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

6 months to
22 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 81 59 70
Rank change year-on-year -22 +11 -8
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,403 1,107 1,237
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.03% 3.76% 2.85%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.57% 4.14% 3.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 957 756 826
10th Percentile £313 £305 £300
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.56% -4.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £592
90th Percentile £675 £701 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £425 £475
% change year-on-year +11.76% -10.53% +2.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 23 48
10th Percentile £17.04 £28.31 £16.25
25th Percentile £21.12 £41.58 £24.69
Median hourly rate £50.00 £53.50 £32.11
Median % change year-on-year -6.54% +66.64% -8.27%
75th Percentile £62.38 £77.73 £64.65
90th Percentile £77.36 £93.50 £73.96
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.75 £70.00 £25.00
% change year-on-year -37.50% +180.00% -3.85%

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 39,324 26,741 37,503
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.82% 90.76% 86.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,807 17,298 24,232
10th Percentile £318 £306 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.89% -0.90% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £480 £500
% change year-on-year +1.09% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,359 1,048 2,416
10th Percentile £14.96 £14.84 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.88 £18.51 £16.00
Median hourly rate £39.00 £30.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +30.00% -14.29% -6.67%
75th Percentile £65.60 £62.50 £58.69
90th Percentile £78.31 £75.00 £71.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.54 £28.75 £35.00
% change year-on-year +41.01% -17.86% -6.67%

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 22 April 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 22 April 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 22 April 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 -19 1,215 £488 -2.30% 1,065
London -20 630 £513 - 344
UK excluding London -2 604 £475 +11.76% 822
Work from Home -31 349 £475 -1.04% 435
North of England -3 198 £449 -0.33% 399
Midlands -8 138 £500 +25.00% 123
North West +1 124 £423 -6.11% 318
South East -15 115 £488 +5.41% 145
West Midlands -20 93 £475 +2.70% 70
South West -23 63 £463 +23.33% 56
Scotland -16 51 £533 +20.00% 23
Yorkshire -26 50 £500 +24.84% 61
East Midlands -5 45 £550 +53.63% 53
East of England -22 26 £418 -12.11% 65
North East -9 22 £405 -10.50% 22
Wales -3 15 £375 +22.55% 9
Northern Ireland -6 3 - - 17

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 54 (3.85%) SharePoint
2 46 (3.28%) Confluence
3 37 (2.64%) CMS
4 19 (1.35%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 18 (1.28%) Microsoft Exchange
6 7 (0.50%) Apache
7 6 (0.43%) Headless CMS
7 6 (0.43%) Sitecore CMS
7 6 (0.43%) Umbraco
8 5 (0.36%) Camunda
8 5 (0.36%) Mendix
9 4 (0.29%) Ethereum
9 4 (0.29%) Hyperledger
10 3 (0.21%) Anypoint
10 3 (0.21%) Apache Spark
10 3 (0.21%) Drupal
10 3 (0.21%) nginx
11 2 (0.14%) Appian
11 2 (0.14%) IIS
11 2 (0.14%) WordPress
Applications
1 46 (3.28%) Sketch
2 34 (2.42%) Adobe XD
3 24 (1.71%) Microsoft Excel
4 21 (1.50%) MS Visio
5 20 (1.43%) Chatbot
6 13 (0.93%) InVision
6 13 (0.93%) Microsoft Office
7 12 (0.86%) Photoshop
8 8 (0.57%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 8 (0.57%) Adobe Illustrator
9 7 (0.50%) Adobe After Effects
10 6 (0.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 5 (0.36%) Spreadsheet
11 5 (0.36%) Trello
12 4 (0.29%) UserZoom
13 3 (0.21%) Adobe Captivate
13 3 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
13 3 (0.21%) UXPin
14 2 (0.14%) Autodesk Smoke
14 2 (0.14%) Camtasia
Business Applications
1 16 (1.14%) Dynamics CRM
2 13 (0.93%) SAP S/4HANA
3 9 (0.64%) Shopify
4 8 (0.57%) Workday HCM
5 6 (0.43%) Sage X3
6 2 (0.14%) NEC Housing
6 2 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
6 2 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
6 2 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.14%) ResourceLink
6 2 (0.14%) SAP CO
6 2 (0.14%) SAP ERP
6 2 (0.14%) SAP FI
6 2 (0.14%) SAP FI/CO
6 2 (0.14%) Sprinklr
7 1 (0.071%) assyst
7 1 (0.071%) Oracle ERP
7 1 (0.071%) SAP CRM
7 1 (0.071%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 226 (16.11%) Azure
2 202 (14.40%) Figma
3 119 (8.48%) AWS
4 103 (7.34%) Power Platform
5 94 (6.70%) Microsoft 365
6 66 (4.70%) Azure DevOps
7 57 (4.06%) Entra ID
8 54 (3.85%) GCP
9 53 (3.78%) GitHub
10 38 (2.71%) PowerApps
10 38 (2.71%) SaaS
11 37 (2.64%) Power Automate
12 35 (2.49%) Microsoft Copilot
13 34 (2.42%) Serverless
14 31 (2.21%) GitHub Actions
15 24 (1.71%) Dynamics 365
15 24 (1.71%) Miro
16 23 (1.64%) Google Workspace
17 20 (1.43%) Copilot Studio
17 20 (1.43%) Google Sheets
Communications & Networking
1 16 (1.14%) DNS
2 12 (0.86%) LAN
2 12 (0.86%) Wireless
3 11 (0.78%) Internet
3 11 (0.78%) Intranet
3 11 (0.78%) SD-WAN
3 11 (0.78%) Wi-Fi
4 10 (0.71%) DHCP
4 10 (0.71%) HTTP
5 9 (0.64%) VPN
6 8 (0.57%) WAN
7 7 (0.50%) TCP/IP
8 6 (0.43%) Cisco Wireless
8 6 (0.43%) Firewall
8 6 (0.43%) Network Security
8 6 (0.43%) SSL
8 6 (0.43%) WLAN
9 5 (0.36%) 5G
9 5 (0.36%) Cisco ISE
9 5 (0.36%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (4.99%) Power BI
2 28 (2.00%) NoSQL
3 27 (1.92%) PostgreSQL
4 26 (1.85%) Relational Database
5 24 (1.71%) SQL Server
6 21 (1.50%) Data Warehouse
7 18 (1.28%) MySQL
8 17 (1.21%) Tableau
9 16 (1.14%) Metadata
9 16 (1.14%) MongoDB
10 11 (0.78%) BigQuery
11 10 (0.71%) Power Query
12 8 (0.57%) Looker
13 7 (0.50%) Pinecone
14 6 (0.43%) Big Data
14 6 (0.43%) DynamoDB
14 6 (0.43%) Oracle BI Publisher
14 6 (0.43%) ZAP BI
15 5 (0.36%) Hadoop
15 5 (0.36%) Redis
Development Applications
1 107 (7.63%) JIRA
2 77 (5.49%) Git
3 38 (2.71%) GitLab
4 27 (1.92%) Cypress.io
5 26 (1.85%) Jenkins
6 25 (1.78%) JUnit
7 20 (1.43%) Axure RP
8 13 (0.93%) Gradle
8 13 (0.93%) Selenium
9 11 (0.78%) CircleCI
10 10 (0.71%) Browser DevTools
11 8 (0.57%) Android Studio
11 8 (0.57%) Visual Studio
11 8 (0.57%) Vite
12 7 (0.50%) Mockito
12 7 (0.50%) Postman
12 7 (0.50%) Xcode
13 6 (0.43%) Jasmine
13 6 (0.43%) Mocha
14 5 (0.36%) Artifactory
General
1 450 (32.07%) Social Skills
2 272 (19.39%) Finance
3 197 (14.04%) Public Sector
4 159 (11.33%) Analytical Skills
5 113 (8.05%) Banking
6 57 (4.06%) Marketing
7 51 (3.64%) Retail
8 34 (2.42%) Legal
9 31 (2.21%) Presentation Skills
10 27 (1.92%) Influencing Skills
11 25 (1.78%) Manufacturing
12 22 (1.57%) Documentation Skills
13 20 (1.43%) Pharmaceutical
14 17 (1.21%) Games
15 15 (1.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 15 (1.07%) Organisational Skills
15 15 (1.07%) Publishing
16 13 (0.93%) Front Office
16 13 (0.93%) Investment Banking
17 11 (0.78%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 287 (20.46%) Designer
2 215 (15.32%) Senior
3 199 (14.18%) Developer
4 138 (9.84%) UX Designer
5 130 (9.27%) Analyst
6 68 (4.85%) Business Analyst
7 66 (4.70%) Consultant
7 66 (4.70%) Lead
8 62 (4.42%) Product Designer
9 59 (4.21%) Architect
10 57 (4.06%) Senior Designer
11 53 (3.78%) User Researcher
12 49 (3.49%) UI Designer
13 42 (2.99%) Service Designer
14 38 (2.71%) Content Designer
14 38 (2.71%) UI/UX Designer
15 37 (2.64%) IT Support
15 37 (2.64%) User Experience Researcher
16 36 (2.57%) Full-Stack Developer
16 36 (2.57%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 157 (11.19%) React
2 143 (10.19%) CSS
3 133 (9.48%) HTML
4 108 (7.70%) REST
5 80 (5.70%) RESTful
6 79 (5.63%) AngularJS
7 64 (4.56%) Spring
8 63 (4.49%) Spring Boot
9 61 (4.35%) .NET
10 38 (2.71%) HTML5
11 37 (2.64%) Node.js
12 34 (2.42%) Redux
13 33 (2.35%) CSS3
13 33 (2.35%) JSON
14 32 (2.28%) GraphQL
15 30 (2.14%) Jest
16 27 (1.92%) Next.js
17 24 (1.71%) Vue
18 23 (1.64%) Kafka
19 21 (1.50%) ASP.NET
Miscellaneous
1 137 (9.76%) Product Ownership
2 73 (5.20%) Mobile App
3 50 (3.56%) Onboarding
4 34 (2.42%) Enterprise Software
5 30 (2.14%) AI Agents
6 29 (2.07%) Data Structures
7 24 (1.71%) Analytical Mindset
8 18 (1.28%) Cloud Native
8 18 (1.28%) Distributed Systems
8 18 (1.28%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 16 (1.14%) Data Protection Act
10 14 (1.00%) Legacy Systems
10 14 (1.00%) NHS
10 14 (1.00%) Virtual Reality
11 13 (0.93%) Augmented Reality
11 13 (0.93%) Self-Motivation
12 12 (0.86%) Algorithms
12 12 (0.86%) Management Information System
13 11 (0.78%) Graphic Design
13 11 (0.78%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 101 (7.20%) Windows
2 39 (2.78%) Windows 10
3 38 (2.71%) Android
4 32 (2.28%) Apple iOS
5 22 (1.57%) Mac OS
6 12 (0.86%) Linux
7 9 (0.64%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.36%) Unix
8 5 (0.36%) Windows Server 2016
9 4 (0.29%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.14%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.071%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.071%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.071%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 461 (32.86%) Agile
1 461 (32.86%) UX Design
2 216 (15.40%) Problem-Solving
3 214 (15.25%) AI
4 213 (15.18%) User Research
5 204 (14.54%) Analytics
6 174 (12.40%) CI/CD
7 169 (12.05%) Stakeholder Management
8 166 (11.83%) DevOps
9 163 (11.62%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 160 (11.40%) Continuous Improvement
11 143 (10.19%) Prototyping
11 143 (10.19%) Roadmaps
12 134 (9.55%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
13 129 (9.19%) Wireframes
14 127 (9.05%) Service Design
14 127 (9.05%) UX Research
15 119 (8.48%) Decision-Making
16 107 (7.63%) Usability Testing
17 103 (7.34%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 179 (12.76%) JavaScript
2 133 (9.48%) SQL
3 122 (8.70%) Java
4 112 (7.98%) Python
5 108 (7.70%) TypeScript
6 66 (4.70%) C#
7 46 (3.28%) PowerShell
8 27 (1.92%) Kotlin
9 16 (1.14%) Bash
10 15 (1.07%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 11 (0.78%) C++
12 9 (0.64%) Lua
13 8 (0.57%) Swift
14 7 (0.50%) Korn
14 7 (0.50%) PL/SQL
15 6 (0.43%) Go
15 6 (0.43%) Perl
15 6 (0.43%) PHP
15 6 (0.43%) Scala
15 6 (0.43%) VBA
Qualifications
1 180 (12.83%) Security Cleared
2 132 (9.41%) SC Cleared
3 118 (8.41%) Degree
4 35 (2.49%) BPSS Clearance
5 28 (2.00%) Computer Science Degree
6 20 (1.43%) Microsoft Certification
7 16 (1.14%) DV Cleared
8 13 (0.93%) Azure Certification
8 13 (0.93%) Master's Degree
9 12 (0.86%) Cisco Certification
10 10 (0.71%) CCNP
11 8 (0.57%) PMI Certification
12 6 (0.43%) CCA
12 6 (0.43%) CCIE
12 6 (0.43%) Citrix Certification
12 6 (0.43%) OCA
12 6 (0.43%) Oracle Certification
13 4 (0.29%) ISTQB
13 4 (0.29%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 4 (0.29%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 247 (17.61%) Accessibility
2 126 (8.98%) QA
3 75 (5.35%) WCAG
4 47 (3.35%) Data Quality
5 39 (2.78%) GDPR
6 24 (1.71%) Actionable Recommendations
7 16 (1.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 11 (0.78%) SLA
9 8 (0.57%) PMO
10 6 (0.43%) GMP
10 6 (0.43%) GxP
11 5 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials
11 5 (0.36%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 4 (0.29%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 4 (0.29%) GRC
13 3 (0.21%) Disclosure Scotland
13 3 (0.21%) HIPAA
13 3 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 3 (0.21%) NCSC
13 3 (0.21%) NIST
System Software
1 77 (5.49%) Active Directory
2 56 (3.99%) Docker
3 19 (1.35%) Virtual Desktop
3 19 (1.35%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (0.36%) Firmware
5 4 (0.29%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.21%) XenApp
6 3 (0.21%) XenDesktop
7 2 (0.14%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.071%) ISA Server
8 1 (0.071%) Varnish
8 1 (0.071%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.071%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 58 (4.13%) Kubernetes
2 43 (3.06%) Terraform
3 36 (2.57%) Microsoft Intune
4 28 (2.00%) SCCM
5 25 (1.78%) Grafana
6 15 (1.07%) Single Sign-On
7 12 (0.86%) Ansible
8 6 (0.43%) Jamf Pro
8 6 (0.43%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.21%) Argo
9 3 (0.21%) HP ALM
9 3 (0.21%) Nagios
9 3 (0.21%) Podman
9 3 (0.21%) Rancher
9 3 (0.21%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 2 (0.14%) Failover Clustering
10 2 (0.14%) FortiGate
10 2 (0.14%) SysTrack
10 2 (0.14%) WSUS
11 1 (0.071%) AirWatch
Vendors
1 209 (14.90%) Microsoft
2 90 (6.41%) Adobe
3 68 (4.85%) Google
4 56 (3.99%) ServiceNow
5 49 (3.49%) SAP
6 45 (3.21%) Oracle
7 37 (2.64%) Salesforce
8 25 (1.78%) Citrix
9 19 (1.35%) VMware
10 17 (1.21%) Workday
11 15 (1.07%) Cisco
12 14 (1.00%) Apple
12 14 (1.00%) Splunk
13 10 (0.71%) Databricks
13 10 (0.71%) Sitecore
13 10 (0.71%) Zscaler
14 9 (0.64%) Foundry
14 9 (0.64%) MuleSoft
14 9 (0.64%) OpenAI
15 8 (0.57%) Aruba