13 (0.99%) Adobe Illustrator
8 13 (0.99%) Photoshop
9 10 (0.76%) Trello
10 8 (0.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 7 (0.53%) Adobe Creative Suite
11 7 (0.53%) Microsoft Project
12 5 (0.38%) Adobe After Effects
12 5 (0.38%) Camtasia
13 3 (0.23%) OmniGraffle
13 3 (0.23%) Snagit
13 3 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
14 2 (0.15%) Blender
14 2 (0.15%) CINEMA 4D
Business Applications
1 22 (1.67%) SAP S/4HANA
2 16 (1.21%) Dynamics CRM
3 3 (0.23%) Salesforce CRM
3 3 (0.23%) SAP CO
3 3 (0.23%) SAP FI
3 3 (0.23%) SAP FI/CO
3 3 (0.23%) 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%) SAP SD
4 2 (0.15%) SAP Travel Management
4 2 (0.15%) Shopify
5 1 (0.076%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.076%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.076%) Oracle Payroll
5 1 (0.076%) SAP CRM
5 1 (0.076%) SAP PLM
5 1 (0.076%) WebTrends
Cloud Services
1 226 (17.16%) Azure
2 163 (12.38%) AWS
3 152 (11.54%) Figma
4 85 (6.45%) Power Platform
5 78 (5.92%) SaaS
6 74 (5.62%) Microsoft 365
7 66 (5.01%) GCP
8 48 (3.64%) Azure DevOps
9 46 (3.49%) Entra ID
10 45 (3.42%) GitHub
11 40 (3.04%) Miro
12 32 (2.43%) Serverless
13 26 (1.97%) GitHub Actions
13 26 (1.97%) Google Analytics
14 22 (1.67%) Power Automate
14 22 (1.67%) PowerApps
15 20 (1.52%) Sauce Labs
16 18 (1.37%) AWS Lambda
16 18 (1.37%) Dynamics 365
16 18 (1.37%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 28 (2.13%) DNS
2 27 (2.05%) Wireless
3 16 (1.21%) Internet
4 14 (1.06%) HTTP
5 11 (0.84%) VPN
6 9 (0.68%) DHCP
6 9 (0.68%) Intranet
6 9 (0.68%) TCP/IP
6 9 (0.68%) Wi-Fi
7 8 (0.61%) Firewall
8 7 (0.53%) BGP
8 7 (0.53%) Cisco ISE
8 7 (0.53%) Cisco Wireless
8 7 (0.53%) NX-OS
8 7 (0.53%) VXLAN
9 6 (0.46%) Unified Communications
10 5 (0.38%) Network Security
10 5 (0.38%) SSL
10 5 (0.38%) WAN
11 4 (0.30%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 56 (4.25%) Power BI
2 46 (3.49%) MySQL
3 43 (3.26%) Relational Database
4 37 (2.81%) PostgreSQL
5 30 (2.28%) SQL Server
6 27 (2.05%) NoSQL
7 21 (1.59%) Tableau
8 19 (1.44%) MongoDB
9 18 (1.37%) Data Warehouse
10 13 (0.99%) BigQuery
10 13 (0.99%) Metadata
11 12 (0.91%) Looker
12 11 (0.84%) Redis
13 8 (0.61%) SAP HANA
14 7 (0.53%) Mixpanel
15 6 (0.46%) DynamoDB
16 4 (0.30%) Big Data
16 4 (0.30%) Pinecone
17 3 (0.23%) Amazon Athena
17 3 (0.23%) Amazon Aurora
Development Applications
1 131 (9.95%) JIRA
2 96 (7.29%) Git
3 46 (3.49%) GitLab
4 44 (3.34%) Jenkins
5 32 (2.43%) Xcode
6 30 (2.28%) Cypress.io
7 28 (2.13%) Android Studio
7 28 (2.13%) Eclipse
8 25 (1.90%) Axure RP
9 22 (1.67%) Browser DevTools
10 18 (1.37%) Gradle
10 18 (1.37%) JUnit
11 15 (1.14%) webpack
12 14 (1.06%) Postman
13 12 (0.91%) CircleCI
14 10 (0.76%) Artifactory
14 10 (0.76%) Selenium
15 9 (0.68%) Visual Website Optimizer
16 8 (0.61%) Cucumber
16 8 (0.61%) IntelliJ
General
1 462 (35.08%) Social Skills
2 254 (19.29%) Finance
3 193 (14.65%) Public Sector
4 169 (12.83%) Analytical Skills
5 101 (7.67%) Banking
6 84 (6.38%) Marketing
7 39 (2.96%) Influencing Skills
8 28 (2.13%) Legal
9 27 (2.05%) Presentation Skills
9 27 (2.05%) Retail
10 23 (1.75%) Manufacturing
11 22 (1.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 22 (1.67%) Pharmaceutical
12 21 (1.59%) Documentation Skills
13 15 (1.14%) Financial Institution
14 14 (1.06%) Telecoms
15 13 (0.99%) Investment Banking
16 12 (0.91%) Automotive
17 10 (0.76%) Organisational Skills
18 9 (0.68%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 238 (18.07%) Developer
2 226 (17.16%) Designer
3 177 (13.44%) Senior
4 125 (9.49%) UX Designer
5 110 (8.35%) Analyst
6 97 (7.37%) Lead
7 62 (4.71%) Business Analyst
8 59 (4.48%) Consultant
9 48 (3.64%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
10 45 (3.42%) Senior Designer
11 44 (3.34%) Architect
11 44 (3.34%) Service Designer
12 40 (3.04%) Support Engineer
13 39 (2.96%) Product Designer
14 35 (2.66%) Senior Developer
14 35 (2.66%) UI Designer
15 34 (2.58%) Front-End Engineer (Client-Side Engineer)
15 34 (2.58%) User Researcher
16 32 (2.43%) Full-Stack Developer
17 31 (2.35%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 194 (14.73%) CSS
2 177 (13.44%) HTML
2 177 (13.44%) React
3 111 (8.43%) REST
4 103 (7.82%) RESTful
5 94 (7.14%) AngularJS
6 57 (4.33%) Node.js
7 56 (4.25%) HTML5
8 52 (3.95%) .NET
9 51 (3.87%) GraphQL
10 38 (2.89%) CSS3
10 38 (2.89%) Spring
11 37 (2.81%) Jest
12 35 (2.66%) Spring Boot
13 29 (2.20%) Redux
14 27 (2.05%) SOAP
15 26 (1.97%) JSON
16 25 (1.90%) OAuth
17 24 (1.82%) Next.js
17 24 (1.82%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 128 (9.72%) Product Ownership
2 110 (8.35%) Mobile App
3 68 (5.16%) Onboarding
4 28 (2.13%) Analytical Mindset
5 27 (2.05%) Enterprise Software
6 23 (1.75%) Management Information System
7 21 (1.59%) Data Structures
8 20 (1.52%) e-Learning
9 19 (1.44%) Low-Code
10 18 (1.37%) NHS
11 16 (1.21%) Cloud Native
12 15 (1.14%) Data Centre
12 15 (1.14%) Learning Management System
13 14 (1.06%) CMDB
13 14 (1.06%) Legacy Systems
14 13 (0.99%) AI Agents
14 13 (0.99%) Distributed Systems
15 12 (0.91%) Graphic Design
15 12 (0.91%) Greenfield Project
15 12 (0.91%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 132 (10.02%) Windows
2 74 (5.62%) Android
3 60 (4.56%) Apple iOS
4 39 (2.96%) Linux
5 35 (2.66%) Windows 10
6 26 (1.97%) Unix
7 23 (1.75%) Mac OS
8 8 (0.61%) Windows Server
9 4 (0.30%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.15%) tvOS
10 2 (0.15%) VMS
11 1 (0.076%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.076%) watchOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 492 (37.36%) Agile
2 445 (33.79%) UX Design
3 223 (16.93%) Problem-Solving
4 215 (16.32%) Analytics
5 184 (13.97%) CI/CD
6 179 (13.59%) User Research
7 158 (12.00%) DevOps
8 155 (11.77%) Stakeholder Management
9 144 (10.93%) Roadmaps
10 140 (10.63%) AI
10 140 (10.63%) Continuous Improvement
11 136 (10.33%) Service Design
12 135 (10.25%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 132 (10.02%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
14 125 (9.49%) Front End Development
15 107 (8.12%) Decision-Making
16 105 (7.97%) Wireframes
17 104 (7.90%) Usability Testing
18 96 (7.29%) Prototyping
19 95 (7.21%) User Stories
Programming Languages
1 210 (15.95%) JavaScript
2 126 (9.57%) Python
3 120 (9.11%) Java
4 116 (8.81%) SQL
5 104 (7.90%) TypeScript
6 58 (4.40%) PowerShell
7 49 (3.72%) C#
8 35 (2.66%) Kotlin
9 28 (2.13%) Swift
10 25 (1.90%) Perl
11 23 (1.75%) Bash
12 20 (1.52%) PHP
13 13 (0.99%) Objective-C
14 11 (0.84%) C++
14 11 (0.84%) PL/SQL
15 10 (0.76%) Go
16 9 (0.68%) Scala
17 7 (0.53%) Lisp
18 6 (0.46%) Data Analysis Expressions
19 5 (0.38%) Apex Code
Qualifications
1 175 (13.29%) Security Cleared
2 125 (9.49%) SC Cleared
3 122 (9.26%) Degree
4 42 (3.19%) BPSS Clearance
5 28 (2.13%) Computer Science Degree
6 19 (1.44%) DV Cleared
7 17 (1.29%) Master's Degree
8 13 (0.99%) PMI Certification
9 12 (0.91%) Microsoft Certification
10 11 (0.84%) MOS
11 9 (0.68%) OCA
11 9 (0.68%) Oracle Certification
12 8 (0.61%) CCNP
12 8 (0.61%) Cisco Certification
13 6 (0.46%) MCP
13 6 (0.46%) PMP
14 3 (0.23%) AWS Certification
14 3 (0.23%) CISSP
14 3 (0.23%) ISTQB
14 3 (0.23%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 244 (18.53%) Accessibility
2 142 (10.78%) QA
3 64 (4.86%) WCAG
4 62 (4.71%) GDPR
5 38 (2.89%) Data Quality
6 25 (1.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 21 (1.59%) SLA
8 16 (1.21%) Actionable Recommendations
9 8 (0.61%) GxP
10 6 (0.46%) NCSC
10 6 (0.46%) PMO
11 5 (0.38%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 5 (0.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 4 (0.30%) Disclosure Scotland
12 4 (0.30%) PCI DSS
13 3 (0.23%) GMP
13 3 (0.23%) Government Security Classifications
13 3 (0.23%) NIST
13 3 (0.23%) SOC 2
14 2 (0.15%) GRC
System Software
1 68 (5.16%) Active Directory
2 64 (4.86%) Docker
3 21 (1.59%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (0.68%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.23%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.15%) ProxySG
6 2 (0.15%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.076%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.076%) Firmware
7 1 (0.076%) ISA Server
7 1 (0.076%) Microsoft App-V
7 1 (0.076%) XenApp
7 1 (0.076%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 53 (4.02%) Kubernetes
2 46 (3.49%) Microsoft Intune
3 39 (2.96%) Terraform
4 36 (2.73%) SCCM
5 19 (1.44%) Ansible
6 18 (1.37%) Grafana
7 16 (1.21%) Single Sign-On
8 8 (0.61%) Prometheus
9 7 (0.53%) FortiGate
10 6 (0.46%) Jamf Pro
11 4 (0.30%) Argo
12 3 (0.23%) HP ALM
12 3 (0.23%) Nagios
12 3 (0.23%) Rancher
13 2 (0.15%) PingFederate
13 2 (0.15%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
13 2 (0.15%) SysTrack
14 1 (0.076%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 1 (0.076%) AirWatch
14 1 (0.076%) Podman
Vendors
1 215 (16.32%) Microsoft
2 95 (7.21%) Adobe
3 81 (6.15%) Google
4 80 (6.07%) ServiceNow
5 57 (4.33%) Oracle
6 49 (3.72%) SAP
7 45 (3.42%) Salesforce
8 30 (2.28%) Splunk
9 22 (1.67%) VMware
10 19 (1.44%) Apple
11 16 (1.21%) Citrix
12 13 (0.99%) Cisco
12 13 (0.99%) Red Hat
13 12 (0.91%) Hotjar
13 12 (0.91%) Optimizely
13 12 (0.91%) Zscaler
14 10 (0.76%) Amplitude
14 10 (0.76%) MuleSoft
15 8 (0.61%) OpenAI
15 8 (0.61%) Workday