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

6 months to
12 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 91 63 77
Rank change year-on-year -28 +14 -17
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,560 1,265 1,070
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.86% 3.83% 2.77%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.38% 4.23% 3.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 935 811 652
10th Percentile £302 £300 £313
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -4.08%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £595
90th Percentile £700 £675 £694
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £447 £475
% change year-on-year +0.67% -5.89% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 75 51 23
10th Percentile £20.31 £15.50 £30.00
25th Percentile £27.67 £30.63 £30.51
Median hourly rate £35.22 £36.50 £50.50
Median % change year-on-year -3.51% -27.72% +6.32%
75th Percentile £67.89 £61.00 £72.20
90th Percentile £77.00 £70.16 £74.35
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £35.60 £66.00
% change year-on-year -4.52% -46.06% +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 46,152 29,871 33,024
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.59% 90.49% 85.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,085 18,553 20,430
10th Percentile £325 £300 £311
25th Percentile £425 £403 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,056 1,793 1,507
10th Percentile £13.85 £14.23 £14.70
25th Percentile £17.44 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% +1.92%
75th Percentile £67.50 £44.78 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.50 £67.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.03 £22.58 £43.00
% change year-on-year +77.32% -47.50% +7.50%

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 12 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 12 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 12 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 -34 1,354 £475 - 1,718
UK excluding London -15 739 £450 +0.67% 798
London -32 684 £513 +2.50% 1,099
Work from Home -31 398 £475 -3.46% 1,592
North of England -12 260 £425 +1.49% 208
Midlands -13 151 £475 +9.51% 99
North West -25 132 £420 -1.18% 117
West Midlands -8 120 £475 -5.00% 65
South East -48 103 £403 -10.56% 191
Scotland 0 93 £538 +16.85% 51
South West -9 81 £475 -2.56% 112
Yorkshire -17 77 £500 +25.00% 66
North East -8 50 £338 -29.69% 28
East of England -4 41 £425 -19.05% 79
East Midlands -15 31 £500 +39.66% 34
Wales -17 13 £555 +81.21% 19
Northern Ireland +5 3 £638 +56.44% 43

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 71 (4.55%) SharePoint
2 58 (3.72%) CMS
3 43 (2.76%) Confluence
4 32 (2.05%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (1.03%) WordPress
6 9 (0.58%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 7 (0.45%) Apache
7 7 (0.45%) Skype for Business
8 6 (0.38%) Drupal
8 6 (0.38%) Oracle Workflow
9 5 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
10 4 (0.26%) Headless CMS
10 4 (0.26%) Kentico
10 4 (0.26%) Mendix
11 3 (0.19%) Camunda
11 3 (0.19%) ColdFusion
11 3 (0.19%) Moodle
11 3 (0.19%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
12 2 (0.13%) IIS
Applications
1 34 (2.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 29 (1.86%) Sketch
3 24 (1.54%) Microsoft Office
4 23 (1.47%) Microsoft Excel
5 21 (1.35%) Chatbot
6 19 (1.22%) Photoshop
7 18 (1.15%) Adobe After Effects
8 16 (1.03%) Adobe Illustrator
9 14 (0.90%) Adobe XD
10 11 (0.71%) MS Visio
11 9 (0.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
12 7 (0.45%) Final Cut Pro
13 3 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
14 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
14 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
15 1 (0.064%) Adobe Captivate
15 1 (0.064%) Adobe Premiere
15 1 (0.064%) Blender
15 1 (0.064%) InVision
15 1 (0.064%) Trello
Business Applications
1 7 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
1 7 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
1 7 (0.45%) Workday HCM
2 6 (0.38%) Shopify
3 5 (0.32%) NetSuite
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%) IBM Planning Analytics
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
7 1 (0.064%) Exchequer
7 1 (0.064%) Magento
7 1 (0.064%) NEC Housing
7 1 (0.064%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.064%) ResourceLink
7 1 (0.064%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 229 (14.68%) Azure
2 188 (12.05%) Figma
3 151 (9.68%) Microsoft 365
4 139 (8.91%) AWS
5 115 (7.37%) Power Platform
6 66 (4.23%) Entra ID
7 64 (4.10%) GitHub
8 61 (3.91%) Microsoft Copilot
9 56 (3.59%) SaaS
10 50 (3.21%) Azure DevOps
11 39 (2.50%) GCP
12 35 (2.24%) PowerApps
13 33 (2.12%) OneDrive
14 29 (1.86%) Copilot Studio
14 29 (1.86%) Power Automate
15 26 (1.67%) GitHub Actions
15 26 (1.67%) Serverless
16 24 (1.54%) Azure AI
17 18 (1.15%) GitHub Copilot
18 17 (1.09%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 45 (2.88%) DNS
2 38 (2.44%) DHCP
3 33 (2.12%) TCP/IP
4 30 (1.92%) Wi-Fi
5 21 (1.35%) Wireless
6 19 (1.22%) VPN
7 18 (1.15%) LAN
8 16 (1.03%) Firewall
8 16 (1.03%) WAN
9 11 (0.71%) NetScaler
10 10 (0.64%) Internet
11 9 (0.58%) SD-WAN
12 8 (0.51%) Cisco Wireless
12 8 (0.51%) Network Security
12 8 (0.51%) Skype
13 7 (0.45%) SNMP
14 6 (0.38%) 5G
14 6 (0.38%) Intranet
14 6 (0.38%) WLAN
15 5 (0.32%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 68 (4.36%) Power BI
2 25 (1.60%) Metadata
3 19 (1.22%) NoSQL
3 19 (1.22%) PostgreSQL
4 14 (0.90%) MongoDB
4 14 (0.90%) Power Query
4 14 (0.90%) SQL Server
5 13 (0.83%) Tableau
6 12 (0.77%) Elasticsearch
7 11 (0.71%) Big Data
7 11 (0.71%) Relational Database
8 10 (0.64%) Redis
9 9 (0.58%) Looker
10 7 (0.45%) MySQL
10 7 (0.45%) Qlik Sense
10 7 (0.45%) Snowflake Schema
11 6 (0.38%) Flink
11 6 (0.38%) Star Schema
12 5 (0.32%) Data Warehouse
12 5 (0.32%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 88 (5.64%) Git
2 84 (5.38%) JIRA
3 32 (2.05%) Jenkins
4 27 (1.73%) Cypress.io
4 27 (1.73%) Vite
5 19 (1.22%) Storybook
6 16 (1.03%) GitLab
7 15 (0.96%) Claude Code
8 12 (0.77%) fastlane
9 10 (0.64%) Android Studio
10 9 (0.58%) Browser DevTools
10 9 (0.58%) Xcode
11 8 (0.51%) JMeter
11 8 (0.51%) webpack
12 7 (0.45%) Postman
12 7 (0.45%) REST Assured
13 6 (0.38%) Gradle
14 5 (0.32%) Crashlytics
14 5 (0.32%) Fiddler
14 5 (0.32%) JUnit
General
1 503 (32.24%) Social Skills
2 257 (16.47%) Finance
3 218 (13.97%) Public Sector
4 158 (10.13%) Analytical Skills
5 107 (6.86%) Banking
6 80 (5.13%) Retail
7 74 (4.74%) Marketing
8 56 (3.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 43 (2.76%) Influencing Skills
10 42 (2.69%) Legal
11 28 (1.79%) Automotive
11 28 (1.79%) Publishing
12 27 (1.73%) Organisational Skills
13 23 (1.47%) Documentation Skills
13 23 (1.47%) Presentation Skills
14 22 (1.41%) Manufacturing
15 20 (1.28%) Military
16 17 (1.09%) Investment Banking
17 12 (0.77%) Front Office
18 10 (0.64%) Law
Job Titles
1 318 (20.38%) Designer
2 225 (14.42%) Senior
3 218 (13.97%) Developer
4 132 (8.46%) Lead
5 129 (8.27%) UX Designer
6 100 (6.41%) Analyst
7 80 (5.13%) UI Designer
8 72 (4.62%) Consultant
9 67 (4.29%) Senior Designer
10 65 (4.17%) Architect
11 60 (3.85%) User Researcher
12 56 (3.59%) IT Support
12 56 (3.59%) Support Engineer
13 55 (3.53%) Product Manager
14 49 (3.14%) Business Analyst
15 47 (3.01%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
16 45 (2.88%) Content Designer
17 43 (2.76%) UI/UX Designer
18 42 (2.69%) Product Designer
19 41 (2.63%) User Experience Researcher
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 161 (10.32%) React
2 123 (7.88%) CSS
3 112 (7.18%) HTML
4 96 (6.15%) REST
5 63 (4.04%) RESTful
6 50 (3.21%) Terraform
7 48 (3.08%) HTML5
8 46 (2.95%) AngularJS
9 45 (2.88%) CSS3
10 44 (2.82%) GraphQL
11 39 (2.50%) .NET
12 36 (2.31%) Node.js
13 33 (2.12%) Playwright
13 33 (2.12%) Spring
14 32 (2.05%) Jest
14 32 (2.05%) Next.js
14 32 (2.05%) Spring Boot
15 30 (1.92%) OAuth
16 29 (1.86%) Kafka
17 28 (1.79%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 150 (9.62%) Product Ownership
2 90 (5.77%) Mobile App
3 86 (5.51%) Onboarding
4 60 (3.85%) Cloud Native
5 52 (3.33%) AI Agents
6 32 (2.05%) Self-Motivation
7 31 (1.99%) Data Protection Act
8 30 (1.92%) Management Information System
9 29 (1.86%) Enterprise Software
10 27 (1.73%) Legacy Systems
11 25 (1.60%) Data Structures
12 22 (1.41%) NHS
12 22 (1.41%) Social Media
13 21 (1.35%) Data Centre
14 19 (1.22%) Educational Technology
15 17 (1.09%) Animation
16 16 (1.03%) Graphic Design
17 13 (0.83%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
17 13 (0.83%) Taxonomies
17 13 (0.83%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 154 (9.87%) Windows
2 68 (4.36%) Apple iOS
3 67 (4.29%) Android
4 58 (3.72%) Windows 10
5 34 (2.18%) Windows Server
6 32 (2.05%) Mac OS
7 19 (1.22%) Linux
8 12 (0.77%) 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%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.064%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 497 (31.86%) UX Design
2 446 (28.59%) Agile
3 313 (20.06%) AI
4 284 (18.21%) Stakeholder Management
5 256 (16.41%) Problem-Solving
6 241 (15.45%) Continuous Improvement
7 211 (13.53%) Analytics
8 199 (12.76%) User Research
9 185 (11.86%) CI/CD
10 175 (11.22%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 156 (10.00%) Roadmaps
12 152 (9.74%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
13 151 (9.68%) Decision-Making
14 128 (8.21%) DevOps
15 125 (8.01%) Scrum
15 125 (8.01%) Service Design
16 120 (7.69%) Prototyping
17 118 (7.56%) Workshop Facilitation
18 114 (7.31%) Service Management
19 111 (7.12%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 150 (9.62%) JavaScript
2 131 (8.40%) TypeScript
3 111 (7.12%) Python
4 99 (6.35%) Java
5 97 (6.22%) SQL
6 50 (3.21%) PowerShell
7 37 (2.37%) C#
8 29 (1.86%) Kotlin
9 20 (1.28%) Bash
10 19 (1.22%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 18 (1.15%) Swift
12 9 (0.58%) Go
13 8 (0.51%) PHP
13 8 (0.51%) VBScript
14 7 (0.45%) Shell Script
14 7 (0.45%) VB
15 6 (0.38%) Scala
16 5 (0.32%) Apex Code
16 5 (0.32%) Korn
17 4 (0.26%) R
Qualifications
1 238 (15.26%) Security Cleared
2 184 (11.79%) SC Cleared
3 118 (7.56%) Degree
4 44 (2.82%) BPSS Clearance
5 35 (2.24%) Computer Science Degree
6 26 (1.67%) DV Cleared
7 24 (1.54%) Azure Certification
8 21 (1.35%) Microsoft Certification
9 16 (1.03%) PMP
10 9 (0.58%) Cisco Certification
10 9 (0.58%) ITIL Certification
11 8 (0.51%) AWS Certification
11 8 (0.51%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 7 (0.45%) DBS Check
13 6 (0.38%) MCSE
13 6 (0.38%) PMI Certification
14 5 (0.32%) CCA
14 5 (0.32%) CCIE
14 5 (0.32%) CCNP
14 5 (0.32%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 269 (17.24%) Accessibility
2 104 (6.67%) WCAG
3 93 (5.96%) QA
4 47 (3.01%) Data Quality
5 19 (1.22%) GDPR
6 15 (0.96%) Actionable Recommendations
7 12 (0.77%) SLA
8 8 (0.51%) PMO
9 7 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 7 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 6 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials
11 3 (0.19%) GRC
12 2 (0.13%) GMP
12 2 (0.13%) GxP
12 2 (0.13%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.13%) PSD2
13 1 (0.064%) HIPAA
13 1 (0.064%) ISO 20022
13 1 (0.064%) SEPA
System Software
1 108 (6.92%) Active Directory
2 49 (3.14%) Docker
3 29 (1.86%) Virtual Desktop
4 25 (1.60%) VMware Infrastructure
5 15 (0.96%) Hyper-V
6 9 (0.58%) Citrix Hypervisor
7 8 (0.51%) XenApp
7 8 (0.51%) XenDesktop
8 7 (0.45%) BitLocker
8 7 (0.45%) vSphere
9 5 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
10 4 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
11 3 (0.19%) UAG
12 2 (0.13%) Firmware
12 2 (0.13%) Virtual Machines
12 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
12 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
13 1 (0.064%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 50 (3.21%) Kubernetes
1 50 (3.21%) Microsoft Intune
2 36 (2.31%) Grafana
3 31 (1.99%) SCCM
4 21 (1.35%) Single Sign-On
5 17 (1.09%) Ansible
6 16 (1.03%) Jamf Pro
7 14 (0.90%) Prometheus
8 5 (0.32%) SysTrack
8 5 (0.32%) vCenter Server
9 4 (0.26%) Clonezilla
9 4 (0.26%) Podman
10 3 (0.19%) Kibana
10 3 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 3 (0.19%) 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
1 280 (17.95%) Microsoft
2 89 (5.71%) ServiceNow
3 87 (5.58%) Adobe
4 51 (3.27%) Google
5 46 (2.95%) Oracle
6 32 (2.05%) SAP
7 30 (1.92%) Salesforce
8 28 (1.79%) Dynatrace
8 28 (1.79%) VMware
9 25 (1.60%) Citrix
9 25 (1.60%) Splunk
10 22 (1.41%) Apple
10 22 (1.41%) Databricks
11 20 (1.28%) OpenAI
12 18 (1.15%) Cisco
13 16 (1.03%) Foundry
13 16 (1.03%) Workday
14 14 (0.90%) Zscaler
15 11 (0.71%) Aruba
16 10 (0.64%) Okta