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

6 months to
18 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 95 65 80
Rank change year-on-year -30 +15 -20
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,517 1,237 1,004
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.83% 3.76% 2.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.34% 4.16% 3.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 916 782 630
10th Percentile £308 £303 £300
25th Percentile £390 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -1.33%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £447 £475
% change year-on-year +0.67% -5.89% -
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 45,374 29,740 33,103
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.72% 90.47% 85.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,858 18,514 21,188
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.58%
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 2,851 1,725 1,782
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £14.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.30 £18.17
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -38.57% +0.86%
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% +19.72%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 -27 1,317 £475 - 582
UK excluding London -13 708 £450 +0.67% 442
London -28 670 £520 +4.00% 257
Work from Home -31 381 £486 -0.31% 305
North of England -18 232 £425 -4.92% 115
Midlands -12 143 £475 +9.83% 70
West Midlands -13 113 £475 -8.65% 55
North West -31 111 £387 -13.53% 59
South East -55 111 £413 -8.33% 135
Scotland +10 91 £538 +16.22% 19
South West -22 72 £475 +11.76% 60
Yorkshire -23 71 £500 +25.00% 34
North East -4 49 £363 -24.48% 22
East of England +4 47 £410 -13.68% 26
East Midlands -14 30 £468 +31.69% 15
Wales -15 15 £579 +89.22% 14
Northern Ireland +5 2 £644 +76.98% 14

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 65 (4.28%) SharePoint
2 58 (3.82%) CMS
3 40 (2.64%) Confluence
4 31 (2.04%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (1.05%) 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
9 5 (0.33%) Oracle Workflow
10 4 (0.26%) Kentico
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 (2.31%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 33 (2.18%) Sketch
3 26 (1.71%) Microsoft Excel
4 22 (1.45%) Chatbot
5 19 (1.25%) Microsoft Office
5 19 (1.25%) Photoshop
6 18 (1.19%) Adobe After Effects
7 15 (0.99%) Adobe Illustrator
8 14 (0.92%) Adobe XD
9 8 (0.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 6 (0.40%) Final Cut Pro
10 6 (0.40%) MS Visio
11 2 (0.13%) Adobe Captivate
11 2 (0.13%) InVision
11 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
11 2 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
11 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
12 1 (0.066%) Blender
12 1 (0.066%) Camtasia
12 1 (0.066%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 8 (0.53%) Workday HCM
2 7 (0.46%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (0.40%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (0.40%) Shopify
4 4 (0.26%) NetSuite
4 4 (0.26%) Oracle iProcurement
4 4 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.26%) 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%) Magento
7 1 (0.066%) NEC Housing
7 1 (0.066%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.066%) SAP HR
7 1 (0.066%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 227 (14.96%) Azure
2 189 (12.46%) Figma
3 145 (9.56%) Microsoft 365
4 132 (8.70%) AWS
5 111 (7.32%) Power Platform
6 71 (4.68%) Entra ID
7 59 (3.89%) GitHub
8 52 (3.43%) Microsoft Copilot
9 51 (3.36%) SaaS
10 50 (3.30%) Azure DevOps
11 42 (2.77%) GCP
12 32 (2.11%) OneDrive
13 31 (2.04%) PowerApps
14 27 (1.78%) Serverless
15 25 (1.65%) Power Automate
16 23 (1.52%) Azure AI
16 23 (1.52%) Copilot Studio
16 23 (1.52%) GitHub Actions
17 17 (1.12%) GitHub Copilot
18 16 (1.05%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 45 (2.97%) DNS
2 37 (2.44%) DHCP
3 31 (2.04%) TCP/IP
3 31 (2.04%) Wi-Fi
4 22 (1.45%) Wireless
5 21 (1.38%) LAN
6 16 (1.05%) Firewall
6 16 (1.05%) VPN
7 15 (0.99%) WAN
8 12 (0.79%) Internet
9 11 (0.73%) SD-WAN
10 9 (0.59%) Cisco Wireless
10 9 (0.59%) Intranet
10 9 (0.59%) Skype
11 8 (0.53%) Network Security
12 7 (0.46%) 5G
12 7 (0.46%) NetScaler
12 7 (0.46%) SNMP
12 7 (0.46%) WLAN
13 6 (0.40%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 69 (4.55%) Power BI
2 25 (1.65%) Metadata
3 18 (1.19%) NoSQL
4 17 (1.12%) PostgreSQL
5 16 (1.05%) Power Query
6 14 (0.92%) Tableau
7 13 (0.86%) Relational Database
8 12 (0.79%) SQL Server
9 11 (0.73%) Big Data
10 10 (0.66%) Data Warehouse
10 10 (0.66%) Looker
10 10 (0.66%) MongoDB
11 7 (0.46%) Elasticsearch
11 7 (0.46%) MySQL
11 7 (0.46%) Redis
11 7 (0.46%) Snowflake Schema
12 6 (0.40%) BigQuery
12 6 (0.40%) Flink
12 6 (0.40%) Qlik Sense
12 6 (0.40%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 84 (5.54%) JIRA
2 74 (4.88%) Git
3 29 (1.91%) Cypress.io
4 27 (1.78%) Jenkins
5 24 (1.58%) Vite
6 19 (1.25%) GitLab
7 14 (0.92%) 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 (0.59%) Selenium
10 9 (0.59%) 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%) Oracle Forms
13 5 (0.33%) Visual Studio
General
1 476 (31.38%) Social Skills
2 262 (17.27%) Finance
3 201 (13.25%) Public Sector
4 153 (10.09%) Analytical Skills
5 112 (7.38%) Banking
6 78 (5.14%) Retail
7 74 (4.88%) Marketing
8 52 (3.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 37 (2.44%) Legal
10 36 (2.37%) Influencing Skills
11 28 (1.85%) Organisational Skills
11 28 (1.85%) Presentation Skills
11 28 (1.85%) Publishing
12 27 (1.78%) Automotive
13 25 (1.65%) Manufacturing
14 23 (1.52%) Documentation Skills
15 18 (1.19%) Investment Banking
16 16 (1.05%) Military
17 10 (0.66%) Front Office
17 10 (0.66%) Law
Job Titles
1 327 (21.56%) Designer
2 218 (14.37%) Senior
3 193 (12.72%) Developer
4 129 (8.50%) UX Designer
5 122 (8.04%) Lead
6 103 (6.79%) Analyst
7 83 (5.47%) UI Designer
8 76 (5.01%) Consultant
9 65 (4.28%) Senior Designer
9 65 (4.28%) User Researcher
10 56 (3.69%) Architect
11 53 (3.49%) Content Designer
11 53 (3.49%) Support Engineer
12 52 (3.43%) IT Support
13 50 (3.30%) Business Analyst
14 49 (3.23%) Product Manager
15 46 (3.03%) UI/UX Designer
16 43 (2.83%) Product Designer
16 43 (2.83%) User Experience Researcher
17 36 (2.37%) IT Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 138 (9.10%) React
2 110 (7.25%) CSS
3 97 (6.39%) HTML
4 94 (6.20%) REST
5 62 (4.09%) RESTful
6 47 (3.10%) AngularJS
7 43 (2.83%) HTML5
8 42 (2.77%) GraphQL
9 40 (2.64%) CSS3
10 35 (2.31%) .NET
11 33 (2.18%) Jest
11 33 (2.18%) Node.js
12 29 (1.91%) Kafka
12 29 (1.91%) Playwright
13 26 (1.71%) Next.js
13 26 (1.71%) OAuth
13 26 (1.71%) Redux
14 25 (1.65%) Spring
15 24 (1.58%) Spring Boot
16 19 (1.25%) Android SDK
Miscellaneous
1 140 (9.23%) Product Ownership
2 95 (6.26%) Mobile App
3 87 (5.74%) Onboarding
4 51 (3.36%) Cloud Native
5 43 (2.83%) AI Agents
6 33 (2.18%) Self-Motivation
7 32 (2.11%) Enterprise Software
8 28 (1.85%) Data Protection Act
9 27 (1.78%) Data Structures
9 27 (1.78%) Legacy Systems
10 22 (1.45%) Social Media
11 21 (1.38%) Animation
11 21 (1.38%) NHS
12 20 (1.32%) Data Centre
12 20 (1.32%) Management Information System
13 19 (1.25%) Educational Technology
14 18 (1.19%) Analytical Mindset
15 17 (1.12%) Graphic Design
16 15 (0.99%) Virtual Reality
17 14 (0.92%) Algorithms
Operating Systems
1 151 (9.95%) Windows
2 64 (4.22%) Android
3 63 (4.15%) Apple iOS
4 57 (3.76%) Windows 10
5 30 (1.98%) Mac OS
6 26 (1.71%) Windows Server
7 18 (1.19%) Linux
8 10 (0.66%) Unix
8 10 (0.66%) Windows 7
9 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
9 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2019
10 3 (0.20%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.066%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 483 (31.84%) UX Design
2 431 (28.41%) Agile
3 303 (19.97%) AI
4 250 (16.48%) Problem-Solving
5 248 (16.35%) Stakeholder Management
6 217 (14.30%) Continuous Improvement
7 204 (13.45%) Analytics
8 202 (13.32%) User Research
9 177 (11.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 174 (11.47%) CI/CD
11 149 (9.82%) Roadmaps
12 141 (9.29%) Decision-Making
12 141 (9.29%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
13 132 (8.70%) Prototyping
14 125 (8.24%) DevOps
15 119 (7.84%) Service Design
16 115 (7.58%) Scrum
17 114 (7.51%) Wireframes
18 113 (7.45%) Workshop Facilitation
19 110 (7.25%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 137 (9.03%) JavaScript
2 123 (8.11%) Python
3 114 (7.51%) TypeScript
4 97 (6.39%) SQL
5 92 (6.06%) Java
6 55 (3.63%) PowerShell
7 35 (2.31%) C#
8 29 (1.91%) Kotlin
9 21 (1.38%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 19 (1.25%) Bash
11 17 (1.12%) Swift
12 9 (0.59%) 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
1 238 (15.69%) Security Cleared
2 181 (11.93%) SC Cleared
3 128 (8.44%) Degree
4 36 (2.37%) Computer Science Degree
5 34 (2.24%) BPSS Clearance
6 27 (1.78%) DV Cleared
7 22 (1.45%) Azure Certification
8 20 (1.32%) Microsoft Certification
9 13 (0.86%) PMP
10 10 (0.66%) Cisco Certification
11 9 (0.59%) ITIL Certification
12 8 (0.53%) AWS Certification
12 8 (0.53%) CCA
12 8 (0.53%) Master's Degree
12 8 (0.53%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 7 (0.46%) Citrix Certification
13 7 (0.46%) DBS Check
14 6 (0.40%) CCIE
14 6 (0.40%) CCNP
14 6 (0.40%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 258 (17.01%) Accessibility
2 94 (6.20%) WCAG
3 90 (5.93%) QA
4 46 (3.03%) Data Quality
5 19 (1.25%) GDPR
6 13 (0.86%) Actionable Recommendations
7 9 (0.59%) 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 (0.26%) GRC
11 4 (0.26%) 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%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 1 (0.066%) NIST
14 1 (0.066%) WAI-ARIA
System Software
1 106 (6.99%) Active Directory
2 47 (3.10%) Docker
3 32 (2.11%) Virtual Desktop
4 22 (1.45%) VMware Infrastructure
5 11 (0.73%) Hyper-V
6 7 (0.46%) BitLocker
6 7 (0.46%) vSphere
7 6 (0.40%) Firmware
8 5 (0.33%) Citrix Hypervisor
8 5 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
8 5 (0.33%) XenApp
8 5 (0.33%) XenDesktop
9 4 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
10 3 (0.20%) UAG
11 2 (0.13%) Virtual Machines
11 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
11 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
12 1 (0.066%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 53 (3.49%) Microsoft Intune
2 51 (3.36%) Terraform
3 49 (3.23%) Kubernetes
4 34 (2.24%) Grafana
5 33 (2.18%) SCCM
6 20 (1.32%) 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 (0.26%) Clonezilla
10 4 (0.26%) Podman
10 4 (0.26%) SysTrack
11 3 (0.20%) Kibana
11 3 (0.20%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 3 (0.20%) WSUS
12 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
12 2 (0.13%) Packer
12 2 (0.13%) SCOM
12 2 (0.13%) vMotion
Vendors
1 265 (17.47%) Microsoft
2 91 (6.00%) Adobe
3 83 (5.47%) ServiceNow
4 52 (3.43%) Google
5 44 (2.90%) Oracle
6 31 (2.04%) Salesforce
6 31 (2.04%) SAP
7 28 (1.85%) Citrix
8 25 (1.65%) Dynatrace
8 25 (1.65%) VMware
9 22 (1.45%) Apple
9 22 (1.45%) Databricks
10 21 (1.38%) Splunk
11 18 (1.19%) Cisco
11 18 (1.19%) Workday
12 16 (1.05%) OpenAI
13 15 (0.99%) Foundry
14 14 (0.92%) Zscaler
15 12 (0.79%) Aruba
16 10 (0.66%) Okta