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

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 95 65 75
Rank change year-on-year -30 +10 -11
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,546 1,236 1,060
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.84% 3.81% 2.78%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.36% 4.21% 3.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 929 794 644
10th Percentile £305 £300 £313
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £588
90th Percentile £700 £675 £693
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £447 £475
% change year-on-year +0.67% -5.89% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 48 23
10th Percentile £20.31 £15.50 £30.00
25th Percentile £27.45 £28.79 £30.51
Median hourly rate £35.22 £36.50 £50.50
Median % change year-on-year -3.51% -27.72% +6.32%
75th Percentile £67.88 £55.44 £74.00
90th Percentile £76.40 £66.55 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £32.50 £70.20
% change year-on-year +4.58% -53.70% +296.13%

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 45,945 29,375 32,666
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.44% 90.50% 85.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,954 18,237 20,159
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
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 3,063 1,777 1,475
10th Percentile £13.85 £14.23 £14.84
25th Percentile £17.42 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.47 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £66.70 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.08 £22.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year +78.13% -47.67% +6.17%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 -28 1,347 £475 - 3,204
UK excluding London -15 734 £450 +0.67% 1,394
London -31 681 £516 +3.25% 2,094
Work from Home -37 392 £475 -3.46% 1,373
North of England -10 258 £435 +3.88% 375
Midlands -10 152 £475 +9.20% 194
North West -28 127 £410 -3.53% 235
West Midlands -9 120 £469 -6.14% 142
South East -49 100 £403 -12.97% 285
Scotland +9 93 £538 +16.85% 122
South West -9 81 £475 -2.56% 151
Yorkshire -1 80 £500 +25.00% 98
North East -3 50 £338 -25.00% 45
East of England -11 42 £418 -20.48% 144
East Midlands -11 32 £500 +39.66% 52
Wales -15 11 £530 +73.20% 31
Northern Ireland +5 3 £638 +23.49% 97

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 (4.59%) SharePoint
2 61 (3.95%) CMS
3 44 (2.85%) Confluence
4 31 (2.01%) 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 (0.39%) Drupal
8 6 (0.39%) Oracle Workflow
9 5 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
9 5 (0.32%) Headless CMS
10 4 (0.26%) Kentico
10 4 (0.26%) Mendix
11 3 (0.19%) ColdFusion
11 3 (0.19%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.13%) Camunda
12 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
12 2 (0.13%) IIS
12 2 (0.13%) nginx
Applications
1 33 (2.13%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 28 (1.81%) Sketch
3 25 (1.62%) Microsoft Office
4 23 (1.49%) Microsoft Excel
5 21 (1.36%) Chatbot
6 19 (1.23%) Photoshop
7 18 (1.16%) Adobe After Effects
8 16 (1.03%) Adobe Illustrator
9 13 (0.84%) 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 (0.065%) Adobe Captivate
15 1 (0.065%) Adobe Premiere
15 1 (0.065%) Blender
15 1 (0.065%) InVision
15 1 (0.065%) Trello
Business Applications
1 8 (0.52%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (0.39%) Shopify
3 6 (0.39%) Workday HCM
4 5 (0.32%) NetSuite
5 4 (0.26%) Oracle iProcurement
5 4 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
5 4 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
6 3 (0.19%) iTrent
6 3 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
7 2 (0.13%) IBM Planning Analytics
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
8 1 (0.065%) Elite 3E
8 1 (0.065%) Exchequer
8 1 (0.065%) Magento
8 1 (0.065%) Oracle EBS R12
8 1 (0.065%) ResourceLink
8 1 (0.065%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 224 (14.49%) Azure
2 182 (11.77%) Figma
3 148 (9.57%) Microsoft 365
4 137 (8.86%) AWS
5 112 (7.24%) Power Platform
6 67 (4.33%) Entra ID
7 63 (4.08%) GitHub
8 59 (3.82%) Microsoft Copilot
9 56 (3.62%) SaaS
10 47 (3.04%) Azure DevOps
11 40 (2.59%) GCP
12 33 (2.13%) OneDrive
12 33 (2.13%) PowerApps
13 28 (1.81%) Copilot Studio
14 27 (1.75%) Power Automate
15 26 (1.68%) GitHub Actions
16 24 (1.55%) Azure AI
16 24 (1.55%) Serverless
17 18 (1.16%) GitHub Copilot
18 17 (1.10%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 45 (2.91%) DNS
2 38 (2.46%) DHCP
3 34 (2.20%) TCP/IP
4 29 (1.88%) Wi-Fi
5 20 (1.29%) VPN
5 20 (1.29%) Wireless
6 17 (1.10%) LAN
7 16 (1.03%) Firewall
8 15 (0.97%) WAN
9 12 (0.78%) NetScaler
10 9 (0.58%) Internet
10 9 (0.58%) Network Security
11 8 (0.52%) Cisco Wireless
11 8 (0.52%) SD-WAN
11 8 (0.52%) Skype
12 7 (0.45%) SNMP
13 6 (0.39%) Intranet
14 5 (0.32%) SMS
14 5 (0.32%) SSL
14 5 (0.32%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 66 (4.27%) Power BI
2 25 (1.62%) Metadata
3 18 (1.16%) NoSQL
3 18 (1.16%) PostgreSQL
4 14 (0.91%) Power Query
4 14 (0.91%) SQL Server
5 13 (0.84%) MongoDB
5 13 (0.84%) Tableau
6 12 (0.78%) Elasticsearch
7 11 (0.71%) Big Data
7 11 (0.71%) Relational Database
8 10 (0.65%) Redis
9 9 (0.58%) Looker
10 8 (0.52%) Qlik Sense
11 7 (0.45%) MySQL
11 7 (0.45%) Snowflake Schema
12 6 (0.39%) BigQuery
12 6 (0.39%) Flink
12 6 (0.39%) QlikView
12 6 (0.39%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 88 (5.69%) Git
2 83 (5.37%) JIRA
3 33 (2.13%) Jenkins
4 28 (1.81%) Vite
5 27 (1.75%) Cypress.io
6 19 (1.23%) Storybook
7 16 (1.03%) GitLab
8 15 (0.97%) Claude Code
9 12 (0.78%) fastlane
10 10 (0.65%) Android Studio
11 9 (0.58%) Browser DevTools
11 9 (0.58%) Xcode
12 8 (0.52%) webpack
13 7 (0.45%) JMeter
13 7 (0.45%) Postman
13 7 (0.45%) REST Assured
14 6 (0.39%) Gradle
15 5 (0.32%) Crashlytics
15 5 (0.32%) Fiddler
15 5 (0.32%) MSI
General
1 502 (32.47%) Social Skills
2 255 (16.49%) Finance
3 216 (13.97%) Public Sector
4 155 (10.03%) Analytical Skills
5 106 (6.86%) Banking
6 79 (5.11%) Retail
7 75 (4.85%) Marketing
8 56 (3.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 43 (2.78%) Influencing Skills
9 43 (2.78%) Legal
10 28 (1.81%) Automotive
11 27 (1.75%) Organisational Skills
11 27 (1.75%) Publishing
12 23 (1.49%) Documentation Skills
12 23 (1.49%) Manufacturing
12 23 (1.49%) Presentation Skills
13 21 (1.36%) Military
14 18 (1.16%) Investment Banking
15 12 (0.78%) Front Office
16 10 (0.65%) Law
Job Titles
1 315 (20.38%) Designer
2 221 (14.29%) Senior
3 215 (13.91%) Developer
4 131 (8.47%) Lead
5 130 (8.41%) UX Designer
6 97 (6.27%) Analyst
7 80 (5.17%) UI Designer
8 70 (4.53%) Consultant
9 66 (4.27%) Architect
10 65 (4.20%) Senior Designer
11 59 (3.82%) User Researcher
12 55 (3.56%) IT Support
12 55 (3.56%) Product Manager
13 54 (3.49%) Support Engineer
14 49 (3.17%) Business Analyst
15 46 (2.98%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
16 44 (2.85%) Content Designer
17 43 (2.78%) UI/UX Designer
18 42 (2.72%) Product Designer
19 41 (2.65%) User Experience Researcher
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 160 (10.35%) React
2 119 (7.70%) CSS
3 108 (6.99%) HTML
4 95 (6.14%) REST
5 61 (3.95%) RESTful
6 52 (3.36%) Terraform
7 47 (3.04%) HTML5
8 44 (2.85%) AngularJS
8 44 (2.85%) CSS3
8 44 (2.85%) GraphQL
9 37 (2.39%) .NET
10 35 (2.26%) Node.js
11 33 (2.13%) Next.js
11 33 (2.13%) Spring
12 32 (2.07%) Jest
12 32 (2.07%) Playwright
12 32 (2.07%) Spring Boot
13 30 (1.94%) OAuth
14 28 (1.81%) Kafka
14 28 (1.81%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 150 (9.70%) Product Ownership
2 90 (5.82%) Mobile App
3 86 (5.56%) Onboarding
4 60 (3.88%) Cloud Native
5 52 (3.36%) AI Agents
6 32 (2.07%) Data Protection Act
6 32 (2.07%) Self-Motivation
7 29 (1.88%) Enterprise Software
7 29 (1.88%) Management Information System
8 28 (1.81%) Legacy Systems
9 26 (1.68%) Data Structures
10 22 (1.42%) NHS
10 22 (1.42%) Social Media
11 21 (1.36%) Data Centre
12 19 (1.23%) Educational Technology
13 17 (1.10%) Animation
14 16 (1.03%) Graphic Design
15 13 (0.84%) Analytical Mindset
15 13 (0.84%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 13 (0.84%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 153 (9.90%) Windows
2 68 (4.40%) Apple iOS
3 65 (4.20%) Android
4 58 (3.75%) Windows 10
5 35 (2.26%) Windows Server
6 32 (2.07%) Mac OS
7 19 (1.23%) Linux
8 12 (0.78%) 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 (0.065%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 494 (31.95%) UX Design
2 447 (28.91%) Agile
3 309 (19.99%) AI
4 286 (18.50%) Stakeholder Management
5 252 (16.30%) Problem-Solving
6 240 (15.52%) Continuous Improvement
7 212 (13.71%) Analytics
8 197 (12.74%) User Research
9 185 (11.97%) CI/CD
10 175 (11.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 157 (10.16%) Roadmaps
12 150 (9.70%) Decision-Making
12 150 (9.70%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
13 126 (8.15%) DevOps
14 125 (8.09%) Scrum
14 125 (8.09%) Service Design
15 118 (7.63%) Workshop Facilitation
16 117 (7.57%) Prototyping
17 114 (7.37%) Service Management
18 111 (7.18%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 144 (9.31%) JavaScript
2 131 (8.47%) TypeScript
3 112 (7.24%) Python
4 99 (6.40%) Java
5 96 (6.21%) SQL
6 51 (3.30%) PowerShell
7 33 (2.13%) C#
8 29 (1.88%) Kotlin
9 20 (1.29%) Bash
10 19 (1.23%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 18 (1.16%) Swift
12 9 (0.58%) Go
13 8 (0.52%) PHP
13 8 (0.52%) VBScript
14 7 (0.45%) Shell Script
14 7 (0.45%) VB
15 6 (0.39%) Scala
16 5 (0.32%) Apex Code
16 5 (0.32%) Korn
17 4 (0.26%) R
Qualifications
1 237 (15.33%) Security Cleared
2 184 (11.90%) SC Cleared
3 116 (7.50%) Degree
4 43 (2.78%) BPSS Clearance
5 33 (2.13%) Computer Science Degree
6 26 (1.68%) DV Cleared
7 24 (1.55%) Azure Certification
8 20 (1.29%) Microsoft Certification
9 16 (1.03%) PMP
10 9 (0.58%) ITIL Certification
11 8 (0.52%) AWS Certification
11 8 (0.52%) Cisco Certification
11 8 (0.52%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 7 (0.45%) DBS Check
13 6 (0.39%) MCSE
13 6 (0.39%) PMI Certification
14 5 (0.32%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 5 (0.32%) CCA
14 5 (0.32%) CISSP
14 5 (0.32%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 264 (17.08%) Accessibility
2 101 (6.53%) WCAG
3 92 (5.95%) QA
4 49 (3.17%) Data Quality
5 19 (1.23%) GDPR
6 15 (0.97%) Actionable Recommendations
7 12 (0.78%) SLA
8 8 (0.52%) PMO
9 7 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 6 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials
11 5 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
12 3 (0.19%) GRC
13 2 (0.13%) GMP
13 2 (0.13%) GxP
13 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.13%) PSD2
14 1 (0.065%) HIPAA
14 1 (0.065%) ISO 20022
14 1 (0.065%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 1 (0.065%) WAI
System Software
1 109 (7.05%) Active Directory
2 48 (3.10%) Docker
3 29 (1.88%) Virtual Desktop
4 26 (1.68%) VMware Infrastructure
5 15 (0.97%) Hyper-V
6 9 (0.58%) Citrix Hypervisor
6 9 (0.58%) XenApp
7 8 (0.52%) 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
11 3 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
12 2 (0.13%) Firmware
12 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
12 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
13 1 (0.065%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 51 (3.30%) Microsoft Intune
2 50 (3.23%) Kubernetes
3 36 (2.33%) Grafana
4 31 (2.01%) SCCM
5 21 (1.36%) Single Sign-On
6 18 (1.16%) Ansible
7 16 (1.03%) Jamf Pro
8 14 (0.91%) Prometheus
9 6 (0.39%) vCenter Server
10 5 (0.32%) SysTrack
11 4 (0.26%) Clonezilla
11 4 (0.26%) Podman
12 3 (0.19%) Kibana
12 3 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 3 (0.19%) WSUS
13 2 (0.13%) Argo
13 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
13 2 (0.13%) Istio
13 2 (0.13%) SCOM
13 2 (0.13%) vMotion
Vendors
1 276 (17.85%) Microsoft
2 91 (5.89%) ServiceNow
3 86 (5.56%) Adobe
4 50 (3.23%) Google
5 45 (2.91%) Oracle
6 32 (2.07%) SAP
7 30 (1.94%) Salesforce
8 29 (1.88%) VMware
9 28 (1.81%) Dynatrace
10 26 (1.68%) Citrix
11 25 (1.62%) Splunk
12 22 (1.42%) Databricks
13 20 (1.29%) Apple
13 20 (1.29%) OpenAI
14 17 (1.10%) Cisco
15 16 (1.03%) Foundry
16 15 (0.97%) Workday
17 14 (0.91%) Zscaler
18 10 (0.65%) Aruba
18 10 (0.65%) Okta