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

6 months to
20 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 94 66 81
Rank change year-on-year -28 +15 -21
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,518 1,235 1,006
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.84% 3.76% 2.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.35% 4.16% 3.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 917 780 627
10th Percentile £308 £300 £300
25th Percentile £390 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -1.57%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £447 £475
% change year-on-year +0.67% -5.89% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 48 32
10th Percentile £16.83 £23.58 £16.25
25th Percentile £26.00 £34.11 £29.14
Median hourly rate £33.99 £47.50 £40.84
Median % change year-on-year -28.44% +16.31% +54.10%
75th Percentile £67.84 £63.75 £71.29
90th Percentile £73.50 £72.15 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £48.25 £66.00
% change year-on-year -29.55% -26.89% +272.46%

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 45,331 29,700 33,127
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.72% 90.46% 85.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,838 18,524 21,130
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.58%
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 2,836 1,729 1,767
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £14.00
25th Percentile £18.31 £17.33 £18.14
Median hourly rate £41.63 £25.15 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +65.54% -38.57% -0.24%
75th Percentile £67.99 £49.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £68.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £24.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year +83.17% -43.53% +17.65%

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 20 August 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 20 August 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 20 August 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 -26 1,317 £475 - 891
UK excluding London -20 706 £450 +0.67% 507
London -25 672 £520 +4.00% 514
Work from Home -42 379 £478 -2.05% 414
North of England -13 230 £425 -4.92% 132
Midlands -12 142 £475 +9.83% 75
West Midlands -17 113 £475 -8.65% 54
North West -24 112 £393 -12.08% 73
South East -42 109 £413 -8.33% 148
Scotland +6 91 £538 +16.22% 39
South West -15 76 £475 +11.76% 58
Yorkshire -21 69 £500 +25.00% 38
North East -3 48 £375 -21.88% 22
East of England +7 47 £410 -14.14% 37
East Midlands -14 29 £500 +40.85% 21
Wales -12 15 £579 +89.22% 14
Northern Ireland +6 2 £644 +76.98% 14

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 67 (4.41%) SharePoint
2 58 (3.82%) CMS
3 42 (2.77%) Confluence
4 32 (2.11%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (1.05%) WordPress
6 8 (0.53%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 7 (0.46%) Apache
7 7 (0.46%) Skype for Business
8 6 (0.40%) Drupal
8 6 (0.40%) Mendix
9 5 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
9 5 (0.33%) Headless CMS
9 5 (0.33%) Oracle Workflow
10 4 (0.26%) Kentico
11 3 (0.20%) Camunda
11 3 (0.20%) Moodle
11 3 (0.20%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
12 2 (0.13%) IIS
12 2 (0.13%) nginx
Applications
1 35 (2.31%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 32 (2.11%) Sketch
3 25 (1.65%) Microsoft Excel
4 23 (1.52%) Chatbot
5 19 (1.25%) Microsoft Office
5 19 (1.25%) Photoshop
6 18 (1.19%) Adobe After Effects
7 15 (0.99%) Adobe Illustrator
8 14 (0.92%) Adobe XD
9 8 (0.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 6 (0.40%) Final Cut Pro
10 6 (0.40%) MS Visio
11 2 (0.13%) InVision
11 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
11 2 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
11 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
12 1 (0.066%) Adobe Captivate
12 1 (0.066%) Blender
12 1 (0.066%) Microsoft Project
12 1 (0.066%) Trello
Business Applications
1 7 (0.46%) Dynamics CRM
1 7 (0.46%) Workday HCM
2 6 (0.40%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.40%) Shopify
3 4 (0.26%) NetSuite
3 4 (0.26%) Oracle iProcurement
3 4 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.26%) Sage X3
4 3 (0.20%) iTrent
4 3 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
4 3 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
5 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
5 2 (0.13%) ResourceLink
6 1 (0.066%) Bloomberg TOMS
6 1 (0.066%) Magento
6 1 (0.066%) Oracle EBS R12
6 1 (0.066%) SAP HR
6 1 (0.066%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 230 (15.15%) Azure
2 190 (12.52%) Figma
3 147 (9.68%) Microsoft 365
4 136 (8.96%) AWS
5 116 (7.64%) Power Platform
6 72 (4.74%) Entra ID
7 60 (3.95%) GitHub
8 55 (3.62%) Microsoft Copilot
9 51 (3.36%) Azure DevOps
9 51 (3.36%) SaaS
10 42 (2.77%) GCP
11 34 (2.24%) OneDrive
12 33 (2.17%) PowerApps
13 27 (1.78%) Serverless
14 26 (1.71%) Power Automate
15 25 (1.65%) Copilot Studio
16 24 (1.58%) GitHub Actions
17 22 (1.45%) Azure AI
18 18 (1.19%) GitHub Copilot
19 17 (1.12%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 44 (2.90%) DNS
2 36 (2.37%) DHCP
3 31 (2.04%) TCP/IP
4 30 (1.98%) Wi-Fi
5 22 (1.45%) Wireless
6 21 (1.38%) LAN
7 16 (1.05%) Firewall
7 16 (1.05%) VPN
7 16 (1.05%) WAN
8 12 (0.79%) Internet
9 11 (0.72%) SD-WAN
10 9 (0.59%) Cisco Wireless
10 9 (0.59%) Intranet
10 9 (0.59%) Skype
11 8 (0.53%) Network Security
12 7 (0.46%) 5G
12 7 (0.46%) NetScaler
12 7 (0.46%) SNMP
12 7 (0.46%) WLAN
13 6 (0.40%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (4.74%) Power BI
2 25 (1.65%) Metadata
3 18 (1.19%) NoSQL
3 18 (1.19%) PostgreSQL
4 17 (1.12%) Power Query
5 15 (0.99%) Tableau
6 14 (0.92%) Relational Database
6 14 (0.92%) SQL Server
7 13 (0.86%) MongoDB
8 11 (0.72%) Big Data
9 10 (0.66%) Data Warehouse
9 10 (0.66%) Elasticsearch
9 10 (0.66%) Looker
10 9 (0.59%) Redis
11 7 (0.46%) MySQL
11 7 (0.46%) Snowflake Schema
12 6 (0.40%) BigQuery
12 6 (0.40%) Flink
12 6 (0.40%) Qlik Sense
12 6 (0.40%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 87 (5.73%) JIRA
2 78 (5.14%) Git
3 29 (1.91%) Cypress.io
4 28 (1.84%) Jenkins
5 24 (1.58%) Vite
6 17 (1.12%) GitLab
7 14 (0.92%) Claude Code
8 11 (0.72%) Storybook
9 10 (0.66%) Android Studio
9 10 (0.66%) Browser DevTools
9 10 (0.66%) fastlane
10 9 (0.59%) Selenium
10 9 (0.59%) Xcode
11 7 (0.46%) Gradle
11 7 (0.46%) JMeter
12 6 (0.40%) JUnit
12 6 (0.40%) Postman
12 6 (0.40%) webpack
13 5 (0.33%) Oracle Forms
13 5 (0.33%) Visual Studio
General
1 480 (31.62%) Social Skills
2 264 (17.39%) Finance
3 199 (13.11%) Public Sector
4 152 (10.01%) Analytical Skills
5 112 (7.38%) Banking
6 78 (5.14%) Retail
7 73 (4.81%) Marketing
8 51 (3.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 38 (2.50%) Influencing Skills
10 36 (2.37%) Legal
11 28 (1.84%) Organisational Skills
11 28 (1.84%) Presentation Skills
12 27 (1.78%) Automotive
12 27 (1.78%) Publishing
13 25 (1.65%) Manufacturing
14 23 (1.52%) Documentation Skills
15 18 (1.19%) Investment Banking
16 17 (1.12%) Military
17 10 (0.66%) Front Office
17 10 (0.66%) Law
Job Titles
1 326 (21.48%) Designer
2 215 (14.16%) Senior
3 199 (13.11%) Developer
4 129 (8.50%) UX Designer
5 121 (7.97%) Lead
6 101 (6.65%) Analyst
7 82 (5.40%) UI Designer
8 76 (5.01%) Consultant
9 65 (4.28%) Senior Designer
10 64 (4.22%) User Researcher
11 58 (3.82%) Architect
12 52 (3.43%) Support Engineer
13 51 (3.36%) Content Designer
13 51 (3.36%) IT Support
14 49 (3.23%) Business Analyst
14 49 (3.23%) Product Manager
15 45 (2.96%) UI/UX Designer
16 43 (2.83%) Product Designer
17 42 (2.77%) User Experience Researcher
18 39 (2.57%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 144 (9.49%) React
2 114 (7.51%) CSS
3 101 (6.65%) HTML
4 96 (6.32%) REST
5 64 (4.22%) RESTful
6 49 (3.23%) Terraform
7 48 (3.16%) AngularJS
8 44 (2.90%) HTML5
9 41 (2.70%) CSS3
9 41 (2.70%) GraphQL
10 36 (2.37%) .NET
11 32 (2.11%) Jest
12 31 (2.04%) Node.js
13 30 (1.98%) Kafka
13 30 (1.98%) Next.js
14 29 (1.91%) Playwright
15 27 (1.78%) OAuth
16 26 (1.71%) Spring
17 25 (1.65%) Redux
17 25 (1.65%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 139 (9.16%) Product Ownership
2 95 (6.26%) Mobile App
3 84 (5.53%) Onboarding
4 54 (3.56%) Cloud Native
5 47 (3.10%) AI Agents
6 33 (2.17%) Self-Motivation
7 32 (2.11%) Enterprise Software
8 28 (1.84%) Data Protection Act
9 26 (1.71%) Data Structures
9 26 (1.71%) Legacy Systems
10 22 (1.45%) Social Media
11 21 (1.38%) Management Information System
11 21 (1.38%) NHS
12 20 (1.32%) Animation
12 20 (1.32%) Data Centre
13 19 (1.25%) Educational Technology
14 18 (1.19%) Analytical Mindset
15 17 (1.12%) Graphic Design
16 15 (0.99%) Virtual Reality
17 13 (0.86%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 149 (9.82%) Windows
2 64 (4.22%) Android
3 62 (4.08%) Apple iOS
4 56 (3.69%) Windows 10
5 30 (1.98%) Mac OS
6 26 (1.71%) Windows Server
7 19 (1.25%) Linux
8 11 (0.72%) 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 (0.066%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 486 (32.02%) UX Design
2 436 (28.72%) Agile
3 306 (20.16%) AI
4 251 (16.53%) Stakeholder Management
5 250 (16.47%) Problem-Solving
6 220 (14.49%) Continuous Improvement
7 203 (13.37%) Analytics
8 200 (13.18%) User Research
9 177 (11.66%) CI/CD
10 174 (11.46%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 151 (9.95%) Roadmaps
12 143 (9.42%) Decision-Making
13 142 (9.35%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
14 131 (8.63%) Prototyping
15 126 (8.30%) DevOps
16 119 (7.84%) Service Design
17 118 (7.77%) Scrum
18 117 (7.71%) Wireframes
19 113 (7.44%) Workshop Facilitation
20 109 (7.18%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 140 (9.22%) JavaScript
2 120 (7.91%) Python
3 118 (7.77%) TypeScript
4 102 (6.72%) SQL
5 93 (6.13%) Java
6 54 (3.56%) PowerShell
7 36 (2.37%) C#
8 29 (1.91%) Kotlin
9 22 (1.45%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 20 (1.32%) Bash
11 16 (1.05%) Swift
12 8 (0.53%) C++
12 8 (0.53%) Go
12 8 (0.53%) PHP
12 8 (0.53%) VBScript
13 7 (0.46%) Shell Script
13 7 (0.46%) VB
14 6 (0.40%) Apex Code
14 6 (0.40%) Scala
15 5 (0.33%) VBA
Qualifications
1 240 (15.81%) Security Cleared
2 181 (11.92%) SC Cleared
3 127 (8.37%) Degree
4 37 (2.44%) Computer Science Degree
5 34 (2.24%) BPSS Clearance
6 28 (1.84%) DV Cleared
7 23 (1.52%) Azure Certification
8 19 (1.25%) Microsoft Certification
9 14 (0.92%) PMP
10 10 (0.66%) Cisco Certification
11 9 (0.59%) ITIL Certification
12 8 (0.53%) AWS Certification
12 8 (0.53%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 7 (0.46%) DBS Check
13 7 (0.46%) Master's Degree
14 6 (0.40%) CCA
14 6 (0.40%) CCIE
14 6 (0.40%) CCNP
14 6 (0.40%) MCSE
15 5 (0.33%) Citrix Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 258 (17.00%) Accessibility
2 93 (6.13%) WCAG
3 89 (5.86%) QA
4 46 (3.03%) Data Quality
5 19 (1.25%) GDPR
6 15 (0.99%) Actionable Recommendations
7 9 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 9 (0.59%) SLA
8 8 (0.53%) PMO
9 7 (0.46%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 5 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials
11 4 (0.26%) GRC
11 4 (0.26%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 3 (0.20%) GMP
12 3 (0.20%) GxP
13 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.13%) PSD2
14 1 (0.066%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 1 (0.066%) ISO 20022
14 1 (0.066%) NIST
System Software
1 102 (6.72%) Active Directory
2 50 (3.29%) Docker
3 30 (1.98%) Virtual Desktop
4 22 (1.45%) VMware Infrastructure
5 11 (0.72%) Hyper-V
6 7 (0.46%) BitLocker
6 7 (0.46%) vSphere
7 6 (0.40%) Firmware
8 5 (0.33%) Citrix Hypervisor
8 5 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
8 5 (0.33%) XenApp
8 5 (0.33%) XenDesktop
9 4 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
10 3 (0.20%) UAG
11 2 (0.13%) Virtual Machines
11 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
11 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
12 1 (0.066%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 53 (3.49%) Microsoft Intune
2 51 (3.36%) Kubernetes
3 35 (2.31%) Grafana
4 33 (2.17%) SCCM
5 21 (1.38%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (1.12%) Ansible
7 15 (0.99%) Jamf Pro
7 15 (0.99%) Prometheus
8 5 (0.33%) vCenter Server
9 4 (0.26%) Clonezilla
9 4 (0.26%) Podman
9 4 (0.26%) SysTrack
10 3 (0.20%) Kibana
10 3 (0.20%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 3 (0.20%) WSUS
11 2 (0.13%) Argo
11 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
11 2 (0.13%) Packer
11 2 (0.13%) SCOM
11 2 (0.13%) vMotion
Vendors
1 268 (17.65%) Microsoft
2 90 (5.93%) Adobe
3 84 (5.53%) ServiceNow
4 52 (3.43%) Google
5 45 (2.96%) Oracle
6 31 (2.04%) Salesforce
6 31 (2.04%) SAP
7 25 (1.65%) Citrix
7 25 (1.65%) Dynatrace
7 25 (1.65%) VMware
8 22 (1.45%) Databricks
8 22 (1.45%) Splunk
9 21 (1.38%) Apple
10 18 (1.19%) Cisco
11 17 (1.12%) OpenAI
11 17 (1.12%) Workday
12 14 (0.92%) Foundry
12 14 (0.92%) Zscaler
13 12 (0.79%) Aruba
14 10 (0.66%) Okta