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

6 months to
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 96 66 77
Rank change year-on-year -30 +11 -10
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,571 1,246 1,047
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.86% 3.77% 2.77%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.39% 4.16% 3.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 939 797 620
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% -2.72%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £588
90th Percentile £703 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £475
% change year-on-year - -5.26% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 77 51 27
10th Percentile £18.90 £15.50 £28.10
25th Percentile £27.24 £25.15 £30.51
Median hourly rate £35.22 £36.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -3.51% -14.12% -10.53%
75th Percentile £67.89 £55.88 £72.20
90th Percentile £77.00 £65.00 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £31.25 £51.77
% change year-on-year +8.77% -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 29,970 32,481
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.48% 90.66% 85.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,008 18,622 19,630
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 £733 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,245 1,858 1,349
10th Percentile £13.70 £14.32 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.19 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £39.00 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +55.07% -40.82% -
75th Percentile £65.60 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.64 £65.00 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.50 £22.32 £43.00
% change year-on-year +77.01% -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 1 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 1 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 1 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 -27 1,363 £475 - 2,954
UK excluding London -9 739 £450 - 1,407
London -25 695 £513 +3.54% 1,730
Work from Home -34 384 £495 +2.75% 1,299
North of England -7 263 £425 - 419
Midlands -8 155 £463 +3.23% 202
North West -31 132 £400 -5.88% 244
West Midlands +9 124 £463 -7.40% 129
South East -56 94 £403 -10.26% 278
Scotland -1 92 £538 +16.85% 115
Yorkshire -5 83 £500 +21.21% 124
South West +1 81 £475 -5.00% 169
North East +1 47 £325 -32.29% 52
East of England -9 43 £410 -21.90% 128
East Midlands -17 31 £475 +18.16% 73
Wales -16 13 £530 +73.20% 39
Northern Ireland +10 4 £638 +2.00% 62

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 75 (4.77%) SharePoint
2 66 (4.20%) CMS
3 49 (3.12%) Confluence
4 32 (2.04%) Microsoft Exchange
5 17 (1.08%) WordPress
6 8 (0.51%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 7 (0.45%) Apache
7 7 (0.45%) Headless CMS
7 7 (0.45%) Skype for Business
7 7 (0.45%) Traefik
8 6 (0.38%) Drupal
8 6 (0.38%) Oracle Workflow
9 5 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
10 4 (0.25%) Kentico
10 4 (0.25%) 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 (2.04%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 27 (1.72%) Sketch
3 26 (1.65%) Microsoft Office
4 20 (1.27%) Microsoft Excel
5 18 (1.15%) Adobe After Effects
5 18 (1.15%) Photoshop
6 17 (1.08%) Chatbot
7 16 (1.02%) Adobe Illustrator
8 12 (0.76%) Adobe XD
9 10 (0.64%) MS Visio
10 8 (0.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 7 (0.45%) Final Cut Pro
12 3 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
13 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
13 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
14 1 (0.064%) Adobe Captivate
14 1 (0.064%) Adobe Premiere
14 1 (0.064%) Blender
14 1 (0.064%) InVision
14 1 (0.064%) Trello
Business Applications
1 9 (0.57%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.45%) Workday HCM
3 5 (0.32%) NetSuite
4 4 (0.25%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 4 (0.25%) Oracle iProcurement
4 4 (0.25%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
4 4 (0.25%) Shopify
5 3 (0.19%) iTrent
5 3 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
5 3 (0.19%) SAP HR
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.13%) SAP HCM
6 2 (0.13%) SAP Payroll
7 1 (0.064%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.064%) Exchequer
7 1 (0.064%) Magento
7 1 (0.064%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.064%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 227 (14.45%) Azure
2 185 (11.78%) Figma
3 154 (9.80%) Microsoft 365
4 150 (9.55%) AWS
5 121 (7.70%) Power Platform
6 73 (4.65%) Entra ID
7 64 (4.07%) GitHub
8 60 (3.82%) Microsoft Copilot
9 57 (3.63%) SaaS
10 45 (2.86%) Azure DevOps
11 38 (2.42%) GCP
12 36 (2.29%) PowerApps
13 34 (2.16%) OneDrive
14 29 (1.85%) Copilot Studio
14 29 (1.85%) Power Automate
15 28 (1.78%) GitHub Actions
16 25 (1.59%) Serverless
17 21 (1.34%) Azure AI
18 18 (1.15%) GitHub Copilot
19 16 (1.02%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 46 (2.93%) DNS
2 39 (2.48%) DHCP
3 37 (2.36%) TCP/IP
4 28 (1.78%) Wi-Fi
5 22 (1.40%) VPN
6 19 (1.21%) Wireless
7 18 (1.15%) Firewall
8 17 (1.08%) LAN
9 16 (1.02%) WAN
10 14 (0.89%) NetScaler
11 11 (0.70%) Network Security
12 9 (0.57%) 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 (0.25%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (4.65%) Power BI
2 25 (1.59%) Metadata
3 19 (1.21%) NoSQL
4 18 (1.15%) PostgreSQL
4 18 (1.15%) Power Query
5 17 (1.08%) SQL Server
6 14 (0.89%) MongoDB
7 13 (0.83%) MySQL
7 13 (0.83%) Tableau
8 12 (0.76%) Elasticsearch
9 11 (0.70%) Big Data
9 11 (0.70%) Redis
9 11 (0.70%) Relational Database
10 9 (0.57%) Looker
11 8 (0.51%) Qlik Sense
12 7 (0.45%) Snowflake Schema
12 7 (0.45%) Star Schema
13 6 (0.38%) BigQuery
13 6 (0.38%) Flink
13 6 (0.38%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 92 (5.86%) Git
2 87 (5.54%) JIRA
3 34 (2.16%) Jenkins
4 26 (1.65%) Cypress.io
4 26 (1.65%) Vite
5 23 (1.46%) Storybook
6 16 (1.02%) Claude Code
7 15 (0.95%) GitLab
8 11 (0.70%) fastlane
9 9 (0.57%) Android Studio
9 9 (0.57%) Browser DevTools
9 9 (0.57%) webpack
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%) Fiddler
13 5 (0.32%) Gradle
13 5 (0.32%) MSI
General
1 512 (32.59%) Social Skills
2 258 (16.42%) Finance
3 219 (13.94%) Public Sector
4 149 (9.48%) Analytical Skills
5 100 (6.37%) Banking
6 81 (5.16%) Marketing
7 79 (5.03%) Retail
8 55 (3.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 46 (2.93%) Legal
10 44 (2.80%) Influencing Skills
11 28 (1.78%) Automotive
11 28 (1.78%) Publishing
12 26 (1.65%) Organisational Skills
13 24 (1.53%) Presentation Skills
14 22 (1.40%) Manufacturing
15 21 (1.34%) Military
16 19 (1.21%) Documentation Skills
17 18 (1.15%) Investment Banking
18 12 (0.76%) Front Office
19 9 (0.57%) Law
Job Titles
1 313 (19.92%) Designer
2 234 (14.89%) Developer
3 217 (13.81%) Senior
4 137 (8.72%) Lead
5 135 (8.59%) UX Designer
6 94 (5.98%) Analyst
7 79 (5.03%) UI Designer
8 70 (4.46%) Architect
9 66 (4.20%) Senior Designer
10 64 (4.07%) User Researcher
11 62 (3.95%) Consultant
12 53 (3.37%) IT Support
13 52 (3.31%) Support Engineer
14 51 (3.25%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
15 50 (3.18%) Product Manager
16 48 (3.06%) Business Analyst
17 45 (2.86%) User Experience Researcher
18 44 (2.80%) Product Designer
18 44 (2.80%) UI/UX Designer
19 42 (2.67%) Content Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 164 (10.44%) React
2 119 (7.57%) CSS
3 108 (6.87%) HTML
4 98 (6.24%) REST
5 65 (4.14%) RESTful
6 46 (2.93%) HTML5
6 46 (2.93%) Terraform
7 44 (2.80%) AngularJS
8 41 (2.61%) CSS3
8 41 (2.61%) GraphQL
9 36 (2.29%) Node.js
10 35 (2.23%) .NET
11 33 (2.10%) OAuth
12 32 (2.04%) Next.js
12 32 (2.04%) Playwright
12 32 (2.04%) Spring
12 32 (2.04%) Spring Boot
13 29 (1.85%) Jest
14 25 (1.59%) Kafka
14 25 (1.59%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 164 (10.44%) Product Ownership
2 96 (6.11%) Mobile App
3 83 (5.28%) Onboarding
4 63 (4.01%) Cloud Native
5 50 (3.18%) AI Agents
6 32 (2.04%) Management Information System
6 32 (2.04%) Self-Motivation
7 31 (1.97%) Enterprise Software
8 29 (1.85%) Data Protection Act
8 29 (1.85%) Legacy Systems
9 22 (1.40%) Data Centre
9 22 (1.40%) Data Structures
9 22 (1.40%) Social Media
10 20 (1.27%) NHS
11 19 (1.21%) Educational Technology
12 17 (1.08%) Animation
13 16 (1.02%) Graphic Design
14 15 (0.95%) Taxonomies
15 14 (0.89%) Virtual Team
16 13 (0.83%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 157 (9.99%) Windows
2 72 (4.58%) Apple iOS
3 66 (4.20%) Android
4 60 (3.82%) Windows 10
5 37 (2.36%) Windows Server
6 32 (2.04%) Mac OS
7 18 (1.15%) Linux
8 14 (0.89%) Unix
9 9 (0.57%) Windows 7
10 4 (0.25%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.19%) AIX
12 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 491 (31.25%) UX Design
2 464 (29.54%) Agile
3 303 (19.29%) Stakeholder Management
4 301 (19.16%) AI
5 249 (15.85%) Problem-Solving
6 246 (15.66%) Continuous Improvement
7 215 (13.69%) User Research
8 210 (13.37%) Analytics
9 188 (11.97%) CI/CD
10 182 (11.58%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 169 (10.76%) Decision-Making
11 169 (10.76%) Roadmaps
12 151 (9.61%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
13 133 (8.47%) Service Design
14 127 (8.08%) DevOps
15 126 (8.02%) Scrum
16 122 (7.77%) Workshop Facilitation
17 121 (7.70%) Prototyping
18 118 (7.51%) Service Management
19 113 (7.19%) UX Research
Programming Languages
1 149 (9.48%) JavaScript
2 138 (8.78%) TypeScript
3 101 (6.43%) SQL
4 100 (6.37%) Python
5 98 (6.24%) Java
6 52 (3.31%) PowerShell
7 32 (2.04%) C#
8 30 (1.91%) Kotlin
9 23 (1.46%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 20 (1.27%) Bash
11 19 (1.21%) Swift
12 10 (0.64%) Go
13 8 (0.51%) PHP
13 8 (0.51%) Shell Script
14 7 (0.45%) VB
14 7 (0.45%) VBScript
15 6 (0.38%) Scala
16 5 (0.32%) Apex Code
16 5 (0.32%) C++
17 4 (0.25%) Perl
Qualifications
1 255 (16.23%) Security Cleared
2 198 (12.60%) SC Cleared
3 115 (7.32%) Degree
4 48 (3.06%) BPSS Clearance
5 31 (1.97%) Computer Science Degree
6 24 (1.53%) DV Cleared
7 20 (1.27%) Azure Certification
8 18 (1.15%) PMP
9 15 (0.95%) 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
1 276 (17.57%) Accessibility
2 106 (6.75%) QA
3 104 (6.62%) WCAG
4 50 (3.18%) Data Quality
5 20 (1.27%) Actionable Recommendations
6 18 (1.15%) GDPR
7 15 (0.95%) SLA
8 12 (0.76%) PMO
9 6 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials
10 5 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 4 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 3 (0.19%) GRC
13 2 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 2 (0.13%) GMP
13 2 (0.13%) GxP
13 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.13%) PSD2
13 2 (0.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 1 (0.064%) HIPAA
14 1 (0.064%) WAI
System Software
1 117 (7.45%) Active Directory
2 53 (3.37%) Docker
3 29 (1.85%) Virtual Desktop
4 27 (1.72%) VMware Infrastructure
5 16 (1.02%) Hyper-V
6 11 (0.70%) Citrix Hypervisor
7 10 (0.64%) XenApp
8 9 (0.57%) XenDesktop
9 7 (0.45%) BitLocker
9 7 (0.45%) vSphere
10 5 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
11 4 (0.25%) 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
14 1 (0.064%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 56 (3.56%) Microsoft Intune
2 54 (3.44%) Kubernetes
3 35 (2.23%) Grafana
4 29 (1.85%) SCCM
5 21 (1.34%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (1.08%) Ansible
7 15 (0.95%) Jamf Pro
8 14 (0.89%) Prometheus
9 7 (0.45%) Istio
10 6 (0.38%) SysTrack
10 6 (0.38%) vCenter Server
11 4 (0.25%) Clonezilla
12 3 (0.19%) Kibana
12 3 (0.19%) Podman
12 3 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
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%) vMotion
Vendors
1 281 (17.89%) Microsoft
2 91 (5.79%) ServiceNow
3 78 (4.96%) Adobe
4 51 (3.25%) Google
5 50 (3.18%) Oracle
6 31 (1.97%) SAP
7 30 (1.91%) Salesforce
7 30 (1.91%) VMware
8 27 (1.72%) Citrix
8 27 (1.72%) Splunk
9 26 (1.65%) Dynatrace
10 21 (1.34%) Apple
11 20 (1.27%) Databricks
12 19 (1.21%) OpenAI
13 16 (1.02%) Zscaler
14 15 (0.95%) Cisco
14 15 (0.95%) Workday
15 14 (0.89%) Foundry
16 9 (0.57%) Aruba
16 9 (0.57%) Okta