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 24 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 86 67 80
Rank change year-on-year -19 +13 -21
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,572 1,197 1,077
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.98% 3.66% 2.64%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.50% 4.05% 3.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 966 775 703
10th Percentile £313 £304 £313
25th Percentile £400 £381 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £486 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.37% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £575 £600
90th Percentile £684 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £460 £442 £475
% change year-on-year +4.01% -6.89% +2.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 72 39 34
10th Percentile £16.07 £19.30 £16.25
25th Percentile £24.54 £34.87 £25.00
Median hourly rate £33.99 £49.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -31.33% +23.75% +32.91%
75th Percentile £67.84 £64.38 £64.75
90th Percentile £73.63 £74.59 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £63.25 £46.00
% change year-on-year -46.26% +37.50% +159.59%

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 44,871 29,543 34,928
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.02% 90.39% 85.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,803 18,563 22,435
10th Percentile £325 £300 £306
25th Percentile £419 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.46%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,660 1,589 2,131
10th Percentile £14.85 £14.20 £13.46
25th Percentile £20.09 £17.44 £17.25
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -37.13% -6.98%
75th Percentile £68.13 £50.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £83.00 £69.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.50 £24.34 £40.00
% change year-on-year +82.83% -39.15% -1.95%

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 24 July 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 24 July 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 24 July 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 -14 1,355 £475 - 816
UK excluding London -9 734 £460 +4.01% 460
London -24 685 £525 +2.94% 461
Work from Home -26 395 £500 +4.17% 364
North of England -15 215 £440 -1.90% 135
Midlands -3 149 £475 +12.43% 53
South East -25 133 £490 +3.16% 124
West Midlands -8 116 £475 -4.04% 40
North West -24 111 £425 -5.56% 63
Scotland +20 97 £510 +10.27% 33
South West -11 81 £475 +26.67% 61
Yorkshire -31 57 £500 +25.00% 43
North East -6 47 £381 -20.57% 29
East of England +11 46 £410 -13.68% 50
East Midlands -1 33 £550 +54.49% 13
Wales -11 16 £579 +89.22% 7
Northern Ireland +5 3 - - 12

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 64 (4.07%) SharePoint
2 56 (3.56%) CMS
3 43 (2.74%) Confluence
4 27 (1.72%) Microsoft Exchange
5 15 (0.95%) WordPress
6 8 (0.51%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 8 (0.51%) Apache
7 6 (0.38%) Drupal
7 6 (0.38%) Mendix
7 6 (0.38%) Skype for Business
8 4 (0.25%) Apache Airflow
8 4 (0.25%) Headless CMS
8 4 (0.25%) Kentico
9 3 (0.19%) Moodle
9 3 (0.19%) Umbraco
10 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
10 2 (0.13%) IIS
10 2 (0.13%) nginx
10 2 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
11 1 (0.064%) Traefik
Applications
1 37 (2.35%) Sketch
2 34 (2.16%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 31 (1.97%) Microsoft Excel
4 22 (1.40%) Chatbot
5 20 (1.27%) Photoshop
6 19 (1.21%) Adobe After Effects
7 18 (1.15%) Microsoft Office
8 17 (1.08%) Adobe XD
9 15 (0.95%) Adobe Illustrator
10 10 (0.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 10 (0.64%) MS Visio
11 6 (0.38%) Final Cut Pro
12 4 (0.25%) Adobe Captivate
13 2 (0.13%) InVision
13 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
13 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
13 2 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
13 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
14 1 (0.064%) Camtasia
14 1 (0.064%) Trello
Business Applications
1 13 (0.83%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (0.70%) Workday HCM
3 10 (0.64%) Dynamics CRM
4 7 (0.45%) Shopify
5 6 (0.38%) Sage X3
6 4 (0.25%) NetSuite
6 4 (0.25%) Oracle iProcurement
7 3 (0.19%) iTrent
7 3 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
8 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
8 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
8 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.13%) Remedy ITSM
8 2 (0.13%) ResourceLink
9 1 (0.064%) Magento
9 1 (0.064%) Oracle EBS R12
9 1 (0.064%) SAP ERP
9 1 (0.064%) SAP HR
9 1 (0.064%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 246 (15.65%) Azure
2 220 (13.99%) Figma
3 131 (8.33%) AWS
4 126 (8.02%) Microsoft 365
5 114 (7.25%) Power Platform
6 63 (4.01%) Entra ID
7 58 (3.69%) Azure DevOps
8 57 (3.63%) GitHub
9 55 (3.50%) SaaS
10 49 (3.12%) GCP
10 49 (3.12%) Microsoft Copilot
11 38 (2.42%) PowerApps
12 31 (1.97%) OneDrive
13 30 (1.91%) Power Automate
13 30 (1.91%) Serverless
14 27 (1.72%) Copilot Studio
15 24 (1.53%) Azure AI
16 23 (1.46%) GitHub Actions
17 17 (1.08%) Snowflake
18 14 (0.89%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 40 (2.54%) DNS
2 32 (2.04%) DHCP
3 28 (1.78%) TCP/IP
4 24 (1.53%) Wi-Fi
5 20 (1.27%) Wireless
6 19 (1.21%) LAN
7 13 (0.83%) Firewall
7 13 (0.83%) VPN
7 13 (0.83%) WAN
8 12 (0.76%) Internet
9 10 (0.64%) Intranet
9 10 (0.64%) SD-WAN
10 8 (0.51%) Cisco Wireless
10 8 (0.51%) Network Security
10 8 (0.51%) Skype
11 7 (0.45%) SNMP
12 6 (0.38%) 5G
12 6 (0.38%) WLAN
13 5 (0.32%) SMS
13 5 (0.32%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (4.52%) Power BI
2 24 (1.53%) Metadata
3 23 (1.46%) PostgreSQL
4 22 (1.40%) Relational Database
5 21 (1.34%) NoSQL
6 18 (1.15%) Power Query
7 15 (0.95%) SQL Server
8 13 (0.83%) Data Warehouse
9 11 (0.70%) Big Data
9 11 (0.70%) Tableau
10 10 (0.64%) MySQL
11 9 (0.57%) MongoDB
12 7 (0.45%) Oracle Database
12 7 (0.45%) Redis
12 7 (0.45%) Snowflake Schema
13 6 (0.38%) Azure SQL Database
13 6 (0.38%) DynamoDB
13 6 (0.38%) Elasticsearch
13 6 (0.38%) Looker
13 6 (0.38%) ZAP BI
Development Applications
1 90 (5.73%) JIRA
2 81 (5.15%) Git
3 26 (1.65%) Cypress.io
4 25 (1.59%) Jenkins
4 25 (1.59%) Vite
5 17 (1.08%) GitLab
6 12 (0.76%) Claude Code
7 11 (0.70%) Storybook
8 10 (0.64%) Android Studio
8 10 (0.64%) Browser DevTools
8 10 (0.64%) fastlane
8 10 (0.64%) Selenium
9 9 (0.57%) webpack
9 9 (0.57%) Xcode
10 8 (0.51%) Gradle
11 7 (0.45%) JUnit
12 6 (0.38%) JMeter
12 6 (0.38%) Postman
12 6 (0.38%) Visual Studio
13 5 (0.32%) REST Assured
General
1 499 (31.74%) Social Skills
2 286 (18.19%) Finance
3 211 (13.42%) Public Sector
4 156 (9.92%) Analytical Skills
5 121 (7.70%) Banking
6 84 (5.34%) Retail
7 73 (4.64%) Marketing
8 48 (3.05%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 40 (2.54%) Legal
10 37 (2.35%) Influencing Skills
11 30 (1.91%) Presentation Skills
11 30 (1.91%) Publishing
12 27 (1.72%) Automotive
13 26 (1.65%) Manufacturing
14 25 (1.59%) Organisational Skills
15 22 (1.40%) Documentation Skills
16 18 (1.15%) Investment Banking
17 17 (1.08%) Military
18 12 (0.76%) Front Office
18 12 (0.76%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 341 (21.69%) Designer
2 228 (14.50%) Senior
3 197 (12.53%) Developer
4 145 (9.22%) UX Designer
5 120 (7.63%) Lead
6 113 (7.19%) Analyst
7 90 (5.73%) UI Designer
8 78 (4.96%) Consultant
9 69 (4.39%) Senior Designer
10 66 (4.20%) Architect
11 64 (4.07%) User Researcher
12 59 (3.75%) Business Analyst
12 59 (3.75%) Product Designer
13 52 (3.31%) Content Designer
14 51 (3.24%) UI/UX Designer
15 47 (2.99%) Product Manager
15 47 (2.99%) User Experience Researcher
16 45 (2.86%) IT Support
17 43 (2.74%) Full-Stack Engineer
18 42 (2.67%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 146 (9.29%) React
2 115 (7.32%) CSS
3 102 (6.49%) HTML
3 102 (6.49%) REST
4 69 (4.39%) RESTful
5 51 (3.24%) AngularJS
6 43 (2.74%) .NET
7 42 (2.67%) GraphQL
8 39 (2.48%) HTML5
9 36 (2.29%) CSS3
9 36 (2.29%) Spring
10 35 (2.23%) Spring Boot
11 33 (2.10%) Node.js
12 32 (2.04%) Jest
13 31 (1.97%) Redux
14 29 (1.84%) Kafka
15 26 (1.65%) JSON
16 25 (1.59%) Next.js
17 24 (1.53%) Playwright
18 23 (1.46%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 160 (10.18%) Product Ownership
2 94 (5.98%) Mobile App
3 79 (5.03%) Onboarding
4 45 (2.86%) AI Agents
4 45 (2.86%) Cloud Native
5 33 (2.10%) Enterprise Software
5 33 (2.10%) Self-Motivation
6 32 (2.04%) Data Structures
7 29 (1.84%) Data Protection Act
8 25 (1.59%) Legacy Systems
9 23 (1.46%) Animation
10 21 (1.34%) Data Centre
11 20 (1.27%) Analytical Mindset
11 20 (1.27%) Social Media
12 17 (1.08%) Graphic Design
13 16 (1.02%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 15 (0.95%) Algorithms
14 15 (0.95%) Educational Technology
15 14 (0.89%) Management Information System
15 14 (0.89%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 130 (8.27%) Windows
2 57 (3.63%) Android
2 57 (3.63%) Apple iOS
3 41 (2.61%) Windows 10
4 27 (1.72%) Mac OS
5 19 (1.21%) Linux
5 19 (1.21%) Windows Server
6 9 (0.57%) Unix
7 8 (0.51%) Windows 7
8 5 (0.32%) Windows Server 2016
9 4 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
10 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 514 (32.70%) UX Design
2 466 (29.64%) Agile
3 308 (19.59%) AI
4 249 (15.84%) Problem-Solving
5 236 (15.01%) Stakeholder Management
6 228 (14.50%) Continuous Improvement
7 216 (13.74%) User Research
8 204 (12.98%) Analytics
9 185 (11.77%) CI/CD
10 179 (11.39%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 167 (10.62%) Roadmaps
12 150 (9.54%) Decision-Making
13 149 (9.48%) Prototyping
14 147 (9.35%) DevOps
15 146 (9.29%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
16 135 (8.59%) Wireframes
17 129 (8.21%) Service Design
18 124 (7.89%) UX Research
19 117 (7.44%) Workshop Facilitation
20 114 (7.25%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 137 (8.72%) JavaScript
2 131 (8.33%) Python
3 117 (7.44%) TypeScript
4 114 (7.25%) SQL
5 107 (6.81%) Java
6 50 (3.18%) PowerShell
7 45 (2.86%) C#
8 35 (2.23%) Kotlin
9 25 (1.59%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 18 (1.15%) Bash
11 17 (1.08%) Swift
12 12 (0.76%) C++
13 9 (0.57%) Lua
14 8 (0.51%) Go
14 8 (0.51%) Korn
15 7 (0.45%) Apex Code
15 7 (0.45%) PHP
15 7 (0.45%) R
15 7 (0.45%) VBScript
16 6 (0.38%) VB
Qualifications
1 243 (15.46%) Security Cleared
2 183 (11.64%) SC Cleared
3 149 (9.48%) Degree
4 35 (2.23%) Computer Science Degree
5 32 (2.04%) BPSS Clearance
6 28 (1.78%) DV Cleared
7 23 (1.46%) Azure Certification
8 21 (1.34%) Microsoft Certification
9 12 (0.76%) PMP
10 11 (0.70%) Cisco Certification
11 9 (0.57%) ITIL Certification
11 9 (0.57%) Master's Degree
12 8 (0.51%) AWS Certification
12 8 (0.51%) CCA
12 8 (0.51%) Citrix Certification
12 8 (0.51%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 7 (0.45%) CCNP
14 6 (0.38%) CCIE
14 6 (0.38%) DBS Check
14 6 (0.38%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 279 (17.75%) Accessibility
2 95 (6.04%) QA
3 93 (5.92%) WCAG
4 48 (3.05%) Data Quality
5 22 (1.40%) GDPR
6 18 (1.15%) Actionable Recommendations
7 12 (0.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 10 (0.64%) SLA
9 9 (0.57%) PMO
10 7 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
10 7 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 4 (0.25%) GRC
11 4 (0.25%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 3 (0.19%) GMP
12 3 (0.19%) GxP
13 2 (0.13%) NIST
13 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.13%) PSD2
14 1 (0.064%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 1 (0.064%) EU AI Act
System Software
1 83 (5.28%) Active Directory
2 49 (3.12%) Docker
3 29 (1.84%) Virtual Desktop
4 19 (1.21%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (0.45%) vSphere
6 6 (0.38%) BitLocker
6 6 (0.38%) Firmware
7 5 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (0.25%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.25%) Microsoft App-V
9 3 (0.19%) UAG
9 3 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
10 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
10 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
10 2 (0.13%) XenApp
10 2 (0.13%) XenDesktop
11 1 (0.064%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 52 (3.31%) Terraform
2 51 (3.24%) Kubernetes
3 47 (2.99%) Microsoft Intune
4 36 (2.29%) Grafana
4 36 (2.29%) SCCM
5 17 (1.08%) Ansible
5 17 (1.08%) Single Sign-On
6 14 (0.89%) Jamf Pro
6 14 (0.89%) Prometheus
7 5 (0.32%) vCenter Server
8 4 (0.25%) Clonezilla
8 4 (0.25%) Podman
9 3 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 3 (0.19%) WSUS
10 2 (0.13%) Argo
10 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
10 2 (0.13%) Packer
10 2 (0.13%) SCOM
10 2 (0.13%) vMotion
11 1 (0.064%) HAProxy
Vendors
1 273 (17.37%) Microsoft
2 94 (5.98%) Adobe
3 77 (4.90%) ServiceNow
4 60 (3.82%) Google
5 44 (2.80%) SAP
6 42 (2.67%) Oracle
7 34 (2.16%) Salesforce
8 24 (1.53%) Citrix
9 23 (1.46%) Databricks
9 23 (1.46%) Splunk
10 22 (1.40%) Dynatrace
10 22 (1.40%) VMware
11 21 (1.34%) Workday
12 18 (1.15%) Cisco
13 17 (1.08%) OpenAI
14 16 (1.02%) Apple
14 16 (1.02%) Foundry
15 14 (0.89%) Zscaler
16 11 (0.70%) Aruba
17 8 (0.51%) Okta