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 21 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 93 65 80
Rank change year-on-year -28 +15 -20
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,522 1,238 1,010
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.84% 3.78% 2.60%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.36% 4.17% 3.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 916 783 626
10th Percentile £308 £301 £300
25th Percentile £390 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -1.48%
75th Percentile £575 £576 £600
90th Percentile £690 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £475
% change year-on-year - -5.26% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 72 48 32
10th Percentile £16.78 £23.58 £16.25
25th Percentile £25.88 £34.11 £29.14
Median hourly rate £33.99 £47.50 £40.84
Median % change year-on-year -28.44% +16.31% +54.10%
75th Percentile £67.84 £63.75 £71.29
90th Percentile £73.63 £72.15 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £48.25 £66.00
% change year-on-year -29.55% -26.89% +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 45,356 29,667 33,233
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.68% 90.51% 85.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,834 18,495 21,131
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.58%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £730 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,855 1,741 1,763
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £14.00
25th Percentile £18.31 £17.33 £18.00
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -37.90% -1.22%
75th Percentile £67.94 £49.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £68.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £24.00 £41.50
% change year-on-year +83.17% -42.17% +12.54%

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 21 August 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 21 August 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 21 August 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 -24 1,322 £475 - 590
UK excluding London -14 709 £450 - 429
London -27 674 £520 +4.00% 263
Work from Home -44 380 £475 -2.56% 293
North of England -17 230 £425 -2.52% 119
Midlands -8 145 £475 +9.83% 68
West Midlands -13 116 £475 -8.65% 48
North West -29 111 £397 -11.30% 59
South East -55 108 £410 -11.35% 131
Scotland +4 90 £538 +16.22% 17
South West -19 78 £475 +6.26% 54
Yorkshire -20 70 £500 +25.00% 38
North East -4 48 £375 -21.88% 23
East of England +10 46 £410 -14.14% 26
East Midlands -15 29 £500 +40.85% 20
Wales -13 15 £579 +89.22% 11
Northern Ireland +4 3 £638 +56.44% 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 66 (4.34%) SharePoint
2 58 (3.81%) CMS
3 45 (2.96%) Confluence
4 32 (2.10%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (1.05%) WordPress
6 8 (0.53%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 7 (0.46%) Apache
7 7 (0.46%) Drupal
7 7 (0.46%) Skype for Business
8 6 (0.39%) Mendix
9 5 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
9 5 (0.33%) Headless CMS
9 5 (0.33%) Oracle Workflow
10 4 (0.26%) Kentico
11 3 (0.20%) Camunda
11 3 (0.20%) Moodle
11 3 (0.20%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
12 2 (0.13%) IIS
12 2 (0.13%) nginx
Applications
1 35 (2.30%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 31 (2.04%) Sketch
3 24 (1.58%) Microsoft Excel
4 23 (1.51%) Chatbot
5 20 (1.31%) Microsoft Office
6 19 (1.25%) Photoshop
7 18 (1.18%) Adobe After Effects
8 15 (0.99%) Adobe Illustrator
9 13 (0.85%) Adobe XD
10 8 (0.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 8 (0.53%) MS Visio
11 6 (0.39%) Final Cut Pro
12 2 (0.13%) InVision
12 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
12 2 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
12 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
13 1 (0.066%) Adobe Captivate
13 1 (0.066%) Blender
13 1 (0.066%) Microsoft Project
13 1 (0.066%) Trello
Business Applications
1 7 (0.46%) Dynamics CRM
1 7 (0.46%) Workday HCM
2 6 (0.39%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.39%) Shopify
3 4 (0.26%) NetSuite
3 4 (0.26%) Oracle iProcurement
3 4 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
4 3 (0.20%) iTrent
4 3 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
4 3 (0.20%) Sage X3
4 3 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
5 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
5 2 (0.13%) ResourceLink
6 1 (0.066%) Bloomberg TOMS
6 1 (0.066%) Eloqua
6 1 (0.066%) Oracle EBS R12
6 1 (0.066%) SAP HR
6 1 (0.066%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 233 (15.31%) Azure
2 190 (12.48%) Figma
3 146 (9.59%) Microsoft 365
4 138 (9.07%) AWS
5 116 (7.62%) Power Platform
6 72 (4.73%) Entra ID
7 62 (4.07%) GitHub
8 55 (3.61%) Microsoft Copilot
9 52 (3.42%) SaaS
10 51 (3.35%) Azure DevOps
11 41 (2.69%) GCP
12 34 (2.23%) PowerApps
13 33 (2.17%) OneDrive
14 27 (1.77%) Serverless
15 26 (1.71%) Power Automate
16 25 (1.64%) Copilot Studio
17 24 (1.58%) GitHub Actions
18 22 (1.45%) Azure AI
19 18 (1.18%) GitHub Copilot
19 18 (1.18%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 44 (2.89%) DNS
2 36 (2.37%) DHCP
3 31 (2.04%) TCP/IP
4 30 (1.97%) Wi-Fi
5 22 (1.45%) Wireless
6 21 (1.38%) LAN
7 17 (1.12%) VPN
8 16 (1.05%) Firewall
8 16 (1.05%) WAN
9 12 (0.79%) Internet
10 11 (0.72%) SD-WAN
11 9 (0.59%) Cisco Wireless
11 9 (0.59%) Intranet
11 9 (0.59%) Skype
12 8 (0.53%) Network Security
13 7 (0.46%) 5G
13 7 (0.46%) NetScaler
13 7 (0.46%) SNMP
13 7 (0.46%) WLAN
14 6 (0.39%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (4.66%) Power BI
2 25 (1.64%) Metadata
3 18 (1.18%) NoSQL
3 18 (1.18%) PostgreSQL
4 16 (1.05%) Power Query
5 15 (0.99%) Tableau
6 14 (0.92%) Relational Database
6 14 (0.92%) SQL Server
7 13 (0.85%) MongoDB
8 12 (0.79%) Elasticsearch
9 11 (0.72%) Big Data
10 10 (0.66%) Looker
11 9 (0.59%) Data Warehouse
11 9 (0.59%) Redis
12 7 (0.46%) MySQL
12 7 (0.46%) Snowflake Schema
13 6 (0.39%) BigQuery
13 6 (0.39%) Flink
13 6 (0.39%) Qlik Sense
13 6 (0.39%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 90 (5.91%) JIRA
2 81 (5.32%) Git
3 29 (1.91%) Cypress.io
3 29 (1.91%) Jenkins
4 24 (1.58%) Vite
5 16 (1.05%) GitLab
6 14 (0.92%) Claude Code
7 11 (0.72%) Storybook
8 10 (0.66%) Android Studio
8 10 (0.66%) Browser DevTools
8 10 (0.66%) fastlane
9 9 (0.59%) Selenium
9 9 (0.59%) Xcode
10 7 (0.46%) Gradle
10 7 (0.46%) JMeter
11 6 (0.39%) JUnit
11 6 (0.39%) Postman
11 6 (0.39%) webpack
12 5 (0.33%) Oracle Forms
12 5 (0.33%) Visual Studio
General
1 482 (31.67%) Social Skills
2 264 (17.35%) Finance
3 202 (13.27%) Public Sector
4 152 (9.99%) Analytical Skills
5 111 (7.29%) Banking
6 78 (5.12%) Retail
7 73 (4.80%) Marketing
8 51 (3.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 38 (2.50%) Influencing Skills
10 37 (2.43%) Legal
11 28 (1.84%) Organisational Skills
12 27 (1.77%) Automotive
12 27 (1.77%) Publishing
13 26 (1.71%) Presentation Skills
14 24 (1.58%) Manufacturing
15 23 (1.51%) Documentation Skills
16 19 (1.25%) Investment Banking
17 17 (1.12%) Military
18 11 (0.72%) Front Office
19 10 (0.66%) Law
Job Titles
1 327 (21.48%) Designer
2 216 (14.19%) Senior
3 201 (13.21%) Developer
4 131 (8.61%) UX Designer
5 122 (8.02%) Lead
6 102 (6.70%) Analyst
7 81 (5.32%) UI Designer
8 76 (4.99%) Consultant
9 65 (4.27%) Senior Designer
10 63 (4.14%) User Researcher
11 59 (3.88%) Architect
12 53 (3.48%) Support Engineer
13 52 (3.42%) IT Support
14 50 (3.29%) Business Analyst
14 50 (3.29%) Content Designer
15 49 (3.22%) Product Manager
16 44 (2.89%) UI/UX Designer
17 42 (2.76%) Product Designer
18 41 (2.69%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
18 41 (2.69%) User Experience Researcher
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 148 (9.72%) React
2 118 (7.75%) CSS
3 105 (6.90%) HTML
4 95 (6.24%) REST
5 64 (4.20%) RESTful
6 49 (3.22%) AngularJS
6 49 (3.22%) Terraform
7 45 (2.96%) HTML5
8 42 (2.76%) CSS3
9 41 (2.69%) GraphQL
10 36 (2.37%) .NET
11 33 (2.17%) Jest
11 33 (2.17%) Next.js
12 31 (2.04%) Node.js
13 30 (1.97%) Kafka
14 29 (1.91%) Playwright
15 27 (1.77%) Spring
16 26 (1.71%) OAuth
16 26 (1.71%) Redux
16 26 (1.71%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 140 (9.20%) Product Ownership
2 94 (6.18%) Mobile App
3 84 (5.52%) Onboarding
4 54 (3.55%) Cloud Native
5 47 (3.09%) AI Agents
6 33 (2.17%) Self-Motivation
7 32 (2.10%) Enterprise Software
8 29 (1.91%) Data Protection Act
9 26 (1.71%) Data Structures
9 26 (1.71%) Legacy Systems
10 22 (1.45%) Management Information System
10 22 (1.45%) Social Media
11 21 (1.38%) NHS
12 20 (1.31%) Animation
12 20 (1.31%) Data Centre
13 19 (1.25%) Educational Technology
14 17 (1.12%) Analytical Mindset
14 17 (1.12%) Graphic Design
15 15 (0.99%) Virtual Reality
16 13 (0.85%) Algorithms
Operating Systems
1 150 (9.86%) Windows
2 64 (4.20%) Android
3 62 (4.07%) Apple iOS
4 56 (3.68%) Windows 10
5 30 (1.97%) Mac OS
6 26 (1.71%) Windows Server
7 19 (1.25%) Linux
8 11 (0.72%) Unix
9 9 (0.59%) 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 (0.066%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 492 (32.33%) UX Design
2 438 (28.78%) Agile
3 308 (20.24%) AI
4 255 (16.75%) Stakeholder Management
5 253 (16.62%) Problem-Solving
6 221 (14.52%) Continuous Improvement
7 204 (13.40%) Analytics
8 195 (12.81%) User Research
9 181 (11.89%) CI/CD
10 174 (11.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 150 (9.86%) Roadmaps
12 143 (9.40%) Decision-Making
13 141 (9.26%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
14 128 (8.41%) DevOps
14 128 (8.41%) Prototyping
15 120 (7.88%) Scrum
16 119 (7.82%) Service Design
17 115 (7.56%) Wireframes
18 114 (7.49%) Workshop Facilitation
19 107 (7.03%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 142 (9.33%) JavaScript
2 122 (8.02%) TypeScript
3 119 (7.82%) Python
4 103 (6.77%) SQL
5 94 (6.18%) Java
6 54 (3.55%) PowerShell
7 36 (2.37%) C#
8 29 (1.91%) Kotlin
9 21 (1.38%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 20 (1.31%) Bash
11 16 (1.05%) Swift
12 8 (0.53%) Go
12 8 (0.53%) PHP
12 8 (0.53%) VBScript
13 7 (0.46%) C++
13 7 (0.46%) Shell Script
13 7 (0.46%) VB
14 6 (0.39%) Apex Code
14 6 (0.39%) Scala
15 5 (0.33%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 240 (15.77%) Security Cleared
2 181 (11.89%) SC Cleared
3 129 (8.48%) Degree
4 39 (2.56%) Computer Science Degree
5 35 (2.30%) BPSS Clearance
6 27 (1.77%) DV Cleared
7 23 (1.51%) Azure Certification
8 19 (1.25%) Microsoft Certification
9 14 (0.92%) PMP
10 10 (0.66%) Cisco Certification
11 9 (0.59%) ITIL Certification
12 8 (0.53%) AWS Certification
12 8 (0.53%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 7 (0.46%) DBS Check
13 7 (0.46%) Master's Degree
14 6 (0.39%) CCA
14 6 (0.39%) CCIE
14 6 (0.39%) CCNP
14 6 (0.39%) MCSE
15 5 (0.33%) Citrix Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 261 (17.15%) Accessibility
2 95 (6.24%) WCAG
3 89 (5.85%) QA
4 45 (2.96%) Data Quality
5 19 (1.25%) GDPR
6 15 (0.99%) Actionable Recommendations
7 9 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 9 (0.59%) SLA
8 8 (0.53%) PMO
9 7 (0.46%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 5 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials
11 4 (0.26%) GRC
11 4 (0.26%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 3 (0.20%) GMP
12 3 (0.20%) GxP
13 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.13%) PSD2
14 1 (0.066%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 1 (0.066%) NIST
14 1 (0.066%) WAI-ARIA
System Software
1 103 (6.77%) Active Directory
2 50 (3.29%) Docker
3 30 (1.97%) Virtual Desktop
4 22 (1.45%) VMware Infrastructure
5 11 (0.72%) Hyper-V
6 7 (0.46%) BitLocker
6 7 (0.46%) vSphere
7 6 (0.39%) Firmware
8 5 (0.33%) Citrix Hypervisor
8 5 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
8 5 (0.33%) XenApp
8 5 (0.33%) XenDesktop
9 4 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
10 3 (0.20%) UAG
11 2 (0.13%) Virtual Machines
11 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
11 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
12 1 (0.066%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 53 (3.48%) Microsoft Intune
2 51 (3.35%) Kubernetes
3 35 (2.30%) Grafana
4 33 (2.17%) SCCM
5 21 (1.38%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (1.12%) Ansible
7 15 (0.99%) Jamf Pro
7 15 (0.99%) Prometheus
8 5 (0.33%) vCenter Server
9 4 (0.26%) Clonezilla
9 4 (0.26%) Podman
9 4 (0.26%) SysTrack
10 3 (0.20%) Kibana
10 3 (0.20%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 3 (0.20%) 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
1 268 (17.61%) Microsoft
2 89 (5.85%) Adobe
3 82 (5.39%) ServiceNow
4 52 (3.42%) Google
5 45 (2.96%) Oracle
6 31 (2.04%) Salesforce
6 31 (2.04%) SAP
7 25 (1.64%) Citrix
7 25 (1.64%) Dynatrace
7 25 (1.64%) VMware
8 23 (1.51%) Databricks
9 22 (1.45%) Splunk
10 21 (1.38%) Apple
11 18 (1.18%) Cisco
12 17 (1.12%) OpenAI
12 17 (1.12%) Workday
13 14 (0.92%) Foundry
13 14 (0.92%) Zscaler
14 12 (0.79%) Aruba
15 10 (0.66%) Okta