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 21 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 84 65 78
Rank change year-on-year -19 +13 -20
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,590 1,192 1,097
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.02% 3.66% 2.65%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.55% 4.05% 3.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 981 775 719
10th Percentile £313 £305 £313
25th Percentile £402 £383 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £576 £600
90th Percentile £680 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £465 £447 £465
% change year-on-year +4.03% -3.87% +0.54%
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 36 37
10th Percentile £16.22 £17.88 £16.25
25th Percentile £25.13 £34.48 £25.00
Median hourly rate £33.99 £49.25 £33.07
Median % change year-on-year -30.98% +48.93% +9.89%
75th Percentile £67.84 £64.06 £55.00
90th Percentile £84.40 £77.73 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £70.00 £30.00
% change year-on-year -51.44% +133.33% +69.30%

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 44,806 29,445 35,310
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.99% 90.36% 85.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,768 18,486 22,647
10th Percentile £325 £300 £306
25th Percentile £419 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.11%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,649 1,571 2,189
10th Percentile £14.85 £14.20 £13.06
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.44 £16.86
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -34.02% -10.31%
75th Percentile £68.55 £50.88 £62.50
90th Percentile £83.00 £68.75 £73.55
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £24.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +87.50% -40.00% -1.45%

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 21 July 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 21 July 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 21 July 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 -12 1,371 £475 - 900
UK excluding London -6 742 £465 +4.03% 476
London -21 690 £525 +3.96% 510
Work from Home -29 409 £500 +4.17% 430
North of England -12 221 £440 -2.22% 145
Midlands +9 156 £475 +11.24% 61
South East -28 133 £490 +3.16% 128
West Midlands -5 117 £475 -5.00% 43
North West -26 115 £425 -5.56% 78
Scotland +15 94 £525 +13.82% 28
South West -9 80 £475 +18.75% 58
Yorkshire -36 59 £500 +23.08% 43
North East -12 47 £381 -20.57% 24
East of England +7 45 £410 -13.68% 51
East Midlands +2 39 £550 +54.49% 18
Wales -11 16 £579 +89.22% 5
Northern Ireland +2 3 - - 12

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 (4.03%) SharePoint
2 57 (3.58%) CMS
3 44 (2.77%) Confluence
4 27 (1.70%) Microsoft Exchange
5 14 (0.88%) WordPress
6 8 (0.50%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 7 (0.44%) Apache
8 6 (0.38%) Drupal
8 6 (0.38%) Mendix
9 5 (0.31%) Skype for Business
10 4 (0.25%) Ethereum
10 4 (0.25%) Headless CMS
10 4 (0.25%) Hyperledger
10 4 (0.25%) Kentico
11 3 (0.19%) Apache Airflow
11 3 (0.19%) Camunda
11 3 (0.19%) Moodle
11 3 (0.19%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
12 2 (0.13%) IIS
Applications
1 37 (2.33%) Sketch
2 33 (2.08%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 31 (1.95%) Microsoft Excel
4 22 (1.38%) Chatbot
5 20 (1.26%) Photoshop
6 19 (1.19%) Adobe After Effects
7 17 (1.07%) Microsoft Office
8 16 (1.01%) Adobe XD
9 15 (0.94%) Adobe Illustrator
10 11 (0.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 11 (0.69%) MS Visio
11 6 (0.38%) Final Cut Pro
12 4 (0.25%) Adobe Captivate
13 3 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
13 3 (0.19%) UserZoom
14 2 (0.13%) InVision
14 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
14 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
15 1 (0.063%) Blender
15 1 (0.063%) Trello
Business Applications
1 13 (0.82%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (0.69%) Dynamics CRM
2 11 (0.69%) Workday HCM
3 7 (0.44%) Shopify
4 6 (0.38%) Sage X3
5 4 (0.25%) NetSuite
5 4 (0.25%) Oracle iProcurement
6 3 (0.19%) iTrent
6 3 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
6 3 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
7 2 (0.13%) Remedy ITSM
7 2 (0.13%) ResourceLink
8 1 (0.063%) Magento
8 1 (0.063%) Oracle EBS R12
8 1 (0.063%) SAP ERP
8 1 (0.063%) SAP HR
8 1 (0.063%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 250 (15.72%) Azure
2 223 (14.03%) Figma
3 132 (8.30%) AWS
4 124 (7.80%) Microsoft 365
5 115 (7.23%) Power Platform
6 63 (3.96%) Entra ID
7 60 (3.77%) Azure DevOps
7 60 (3.77%) GitHub
8 57 (3.58%) SaaS
9 48 (3.02%) Microsoft Copilot
10 47 (2.96%) GCP
11 39 (2.45%) PowerApps
12 31 (1.95%) OneDrive
12 31 (1.95%) Power Automate
13 30 (1.89%) Serverless
14 27 (1.70%) GitHub Actions
15 26 (1.64%) Copilot Studio
16 24 (1.51%) Azure AI
17 17 (1.07%) Snowflake
18 13 (0.82%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 40 (2.52%) DNS
2 32 (2.01%) DHCP
3 28 (1.76%) TCP/IP
4 24 (1.51%) Wi-Fi
5 20 (1.26%) Wireless
6 19 (1.19%) LAN
7 13 (0.82%) Firewall
7 13 (0.82%) Internet
7 13 (0.82%) VPN
7 13 (0.82%) WAN
8 10 (0.63%) Intranet
8 10 (0.63%) SD-WAN
9 8 (0.50%) Cisco Wireless
9 8 (0.50%) Network Security
10 7 (0.44%) HTTP
10 7 (0.44%) Skype
10 7 (0.44%) SNMP
11 6 (0.38%) 5G
11 6 (0.38%) WLAN
12 5 (0.31%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (4.53%) Power BI
2 25 (1.57%) NoSQL
3 24 (1.51%) Metadata
4 23 (1.45%) PostgreSQL
5 22 (1.38%) Relational Database
6 19 (1.19%) Power Query
7 15 (0.94%) SQL Server
8 13 (0.82%) MongoDB
9 12 (0.75%) Data Warehouse
10 11 (0.69%) Big Data
11 10 (0.63%) MySQL
11 10 (0.63%) Tableau
12 7 (0.44%) Oracle Database
12 7 (0.44%) Snowflake Schema
13 6 (0.38%) Azure SQL Database
13 6 (0.38%) DynamoDB
13 6 (0.38%) Elasticsearch
13 6 (0.38%) Redis
13 6 (0.38%) ZAP BI
14 5 (0.31%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 95 (5.97%) JIRA
2 84 (5.28%) Git
3 28 (1.76%) Cypress.io
4 25 (1.57%) Jenkins
4 25 (1.57%) Vite
5 18 (1.13%) GitLab
6 12 (0.75%) Claude Code
6 12 (0.75%) JUnit
7 11 (0.69%) Storybook
8 10 (0.63%) Android Studio
8 10 (0.63%) Browser DevTools
8 10 (0.63%) fastlane
8 10 (0.63%) Selenium
9 9 (0.57%) webpack
9 9 (0.57%) Xcode
10 8 (0.50%) Gradle
11 7 (0.44%) Postman
12 6 (0.38%) JMeter
12 6 (0.38%) Visual Studio
13 5 (0.31%) Fiddler
General
1 500 (31.45%) Social Skills
2 287 (18.05%) Finance
3 215 (13.52%) Public Sector
4 159 (10.00%) Analytical Skills
5 124 (7.80%) Banking
6 85 (5.35%) Retail
7 73 (4.59%) Marketing
8 48 (3.02%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 41 (2.58%) Legal
10 36 (2.26%) Influencing Skills
11 31 (1.95%) Presentation Skills
12 30 (1.89%) Publishing
13 27 (1.70%) Automotive
14 26 (1.64%) Manufacturing
15 25 (1.57%) Organisational Skills
16 22 (1.38%) Documentation Skills
17 18 (1.13%) Investment Banking
18 17 (1.07%) Military
19 12 (0.75%) Games
19 12 (0.75%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 344 (21.64%) Designer
2 233 (14.65%) Senior
3 207 (13.02%) Developer
4 148 (9.31%) UX Designer
5 119 (7.48%) Lead
6 115 (7.23%) Analyst
7 90 (5.66%) UI Designer
8 79 (4.97%) Consultant
9 70 (4.40%) Senior Designer
10 69 (4.34%) Architect
11 64 (4.03%) User Researcher
12 60 (3.77%) Product Designer
13 59 (3.71%) Business Analyst
14 53 (3.33%) UI/UX Designer
15 52 (3.27%) Content Designer
16 48 (3.02%) Product Manager
16 48 (3.02%) User Experience Researcher
17 46 (2.89%) IT Support
18 42 (2.64%) Full-Stack Engineer
18 42 (2.64%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 153 (9.62%) React
2 120 (7.55%) CSS
3 108 (6.79%) REST
4 106 (6.67%) HTML
5 77 (4.84%) RESTful
6 57 (3.58%) AngularJS
7 50 (3.14%) .NET
8 43 (2.70%) Spring
9 42 (2.64%) Spring Boot
10 41 (2.58%) GraphQL
11 40 (2.52%) HTML5
12 37 (2.33%) CSS3
13 34 (2.14%) Jest
13 34 (2.14%) Node.js
14 33 (2.08%) Kafka
14 33 (2.08%) Redux
15 27 (1.70%) JSON
15 27 (1.70%) Next.js
15 27 (1.70%) Playwright
16 23 (1.45%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 167 (10.50%) Product Ownership
2 96 (6.04%) Mobile App
3 79 (4.97%) Onboarding
4 45 (2.83%) AI Agents
4 45 (2.83%) Cloud Native
5 34 (2.14%) Self-Motivation
6 33 (2.08%) Enterprise Software
7 32 (2.01%) Data Structures
8 29 (1.82%) Data Protection Act
9 25 (1.57%) Legacy Systems
10 23 (1.45%) Animation
11 21 (1.32%) Data Centre
12 19 (1.19%) Analytical Mindset
12 19 (1.19%) Social Media
13 17 (1.07%) Graphic Design
14 16 (1.01%) Algorithms
14 16 (1.01%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 15 (0.94%) Greenfield Project
15 15 (0.94%) Taxonomies
16 14 (0.88%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 127 (7.99%) Windows
2 57 (3.58%) Android
3 56 (3.52%) Apple iOS
4 38 (2.39%) Windows 10
5 26 (1.64%) Mac OS
6 18 (1.13%) Windows Server
7 17 (1.07%) Linux
8 9 (0.57%) Unix
9 7 (0.44%) Windows 7
10 5 (0.31%) Windows Server 2016
11 4 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 529 (33.27%) UX Design
2 475 (29.87%) Agile
3 307 (19.31%) AI
4 251 (15.79%) Problem-Solving
5 235 (14.78%) Stakeholder Management
6 228 (14.34%) Continuous Improvement
7 219 (13.77%) User Research
8 205 (12.89%) Analytics
9 193 (12.14%) CI/CD
10 183 (11.51%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 167 (10.50%) Roadmaps
12 154 (9.69%) Decision-Making
12 154 (9.69%) Prototyping
13 152 (9.56%) DevOps
14 147 (9.25%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
15 135 (8.49%) Wireframes
16 131 (8.24%) Service Design
17 127 (7.99%) UX Research
18 116 (7.30%) Scrum
19 115 (7.23%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 140 (8.81%) JavaScript
2 127 (7.99%) Python
2 127 (7.99%) TypeScript
3 118 (7.42%) SQL
4 111 (6.98%) Java
5 52 (3.27%) C#
6 48 (3.02%) PowerShell
7 35 (2.20%) Kotlin
8 26 (1.64%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 17 (1.07%) Swift
10 16 (1.01%) Bash
11 12 (0.75%) C++
12 9 (0.57%) Lua
13 8 (0.50%) Go
13 8 (0.50%) Korn
14 7 (0.44%) Apex Code
14 7 (0.44%) R
15 6 (0.38%) PHP
15 6 (0.38%) VBA
15 6 (0.38%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 243 (15.28%) Security Cleared
2 183 (11.51%) SC Cleared
3 154 (9.69%) Degree
4 35 (2.20%) Computer Science Degree
5 32 (2.01%) BPSS Clearance
6 26 (1.64%) DV Cleared
7 23 (1.45%) Azure Certification
8 21 (1.32%) Microsoft Certification
9 12 (0.75%) PMP
10 10 (0.63%) Cisco Certification
10 10 (0.63%) Master's Degree
11 9 (0.57%) ITIL Certification
12 8 (0.50%) AWS Certification
13 7 (0.44%) CCA
13 7 (0.44%) CCNP
13 7 (0.44%) Citrix Certification
13 7 (0.44%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 6 (0.38%) CCIE
14 6 (0.38%) DBS Check
15 5 (0.31%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 280 (17.61%) Accessibility
2 99 (6.23%) QA
3 93 (5.85%) WCAG
4 47 (2.96%) Data Quality
5 23 (1.45%) GDPR
6 19 (1.19%) Actionable Recommendations
7 11 (0.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 10 (0.63%) SLA
9 9 (0.57%) PMO
10 7 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 6 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials
12 4 (0.25%) GRC
12 4 (0.25%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 3 (0.19%) GMP
13 3 (0.19%) GxP
14 2 (0.13%) NIST
14 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
14 2 (0.13%) PSD2
15 1 (0.063%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 1 (0.063%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 82 (5.16%) Active Directory
2 50 (3.14%) Docker
3 28 (1.76%) Virtual Desktop
4 18 (1.13%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (0.44%) vSphere
6 6 (0.38%) Firmware
7 5 (0.31%) BitLocker
7 5 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (0.25%) Microsoft App-V
9 3 (0.19%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.19%) UAG
9 3 (0.19%) 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 (0.063%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 51 (3.21%) Kubernetes
1 51 (3.21%) Terraform
2 46 (2.89%) Microsoft Intune
3 36 (2.26%) Grafana
4 34 (2.14%) SCCM
5 17 (1.07%) Single Sign-On
6 16 (1.01%) Ansible
7 14 (0.88%) Jamf Pro
7 14 (0.88%) Prometheus
8 5 (0.31%) vCenter Server
9 4 (0.25%) Clonezilla
10 3 (0.19%) Podman
10 3 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 3 (0.19%) WSUS
11 2 (0.13%) Argo
11 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
11 2 (0.13%) Packer
11 2 (0.13%) SCOM
11 2 (0.13%) vMotion
12 1 (0.063%) HP ALM
Vendors
1 272 (17.11%) Microsoft
2 91 (5.72%) Adobe
3 76 (4.78%) ServiceNow
4 62 (3.90%) Google
5 45 (2.83%) SAP
6 42 (2.64%) Oracle
7 36 (2.26%) Salesforce
8 23 (1.45%) Citrix
8 23 (1.45%) Databricks
9 22 (1.38%) Dynatrace
9 22 (1.38%) Splunk
10 21 (1.32%) VMware
10 21 (1.32%) Workday
11 17 (1.07%) Apple
11 17 (1.07%) Cisco
12 16 (1.01%) Foundry
12 16 (1.01%) OpenAI
13 14 (0.88%) Zscaler
14 11 (0.69%) Aruba
15 8 (0.50%) Okta