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

6 months to
21 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 69 63 68
Rank change year-on-year -6 +5 -1
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,411 1,075 1,301
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.45% 3.50% 2.91%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.97% 3.90% 3.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 982 695 887
10th Percentile £313 £313 £320
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £476 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.90% - -4.76%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £650 £698 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £470 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +4.44% -5.26% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 23 41
10th Percentile £15.50 £25.26 £23.75
25th Percentile £17.69 £32.52 £25.00
Median hourly rate £37.22 £42.50 £41.68
Median % change year-on-year -12.42% +1.98% -20.62%
75th Percentile £61.25 £52.25 £72.50
90th Percentile £71.28 £70.60 £81.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.30 £30.33 £28.75
% change year-on-year -0.12% +5.50% -41.33%

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 35,563 27,597 38,882
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.83% 89.79% 87.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,526 17,059 25,424
10th Percentile £313 £306 £300
25th Percentile £410 £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 £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £493 £500
% change year-on-year -2.54% -1.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,133 855 2,176
10th Percentile £14.62 £15.62 £13.29
25th Percentile £17.87 £21.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £25.77 £32.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.71% -7.14% -
75th Percentile £60.46 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £72.00 £75.00 £73.27
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.29 £35.00
% change year-on-year -19.62% -10.60% -

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 February 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 February 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 February 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 -1 1,214 £475 -5.00% 676
London -13 632 £500 -4.08% 290
UK excluding London +2 612 £470 +4.44% 536
Work from Home -25 372 £478 -4.21% 353
North of England +20 215 £450 - 130
North West +22 143 £402 -10.58% 75
South East -3 120 £475 -5.24% 196
Midlands -12 109 £500 +25.00% 84
South West -3 69 £450 -5.26% 65
Scotland -5 61 £460 +2.22% 16
West Midlands -40 60 £450 -5.26% 50
Yorkshire -28 52 £519 +21.99% 36
East Midlands +8 49 £548 +53.79% 34
East of England -14 30 £426 -10.69% 35
North East -7 19 £375 -11.76% 20
Wales +8 15 £300 -29.41% 13
Northern Ireland -9 4 £625 +92.31% 3

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 59 (4.18%) SharePoint
2 55 (3.90%) Confluence
3 39 (2.76%) CMS
4 23 (1.63%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 13 (0.92%) Microsoft Exchange
6 11 (0.78%) Headless CMS
6 11 (0.78%) SugarCRM
7 10 (0.71%) Apache
8 8 (0.57%) Sitecore CMS
8 8 (0.57%) Umbraco
9 4 (0.28%) Camunda
9 4 (0.28%) Ethereum
9 4 (0.28%) Hyperledger
10 3 (0.21%) Anypoint
10 3 (0.21%) Apache Spark
10 3 (0.21%) Jupyter
11 2 (0.14%) Apache Airflow
11 2 (0.14%) Appian
11 2 (0.14%) Drupal
11 2 (0.14%) WordPress
Applications
1 51 (3.61%) Sketch
2 38 (2.69%) Adobe XD
3 25 (1.77%) MS Visio
4 22 (1.56%) Microsoft Excel
5 19 (1.35%) Chatbot
5 19 (1.35%) Microsoft Office
6 14 (0.99%) InVision
7 11 (0.78%) Photoshop
8 10 (0.71%) Adobe Illustrator
9 7 (0.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 6 (0.43%) Spreadsheet
10 6 (0.43%) Trello
11 5 (0.35%) Adobe After Effects
11 5 (0.35%) Adobe Creative Suite
12 4 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
12 4 (0.28%) UXPin
13 3 (0.21%) Adobe Captivate
13 3 (0.21%) UserZoom
14 2 (0.14%) Autodesk Smoke
14 2 (0.14%) Camtasia
Business Applications
1 21 (1.49%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (1.06%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.35%) Shopify
3 5 (0.35%) Workday HCM
4 3 (0.21%) Sage X3
4 3 (0.21%) SAP CO
4 3 (0.21%) SAP FI
4 3 (0.21%) SAP FI/CO
5 2 (0.14%) iTrent
5 2 (0.14%) Magento
5 2 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.14%) SAP ERP
5 2 (0.14%) SAP SD
5 2 (0.14%) SAP Travel Management
5 2 (0.14%) Teamcenter
6 1 (0.071%) Adobe Campaign
6 1 (0.071%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.071%) Eloqua
6 1 (0.071%) Integrated Workplace Management System
6 1 (0.071%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 238 (16.87%) Azure
2 196 (13.89%) Figma
3 150 (10.63%) AWS
4 98 (6.95%) Power Platform
5 77 (5.46%) Microsoft 365
6 76 (5.39%) SaaS
7 69 (4.89%) GCP
8 57 (4.04%) Azure DevOps
9 54 (3.83%) GitHub
10 52 (3.69%) Entra ID
11 35 (2.48%) Miro
12 34 (2.41%) Power Automate
13 33 (2.34%) GitHub Actions
14 32 (2.27%) PowerApps
14 32 (2.27%) Serverless
15 24 (1.70%) Google Workspace
16 22 (1.56%) Cloud Computing
16 22 (1.56%) Google Analytics
16 22 (1.56%) Microsoft Copilot
17 21 (1.49%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 26 (1.84%) DNS
2 20 (1.42%) Wireless
3 16 (1.13%) Internet
4 15 (1.06%) HTTP
5 12 (0.85%) Wi-Fi
6 11 (0.78%) VPN
7 10 (0.71%) DHCP
8 9 (0.64%) Intranet
8 9 (0.64%) TCP/IP
9 8 (0.57%) BGP
9 8 (0.57%) Cisco ISE
9 8 (0.57%) Firewall
10 7 (0.50%) Cisco Wireless
10 7 (0.50%) NX-OS
10 7 (0.50%) VXLAN
10 7 (0.50%) WAN
11 6 (0.43%) Unified Communications
12 5 (0.35%) Network Security
12 5 (0.35%) SD-WAN
12 5 (0.35%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (4.54%) Power BI
2 40 (2.83%) MySQL
3 38 (2.69%) Relational Database
4 31 (2.20%) PostgreSQL
5 30 (2.13%) NoSQL
6 24 (1.70%) SQL Server
7 21 (1.49%) Data Warehouse
8 15 (1.06%) MongoDB
8 15 (1.06%) Tableau
9 14 (0.99%) BigQuery
9 14 (0.99%) Metadata
10 12 (0.85%) Looker
11 7 (0.50%) Mixpanel
12 6 (0.43%) DynamoDB
12 6 (0.43%) Pinecone
12 6 (0.43%) Power Query
13 5 (0.35%) Hadoop
13 5 (0.35%) Redis
13 5 (0.35%) SAP HANA
14 4 (0.28%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 122 (8.65%) JIRA
2 95 (6.73%) Git
3 46 (3.26%) GitLab
4 34 (2.41%) Jenkins
5 30 (2.13%) Cypress.io
6 26 (1.84%) JUnit
7 24 (1.70%) Axure RP
8 21 (1.49%) Android Studio
8 21 (1.49%) Xcode
9 20 (1.42%) Eclipse
10 16 (1.13%) Gradle
11 15 (1.06%) Browser DevTools
12 12 (0.85%) CircleCI
13 10 (0.71%) Postman
14 9 (0.64%) Artifactory
15 8 (0.57%) Mocha
15 8 (0.57%) Mockito
15 8 (0.57%) Visual Website Optimizer
16 7 (0.50%) Cucumber
16 7 (0.50%) Selenium
General
1 477 (33.81%) Social Skills
2 261 (18.50%) Finance
3 205 (14.53%) Public Sector
4 164 (11.62%) Analytical Skills
5 103 (7.30%) Banking
6 78 (5.53%) Marketing
7 39 (2.76%) Retail
8 32 (2.27%) Influencing Skills
9 28 (1.98%) Legal
9 28 (1.98%) Presentation Skills
10 21 (1.49%) Manufacturing
11 19 (1.35%) Pharmaceutical
12 17 (1.20%) Financial Institution
13 16 (1.13%) Documentation Skills
14 15 (1.06%) Investment Banking
15 14 (0.99%) Telecoms
16 13 (0.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 12 (0.85%) Games
18 10 (0.71%) Organisational Skills
19 9 (0.64%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 253 (17.93%) Designer
2 240 (17.01%) Developer
3 205 (14.53%) Senior
4 142 (10.06%) UX Designer
5 127 (9.00%) Analyst
6 81 (5.74%) Lead
7 62 (4.39%) Business Analyst
8 61 (4.32%) Senior Designer
9 60 (4.25%) Product Designer
10 59 (4.18%) Consultant
11 51 (3.61%) Architect
12 47 (3.33%) User Researcher
13 41 (2.91%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
13 41 (2.91%) Full-Stack Developer
14 40 (2.83%) Service Designer
14 40 (2.83%) UI Designer
15 39 (2.76%) Senior Developer
15 39 (2.76%) Software Engineer
16 37 (2.62%) Senior UX Designer
17 36 (2.55%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 177 (12.54%) CSS
2 175 (12.40%) React
3 160 (11.34%) HTML
4 121 (8.58%) REST
5 94 (6.66%) AngularJS
5 94 (6.66%) RESTful
6 62 (4.39%) Spring
7 61 (4.32%) Spring Boot
8 60 (4.25%) .NET
9 55 (3.90%) Node.js
10 42 (2.98%) HTML5
11 41 (2.91%) GraphQL
12 35 (2.48%) Jest
13 34 (2.41%) CSS3
14 31 (2.20%) JSON
15 29 (2.06%) Redux
16 28 (1.98%) SOAP
17 25 (1.77%) Next.js
18 24 (1.70%) OAuth
19 22 (1.56%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 143 (10.13%) Product Ownership
2 96 (6.80%) Mobile App
3 58 (4.11%) Onboarding
4 29 (2.06%) Enterprise Software
5 28 (1.98%) Analytical Mindset
6 26 (1.84%) AI Agents
7 24 (1.70%) Data Structures
8 17 (1.20%) Low-Code
9 16 (1.13%) Data Protection Act
9 16 (1.13%) Distributed Systems
9 16 (1.13%) NHS
10 15 (1.06%) Cloud Native
10 15 (1.06%) Data Centre
10 15 (1.06%) Legacy Systems
10 15 (1.06%) Virtual Team
11 13 (0.92%) CMDB
12 12 (0.85%) Algorithms
12 12 (0.85%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 11 (0.78%) e-Learning
13 11 (0.78%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 124 (8.79%) Windows
2 58 (4.11%) Android
3 43 (3.05%) Apple iOS
4 37 (2.62%) Windows 10
5 32 (2.27%) Linux
6 24 (1.70%) Mac OS
7 18 (1.28%) Unix
8 6 (0.43%) Windows Server
9 3 (0.21%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.14%) VMS
11 1 (0.071%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.071%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.071%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.071%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 495 (35.08%) Agile
2 471 (33.38%) UX Design
3 226 (16.02%) Problem-Solving
4 225 (15.95%) Analytics
5 217 (15.38%) User Research
6 189 (13.39%) CI/CD
7 177 (12.54%) Stakeholder Management
8 170 (12.05%) DevOps
9 163 (11.55%) AI
10 160 (11.34%) Continuous Improvement
11 147 (10.42%) Roadmaps
12 146 (10.35%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 144 (10.21%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
14 135 (9.57%) Prototyping
15 130 (9.21%) Wireframes
16 126 (8.93%) Service Design
17 123 (8.72%) Usability Testing
18 122 (8.65%) Decision-Making
19 113 (8.01%) UX Research
20 105 (7.44%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 210 (14.88%) JavaScript
2 137 (9.71%) SQL
3 122 (8.65%) Java
4 120 (8.50%) Python
5 116 (8.22%) TypeScript
6 61 (4.32%) C#
6 61 (4.32%) PowerShell
7 34 (2.41%) Kotlin
8 23 (1.63%) Bash
9 20 (1.42%) PHP
10 18 (1.28%) Perl
11 15 (1.06%) Swift
12 11 (0.78%) C++
12 11 (0.78%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 10 (0.71%) PL/SQL
14 9 (0.64%) Go
15 7 (0.50%) Lisp
15 7 (0.50%) Scala
16 5 (0.35%) Lua
17 4 (0.28%) Korn
Qualifications
1 187 (13.25%) Security Cleared
2 138 (9.78%) SC Cleared
3 128 (9.07%) Degree
4 41 (2.91%) BPSS Clearance
5 20 (1.42%) Computer Science Degree
6 17 (1.20%) DV Cleared
6 17 (1.20%) Master's Degree
7 13 (0.92%) Microsoft Certification
8 11 (0.78%) MOS
9 10 (0.71%) CCNP
9 10 (0.71%) Cisco Certification
10 8 (0.57%) PMI Certification
11 7 (0.50%) OCA
11 7 (0.50%) Oracle Certification
12 4 (0.28%) Azure Certification
12 4 (0.28%) CCA
12 4 (0.28%) Citrix Certification
13 3 (0.21%) ITIL Certification
14 2 (0.14%) CISM
14 2 (0.14%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 261 (18.50%) Accessibility
2 142 (10.06%) QA
3 76 (5.39%) WCAG
4 49 (3.47%) GDPR
5 45 (3.19%) Data Quality
6 26 (1.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 23 (1.63%) Actionable Recommendations
8 20 (1.42%) SLA
9 7 (0.50%) PMO
10 6 (0.43%) NCSC
11 5 (0.35%) GxP
12 4 (0.28%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 3 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials
13 3 (0.21%) Disclosure Scotland
13 3 (0.21%) GMP
13 3 (0.21%) Government Security Classifications
13 3 (0.21%) HIPAA
13 3 (0.21%) NIST
13 3 (0.21%) SOC 2
14 2 (0.14%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 73 (5.17%) Active Directory
2 65 (4.61%) Docker
3 22 (1.56%) VMware Infrastructure
4 12 (0.85%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.21%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.14%) ProxySG
7 1 (0.071%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.071%) ISA Server
7 1 (0.071%) Microsoft App-V
7 1 (0.071%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.071%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.071%) XenApp
7 1 (0.071%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 57 (4.04%) Kubernetes
2 44 (3.12%) Microsoft Intune
3 40 (2.83%) Terraform
4 37 (2.62%) SCCM
5 24 (1.70%) Grafana
6 16 (1.13%) Ansible
6 16 (1.13%) Single Sign-On
7 7 (0.50%) FortiGate
8 6 (0.43%) Jamf Pro
8 6 (0.43%) Prometheus
9 4 (0.28%) Argo
9 4 (0.28%) HP ALM
10 3 (0.21%) Nagios
10 3 (0.21%) Rancher
11 2 (0.14%) PingFederate
11 2 (0.14%) SysTrack
12 1 (0.071%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 1 (0.071%) Consul
12 1 (0.071%) Istio
12 1 (0.071%) Podman
Vendors
1 230 (16.30%) Microsoft
2 93 (6.59%) Adobe
3 88 (6.24%) Google
4 80 (5.67%) ServiceNow
5 51 (3.61%) SAP
6 43 (3.05%) Oracle
6 43 (3.05%) Salesforce
7 28 (1.98%) Splunk
8 23 (1.63%) VMware
9 21 (1.49%) Citrix
10 15 (1.06%) Cisco
11 14 (0.99%) Apple
12 13 (0.92%) Zscaler
13 12 (0.85%) Red Hat
14 11 (0.78%) Hotjar
15 10 (0.71%) Amplitude
15 10 (0.71%) OpenAI
15 10 (0.71%) Optimizely
16 9 (0.64%) MuleSoft
16 9 (0.64%) Workday