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

6 months to
13 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 98 66 77
Rank change year-on-year -32 +11 -6
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,552 1,226 1,039
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.83% 3.72% 2.77%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.34% 4.12% 3.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 935 779 610
10th Percentile £313 £300 £313
25th Percentile £402 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% -5.00% -2.91%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £588
90th Percentile £700 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £463
% change year-on-year - -2.70% -2.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 76 55 25
10th Percentile £16.68 £15.50 £27.15
25th Percentile £27.63 £20.25 £30.44
Median hourly rate £46.91 £35.60 £37.00
Median % change year-on-year +31.76% -3.78% -22.11%
75th Percentile £68.88 £53.13 £74.00
90th Percentile £84.00 £63.75 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.22 £25.15 £33.54
% change year-on-year +40.04% -25.01% -29.39%

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 46,512 29,792 32,258
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.69% 90.47% 86.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,938 18,529 19,417
10th Percentile £325 £294 £308
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 £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £737 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,382 1,881 1,250
10th Percentile £13.63 £14.38 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.00 £17.30 £20.03
Median hourly rate £37.50 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +49.11% -37.13% -10.11%
75th Percentile £65.00 £42.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.54 £65.14 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.50 £22.27 £40.33
% change year-on-year +68.43% -44.79% -7.83%

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 13 October 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 13 October 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 13 October 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 -30 1,345 £475 - 2,349
UK excluding London -12 733 £450 - 1,055
London -30 685 £506 +3.00% 1,420
Work from Home -35 394 £500 - 1,092
North of England -9 275 £425 +1.49% 282
North West -27 146 £403 -3.53% 149
Midlands -11 140 £475 +4.11% 145
West Midlands -13 110 £463 -7.34% 90
South East -59 96 £400 -15.79% 217
Scotland 0 93 £538 +16.85% 99
Yorkshire -3 82 £500 +21.21% 95
South West -13 73 £475 +5.56% 117
North East -3 46 £325 -27.78% 38
East of England -6 44 £410 -21.90% 112
East Midlands -12 30 £500 +23.46% 55
Wales -9 14 £530 +22.90% 31
Northern Ireland +7 4 £638 +2.00% 55

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 77 (4.96%) SharePoint
2 65 (4.19%) CMS
3 52 (3.35%) Confluence
4 29 (1.87%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (1.03%) WordPress
6 7 (0.45%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 7 (0.45%) Headless CMS
6 7 (0.45%) Skype for Business
7 6 (0.39%) Apache
7 6 (0.39%) Oracle Workflow
7 6 (0.39%) Traefik
8 5 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
8 5 (0.32%) Drupal
9 4 (0.26%) Kentico
9 4 (0.26%) Mendix
10 3 (0.19%) ColdFusion
10 3 (0.19%) Umbraco
11 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
11 2 (0.13%) IIS
11 2 (0.13%) Moodle
Applications
1 31 (2.00%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 25 (1.61%) Microsoft Office
2 25 (1.61%) Sketch
3 21 (1.35%) Microsoft Excel
4 18 (1.16%) Photoshop
5 17 (1.10%) Adobe After Effects
6 16 (1.03%) Adobe Illustrator
6 16 (1.03%) Chatbot
7 12 (0.77%) Adobe XD
8 11 (0.71%) MS Visio
9 8 (0.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 7 (0.45%) Final Cut Pro
11 4 (0.26%) Spreadsheet
12 2 (0.13%) Adobe Premiere
12 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
12 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
12 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
13 1 (0.064%) Adobe Captivate
13 1 (0.064%) Blender
13 1 (0.064%) Trello
Business Applications
1 11 (0.71%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.45%) Workday HCM
3 5 (0.32%) NetSuite
3 5 (0.32%) Salesforce CRM
4 4 (0.26%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 4 (0.26%) Oracle iProcurement
4 4 (0.26%) Payment Gateway
4 4 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
5 3 (0.19%) iTrent
5 3 (0.19%) SAP HR
5 3 (0.19%) Shopify
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.13%) SAP HCM
6 2 (0.13%) SAP Payroll
7 1 (0.064%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.064%) Eloqua
7 1 (0.064%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.064%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.064%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 223 (14.37%) Azure
2 177 (11.40%) Figma
3 152 (9.79%) AWS
3 152 (9.79%) Microsoft 365
4 127 (8.18%) Power Platform
5 68 (4.38%) Entra ID
6 66 (4.25%) GitHub
7 62 (3.99%) SaaS
8 59 (3.80%) Microsoft Copilot
9 47 (3.03%) Azure DevOps
10 38 (2.45%) PowerApps
11 37 (2.38%) GCP
12 33 (2.13%) OneDrive
13 31 (2.00%) GitHub Actions
14 28 (1.80%) Copilot Studio
14 28 (1.80%) Power Automate
15 24 (1.55%) Serverless
16 20 (1.29%) Azure AI
17 17 (1.10%) GitHub Copilot
17 17 (1.10%) Miro
Communications & Networking
1 44 (2.84%) DNS
2 38 (2.45%) DHCP
3 35 (2.26%) TCP/IP
4 27 (1.74%) Wi-Fi
5 20 (1.29%) VPN
6 19 (1.22%) Wireless
7 16 (1.03%) Firewall
8 15 (0.97%) NetScaler
9 14 (0.90%) LAN
9 14 (0.90%) WAN
10 9 (0.58%) Network Security
11 7 (0.45%) Cisco Wireless
11 7 (0.45%) Skype
11 7 (0.45%) SNMP
12 6 (0.39%) 5G
12 6 (0.39%) Internet
12 6 (0.39%) Intranet
13 5 (0.32%) SD-WAN
13 5 (0.32%) Wireshark
14 4 (0.26%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 75 (4.83%) Power BI
2 25 (1.61%) Metadata
3 21 (1.35%) NoSQL
4 19 (1.22%) Power Query
5 18 (1.16%) PostgreSQL
6 16 (1.03%) SQL Server
7 14 (0.90%) MongoDB
7 14 (0.90%) MySQL
8 13 (0.84%) Tableau
9 12 (0.77%) Relational Database
10 11 (0.71%) Elasticsearch
10 11 (0.71%) Redis
11 10 (0.64%) Big Data
12 9 (0.58%) Looker
13 8 (0.52%) Qlik Sense
14 7 (0.45%) Snowflake Schema
14 7 (0.45%) Star Schema
15 6 (0.39%) BigQuery
15 6 (0.39%) Flink
15 6 (0.39%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 90 (5.80%) Git
1 90 (5.80%) JIRA
2 35 (2.26%) Jenkins
3 29 (1.87%) Cypress.io
4 26 (1.68%) Vite
5 24 (1.55%) Storybook
6 19 (1.22%) Claude Code
7 15 (0.97%) GitLab
8 12 (0.77%) fastlane
9 9 (0.58%) Android Studio
9 9 (0.58%) webpack
10 8 (0.52%) Xcode
11 7 (0.45%) Postman
11 7 (0.45%) REST Assured
12 6 (0.39%) Bitbucket
12 6 (0.39%) Browser DevTools
12 6 (0.39%) JMeter
13 5 (0.32%) Gradle
13 5 (0.32%) MSI
13 5 (0.32%) TeamCity
General
1 514 (33.12%) Social Skills
2 254 (16.37%) Finance
3 226 (14.56%) Public Sector
4 149 (9.60%) Analytical Skills
5 97 (6.25%) Banking
6 84 (5.41%) Marketing
7 79 (5.09%) Retail
8 52 (3.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 46 (2.96%) Influencing Skills
9 46 (2.96%) Legal
10 25 (1.61%) Organisational Skills
10 25 (1.61%) Publishing
11 23 (1.48%) Automotive
11 23 (1.48%) Presentation Skills
12 22 (1.42%) Military
13 18 (1.16%) Manufacturing
14 17 (1.10%) Documentation Skills
14 17 (1.10%) Investment Banking
15 11 (0.71%) Front Office
15 11 (0.71%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 296 (19.07%) Designer
2 238 (15.34%) Developer
3 209 (13.47%) Senior
4 141 (9.09%) Lead
5 127 (8.18%) UX Designer
6 94 (6.06%) Analyst
7 72 (4.64%) UI Designer
8 65 (4.19%) Senior Designer
9 64 (4.12%) Architect
10 62 (3.99%) User Researcher
11 59 (3.80%) Consultant
12 53 (3.41%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
12 53 (3.41%) IT Support
13 52 (3.35%) Product Manager
13 52 (3.35%) Support Engineer
14 49 (3.16%) Business Analyst
15 44 (2.84%) Product Designer
16 38 (2.45%) UI/UX Designer
16 38 (2.45%) User Experience Researcher
17 36 (2.32%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 165 (10.63%) React
2 118 (7.60%) CSS
3 106 (6.83%) HTML
4 95 (6.12%) REST
5 67 (4.32%) RESTful
6 47 (3.03%) HTML5
7 45 (2.90%) Terraform
8 42 (2.71%) AngularJS
8 42 (2.71%) CSS3
9 41 (2.64%) GraphQL
10 36 (2.32%) Node.js
11 35 (2.26%) .NET
12 34 (2.19%) Next.js
13 33 (2.13%) OAuth
13 33 (2.13%) Playwright
14 32 (2.06%) Spring
14 32 (2.06%) Spring Boot
15 30 (1.93%) Jest
16 25 (1.61%) OAuth2
16 25 (1.61%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 167 (10.76%) Product Ownership
2 100 (6.44%) Mobile App
3 82 (5.28%) Onboarding
4 62 (3.99%) Cloud Native
5 52 (3.35%) AI Agents
6 35 (2.26%) Management Information System
7 32 (2.06%) Legacy Systems
8 31 (2.00%) Self-Motivation
9 28 (1.80%) Enterprise Software
10 27 (1.74%) Data Protection Act
11 22 (1.42%) Data Centre
12 21 (1.35%) Social Media
13 20 (1.29%) NHS
14 19 (1.22%) Data Structures
14 19 (1.22%) Educational Technology
15 16 (1.03%) Animation
15 16 (1.03%) Graphic Design
15 16 (1.03%) Low-Code
16 15 (0.97%) Taxonomies
17 14 (0.90%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 153 (9.86%) Windows
2 76 (4.90%) Apple iOS
3 68 (4.38%) Android
4 60 (3.87%) Windows 10
5 37 (2.38%) Windows Server
6 28 (1.80%) macOS
7 17 (1.10%) Linux
8 14 (0.90%) Unix
9 9 (0.58%) Windows 7
10 4 (0.26%) AIX
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
Processes & Methodologies
1 484 (31.19%) UX Design
2 457 (29.45%) Agile
3 322 (20.75%) Stakeholder Management
4 296 (19.07%) AI
5 265 (17.07%) Continuous Improvement
6 247 (15.91%) Problem-Solving
7 218 (14.05%) User Research
8 211 (13.60%) Analytics
9 184 (11.86%) CI/CD
10 183 (11.79%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 176 (11.34%) Decision-Making
12 167 (10.76%) Roadmaps
13 155 (9.99%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
14 145 (9.34%) Service Design
15 127 (8.18%) Workshop Facilitation
16 126 (8.12%) Scrum
17 121 (7.80%) DevOps
17 121 (7.80%) Service Management
18 119 (7.67%) Prototyping
19 111 (7.15%) UX Research
Programming Languages
1 149 (9.60%) JavaScript
2 138 (8.89%) TypeScript
3 101 (6.51%) SQL
4 98 (6.31%) Java
5 95 (6.12%) Python
6 50 (3.22%) PowerShell
7 34 (2.19%) C#
8 29 (1.87%) Kotlin
9 24 (1.55%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 22 (1.42%) Swift
11 19 (1.22%) Bash
12 10 (0.64%) Go
13 8 (0.52%) Shell Script
14 7 (0.45%) Objective-C
14 7 (0.45%) PHP
14 7 (0.45%) VB
14 7 (0.45%) VBScript
15 6 (0.39%) Ruby
15 6 (0.39%) Scala
16 5 (0.32%) C++
Qualifications
1 245 (15.79%) Security Cleared
2 186 (11.98%) SC Cleared
3 113 (7.28%) Degree
4 57 (3.67%) BPSS Clearance
5 31 (2.00%) Computer Science Degree
6 23 (1.48%) DV Cleared
7 17 (1.10%) Azure Certification
8 16 (1.03%) PMP
9 12 (0.77%) Microsoft Certification
10 10 (0.64%) DBS Check
11 8 (0.52%) AWS Certification
11 8 (0.52%) ITIL Certification
12 7 (0.45%) PMI Certification
13 6 (0.39%) Master's Degree
13 6 (0.39%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 5 (0.32%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 5 (0.32%) CCA
14 5 (0.32%) Cisco Certification
14 5 (0.32%) CISSP
14 5 (0.32%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 273 (17.59%) Accessibility
2 106 (6.83%) WCAG
3 103 (6.64%) QA
4 49 (3.16%) Data Quality
5 21 (1.35%) Actionable Recommendations
6 17 (1.10%) SLA
7 16 (1.03%) GDPR
8 14 (0.90%) PMO
9 5 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
10 4 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 4 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 3 (0.19%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 2 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 2 (0.13%) Disclosure Scotland
12 2 (0.13%) GRC
12 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.13%) PSD2
12 2 (0.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 1 (0.064%) HIPAA
13 1 (0.064%) WAI
System Software
1 115 (7.41%) Active Directory
2 52 (3.35%) Docker
3 29 (1.87%) Virtual Desktop
4 27 (1.74%) VMware Infrastructure
5 16 (1.03%) Hyper-V
6 12 (0.77%) Citrix Hypervisor
7 11 (0.71%) XenApp
8 10 (0.64%) XenDesktop
9 7 (0.45%) BitLocker
9 7 (0.45%) vSphere
10 5 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
11 4 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
12 3 (0.19%) UAG
12 3 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
13 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
13 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
14 1 (0.064%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 54 (3.48%) Microsoft Intune
2 52 (3.35%) Kubernetes
3 35 (2.26%) Grafana
4 26 (1.68%) SCCM
5 19 (1.22%) Single Sign-On
6 16 (1.03%) Ansible
7 14 (0.90%) Jamf Pro
7 14 (0.90%) Prometheus
8 7 (0.45%) Istio
9 6 (0.39%) SysTrack
9 6 (0.39%) vCenter Server
10 4 (0.26%) Clonezilla
11 3 (0.19%) Kibana
11 3 (0.19%) WSUS
12 2 (0.13%) Argo
12 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
12 2 (0.13%) Packer
12 2 (0.13%) SCOM
12 2 (0.13%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 2 (0.13%) vMotion
Vendors
1 287 (18.49%) Microsoft
2 91 (5.86%) ServiceNow
3 74 (4.77%) Adobe
4 53 (3.41%) Google
5 49 (3.16%) Oracle
6 30 (1.93%) SAP
6 30 (1.93%) VMware
7 29 (1.87%) Salesforce
8 27 (1.74%) Dynatrace
8 27 (1.74%) Splunk
9 26 (1.68%) Citrix
10 22 (1.42%) Apple
11 20 (1.29%) Databricks
12 19 (1.22%) OpenAI
13 14 (0.90%) Zscaler
14 13 (0.84%) Cisco
14 13 (0.84%) Foundry
14 13 (0.84%) Workday
15 10 (0.64%) Okta
16 8 (0.52%) Cribl.io