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 31 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 81 61 70
Rank change year-on-year -20 +9 -7
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,399 1,052 1,264
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.14% 3.62% 2.86%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.67% 4.00% 3.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 966 725 840
10th Percentile £313 £308 £306
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -2.50% -
75th Percentile £575 £580 £600
90th Percentile £650 £688 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +5.56% -5.26% +2.15%
Number of hourly rates quoted 46 23 46
10th Percentile £16.36 £28.31 £16.25
25th Percentile £17.69 £41.58 £24.06
Median hourly rate £42.50 £49.50 £31.71
Median % change year-on-year -14.14% +56.10% -19.21%
75th Percentile £61.25 £77.73 £61.63
90th Percentile £78.13 £93.50 £73.32
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.75 £61.75 £25.00
% change year-on-year -42.11% +147.00% -44.44%

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 38,122 26,294 38,266
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.61% 90.44% 86.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,155 17,082 24,859
10th Percentile £313 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -0.51% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,251 966 2,351
10th Percentile £14.96 £15.00 £12.84
25th Percentile £18.87 £20.24 £16.00
Median hourly rate £35.50 £31.88 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +11.36% -1.91% -10.48%
75th Percentile £65.00 £63.75 £57.50
90th Percentile £77.50 £76.72 £70.66
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.00 £31.50 £31.50
% change year-on-year +4.76% - -12.50%

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 31 March 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 31 March 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 31 March 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 -14 1,209 £490 -2.00% 728
London -18 621 £500 -2.91% 296
UK excluding London -6 607 £475 +5.56% 522
Work from Home -26 372 £482 -2.63% 357
North of England +9 211 £450 - 176
North West +12 133 £420 -6.67% 94
South East -15 125 £490 -2.97% 122
Midlands -18 114 £500 +25.00% 93
West Midlands -31 73 £475 +9.51% 62
South West -14 67 £450 +20.00% 59
Yorkshire -18 54 £513 +28.13% 45
Scotland -8 52 £493 +12.57% 23
East Midlands -11 41 £550 +54.49% 31
East of England -26 29 £425 -10.53% 33
North East +2 23 £405 -4.71% 39
Wales 0 15 £375 -9.09% 19
Northern Ireland -8 3 - - 5

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 55 (3.93%) SharePoint
2 48 (3.43%) Confluence
3 41 (2.93%) CMS
4 21 (1.50%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 16 (1.14%) Microsoft Exchange
6 11 (0.79%) Headless CMS
7 9 (0.64%) Apache
8 7 (0.50%) Sitecore CMS
8 7 (0.50%) Umbraco
9 5 (0.36%) Camunda
10 4 (0.29%) Ethereum
10 4 (0.29%) Hyperledger
10 4 (0.29%) Mendix
11 3 (0.21%) Anypoint
11 3 (0.21%) Apache Spark
11 3 (0.21%) Drupal
11 3 (0.21%) Jupyter
12 2 (0.14%) Appian
13 1 (0.071%) Apache Airflow
13 1 (0.071%) Cloud Foundry
Applications
1 44 (3.15%) Sketch
2 35 (2.50%) Adobe XD
3 28 (2.00%) Microsoft Excel
4 24 (1.72%) Chatbot
4 24 (1.72%) MS Visio
5 15 (1.07%) Microsoft Office
6 14 (1.00%) InVision
7 12 (0.86%) Photoshop
8 8 (0.57%) Adobe Illustrator
9 7 (0.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 6 (0.43%) Spreadsheet
11 5 (0.36%) Adobe After Effects
11 5 (0.36%) Adobe Creative Suite
12 4 (0.29%) Trello
12 4 (0.29%) UXPin
13 3 (0.21%) Adobe Captivate
13 3 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
13 3 (0.21%) UserZoom
14 2 (0.14%) Camtasia
14 2 (0.14%) OmniGraffle
Business Applications
1 16 (1.14%) Dynamics CRM
2 12 (0.86%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.50%) Shopify
3 7 (0.50%) Workday HCM
4 6 (0.43%) Sage X3
5 3 (0.21%) SAP CO
5 3 (0.21%) SAP FI
5 3 (0.21%) SAP FI/CO
6 2 (0.14%) Magento
6 2 (0.14%) NEC Housing
6 2 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.14%) ResourceLink
6 2 (0.14%) SAP ERP
6 2 (0.14%) Sprinklr
7 1 (0.071%) assyst
7 1 (0.071%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.071%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.071%) Oracle Receivables
7 1 (0.071%) Salesforce CRM
7 1 (0.071%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 233 (16.65%) Azure
2 192 (13.72%) Figma
3 135 (9.65%) AWS
4 105 (7.51%) Power Platform
5 86 (6.15%) Microsoft 365
6 67 (4.79%) Azure DevOps
7 57 (4.07%) GCP
8 52 (3.72%) GitHub
9 51 (3.65%) Entra ID
10 49 (3.50%) SaaS
11 40 (2.86%) PowerApps
12 37 (2.64%) Power Automate
13 35 (2.50%) Serverless
14 32 (2.29%) GitHub Actions
15 27 (1.93%) Microsoft Copilot
16 23 (1.64%) Dynamics 365
16 23 (1.64%) Google Workspace
16 23 (1.64%) Miro
17 22 (1.57%) Cloud Computing
18 20 (1.43%) Google Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 19 (1.36%) DNS
2 16 (1.14%) Internet
2 16 (1.14%) Wireless
3 13 (0.93%) Wi-Fi
4 12 (0.86%) HTTP
5 11 (0.79%) Intranet
5 11 (0.79%) LAN
5 11 (0.79%) VPN
6 9 (0.64%) DHCP
6 9 (0.64%) Firewall
6 9 (0.64%) SD-WAN
6 9 (0.64%) TCP/IP
6 9 (0.64%) WAN
7 7 (0.50%) BGP
7 7 (0.50%) Cisco ISE
7 7 (0.50%) Cisco Wireless
8 6 (0.43%) Network Security
8 6 (0.43%) SSL
9 5 (0.36%) VXLAN
9 5 (0.36%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 69 (4.93%) Power BI
2 34 (2.43%) NoSQL
2 34 (2.43%) Relational Database
3 28 (2.00%) PostgreSQL
4 25 (1.79%) Data Warehouse
5 23 (1.64%) SQL Server
6 22 (1.57%) MySQL
7 18 (1.29%) Tableau
8 17 (1.22%) Metadata
8 17 (1.22%) MongoDB
9 12 (0.86%) BigQuery
10 9 (0.64%) Looker
11 8 (0.57%) Power Query
12 7 (0.50%) Pinecone
13 6 (0.43%) DynamoDB
13 6 (0.43%) Redis
13 6 (0.43%) ZAP BI
14 5 (0.36%) Hadoop
15 4 (0.29%) Big Data
15 4 (0.29%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 113 (8.08%) JIRA
2 88 (6.29%) Git
3 43 (3.07%) GitLab
4 32 (2.29%) Jenkins
5 29 (2.07%) Cypress.io
6 26 (1.86%) JUnit
7 23 (1.64%) Axure RP
8 14 (1.00%) Gradle
9 13 (0.93%) Android Studio
9 13 (0.93%) Selenium
10 12 (0.86%) CircleCI
11 11 (0.79%) Xcode
12 10 (0.71%) Postman
13 9 (0.64%) Browser DevTools
13 9 (0.64%) Eclipse
14 8 (0.57%) Artifactory
14 8 (0.57%) Mocha
14 8 (0.57%) Mockito
14 8 (0.57%) Visual Studio
14 8 (0.57%) Vite
General
1 453 (32.38%) Social Skills
2 267 (19.09%) Finance
3 202 (14.44%) Public Sector
4 167 (11.94%) Analytical Skills
5 114 (8.15%) Banking
6 58 (4.15%) Marketing
7 45 (3.22%) Retail
8 29 (2.07%) Presentation Skills
9 28 (2.00%) Legal
10 27 (1.93%) Influencing Skills
11 22 (1.57%) Manufacturing
12 20 (1.43%) Documentation Skills
13 18 (1.29%) Pharmaceutical
14 17 (1.22%) Games
15 15 (1.07%) Financial Institution
16 14 (1.00%) Investment Banking
17 13 (0.93%) Front Office
17 13 (0.93%) Publishing
18 12 (0.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 12 (0.86%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 266 (19.01%) Designer
2 220 (15.73%) Developer
3 211 (15.08%) Senior
4 138 (9.86%) Analyst
5 137 (9.79%) UX Designer
6 67 (4.79%) Lead
7 66 (4.72%) Business Analyst
8 63 (4.50%) Consultant
9 59 (4.22%) Product Designer
9 59 (4.22%) Senior Designer
10 57 (4.07%) Architect
11 49 (3.50%) User Researcher
12 43 (3.07%) UI Designer
13 41 (2.93%) Full-Stack Developer
13 41 (2.93%) Senior Developer
13 41 (2.93%) Service Designer
14 39 (2.79%) Software Engineer
14 39 (2.79%) Support Engineer
15 37 (2.64%) IT Support
16 35 (2.50%) Senior UX Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 173 (12.37%) React
2 158 (11.29%) CSS
3 145 (10.36%) HTML
4 113 (8.08%) REST
5 88 (6.29%) AngularJS
5 88 (6.29%) RESTful
6 65 (4.65%) Spring
7 64 (4.57%) Spring Boot
8 59 (4.22%) .NET
9 50 (3.57%) Node.js
10 43 (3.07%) HTML5
11 37 (2.64%) CSS3
12 34 (2.43%) GraphQL
12 34 (2.43%) Jest
12 34 (2.43%) JSON
12 34 (2.43%) Redux
13 27 (1.93%) Next.js
14 25 (1.79%) Vue
15 23 (1.64%) Playwright
16 20 (1.43%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 138 (9.86%) Product Ownership
2 81 (5.79%) Mobile App
3 49 (3.50%) Onboarding
4 30 (2.14%) AI Agents
5 28 (2.00%) Enterprise Software
6 27 (1.93%) Data Structures
7 24 (1.72%) Analytical Mindset
8 17 (1.22%) Cloud Native
8 17 (1.22%) Data Protection Act
9 16 (1.14%) Distributed Systems
9 16 (1.14%) Virtual Team
10 15 (1.07%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 15 (1.07%) NHS
11 14 (1.00%) Legacy Systems
12 13 (0.93%) Algorithms
12 13 (0.93%) Data Centre
13 12 (0.86%) Low-Code
13 12 (0.86%) Management Information System
14 11 (0.79%) CMDB
14 11 (0.79%) Graphic Design
Operating Systems
1 119 (8.51%) Windows
2 42 (3.00%) Android
2 42 (3.00%) Windows 10
3 31 (2.22%) Apple iOS
4 23 (1.64%) Linux
5 19 (1.36%) Mac OS
6 10 (0.71%) Unix
7 7 (0.50%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.071%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.071%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.071%) Windows 7
8 1 (0.071%) Windows Server 2008
8 1 (0.071%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 464 (33.17%) Agile
2 460 (32.88%) UX Design
3 228 (16.30%) Problem-Solving
4 206 (14.72%) Analytics
4 206 (14.72%) User Research
5 197 (14.08%) AI
6 180 (12.87%) CI/CD
7 170 (12.15%) DevOps
8 167 (11.94%) Stakeholder Management
9 162 (11.58%) Continuous Improvement
10 160 (11.44%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 140 (10.01%) Prototyping
12 137 (9.79%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
13 132 (9.44%) Roadmaps
14 126 (9.01%) Wireframes
15 125 (8.93%) Service Design
16 124 (8.86%) Decision-Making
17 112 (8.01%) UX Research
18 104 (7.43%) Usability Testing
19 95 (6.79%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 190 (13.58%) JavaScript
2 143 (10.22%) SQL
3 127 (9.08%) Python
4 122 (8.72%) Java
5 112 (8.01%) TypeScript
6 64 (4.57%) C#
7 58 (4.15%) PowerShell
8 28 (2.00%) Kotlin
9 18 (1.29%) Bash
10 14 (1.00%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 12 (0.86%) C++
11 12 (0.86%) Perl
12 9 (0.64%) Lua
12 9 (0.64%) Swift
13 7 (0.50%) PHP
13 7 (0.50%) PL/SQL
14 6 (0.43%) Go
14 6 (0.43%) Korn
14 6 (0.43%) Scala
14 6 (0.43%) VBA
Qualifications
1 190 (13.58%) Security Cleared
2 137 (9.79%) SC Cleared
3 128 (9.15%) Degree
4 35 (2.50%) BPSS Clearance
5 29 (2.07%) Computer Science Degree
6 19 (1.36%) DV Cleared
6 19 (1.36%) Microsoft Certification
7 16 (1.14%) Master's Degree
8 12 (0.86%) Cisco Certification
9 11 (0.79%) CCNP
10 9 (0.64%) Azure Certification
11 8 (0.57%) MOS
11 8 (0.57%) PMI Certification
12 6 (0.43%) Citrix Certification
12 6 (0.43%) OCA
12 6 (0.43%) Oracle Certification
13 5 (0.36%) CCA
14 4 (0.29%) CCIE
14 4 (0.29%) ISTQB
14 4 (0.29%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 248 (17.73%) Accessibility
2 127 (9.08%) QA
3 82 (5.86%) WCAG
4 47 (3.36%) Data Quality
5 38 (2.72%) GDPR
6 20 (1.43%) Actionable Recommendations
7 18 (1.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 16 (1.14%) SLA
9 8 (0.57%) PMO
10 6 (0.43%) NCSC
11 5 (0.36%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 4 (0.29%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 4 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
12 4 (0.29%) GMP
12 4 (0.29%) GxP
12 4 (0.29%) NIST
13 3 (0.21%) Disclosure Scotland
13 3 (0.21%) Government Security Classifications
13 3 (0.21%) HIPAA
13 3 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 73 (5.22%) Active Directory
2 67 (4.79%) Docker
3 19 (1.36%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (1.14%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (0.36%) Firmware
6 4 (0.29%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.14%) ProxySG
8 1 (0.071%) ISA Server
8 1 (0.071%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.071%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.071%) XenApp
8 1 (0.071%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 61 (4.36%) Kubernetes
2 43 (3.07%) Terraform
3 37 (2.64%) Microsoft Intune
4 26 (1.86%) SCCM
5 24 (1.72%) Grafana
6 15 (1.07%) Ansible
7 11 (0.79%) Single Sign-On
8 6 (0.43%) Jamf Pro
8 6 (0.43%) Prometheus
9 5 (0.36%) FortiGate
10 4 (0.29%) Argo
11 3 (0.21%) HP ALM
11 3 (0.21%) Nagios
11 3 (0.21%) Rancher
12 2 (0.14%) Podman
12 2 (0.14%) SysTrack
13 1 (0.071%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 1 (0.071%) SCOM
13 1 (0.071%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
13 1 (0.071%) WMI
Vendors
1 222 (15.87%) Microsoft
2 86 (6.15%) Adobe
3 75 (5.36%) Google
4 70 (5.00%) ServiceNow
5 45 (3.22%) SAP
6 42 (3.00%) Oracle
7 35 (2.50%) Salesforce
8 21 (1.50%) Citrix
9 20 (1.43%) VMware
10 19 (1.36%) Splunk
11 18 (1.29%) Cisco
12 15 (1.07%) Apple
13 13 (0.93%) Workday
14 12 (0.86%) Zscaler
15 11 (0.79%) Red Hat
16 9 (0.64%) Ekahau
16 9 (0.64%) MuleSoft
16 9 (0.64%) OpenAI
16 9 (0.64%) Sitecore
17 8 (0.57%) Databricks