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

6 months to
22 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 85 65 77
Rank change year-on-year -20 +12 -18
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,586 1,195 1,097
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.01% 3.66% 2.66%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.54% 4.05% 3.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 975 774 719
10th Percentile £313 £304 £313
25th Percentile £402 £381 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £575 £600
90th Percentile £680 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £468 £438 £465
% change year-on-year +6.86% -5.91% +0.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 37 37
10th Percentile £16.15 £18.35 £16.25
25th Percentile £25.00 £34.48 £25.00
Median hourly rate £33.99 £49.50 £33.07
Median % change year-on-year -31.33% +49.68% +9.89%
75th Percentile £67.84 £63.75 £55.00
90th Percentile £73.50 £76.68 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £63.25 £30.00
% change year-on-year -46.26% +110.83% +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 44,825 29,480 35,296
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.99% 90.35% 85.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,802 18,519 22,641
10th Percentile £325 £300 £306
25th Percentile £419 £404 £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 2,641 1,572 2,187
10th Percentile £14.82 £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 £68.50 £50.75 £62.50
90th Percentile £83.00 £68.75 £73.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £24.34 £40.00
% change year-on-year +84.88% -39.15% -1.95%

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 22 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 22 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 22 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 -10 1,365 £475 - 931
UK excluding London -5 740 £468 +6.86% 481
London -24 687 £525 +5.00% 547
Work from Home -22 405 £500 +5.26% 439
North of England -18 219 £440 -2.22% 141
Midlands 0 155 £475 +13.10% 55
South East -23 132 £490 +3.16% 138
West Midlands -6 117 £475 -3.06% 39
North West -27 114 £425 -5.56% 73
Scotland +15 96 £518 +12.20% 30
South West -10 80 £475 +18.75% 59
Yorkshire -33 58 £500 +25.00% 44
North East -7 47 £381 -20.57% 24
East of England +9 45 £410 -13.68% 52
East Midlands +3 38 £550 +54.49% 16
Wales -12 16 £579 +89.22% 6
Northern Ireland +4 3 - - 13

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 (4.04%) SharePoint
2 57 (3.59%) CMS
3 42 (2.65%) Confluence
4 26 (1.64%) 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 (0.32%) Skype for Business
10 4 (0.25%) Headless CMS
10 4 (0.25%) Kentico
11 3 (0.19%) Apache Airflow
11 3 (0.19%) Moodle
11 3 (0.19%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.13%) Camunda
12 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
12 2 (0.13%) IIS
12 2 (0.13%) nginx
12 2 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 37 (2.33%) Sketch
2 33 (2.08%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 31 (1.95%) Microsoft Excel
4 22 (1.39%) Chatbot
5 20 (1.26%) Photoshop
6 19 (1.20%) Adobe After Effects
7 17 (1.07%) Microsoft Office
8 16 (1.01%) Adobe XD
9 15 (0.95%) 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%) Workday HCM
3 10 (0.63%) Dynamics CRM
4 7 (0.44%) Shopify
5 6 (0.38%) Sage X3
6 4 (0.25%) NetSuite
6 4 (0.25%) Oracle iProcurement
7 3 (0.19%) iTrent
7 3 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
8 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
8 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
8 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.13%) Remedy ITSM
8 2 (0.13%) ResourceLink
9 1 (0.063%) Eloqua
9 1 (0.063%) Magento
9 1 (0.063%) NEC Housing
9 1 (0.063%) Oracle EBS R12
9 1 (0.063%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 247 (15.57%) Azure
2 223 (14.06%) Figma
3 131 (8.26%) AWS
4 125 (7.88%) Microsoft 365
5 114 (7.19%) Power Platform
6 63 (3.97%) Entra ID
7 60 (3.78%) Azure DevOps
7 60 (3.78%) GitHub
8 57 (3.59%) SaaS
9 48 (3.03%) Microsoft Copilot
10 47 (2.96%) GCP
11 39 (2.46%) PowerApps
12 31 (1.95%) OneDrive
12 31 (1.95%) Power Automate
13 30 (1.89%) Serverless
14 26 (1.64%) Copilot Studio
14 26 (1.64%) GitHub Actions
15 24 (1.51%) Azure AI
16 17 (1.07%) Snowflake
17 13 (0.82%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 40 (2.52%) DNS
2 32 (2.02%) DHCP
3 28 (1.77%) TCP/IP
4 24 (1.51%) Wi-Fi
5 20 (1.26%) Wireless
6 19 (1.20%) 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%) Skype
10 7 (0.44%) SNMP
11 6 (0.38%) 5G
11 6 (0.38%) WLAN
12 5 (0.32%) SMS
12 5 (0.32%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (4.48%) Power BI
2 24 (1.51%) Metadata
3 23 (1.45%) PostgreSQL
4 22 (1.39%) NoSQL
4 22 (1.39%) Relational Database
5 18 (1.13%) Power Query
6 15 (0.95%) SQL Server
7 12 (0.76%) Data Warehouse
8 11 (0.69%) Big Data
9 10 (0.63%) MongoDB
9 10 (0.63%) MySQL
9 10 (0.63%) Tableau
10 7 (0.44%) Oracle Database
10 7 (0.44%) Snowflake Schema
11 6 (0.38%) Azure SQL Database
11 6 (0.38%) DynamoDB
11 6 (0.38%) Elasticsearch
11 6 (0.38%) Redis
11 6 (0.38%) ZAP BI
12 5 (0.32%) Data Mining
Development Applications
1 91 (5.74%) JIRA
2 81 (5.11%) Git
3 28 (1.77%) Cypress.io
4 25 (1.58%) Jenkins
4 25 (1.58%) Vite
5 18 (1.13%) GitLab
6 12 (0.76%) Claude Code
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%) JUnit
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 (0.32%) Fiddler
General
1 503 (31.72%) Social Skills
2 287 (18.10%) Finance
3 213 (13.43%) Public Sector
4 159 (10.03%) Analytical Skills
5 122 (7.69%) Banking
6 86 (5.42%) Retail
7 74 (4.67%) Marketing
8 48 (3.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 41 (2.59%) Legal
10 37 (2.33%) 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 (1.58%) Organisational Skills
16 22 (1.39%) Documentation Skills
17 19 (1.20%) Investment Banking
18 17 (1.07%) Military
19 12 (0.76%) Games
19 12 (0.76%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 344 (21.69%) Designer
2 231 (14.56%) Senior
3 201 (12.67%) Developer
4 148 (9.33%) UX Designer
5 120 (7.57%) Lead
6 116 (7.31%) Analyst
7 91 (5.74%) UI Designer
8 79 (4.98%) Consultant
9 69 (4.35%) Senior Designer
10 68 (4.29%) Architect
11 64 (4.04%) User Researcher
12 60 (3.78%) Business Analyst
13 59 (3.72%) Product Designer
14 53 (3.34%) UI/UX Designer
15 52 (3.28%) Content Designer
16 48 (3.03%) Product Manager
16 48 (3.03%) User Experience Researcher
17 46 (2.90%) IT Support
18 42 (2.65%) Full-Stack Engineer
18 42 (2.65%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 151 (9.52%) React
2 118 (7.44%) CSS
3 104 (6.56%) HTML
3 104 (6.56%) REST
4 73 (4.60%) RESTful
5 54 (3.40%) AngularJS
6 49 (3.09%) .NET
7 41 (2.59%) GraphQL
8 39 (2.46%) Spring
9 38 (2.40%) HTML5
9 38 (2.40%) Spring Boot
10 35 (2.21%) CSS3
11 34 (2.14%) Node.js
12 33 (2.08%) Jest
13 32 (2.02%) Redux
14 30 (1.89%) Kafka
15 26 (1.64%) JSON
15 26 (1.64%) Next.js
15 26 (1.64%) Playwright
16 23 (1.45%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 164 (10.34%) Product Ownership
2 98 (6.18%) Mobile App
3 79 (4.98%) Onboarding
4 45 (2.84%) Cloud Native
5 44 (2.77%) AI Agents
6 33 (2.08%) Enterprise Software
6 33 (2.08%) Self-Motivation
7 32 (2.02%) Data Structures
8 30 (1.89%) Data Protection Act
9 25 (1.58%) Legacy Systems
10 23 (1.45%) Animation
11 21 (1.32%) Data Centre
12 20 (1.26%) Analytical Mindset
12 20 (1.26%) Social Media
13 17 (1.07%) Graphic Design
14 16 (1.01%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 15 (0.95%) Algorithms
16 14 (0.88%) Educational Technology
16 14 (0.88%) Greenfield Project
16 14 (0.88%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 129 (8.13%) Windows
2 58 (3.66%) Android
3 57 (3.59%) Apple iOS
4 39 (2.46%) Windows 10
5 27 (1.70%) Mac OS
6 19 (1.20%) Windows Server
7 18 (1.13%) Linux
8 9 (0.57%) Unix
9 7 (0.44%) Windows 7
10 5 (0.32%) 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
1 526 (33.17%) UX Design
2 470 (29.63%) Agile
3 306 (19.29%) AI
4 251 (15.83%) Problem-Solving
5 239 (15.07%) Stakeholder Management
6 230 (14.50%) Continuous Improvement
7 218 (13.75%) User Research
8 206 (12.99%) Analytics
9 188 (11.85%) CI/CD
10 184 (11.60%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 168 (10.59%) Roadmaps
12 154 (9.71%) Decision-Making
13 153 (9.65%) Prototyping
14 151 (9.52%) DevOps
15 148 (9.33%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
16 135 (8.51%) Wireframes
17 131 (8.26%) Service Design
18 125 (7.88%) UX Research
19 117 (7.38%) Workshop Facilitation
20 114 (7.19%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 138 (8.70%) JavaScript
2 128 (8.07%) Python
3 123 (7.76%) TypeScript
4 116 (7.31%) SQL
5 108 (6.81%) Java
6 51 (3.22%) C#
7 49 (3.09%) PowerShell
8 35 (2.21%) Kotlin
9 25 (1.58%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 17 (1.07%) Bash
10 17 (1.07%) Swift
11 12 (0.76%) 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
1 244 (15.38%) Security Cleared
2 184 (11.60%) SC Cleared
3 154 (9.71%) Degree
4 35 (2.21%) Computer Science Degree
5 31 (1.95%) BPSS Clearance
6 27 (1.70%) DV Cleared
7 23 (1.45%) Azure Certification
8 21 (1.32%) Microsoft Certification
9 12 (0.76%) PMP
10 11 (0.69%) Cisco Certification
11 10 (0.63%) Master's Degree
12 9 (0.57%) ITIL Certification
13 8 (0.50%) AWS Certification
13 8 (0.50%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 7 (0.44%) CCA
14 7 (0.44%) CCNP
14 7 (0.44%) Citrix Certification
15 6 (0.38%) CCIE
15 6 (0.38%) DBS Check
15 6 (0.38%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 282 (17.78%) Accessibility
2 98 (6.18%) QA
3 94 (5.93%) WCAG
4 47 (2.96%) Data Quality
5 22 (1.39%) GDPR
6 18 (1.13%) Actionable Recommendations
7 12 (0.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 10 (0.63%) SLA
9 9 (0.57%) PMO
10 7 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials
10 7 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 4 (0.25%) GRC
11 4 (0.25%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 3 (0.19%) GMP
12 3 (0.19%) GxP
13 2 (0.13%) NIST
13 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.13%) PSD2
14 1 (0.063%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 1 (0.063%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 82 (5.17%) Active Directory
2 49 (3.09%) Docker
3 28 (1.77%) Virtual Desktop
4 19 (1.20%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (0.44%) vSphere
6 6 (0.38%) Firmware
7 5 (0.32%) BitLocker
7 5 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (0.25%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.25%) Microsoft App-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 (3.22%) Kubernetes
1 51 (3.22%) Terraform
2 47 (2.96%) Microsoft Intune
3 36 (2.27%) Grafana
4 35 (2.21%) SCCM
5 17 (1.07%) Ansible
5 17 (1.07%) Single Sign-On
6 14 (0.88%) Jamf Pro
6 14 (0.88%) Prometheus
7 5 (0.32%) vCenter Server
8 4 (0.25%) Clonezilla
8 4 (0.25%) Podman
9 3 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 3 (0.19%) WSUS
10 2 (0.13%) Argo
10 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
10 2 (0.13%) Packer
10 2 (0.13%) SCOM
10 2 (0.13%) vMotion
11 1 (0.063%) AirWatch
Vendors
1 271 (17.09%) Microsoft
2 92 (5.80%) Adobe
3 76 (4.79%) ServiceNow
4 63 (3.97%) Google
5 45 (2.84%) SAP
6 42 (2.65%) Oracle
7 35 (2.21%) Salesforce
8 23 (1.45%) Citrix
8 23 (1.45%) Databricks
9 22 (1.39%) Dynatrace
9 22 (1.39%) Splunk
9 22 (1.39%) VMware
10 21 (1.32%) Workday
11 18 (1.13%) Cisco
12 16 (1.01%) Apple
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