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

6 months to
21 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 97 64 79
Rank change year-on-year -33 +15 -13
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,533 1,251 1,050
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.82% 3.83% 2.74%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.35% 4.23% 3.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 915 801 634
10th Percentile £310 £300 £313
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -4.31%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £588
90th Percentile £712 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £475
% change year-on-year - -5.26% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 51 24
10th Percentile £20.31 £15.50 £27.59
25th Percentile £28.88 £27.58 £30.33
Median hourly rate £36.36 £36.50 £50.25
Median % change year-on-year -0.38% -27.36% +5.79%
75th Percentile £67.88 £55.88 £74.00
90th Percentile £76.40 £65.00 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £32.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year +4.58% -53.57% +295.03%

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 45,811 29,562 32,919
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.30% 90.52% 85.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,773 18,345 20,161
10th Percentile £325 £300 £309
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 £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £730 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,152 1,818 1,440
10th Percentile £13.81 £14.23 £14.84
25th Percentile £17.25 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% +0.58%
75th Percentile £67.47 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £66.15 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.06 £22.32 £43.00
% change year-on-year +84.00% -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 21 September 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 September 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 September 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 -29 1,331 £475 - 3,181
UK excluding London -16 721 £450 - 1,317
London -30 678 £520 +4.00% 2,130
Work from Home -31 386 £475 -4.04% 1,351
North of England -12 255 £425 +1.49% 363
Midlands -15 151 £475 +6.26% 189
North West -34 126 £400 -5.88% 234
West Midlands -5 119 £469 -6.14% 138
South East -56 94 £400 -11.11% 290
Scotland -6 93 £538 +16.53% 105
Yorkshire -5 79 £500 +25.00% 84
South West -4 77 £475 -5.00% 147
North East -3 49 £338 -25.00% 47
East of England -10 42 £410 -21.90% 113
East Midlands -15 32 £500 +39.66% 51
Wales -15 12 £530 +73.20% 28
Northern Ireland +7 3 £638 +2.00% 86

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 70 (4.57%) SharePoint
2 64 (4.17%) CMS
3 43 (2.80%) Confluence
4 32 (2.09%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (1.04%) WordPress
6 9 (0.59%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 7 (0.46%) Apache
7 7 (0.46%) Skype for Business
8 6 (0.39%) Drupal
8 6 (0.39%) Headless CMS
8 6 (0.39%) Oracle Workflow
9 5 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
10 4 (0.26%) Kentico
10 4 (0.26%) Mendix
11 3 (0.20%) ColdFusion
11 3 (0.20%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
12 2 (0.13%) IIS
12 2 (0.13%) Moodle
12 2 (0.13%) nginx
Applications
1 32 (2.09%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 28 (1.83%) Sketch
3 24 (1.57%) Microsoft Office
4 21 (1.37%) Microsoft Excel
5 20 (1.30%) Chatbot
6 18 (1.17%) Adobe After Effects
6 18 (1.17%) Photoshop
7 16 (1.04%) Adobe Illustrator
8 13 (0.85%) Adobe XD
9 9 (0.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 8 (0.52%) MS Visio
11 7 (0.46%) Final Cut Pro
12 3 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
13 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
13 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
14 1 (0.065%) Adobe Captivate
14 1 (0.065%) Blender
14 1 (0.065%) InVision
14 1 (0.065%) Microsoft Project
14 1 (0.065%) Trello
Business Applications
1 10 (0.65%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (0.46%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (0.39%) Workday HCM
4 5 (0.33%) NetSuite
4 5 (0.33%) Shopify
5 4 (0.26%) Oracle iProcurement
5 4 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
5 4 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
6 3 (0.20%) IBM Planning Analytics
6 3 (0.20%) iTrent
6 3 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
8 1 (0.065%) Bloomberg TOMS
8 1 (0.065%) Eloqua
8 1 (0.065%) Exchequer
8 1 (0.065%) Magento
8 1 (0.065%) Oracle EBS R12
8 1 (0.065%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.065%) Oracle Receivables
8 1 (0.065%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 215 (14.02%) Azure
2 178 (11.61%) Figma
3 150 (9.78%) Microsoft 365
4 139 (9.07%) AWS
5 113 (7.37%) Power Platform
6 69 (4.50%) Entra ID
7 62 (4.04%) GitHub
8 59 (3.85%) Microsoft Copilot
9 56 (3.65%) SaaS
10 42 (2.74%) Azure DevOps
11 39 (2.54%) GCP
12 34 (2.22%) OneDrive
13 33 (2.15%) PowerApps
14 28 (1.83%) Copilot Studio
14 28 (1.83%) Power Automate
15 26 (1.70%) GitHub Actions
16 24 (1.57%) Azure AI
17 23 (1.50%) Serverless
18 18 (1.17%) GitHub Copilot
19 17 (1.11%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 46 (3.00%) DNS
2 38 (2.48%) DHCP
3 36 (2.35%) TCP/IP
4 28 (1.83%) Wi-Fi
5 21 (1.37%) VPN
6 19 (1.24%) Wireless
7 18 (1.17%) Firewall
8 17 (1.11%) LAN
9 16 (1.04%) WAN
10 12 (0.78%) NetScaler
11 11 (0.72%) Network Security
12 9 (0.59%) Internet
13 8 (0.52%) Cisco Wireless
13 8 (0.52%) SD-WAN
13 8 (0.52%) Skype
14 7 (0.46%) SNMP
15 6 (0.39%) Intranet
16 5 (0.33%) 5G
16 5 (0.33%) SMS
16 5 (0.33%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (4.17%) Power BI
2 26 (1.70%) Metadata
3 19 (1.24%) NoSQL
4 18 (1.17%) PostgreSQL
5 14 (0.91%) Power Query
5 14 (0.91%) SQL Server
6 13 (0.85%) MongoDB
6 13 (0.85%) Tableau
7 12 (0.78%) Elasticsearch
8 11 (0.72%) Big Data
9 10 (0.65%) Redis
9 10 (0.65%) Relational Database
10 9 (0.59%) Looker
11 8 (0.52%) Qlik Sense
12 7 (0.46%) MySQL
12 7 (0.46%) Snowflake Schema
12 7 (0.46%) Star Schema
13 6 (0.39%) BigQuery
13 6 (0.39%) Flink
13 6 (0.39%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 94 (6.13%) Git
2 79 (5.15%) JIRA
3 33 (2.15%) Jenkins
4 27 (1.76%) Vite
5 26 (1.70%) Cypress.io
6 22 (1.44%) Storybook
7 16 (1.04%) GitLab
8 15 (0.98%) Claude Code
9 10 (0.65%) fastlane
10 9 (0.59%) Android Studio
10 9 (0.59%) Browser DevTools
11 8 (0.52%) webpack
11 8 (0.52%) Xcode
12 7 (0.46%) REST Assured
13 6 (0.39%) JMeter
13 6 (0.39%) Postman
14 5 (0.33%) Fiddler
14 5 (0.33%) Gradle
14 5 (0.33%) JUnit
14 5 (0.33%) MSI
General
1 501 (32.68%) Social Skills
2 252 (16.44%) Finance
3 212 (13.83%) Public Sector
4 150 (9.78%) Analytical Skills
5 101 (6.59%) Banking
6 78 (5.09%) Retail
7 77 (5.02%) Marketing
8 54 (3.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 46 (3.00%) Influencing Skills
10 45 (2.94%) Legal
11 28 (1.83%) Automotive
12 27 (1.76%) Publishing
13 25 (1.63%) Organisational Skills
14 23 (1.50%) Documentation Skills
14 23 (1.50%) Manufacturing
14 23 (1.50%) Presentation Skills
15 20 (1.30%) Military
16 17 (1.11%) Investment Banking
17 13 (0.85%) Front Office
18 11 (0.72%) Law
Job Titles
1 307 (20.03%) Designer
2 216 (14.09%) Developer
2 216 (14.09%) Senior
3 133 (8.68%) Lead
4 127 (8.28%) UX Designer
5 90 (5.87%) Analyst
6 77 (5.02%) UI Designer
7 70 (4.57%) Architect
8 65 (4.24%) Consultant
8 65 (4.24%) Senior Designer
9 60 (3.91%) User Researcher
10 53 (3.46%) IT Support
10 53 (3.46%) Support Engineer
11 52 (3.39%) Product Manager
12 49 (3.20%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
13 44 (2.87%) Content Designer
14 43 (2.80%) Business Analyst
14 43 (2.80%) User Experience Researcher
15 42 (2.74%) Product Designer
15 42 (2.74%) UI/UX Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 158 (10.31%) React
2 117 (7.63%) CSS
3 106 (6.91%) HTML
4 94 (6.13%) REST
5 59 (3.85%) RESTful
6 49 (3.20%) Terraform
7 47 (3.07%) HTML5
8 43 (2.80%) GraphQL
9 42 (2.74%) AngularJS
9 42 (2.74%) CSS3
10 37 (2.41%) Node.js
11 34 (2.22%) .NET
12 33 (2.15%) OAuth
13 32 (2.09%) Next.js
13 32 (2.09%) Playwright
14 31 (2.02%) Jest
14 31 (2.02%) Spring
15 30 (1.96%) Spring Boot
16 26 (1.70%) Redux
17 25 (1.63%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 155 (10.11%) Product Ownership
2 91 (5.94%) Mobile App
3 80 (5.22%) Onboarding
4 60 (3.91%) Cloud Native
5 51 (3.33%) AI Agents
6 31 (2.02%) Data Protection Act
6 31 (2.02%) Self-Motivation
7 29 (1.89%) Management Information System
8 28 (1.83%) Legacy Systems
9 27 (1.76%) Enterprise Software
10 24 (1.57%) Data Structures
11 22 (1.44%) Data Centre
11 22 (1.44%) NHS
11 22 (1.44%) Social Media
12 19 (1.24%) Educational Technology
13 17 (1.11%) Animation
14 16 (1.04%) Graphic Design
15 14 (0.91%) Taxonomies
16 13 (0.85%) Analytical Mindset
17 12 (0.78%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 155 (10.11%) Windows
2 67 (4.37%) Apple iOS
3 65 (4.24%) Android
4 58 (3.78%) Windows 10
5 36 (2.35%) Windows Server
6 32 (2.09%) Mac OS
7 18 (1.17%) Linux
8 13 (0.85%) Unix
9 9 (0.59%) Windows 7
10 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.065%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 485 (31.64%) UX Design
2 445 (29.03%) Agile
3 301 (19.63%) AI
4 288 (18.79%) Stakeholder Management
5 249 (16.24%) Problem-Solving
6 237 (15.46%) Continuous Improvement
7 202 (13.18%) Analytics
8 200 (13.05%) User Research
9 185 (12.07%) CI/CD
10 171 (11.15%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 160 (10.44%) Roadmaps
12 148 (9.65%) Decision-Making
13 145 (9.46%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
14 125 (8.15%) Service Design
15 122 (7.96%) Scrum
16 121 (7.89%) DevOps
17 117 (7.63%) Prototyping
18 116 (7.57%) Service Management
19 113 (7.37%) Workshop Facilitation
20 111 (7.24%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 142 (9.26%) JavaScript
2 136 (8.87%) TypeScript
3 105 (6.85%) Python
4 94 (6.13%) Java
5 93 (6.07%) SQL
6 50 (3.26%) PowerShell
7 29 (1.89%) C#
7 29 (1.89%) Kotlin
8 20 (1.30%) Bash
8 20 (1.30%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 18 (1.17%) Swift
10 10 (0.65%) Go
11 8 (0.52%) PHP
12 7 (0.46%) Shell Script
12 7 (0.46%) VB
12 7 (0.46%) VBScript
13 6 (0.39%) Scala
14 5 (0.33%) Apex Code
14 5 (0.33%) C++
15 3 (0.20%) C
Qualifications
1 242 (15.79%) Security Cleared
2 184 (12.00%) SC Cleared
3 113 (7.37%) Degree
4 46 (3.00%) BPSS Clearance
5 31 (2.02%) Computer Science Degree
6 26 (1.70%) DV Cleared
7 21 (1.37%) Azure Certification
8 17 (1.11%) Microsoft Certification
8 17 (1.11%) PMP
9 8 (0.52%) AWS Certification
9 8 (0.52%) Cisco Certification
9 8 (0.52%) ITIL Certification
9 8 (0.52%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 7 (0.46%) DBS Check
11 6 (0.39%) MCSE
11 6 (0.39%) PMI Certification
12 5 (0.33%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 5 (0.33%) CCA
12 5 (0.33%) CISSP
12 5 (0.33%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 266 (17.35%) Accessibility
2 100 (6.52%) WCAG
3 96 (6.26%) QA
4 48 (3.13%) Data Quality
5 18 (1.17%) GDPR
6 15 (0.98%) Actionable Recommendations
7 14 (0.91%) SLA
8 8 (0.52%) PMO
9 7 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials
9 7 (0.46%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 6 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 3 (0.20%) GRC
12 2 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 2 (0.13%) GMP
12 2 (0.13%) GxP
12 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.13%) PSD2
12 2 (0.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 1 (0.065%) HIPAA
13 1 (0.065%) WAI
System Software
1 111 (7.24%) Active Directory
2 50 (3.26%) Docker
3 27 (1.76%) Virtual Desktop
4 26 (1.70%) VMware Infrastructure
5 15 (0.98%) Hyper-V
6 9 (0.59%) Citrix Hypervisor
6 9 (0.59%) XenApp
7 8 (0.52%) XenDesktop
8 7 (0.46%) BitLocker
8 7 (0.46%) vSphere
9 5 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
10 4 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
11 3 (0.20%) UAG
11 3 (0.20%) Virtual Machines
12 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
12 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
13 1 (0.065%) Firmware
13 1 (0.065%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 52 (3.39%) Microsoft Intune
2 50 (3.26%) Kubernetes
3 35 (2.28%) Grafana
4 30 (1.96%) SCCM
5 21 (1.37%) Single Sign-On
6 18 (1.17%) Ansible
7 15 (0.98%) Jamf Pro
8 14 (0.91%) Prometheus
9 6 (0.39%) vCenter Server
10 5 (0.33%) SysTrack
11 4 (0.26%) Clonezilla
11 4 (0.26%) Podman
12 3 (0.20%) Kibana
12 3 (0.20%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 3 (0.20%) WSUS
13 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
13 2 (0.13%) Istio
13 2 (0.13%) Packer
13 2 (0.13%) SCOM
13 2 (0.13%) vMotion
Vendors
1 279 (18.20%) Microsoft
2 90 (5.87%) ServiceNow
3 82 (5.35%) Adobe
4 50 (3.26%) Google
5 41 (2.67%) Oracle
6 33 (2.15%) Salesforce
7 30 (1.96%) SAP
8 29 (1.89%) VMware
9 26 (1.70%) Dynatrace
9 26 (1.70%) Splunk
10 25 (1.63%) Citrix
11 21 (1.37%) Databricks
12 20 (1.30%) OpenAI
13 19 (1.24%) Apple
14 16 (1.04%) Cisco
14 16 (1.04%) Foundry
14 16 (1.04%) Zscaler
15 13 (0.85%) Workday
16 9 (0.59%) Aruba
16 9 (0.59%) Okta