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

6 months to
25 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 80 64 68
Rank change year-on-year -16 +4 -3
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,392 1,043 1,259
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.17% 3.59% 2.84%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.69% 3.96% 3.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 962 718 832
10th Percentile £313 £308 £306
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -2.50% -
75th Percentile £575 £586 £600
90th Percentile £650 £688 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £466
% change year-on-year +5.56% -3.33% +0.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 45 24 47
10th Percentile £16.29 £28.48 £16.25
25th Percentile £17.69 £41.06 £24.38
Median hourly rate £40.50 £49.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -18.18% +52.31% -19.75%
75th Percentile £61.25 £75.12 £64.77
90th Percentile £78.90 £92.50 £75.66
UK excluding London median hourly rate £34.00 £61.75 £25.00
% change year-on-year -44.94% +147.00% -44.44%

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 37,704 26,329 38,303
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.90% 90.53% 86.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,901 17,073 24,878
10th Percentile £313 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £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 £725 £738 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £482 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -1.13% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,218 942 2,338
10th Percentile £14.94 £15.20 £12.85
25th Percentile £18.50 £20.75 £16.00
Median hourly rate £32.50 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year - - -9.72%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.31 £57.75
90th Percentile £75.12 £77.10 £71.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £31.76 £31.50
% change year-on-year -5.54% +0.83% -12.50%

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 25 March 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 25 March 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 25 March 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 -15 1,202 £488 -2.50% 728
London -20 623 £500 -2.91% 296
UK excluding London -14 600 £475 +5.56% 522
Work from Home -27 361 £482 -2.53% 357
North of England +8 205 £450 - 176
North West +9 130 £420 -6.67% 94
South East -12 126 £490 -4.39% 122
Midlands -21 113 £500 +25.00% 93
West Midlands -28 71 £475 +9.51% 62
South West -11 66 £450 +20.00% 59
Scotland 0 53 £493 +12.57% 23
Yorkshire -24 53 £506 +26.56% 45
East Midlands -8 42 £550 +54.49% 31
East of England -24 29 £425 -10.53% 33
North East +2 21 £388 -14.36% 39
Wales +1 15 £375 -9.09% 19
Northern Ireland -10 3 - - 5

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 56 (4.02%) SharePoint
2 49 (3.52%) Confluence
3 40 (2.87%) CMS
4 22 (1.58%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 16 (1.15%) Microsoft Exchange
6 12 (0.86%) Headless CMS
7 10 (0.72%) Apache
8 8 (0.57%) Sitecore CMS
8 8 (0.57%) Umbraco
9 5 (0.36%) Camunda
10 4 (0.29%) Ethereum
10 4 (0.29%) Hyperledger
10 4 (0.29%) Mendix
11 3 (0.22%) Anypoint
11 3 (0.22%) Apache Spark
11 3 (0.22%) Drupal
11 3 (0.22%) Jupyter
12 2 (0.14%) Appian
13 1 (0.072%) Palantir Foundry
13 1 (0.072%) Strapi
Applications
1 43 (3.09%) Sketch
2 34 (2.44%) Adobe XD
3 27 (1.94%) Microsoft Excel
4 25 (1.80%) MS Visio
5 24 (1.72%) Chatbot
6 15 (1.08%) Microsoft Office
7 14 (1.01%) InVision
8 12 (0.86%) Photoshop
9 8 (0.57%) Adobe Illustrator
10 7 (0.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 6 (0.43%) Spreadsheet
12 5 (0.36%) Adobe After Effects
12 5 (0.36%) Adobe Creative Suite
13 4 (0.29%) Trello
13 4 (0.29%) UXPin
14 3 (0.22%) Adobe Captivate
14 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
14 3 (0.22%) UserZoom
15 2 (0.14%) Camtasia
15 2 (0.14%) OmniGraffle
Business Applications
1 15 (1.08%) Dynamics CRM
2 12 (0.86%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.50%) Workday HCM
4 6 (0.43%) Sage X3
4 6 (0.43%) Shopify
5 3 (0.22%) SAP CO
5 3 (0.22%) SAP FI
5 3 (0.22%) SAP FI/CO
6 2 (0.14%) iTrent
6 2 (0.14%) Magento
6 2 (0.14%) NEC Housing
6 2 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.14%) ResourceLink
6 2 (0.14%) SAP ERP
6 2 (0.14%) Sprinklr
7 1 (0.072%) Adobe Campaign
7 1 (0.072%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.072%) Integrated Workplace Management System
7 1 (0.072%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.072%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 231 (16.59%) Azure
2 189 (13.58%) Figma
3 139 (9.99%) AWS
4 100 (7.18%) Power Platform
5 84 (6.03%) Microsoft 365
6 67 (4.81%) Azure DevOps
7 56 (4.02%) GCP
8 53 (3.81%) GitHub
9 52 (3.74%) SaaS
10 50 (3.59%) Entra ID
11 39 (2.80%) PowerApps
12 37 (2.66%) Power Automate
13 35 (2.51%) Serverless
14 33 (2.37%) GitHub Actions
15 25 (1.80%) Microsoft Copilot
16 23 (1.65%) Dynamics 365
16 23 (1.65%) Google Workspace
16 23 (1.65%) Miro
17 22 (1.58%) Cloud Computing
18 21 (1.51%) Google Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 19 (1.36%) DNS
2 17 (1.22%) Wireless
3 16 (1.15%) Internet
4 12 (0.86%) HTTP
4 12 (0.86%) Wi-Fi
5 11 (0.79%) Intranet
5 11 (0.79%) LAN
5 11 (0.79%) VPN
6 10 (0.72%) DHCP
7 9 (0.65%) Firewall
7 9 (0.65%) TCP/IP
7 9 (0.65%) WAN
8 8 (0.57%) BGP
8 8 (0.57%) Cisco ISE
8 8 (0.57%) SD-WAN
9 7 (0.50%) Cisco Wireless
10 6 (0.43%) Network Security
10 6 (0.43%) NX-OS
10 6 (0.43%) SSL
10 6 (0.43%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 67 (4.81%) Power BI
2 35 (2.51%) Relational Database
3 34 (2.44%) NoSQL
4 28 (2.01%) PostgreSQL
5 24 (1.72%) Data Warehouse
5 24 (1.72%) MySQL
6 22 (1.58%) SQL Server
7 17 (1.22%) MongoDB
7 17 (1.22%) Tableau
8 15 (1.08%) Metadata
9 12 (0.86%) BigQuery
10 9 (0.65%) Looker
11 8 (0.57%) Power Query
12 7 (0.50%) Pinecone
13 6 (0.43%) DynamoDB
13 6 (0.43%) Redis
13 6 (0.43%) ZAP BI
14 5 (0.36%) Hadoop
15 4 (0.29%) Oracle BI Publisher
15 4 (0.29%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 114 (8.19%) JIRA
2 89 (6.39%) Git
3 45 (3.23%) GitLab
4 32 (2.30%) Cypress.io
4 32 (2.30%) Jenkins
5 27 (1.94%) JUnit
6 23 (1.65%) Axure RP
7 15 (1.08%) Gradle
8 14 (1.01%) Android Studio
9 13 (0.93%) Selenium
10 12 (0.86%) CircleCI
10 12 (0.86%) Xcode
11 11 (0.79%) Eclipse
12 10 (0.72%) Browser DevTools
12 10 (0.72%) Postman
13 9 (0.65%) Artifactory
14 8 (0.57%) Mocha
14 8 (0.57%) Mockito
14 8 (0.57%) Visual Studio
15 7 (0.50%) Jasmine
General
1 444 (31.90%) Social Skills
2 262 (18.82%) Finance
3 199 (14.30%) Public Sector
4 162 (11.64%) Analytical Skills
5 115 (8.26%) Banking
6 62 (4.45%) Marketing
7 42 (3.02%) Retail
8 29 (2.08%) Presentation Skills
9 27 (1.94%) Legal
10 24 (1.72%) Influencing Skills
11 22 (1.58%) Manufacturing
12 19 (1.36%) Pharmaceutical
13 18 (1.29%) Documentation Skills
14 17 (1.22%) Games
15 16 (1.15%) Investment Banking
16 15 (1.08%) Financial Institution
17 14 (1.01%) Front Office
18 13 (0.93%) Publishing
19 12 (0.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 12 (0.86%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 258 (18.53%) Designer
2 225 (16.16%) Developer
3 211 (15.16%) Senior
4 139 (9.99%) Analyst
5 134 (9.63%) UX Designer
6 67 (4.81%) Business Analyst
7 64 (4.60%) Lead
8 62 (4.45%) Consultant
9 59 (4.24%) Product Designer
10 57 (4.09%) Senior Designer
11 55 (3.95%) Architect
12 48 (3.45%) User Researcher
13 44 (3.16%) Senior Developer
14 43 (3.09%) UI Designer
15 42 (3.02%) Full-Stack Developer
16 41 (2.95%) Software Engineer
17 40 (2.87%) Service Designer
18 39 (2.80%) Support Engineer
19 37 (2.66%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
20 36 (2.59%) IT Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 179 (12.86%) React
2 159 (11.42%) CSS
3 147 (10.56%) HTML
4 117 (8.41%) REST
5 92 (6.61%) AngularJS
5 92 (6.61%) RESTful
6 66 (4.74%) Spring
7 65 (4.67%) Spring Boot
8 59 (4.24%) .NET
9 54 (3.88%) Node.js
10 42 (3.02%) HTML5
11 37 (2.66%) CSS3
11 37 (2.66%) Jest
12 35 (2.51%) JSON
13 34 (2.44%) GraphQL
14 33 (2.37%) Redux
15 29 (2.08%) Next.js
16 25 (1.80%) Playwright
16 25 (1.80%) Vue
17 21 (1.51%) ASP.NET
Miscellaneous
1 142 (10.20%) Product Ownership
2 84 (6.03%) Mobile App
3 50 (3.59%) Onboarding
4 28 (2.01%) AI Agents
5 27 (1.94%) Enterprise Software
6 26 (1.87%) Data Structures
7 23 (1.65%) Analytical Mindset
8 17 (1.22%) Data Protection Act
9 16 (1.15%) Cloud Native
9 16 (1.15%) Distributed Systems
10 15 (1.08%) Algorithms
10 15 (1.08%) Virtual Team
11 14 (1.01%) Data Centre
11 14 (1.01%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 14 (1.01%) Legacy Systems
11 14 (1.01%) NHS
12 12 (0.86%) Low-Code
12 12 (0.86%) Management Information System
13 11 (0.79%) CMDB
13 11 (0.79%) Graphic Design
Operating Systems
1 120 (8.62%) Windows
2 44 (3.16%) Android
3 43 (3.09%) Windows 10
4 31 (2.23%) Apple iOS
5 26 (1.87%) Linux
6 19 (1.36%) Mac OS
7 11 (0.79%) Unix
8 6 (0.43%) Windows Server
9 2 (0.14%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.072%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.072%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.072%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.072%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 466 (33.48%) Agile
2 460 (33.05%) UX Design
3 227 (16.31%) Problem-Solving
4 206 (14.80%) Analytics
5 204 (14.66%) User Research
6 189 (13.58%) AI
7 185 (13.29%) CI/CD
8 174 (12.50%) DevOps
9 161 (11.57%) Stakeholder Management
10 160 (11.49%) Continuous Improvement
11 158 (11.35%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 136 (9.77%) Prototyping
12 136 (9.77%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
13 132 (9.48%) Roadmaps
14 123 (8.84%) Wireframes
15 122 (8.76%) Decision-Making
16 121 (8.69%) Service Design
17 113 (8.12%) UX Research
18 107 (7.69%) Usability Testing
19 97 (6.97%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 197 (14.15%) JavaScript
2 141 (10.13%) SQL
3 127 (9.12%) Python
4 125 (8.98%) Java
5 114 (8.19%) TypeScript
6 66 (4.74%) C#
7 59 (4.24%) PowerShell
8 29 (2.08%) Kotlin
9 17 (1.22%) Bash
10 13 (0.93%) C++
10 13 (0.93%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 13 (0.93%) Perl
11 9 (0.65%) Lua
11 9 (0.65%) Swift
12 8 (0.57%) PHP
13 7 (0.50%) PL/SQL
14 6 (0.43%) Go
14 6 (0.43%) Korn
14 6 (0.43%) Lisp
14 6 (0.43%) VBA
Qualifications
1 182 (13.07%) Security Cleared
2 128 (9.20%) Degree
2 128 (9.20%) SC Cleared
3 34 (2.44%) BPSS Clearance
4 29 (2.08%) Computer Science Degree
5 18 (1.29%) DV Cleared
6 17 (1.22%) Microsoft Certification
7 16 (1.15%) Master's Degree
8 11 (0.79%) CCNP
8 11 (0.79%) Cisco Certification
9 8 (0.57%) Azure Certification
9 8 (0.57%) MOS
9 8 (0.57%) PMI Certification
10 6 (0.43%) Citrix Certification
10 6 (0.43%) OCA
10 6 (0.43%) Oracle Certification
11 5 (0.36%) CCA
12 4 (0.29%) ISTQB
12 4 (0.29%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 3 (0.22%) CESG Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 251 (18.03%) Accessibility
2 133 (9.55%) QA
3 80 (5.75%) WCAG
4 44 (3.16%) Data Quality
5 38 (2.73%) GDPR
6 20 (1.44%) Actionable Recommendations
7 18 (1.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 16 (1.15%) SLA
9 8 (0.57%) PMO
10 6 (0.43%) NCSC
11 5 (0.36%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 4 (0.29%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 4 (0.29%) GMP
12 4 (0.29%) GxP
12 4 (0.29%) NIST
13 3 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials
13 3 (0.22%) Disclosure Scotland
13 3 (0.22%) Government Security Classifications
13 3 (0.22%) GRC
13 3 (0.22%) HIPAA
System Software
1 72 (5.17%) Active Directory
2 69 (4.96%) Docker
3 18 (1.29%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (1.08%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (0.36%) Firmware
6 3 (0.22%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.14%) ProxySG
8 1 (0.072%) ISA Server
8 1 (0.072%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.072%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.072%) XenApp
8 1 (0.072%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 63 (4.53%) Kubernetes
2 43 (3.09%) Terraform
3 38 (2.73%) Microsoft Intune
4 27 (1.94%) SCCM
5 25 (1.80%) Grafana
6 16 (1.15%) Ansible
7 11 (0.79%) Single Sign-On
8 6 (0.43%) FortiGate
8 6 (0.43%) Jamf Pro
8 6 (0.43%) Prometheus
9 4 (0.29%) Argo
10 3 (0.22%) HP ALM
10 3 (0.22%) Nagios
10 3 (0.22%) Rancher
11 2 (0.14%) SysTrack
12 1 (0.072%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 1 (0.072%) Consul
12 1 (0.072%) Kibana
12 1 (0.072%) Podman
12 1 (0.072%) WMI
Vendors
1 219 (15.73%) Microsoft
2 85 (6.11%) Adobe
3 77 (5.53%) Google
4 71 (5.10%) ServiceNow
5 43 (3.09%) Oracle
6 42 (3.02%) SAP
7 34 (2.44%) Salesforce
8 21 (1.51%) Citrix
9 20 (1.44%) Splunk
10 19 (1.36%) VMware
11 17 (1.22%) Cisco
12 15 (1.08%) Apple
13 13 (0.93%) Workday
14 12 (0.86%) Red Hat
14 12 (0.86%) Zscaler
15 9 (0.65%) Ekahau
15 9 (0.65%) MuleSoft
15 9 (0.65%) OpenAI
15 9 (0.65%) Sitecore
16 7 (0.50%) Databricks