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

6 months to
30 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 95 63 74
Rank change year-on-year -32 +11 -6
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,562 1,241 1,044
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.85% 3.78% 2.78%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.37% 4.17% 3.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 934 795 618
10th Percentile £313 £300 £313
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £484 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.84% -5.00% -2.91%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £588
90th Percentile £710 £675 £697
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £475
% change year-on-year - -5.26% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 75 51 27
10th Percentile £18.48 £15.50 £28.10
25th Percentile £27.67 £25.15 £30.51
Median hourly rate £35.22 £36.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -3.51% -14.12% -10.53%
75th Percentile £67.89 £55.88 £72.20
90th Percentile £77.00 £65.00 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £31.25 £51.77
% change year-on-year +8.77% -39.64% +58.75%

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 46,343 29,774 32,275
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.43% 90.67% 85.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,026 18,502 19,486
10th Percentile £325 £296 £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 £731 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,222 1,849 1,345
10th Percentile £13.70 £14.29 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.19 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £38.86 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +54.51% -40.82% -
75th Percentile £65.60 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £65.00 £74.48
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.27 £22.32 £43.00
% change year-on-year +75.98% -48.10% +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 30 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 30 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 30 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 -30 1,353 £475 - 2,826
UK excluding London -11 733 £450 - 1,353
London -30 691 £513 +3.54% 1,636
Work from Home -37 385 £494 +1.33% 1,255
North of England -10 260 £425 - 411
Midlands -3 152 £463 +3.23% 197
North West -30 130 £388 -8.82% 231
West Midlands +2 121 £463 -7.40% 127
South East -51 94 £403 -9.96% 261
Scotland +3 92 £538 +16.85% 103
Yorkshire -9 82 £500 +23.08% 128
South West +1 81 £475 -5.00% 161
North East 0 47 £325 -32.29% 54
East of England -9 43 £410 -21.90% 122
East Midlands -19 31 £475 +18.16% 70
Wales -14 13 £530 +73.20% 38
Northern Ireland +6 4 £638 +2.00% 66

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 74 (4.74%) SharePoint
2 66 (4.23%) CMS
3 49 (3.14%) Confluence
4 32 (2.05%) Microsoft Exchange
5 17 (1.09%) 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 27 (1.73%) Sketch
3 26 (1.66%) Microsoft Office
4 20 (1.28%) 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 12 (0.77%) 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 9 (0.58%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.45%) Workday HCM
3 5 (0.32%) NetSuite
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
4 4 (0.26%) Shopify
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
2 184 (11.78%) Figma
3 150 (9.60%) Microsoft 365
4 149 (9.54%) AWS
5 119 (7.62%) Power Platform
6 71 (4.55%) Entra ID
7 64 (4.10%) GitHub
8 59 (3.78%) Microsoft Copilot
9 57 (3.65%) SaaS
10 45 (2.88%) Azure DevOps
11 37 (2.37%) GCP
12 35 (2.24%) PowerApps
13 34 (2.18%) OneDrive
14 29 (1.86%) Power Automate
15 28 (1.79%) Copilot Studio
15 28 (1.79%) GitHub Actions
16 25 (1.60%) Serverless
17 21 (1.34%) Azure AI
18 18 (1.15%) GitHub Copilot
19 16 (1.02%) Miro
Communications & Networking
1 47 (3.01%) DNS
2 39 (2.50%) DHCP
3 37 (2.37%) TCP/IP
4 27 (1.73%) Wi-Fi
5 22 (1.41%) VPN
6 18 (1.15%) Firewall
6 18 (1.15%) Wireless
7 16 (1.02%) LAN
7 16 (1.02%) WAN
8 14 (0.90%) NetScaler
9 11 (0.70%) Network Security
10 8 (0.51%) Internet
11 7 (0.45%) Cisco Wireless
11 7 (0.45%) SD-WAN
11 7 (0.45%) Skype
11 7 (0.45%) SNMP
12 6 (0.38%) Intranet
13 5 (0.32%) SMS
13 5 (0.32%) SSL
14 4 (0.26%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (4.55%) Power BI
2 25 (1.60%) Metadata
3 18 (1.15%) NoSQL
3 18 (1.15%) PostgreSQL
3 18 (1.15%) Power Query
4 17 (1.09%) SQL Server
5 13 (0.83%) MongoDB
5 13 (0.83%) MySQL
5 13 (0.83%) Tableau
6 12 (0.77%) Elasticsearch
7 11 (0.70%) Big Data
7 11 (0.70%) Relational Database
8 10 (0.64%) Redis
9 9 (0.58%) Looker
10 8 (0.51%) Qlik Sense
11 7 (0.45%) Snowflake Schema
11 7 (0.45%) Star Schema
12 6 (0.38%) BigQuery
12 6 (0.38%) Flink
12 6 (0.38%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 91 (5.83%) Git
2 86 (5.51%) JIRA
3 33 (2.11%) Jenkins
4 26 (1.66%) Cypress.io
4 26 (1.66%) Vite
5 23 (1.47%) Storybook
6 16 (1.02%) Claude Code
7 15 (0.96%) GitLab
8 11 (0.70%) fastlane
9 9 (0.58%) Android Studio
9 9 (0.58%) Browser DevTools
9 9 (0.58%) 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%) JUnit
13 5 (0.32%) MSI
13 5 (0.32%) TeamCity
General
1 509 (32.59%) Social Skills
2 254 (16.26%) Finance
3 219 (14.02%) Public Sector
4 148 (9.48%) Analytical Skills
5 99 (6.34%) Banking
6 81 (5.19%) Marketing
7 80 (5.12%) Retail
8 55 (3.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 45 (2.88%) Legal
10 44 (2.82%) Influencing Skills
11 28 (1.79%) Automotive
11 28 (1.79%) Publishing
12 26 (1.66%) Organisational Skills
13 24 (1.54%) Presentation Skills
14 22 (1.41%) Manufacturing
14 22 (1.41%) Military
15 20 (1.28%) Documentation Skills
16 18 (1.15%) Investment Banking
17 13 (0.83%) Front Office
18 9 (0.58%) Law
Job Titles
1 311 (19.91%) Designer
2 231 (14.79%) Developer
3 217 (13.89%) Senior
4 137 (8.77%) Lead
5 133 (8.51%) UX Designer
6 92 (5.89%) Analyst
7 79 (5.06%) UI Designer
8 70 (4.48%) Architect
9 66 (4.23%) Senior Designer
10 64 (4.10%) User Researcher
11 62 (3.97%) Consultant
12 53 (3.39%) IT Support
13 52 (3.33%) Support Engineer
14 51 (3.27%) Product Manager
15 50 (3.20%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
16 46 (2.94%) Business Analyst
17 45 (2.88%) User Experience Researcher
18 44 (2.82%) Product Designer
18 44 (2.82%) UI/UX Designer
19 42 (2.69%) Content Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 164 (10.50%) React
2 117 (7.49%) CSS
3 106 (6.79%) HTML
4 96 (6.15%) REST
5 63 (4.03%) RESTful
6 46 (2.94%) Terraform
7 45 (2.88%) HTML5
8 43 (2.75%) AngularJS
9 42 (2.69%) GraphQL
10 40 (2.56%) CSS3
11 36 (2.30%) Node.js
12 35 (2.24%) .NET
13 33 (2.11%) OAuth
14 32 (2.05%) Next.js
14 32 (2.05%) Playwright
14 32 (2.05%) Spring
14 32 (2.05%) Spring Boot
15 30 (1.92%) Jest
16 26 (1.66%) Redux
17 25 (1.60%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 164 (10.50%) Product Ownership
2 96 (6.15%) Mobile App
3 82 (5.25%) Onboarding
4 62 (3.97%) Cloud Native
5 50 (3.20%) AI Agents
6 32 (2.05%) Management Information System
6 32 (2.05%) Self-Motivation
7 30 (1.92%) Enterprise Software
8 29 (1.86%) Data Protection Act
8 29 (1.86%) Legacy Systems
9 22 (1.41%) Data Centre
9 22 (1.41%) Data Structures
9 22 (1.41%) Social Media
10 20 (1.28%) NHS
11 19 (1.22%) Educational Technology
12 17 (1.09%) Animation
13 16 (1.02%) Graphic Design
14 15 (0.96%) Taxonomies
15 13 (0.83%) CMDB
15 13 (0.83%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 155 (9.92%) Windows
2 69 (4.42%) Apple iOS
3 66 (4.23%) Android
4 57 (3.65%) Windows 10
5 37 (2.37%) 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 3 (0.19%) AIX
12 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 488 (31.24%) UX Design
2 462 (29.58%) Agile
3 300 (19.21%) AI
4 297 (19.01%) Stakeholder Management
5 245 (15.69%) Problem-Solving
6 241 (15.43%) Continuous Improvement
7 215 (13.76%) User Research
8 208 (13.32%) Analytics
9 187 (11.97%) CI/CD
10 181 (11.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 166 (10.63%) Decision-Making
11 166 (10.63%) Roadmaps
12 150 (9.60%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
13 132 (8.45%) Service Design
14 126 (8.07%) DevOps
15 124 (7.94%) Scrum
16 121 (7.75%) Prototyping
17 119 (7.62%) Workshop Facilitation
18 118 (7.55%) Service Management
19 112 (7.17%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 147 (9.41%) JavaScript
2 139 (8.90%) TypeScript
3 101 (6.47%) SQL
4 99 (6.34%) Java
4 99 (6.34%) Python
5 49 (3.14%) PowerShell
6 31 (1.98%) C#
7 30 (1.92%) Kotlin
8 23 (1.47%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 19 (1.22%) Bash
9 19 (1.22%) Swift
10 10 (0.64%) Go
11 8 (0.51%) PHP
12 7 (0.45%) Shell Script
12 7 (0.45%) VB
12 7 (0.45%) VBScript
13 6 (0.38%) Scala
14 5 (0.32%) Apex Code
14 5 (0.32%) C++
15 4 (0.26%) Perl
Qualifications
1 256 (16.39%) Security Cleared
2 198 (12.68%) SC Cleared
3 114 (7.30%) Degree
4 48 (3.07%) BPSS Clearance
5 30 (1.92%) Computer Science Degree
6 24 (1.54%) 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%) DBS Check
11 7 (0.45%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 6 (0.38%) Cisco Certification
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
1 275 (17.61%) Accessibility
2 106 (6.79%) QA
3 103 (6.59%) WCAG
4 50 (3.20%) Data Quality
5 19 (1.22%) Actionable Recommendations
5 19 (1.22%) GDPR
6 15 (0.96%) SLA
7 11 (0.70%) PMO
8 6 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials
9 5 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 4 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 42001
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%) ISO 20022
13 1 (0.064%) WAI
System Software
1 115 (7.36%) Active Directory
2 52 (3.33%) Docker
3 27 (1.73%) VMware Infrastructure
4 26 (1.66%) Virtual Desktop
5 16 (1.02%) Hyper-V
6 11 (0.70%) Citrix Hypervisor
7 10 (0.64%) XenApp
8 9 (0.58%) XenDesktop
9 7 (0.45%) BitLocker
9 7 (0.45%) vSphere
10 5 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
11 4 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
12 3 (0.19%) UAG
12 3 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
13 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
13 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
14 1 (0.064%) Firmware
14 1 (0.064%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 53 (3.39%) Kubernetes
1 53 (3.39%) Microsoft Intune
2 34 (2.18%) Grafana
3 29 (1.86%) SCCM
4 21 (1.34%) Single Sign-On
5 17 (1.09%) Ansible
6 15 (0.96%) Jamf Pro
7 14 (0.90%) Prometheus
8 7 (0.45%) Istio
9 6 (0.38%) SysTrack
9 6 (0.38%) vCenter Server
10 4 (0.26%) Clonezilla
11 3 (0.19%) Kibana
11 3 (0.19%) Podman
11 3 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 3 (0.19%) WSUS
12 2 (0.13%) Argo
12 2 (0.13%) Packer
12 2 (0.13%) SCOM
12 2 (0.13%) vMotion
Vendors
1 278 (17.80%) Microsoft
2 92 (5.89%) ServiceNow
3 79 (5.06%) Adobe
4 51 (3.27%) Google
5 50 (3.20%) Oracle
6 31 (1.98%) Salesforce
7 30 (1.92%) SAP
7 30 (1.92%) VMware
8 27 (1.73%) Citrix
9 26 (1.66%) Dynatrace
9 26 (1.66%) Splunk
10 20 (1.28%) Databricks
11 19 (1.22%) OpenAI
12 18 (1.15%) Apple
13 16 (1.02%) Zscaler
14 15 (0.96%) Workday
15 14 (0.90%) Cisco
15 14 (0.90%) Foundry
16 9 (0.58%) Okta
17 8 (0.51%) Cribl.io