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

6 months to
26 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 96 62 76
Rank change year-on-year -34 +14 -11
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,562 1,242 1,056
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.85% 3.75% 2.76%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.37% 4.15% 3.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 936 799 624
10th Percentile £313 £302 £313
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% -5.00% -3.85%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £588
90th Percentile £704 £675 £699
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £475
% change year-on-year - -5.26% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 51 28
10th Percentile £18.17 £15.50 £26.17
25th Percentile £27.45 £25.15 £30.33
Median hourly rate £35.22 £36.50 £39.75
Median % change year-on-year -3.51% -8.18% -16.32%
75th Percentile £67.88 £55.88 £71.29
90th Percentile £76.40 £65.00 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £31.25 £51.77
% change year-on-year +8.77% -39.64% +192.16%

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 46,293 29,942 32,892
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.37% 90.52% 85.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,017 18,609 19,950
10th Percentile £325 £300 £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 £630 £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 3,198 1,849 1,396
10th Percentile £13.69 £14.32 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.23 £17.33 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -40.82% -
75th Percentile £66.00 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £65.25 £74.22
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £22.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year +77.78% -47.67% +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 26 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 26 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 26 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 1,354 £475 - 2,960
UK excluding London -12 727 £450 - 1,381
London -28 697 £514 +3.79% 1,812
Work from Home -34 391 £500 +1.21% 1,292
North of England -9 259 £425 - 389
Midlands -10 150 £475 +6.26% 213
North West -28 130 £400 -5.88% 229
West Midlands -3 118 £475 -5.00% 142
South East -64 94 £400 -10.51% 307
Scotland -5 92 £538 +18.13% 98
Yorkshire -10 81 £500 +25.00% 118
South West -5 79 £475 -2.56% 150
North East -1 47 £325 -30.11% 45
East of England -19 42 £410 -18.00% 111
East Midlands -16 32 £500 +31.58% 71
Wales -12 13 £530 +73.20% 39
Northern Ireland +3 4 £638 +2.00% 80

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 72 (4.61%) SharePoint
2 65 (4.16%) CMS
3 49 (3.14%) Confluence
4 32 (2.05%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (1.02%) WordPress
6 9 (0.58%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 7 (0.45%) Apache
7 7 (0.45%) Headless CMS
7 7 (0.45%) Skype for Business
7 7 (0.45%) Traefik
8 6 (0.38%) Drupal
8 6 (0.38%) Oracle Workflow
9 5 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
10 4 (0.26%) Kentico
10 4 (0.26%) Mendix
11 3 (0.19%) ColdFusion
11 3 (0.19%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
12 2 (0.13%) IIS
12 2 (0.13%) nginx
Applications
1 32 (2.05%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 28 (1.79%) Sketch
3 26 (1.66%) Microsoft Office
4 21 (1.34%) Microsoft Excel
5 18 (1.15%) Adobe After Effects
5 18 (1.15%) Photoshop
6 17 (1.09%) Chatbot
7 16 (1.02%) Adobe Illustrator
8 13 (0.83%) Adobe XD
9 10 (0.64%) MS Visio
10 8 (0.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 7 (0.45%) Final Cut Pro
12 3 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
13 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
13 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
14 1 (0.064%) Adobe Captivate
14 1 (0.064%) Adobe Premiere
14 1 (0.064%) Blender
14 1 (0.064%) InVision
14 1 (0.064%) Trello
Business Applications
1 10 (0.64%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.45%) Workday HCM
3 5 (0.32%) NetSuite
3 5 (0.32%) Shopify
4 4 (0.26%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 4 (0.26%) Oracle iProcurement
4 4 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
5 3 (0.19%) iTrent
5 3 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.13%) SAP HR
7 1 (0.064%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.064%) Eloqua
7 1 (0.064%) Exchequer
7 1 (0.064%) Magento
7 1 (0.064%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.064%) SAP HCM
7 1 (0.064%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 224 (14.34%) Azure
2 182 (11.65%) Figma
3 150 (9.60%) AWS
4 148 (9.48%) Microsoft 365
5 118 (7.55%) Power Platform
6 70 (4.48%) Entra ID
7 63 (4.03%) GitHub
8 60 (3.84%) Microsoft Copilot
9 57 (3.65%) SaaS
10 44 (2.82%) Azure DevOps
11 39 (2.50%) GCP
12 35 (2.24%) PowerApps
13 34 (2.18%) OneDrive
14 29 (1.86%) Copilot Studio
14 29 (1.86%) Power Automate
15 28 (1.79%) GitHub Actions
16 25 (1.60%) Serverless
17 23 (1.47%) Azure AI
18 18 (1.15%) GitHub Copilot
19 17 (1.09%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 47 (3.01%) DNS
2 39 (2.50%) DHCP
3 37 (2.37%) TCP/IP
4 28 (1.79%) Wi-Fi
5 22 (1.41%) VPN
6 19 (1.22%) Wireless
7 18 (1.15%) Firewall
8 16 (1.02%) LAN
8 16 (1.02%) WAN
9 13 (0.83%) NetScaler
10 11 (0.70%) Network Security
11 8 (0.51%) Cisco Wireless
11 8 (0.51%) Internet
11 8 (0.51%) SD-WAN
12 7 (0.45%) Skype
12 7 (0.45%) SNMP
13 6 (0.38%) Intranet
14 5 (0.32%) 5G
14 5 (0.32%) SMS
14 5 (0.32%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 68 (4.35%) Power BI
2 26 (1.66%) Metadata
3 19 (1.22%) NoSQL
4 18 (1.15%) PostgreSQL
4 18 (1.15%) SQL Server
5 15 (0.96%) Power Query
6 13 (0.83%) MongoDB
6 13 (0.83%) MySQL
6 13 (0.83%) Tableau
7 12 (0.77%) Big Data
7 12 (0.77%) Elasticsearch
8 11 (0.70%) Relational Database
9 10 (0.64%) Redis
10 9 (0.58%) Looker
11 8 (0.51%) Qlik Sense
12 7 (0.45%) Snowflake Schema
12 7 (0.45%) Star Schema
13 6 (0.38%) BigQuery
13 6 (0.38%) Flink
13 6 (0.38%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 93 (5.95%) Git
2 85 (5.44%) JIRA
3 34 (2.18%) Jenkins
4 27 (1.73%) Vite
5 26 (1.66%) Cypress.io
6 23 (1.47%) Storybook
7 16 (1.02%) Claude Code
7 16 (1.02%) GitLab
8 11 (0.70%) fastlane
9 9 (0.58%) Android Studio
9 9 (0.58%) Browser DevTools
10 8 (0.51%) webpack
10 8 (0.51%) Xcode
11 7 (0.45%) REST Assured
12 6 (0.38%) JMeter
12 6 (0.38%) Postman
13 5 (0.32%) Fiddler
13 5 (0.32%) Gradle
13 5 (0.32%) JUnit
13 5 (0.32%) MSI
General
1 509 (32.59%) Social Skills
2 257 (16.45%) Finance
3 219 (14.02%) Public Sector
4 150 (9.60%) Analytical Skills
5 101 (6.47%) Banking
6 80 (5.12%) Marketing
7 79 (5.06%) Retail
8 55 (3.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 47 (3.01%) Influencing Skills
9 47 (3.01%) Legal
10 28 (1.79%) Automotive
10 28 (1.79%) Publishing
11 25 (1.60%) Organisational Skills
12 23 (1.47%) Presentation Skills
13 22 (1.41%) Documentation Skills
13 22 (1.41%) Manufacturing
13 22 (1.41%) Military
14 17 (1.09%) Investment Banking
15 13 (0.83%) Front Office
16 11 (0.70%) Law
Job Titles
1 310 (19.85%) Designer
2 231 (14.79%) Developer
3 219 (14.02%) Senior
4 137 (8.77%) Lead
5 132 (8.45%) UX Designer
6 91 (5.83%) Analyst
7 78 (4.99%) UI Designer
8 72 (4.61%) Architect
9 66 (4.23%) Senior Designer
10 63 (4.03%) Consultant
11 62 (3.97%) User Researcher
12 53 (3.39%) IT Support
12 53 (3.39%) Support Engineer
13 51 (3.27%) Product Manager
14 50 (3.20%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
15 45 (2.88%) User Experience Researcher
16 44 (2.82%) Business Analyst
17 43 (2.75%) Content Designer
17 43 (2.75%) UI/UX Designer
18 42 (2.69%) Product Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 164 (10.50%) React
2 118 (7.55%) CSS
3 106 (6.79%) HTML
4 98 (6.27%) REST
5 60 (3.84%) RESTful
6 47 (3.01%) Terraform
7 46 (2.94%) HTML5
8 43 (2.75%) GraphQL
9 42 (2.69%) AngularJS
10 41 (2.62%) CSS3
11 37 (2.37%) Node.js
12 35 (2.24%) .NET
13 33 (2.11%) OAuth
13 33 (2.11%) Playwright
14 32 (2.05%) Next.js
14 32 (2.05%) Spring
14 32 (2.05%) Spring Boot
15 31 (1.98%) Jest
16 27 (1.73%) Redux
17 25 (1.60%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 163 (10.44%) Product Ownership
2 94 (6.02%) Mobile App
3 82 (5.25%) Onboarding
4 62 (3.97%) Cloud Native
5 51 (3.27%) AI Agents
6 31 (1.98%) Management Information System
6 31 (1.98%) Self-Motivation
7 30 (1.92%) Data Protection Act
8 29 (1.86%) Enterprise Software
8 29 (1.86%) Legacy Systems
9 24 (1.54%) Data Structures
10 22 (1.41%) Data Centre
10 22 (1.41%) Social Media
11 20 (1.28%) NHS
12 19 (1.22%) Educational Technology
13 17 (1.09%) Animation
14 16 (1.02%) Graphic Design
15 15 (0.96%) Taxonomies
16 13 (0.83%) Analytical Mindset
16 13 (0.83%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 153 (9.80%) Windows
2 69 (4.42%) Apple iOS
3 66 (4.23%) Android
4 56 (3.59%) Windows 10
5 36 (2.30%) Windows Server
6 32 (2.05%) Mac OS
7 17 (1.09%) Linux
8 13 (0.83%) Unix
9 9 (0.58%) Windows 7
10 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.13%) AIX
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 490 (31.37%) UX Design
2 459 (29.39%) Agile
3 303 (19.40%) AI
4 295 (18.89%) Stakeholder Management
5 248 (15.88%) Problem-Solving
6 242 (15.49%) Continuous Improvement
7 209 (13.38%) User Research
8 207 (13.25%) Analytics
9 189 (12.10%) CI/CD
10 180 (11.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 163 (10.44%) Roadmaps
12 160 (10.24%) Decision-Making
13 150 (9.60%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
14 133 (8.51%) Service Design
15 126 (8.07%) DevOps
16 125 (8.00%) Scrum
17 119 (7.62%) Prototyping
17 119 (7.62%) Workshop Facilitation
18 118 (7.55%) Service Management
19 112 (7.17%) UX Research
Programming Languages
1 148 (9.48%) JavaScript
2 139 (8.90%) TypeScript
3 103 (6.59%) Python
4 101 (6.47%) SQL
5 98 (6.27%) Java
6 49 (3.14%) PowerShell
7 31 (1.98%) C#
8 30 (1.92%) Kotlin
9 21 (1.34%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 19 (1.22%) Bash
10 19 (1.22%) Swift
11 10 (0.64%) Go
12 8 (0.51%) PHP
13 7 (0.45%) Shell Script
13 7 (0.45%) VB
13 7 (0.45%) VBScript
14 6 (0.38%) Scala
15 5 (0.32%) Apex Code
15 5 (0.32%) C++
16 4 (0.26%) Perl
Qualifications
1 254 (16.26%) Security Cleared
2 196 (12.55%) SC Cleared
3 113 (7.23%) Degree
4 48 (3.07%) BPSS Clearance
5 30 (1.92%) Computer Science Degree
6 25 (1.60%) DV Cleared
7 20 (1.28%) Azure Certification
8 18 (1.15%) PMP
9 15 (0.96%) Microsoft Certification
10 8 (0.51%) AWS Certification
10 8 (0.51%) ITIL Certification
11 7 (0.45%) Cisco Certification
11 7 (0.45%) DBS Check
11 7 (0.45%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 6 (0.38%) PMI Certification
13 5 (0.32%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 5 (0.32%) CCA
13 5 (0.32%) CISSP
13 5 (0.32%) Master's Degree
13 5 (0.32%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 269 (17.22%) Accessibility
2 105 (6.72%) QA
3 102 (6.53%) WCAG
4 49 (3.14%) Data Quality
5 19 (1.22%) GDPR
6 18 (1.15%) Actionable Recommendations
7 14 (0.90%) SLA
8 10 (0.64%) PMO
9 6 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials
9 6 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 5 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 3 (0.19%) 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 (0.064%) HIPAA
13 1 (0.064%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 113 (7.23%) Active Directory
2 53 (3.39%) Docker
3 26 (1.66%) Virtual Desktop
3 26 (1.66%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (0.96%) Hyper-V
5 10 (0.64%) Citrix Hypervisor
5 10 (0.64%) XenApp
6 9 (0.58%) XenDesktop
7 7 (0.45%) BitLocker
7 7 (0.45%) vSphere
8 5 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
9 4 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
10 3 (0.19%) UAG
10 3 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
11 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
11 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
12 1 (0.064%) Firmware
12 1 (0.064%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 54 (3.46%) Kubernetes
2 53 (3.39%) Microsoft Intune
3 35 (2.24%) Grafana
4 29 (1.86%) SCCM
5 21 (1.34%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (1.09%) Ansible
7 15 (0.96%) Jamf Pro
8 14 (0.90%) Prometheus
9 7 (0.45%) Istio
10 6 (0.38%) vCenter Server
11 5 (0.32%) SysTrack
12 4 (0.26%) Clonezilla
13 3 (0.19%) Kibana
13 3 (0.19%) Podman
13 3 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
13 3 (0.19%) WSUS
14 2 (0.13%) Argo
14 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
14 2 (0.13%) SCOM
14 2 (0.13%) vMotion
Vendors
1 280 (17.93%) Microsoft
2 92 (5.89%) ServiceNow
3 82 (5.25%) Adobe
4 50 (3.20%) Google
4 50 (3.20%) Oracle
5 33 (2.11%) Salesforce
6 32 (2.05%) SAP
7 29 (1.86%) VMware
8 26 (1.66%) Citrix
8 26 (1.66%) Dynatrace
8 26 (1.66%) Splunk
9 21 (1.34%) Databricks
10 19 (1.22%) OpenAI
11 18 (1.15%) Apple
12 16 (1.02%) Foundry
12 16 (1.02%) Zscaler
13 15 (0.96%) Cisco
13 15 (0.96%) Workday
14 9 (0.58%) Aruba
14 9 (0.58%) Okta