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

6 months to
11 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 91 64 77
Rank change year-on-year -27 +13 -13
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,557 1,269 1,060
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.85% 3.84% 2.75%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.37% 4.25% 3.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 933 816 650
10th Percentile £301 £300 £313
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -4.40%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £595
90th Percentile £700 £675 £696
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £447 £475
% change year-on-year +0.67% -5.89% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 50 23
10th Percentile £17.86 £15.50 £30.00
25th Percentile £26.25 £30.72 £30.51
Median hourly rate £33.99 £37.72 £50.50
Median % change year-on-year -9.89% -25.31% +34.67%
75th Percentile £67.84 £63.75 £72.20
90th Percentile £76.60 £71.51 £74.35
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £35.60 £66.00
% change year-on-year -4.52% -46.06% +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 46,202 29,871 32,996
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.62% 90.47% 85.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,118 18,549 20,447
10th Percentile £325 £300 £311
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 3,059 1,786 1,512
10th Percentile £13.85 £14.23 £14.71
25th Percentile £17.36 £17.30 £20.09
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% +3.61%
75th Percentile £67.50 £45.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £22.63 £43.00
% change year-on-year +76.76% -47.37% +8.72%

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 11 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 11 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 11 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 1,353 £475 - 1,150
UK excluding London -15 741 £450 +0.67% 583
London -32 682 £520 +4.00% 702
Work from Home -33 396 £475 -2.56% 485
North of England -12 259 £425 - 162
Midlands -13 150 £475 +9.83% 75
North West -26 131 £400 -5.88% 89
West Midlands -6 120 £475 -5.00% 53
South East -44 103 £403 -10.56% 147
Scotland +6 92 £544 +18.21% 28
South West -11 82 £475 - 80
Yorkshire -14 77 £500 +25.00% 56
North East -8 50 £338 -29.69% 20
East of England -13 43 £438 -16.67% 58
East Midlands -11 30 £500 +39.66% 22
Wales -13 15 £579 +89.22% 12
Northern Ireland +4 3 £638 +56.44% 24

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 72 (4.62%) SharePoint
2 58 (3.73%) CMS
3 42 (2.70%) Confluence
4 32 (2.06%) 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
9 5 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
9 5 (0.32%) Oracle Workflow
10 4 (0.26%) Headless CMS
10 4 (0.26%) Kentico
10 4 (0.26%) Mendix
11 3 (0.19%) Camunda
11 3 (0.19%) ColdFusion
11 3 (0.19%) Moodle
11 3 (0.19%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
12 2 (0.13%) IIS
Applications
1 34 (2.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 29 (1.86%) Sketch
3 24 (1.54%) Microsoft Excel
3 24 (1.54%) Microsoft Office
4 21 (1.35%) Chatbot
5 19 (1.22%) Photoshop
6 18 (1.16%) Adobe After Effects
7 16 (1.03%) Adobe Illustrator
8 14 (0.90%) Adobe XD
9 11 (0.71%) MS Visio
10 9 (0.58%) 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 8 (0.51%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.45%) Workday HCM
3 6 (0.39%) Shopify
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 (0.064%) Bloomberg TOMS
8 1 (0.064%) Eloqua
8 1 (0.064%) Exchequer
8 1 (0.064%) Magento
8 1 (0.064%) ResourceLink
8 1 (0.064%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 229 (14.71%) Azure
2 188 (12.07%) Figma
3 153 (9.83%) Microsoft 365
4 133 (8.54%) AWS
5 117 (7.51%) Power Platform
6 66 (4.24%) Entra ID
7 65 (4.17%) GitHub
8 61 (3.92%) Microsoft Copilot
9 56 (3.60%) SaaS
10 52 (3.34%) Azure DevOps
11 37 (2.38%) GCP
12 36 (2.31%) PowerApps
13 34 (2.18%) OneDrive
14 29 (1.86%) Power Automate
15 28 (1.80%) Copilot Studio
16 26 (1.67%) GitHub Actions
16 26 (1.67%) Serverless
17 24 (1.54%) Azure AI
18 18 (1.16%) GitHub Copilot
19 17 (1.09%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 45 (2.89%) DNS
2 38 (2.44%) DHCP
3 33 (2.12%) TCP/IP
4 30 (1.93%) Wi-Fi
5 21 (1.35%) Wireless
6 19 (1.22%) VPN
7 18 (1.16%) LAN
8 16 (1.03%) Firewall
8 16 (1.03%) WAN
9 11 (0.71%) NetScaler
10 10 (0.64%) Internet
11 9 (0.58%) SD-WAN
12 8 (0.51%) Cisco Wireless
12 8 (0.51%) Network Security
12 8 (0.51%) Skype
13 7 (0.45%) Intranet
13 7 (0.45%) SNMP
14 6 (0.39%) 5G
14 6 (0.39%) WLAN
15 5 (0.32%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (4.50%) Power BI
2 25 (1.61%) Metadata
3 18 (1.16%) NoSQL
4 17 (1.09%) PostgreSQL
5 14 (0.90%) Power Query
5 14 (0.90%) SQL Server
6 13 (0.83%) Tableau
7 12 (0.77%) Elasticsearch
7 12 (0.77%) MongoDB
8 11 (0.71%) Big Data
8 11 (0.71%) Relational Database
9 9 (0.58%) Looker
10 8 (0.51%) Redis
11 7 (0.45%) MySQL
11 7 (0.45%) Snowflake Schema
12 6 (0.39%) Flink
12 6 (0.39%) Qlik Sense
12 6 (0.39%) Star Schema
13 5 (0.32%) Data Mining
13 5 (0.32%) Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 86 (5.52%) Git
2 84 (5.39%) JIRA
3 31 (1.99%) Jenkins
4 27 (1.73%) Cypress.io
4 27 (1.73%) Vite
5 19 (1.22%) Storybook
6 16 (1.03%) GitLab
7 15 (0.96%) Claude Code
8 12 (0.77%) fastlane
9 10 (0.64%) Android Studio
10 9 (0.58%) Browser DevTools
10 9 (0.58%) JMeter
10 9 (0.58%) Xcode
11 8 (0.51%) webpack
12 7 (0.45%) Postman
12 7 (0.45%) REST Assured
13 6 (0.39%) Gradle
13 6 (0.39%) Selenium
13 6 (0.39%) Visual Studio
14 5 (0.32%) Fiddler
General
1 502 (32.24%) Social Skills
2 258 (16.57%) Finance
3 217 (13.94%) Public Sector
4 158 (10.15%) Analytical Skills
5 107 (6.87%) Banking
6 80 (5.14%) Retail
7 74 (4.75%) Marketing
8 56 (3.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 43 (2.76%) Influencing Skills
10 41 (2.63%) Legal
11 28 (1.80%) Automotive
11 28 (1.80%) Organisational Skills
11 28 (1.80%) Publishing
12 24 (1.54%) Presentation Skills
13 22 (1.41%) Documentation Skills
14 21 (1.35%) Manufacturing
14 21 (1.35%) Military
15 17 (1.09%) Investment Banking
16 12 (0.77%) Front Office
17 10 (0.64%) Law
Job Titles
1 316 (20.30%) Designer
2 225 (14.45%) Senior
3 215 (13.81%) Developer
4 132 (8.48%) Lead
5 128 (8.22%) UX Designer
6 102 (6.55%) Analyst
7 80 (5.14%) UI Designer
8 72 (4.62%) Consultant
9 67 (4.30%) Senior Designer
10 65 (4.17%) Architect
11 61 (3.92%) User Researcher
12 56 (3.60%) IT Support
13 55 (3.53%) Product Manager
13 55 (3.53%) Support Engineer
14 50 (3.21%) Business Analyst
15 47 (3.02%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
16 45 (2.89%) Content Designer
17 43 (2.76%) UI/UX Designer
18 42 (2.70%) User Experience Researcher
19 41 (2.63%) Product Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 160 (10.28%) React
2 123 (7.90%) CSS
3 112 (7.19%) HTML
4 94 (6.04%) REST
5 61 (3.92%) RESTful
6 48 (3.08%) HTML5
6 48 (3.08%) Terraform
7 46 (2.95%) AngularJS
8 45 (2.89%) CSS3
9 44 (2.83%) GraphQL
10 39 (2.50%) .NET
11 36 (2.31%) Node.js
12 33 (2.12%) Playwright
13 32 (2.06%) Jest
13 32 (2.06%) Next.js
13 32 (2.06%) Spring
14 31 (1.99%) Spring Boot
15 30 (1.93%) OAuth
16 29 (1.86%) Kafka
17 28 (1.80%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 151 (9.70%) Product Ownership
2 90 (5.78%) Mobile App
3 86 (5.52%) Onboarding
4 56 (3.60%) Cloud Native
5 51 (3.28%) AI Agents
6 32 (2.06%) Self-Motivation
7 31 (1.99%) Data Protection Act
8 30 (1.93%) Management Information System
9 29 (1.86%) Enterprise Software
10 26 (1.67%) Legacy Systems
11 25 (1.61%) Data Structures
12 22 (1.41%) Social Media
13 21 (1.35%) Data Centre
13 21 (1.35%) NHS
14 19 (1.22%) Educational Technology
15 17 (1.09%) Animation
16 16 (1.03%) Graphic Design
17 14 (0.90%) Greenfield Project
18 13 (0.83%) Analytical Mindset
18 13 (0.83%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 153 (9.83%) Windows
2 68 (4.37%) Apple iOS
3 67 (4.30%) Android
4 57 (3.66%) Windows 10
5 34 (2.18%) Windows Server
6 32 (2.06%) Mac OS
7 19 (1.22%) Linux
8 12 (0.77%) 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 (0.064%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 496 (31.86%) UX Design
2 445 (28.58%) Agile
3 313 (20.10%) AI
4 282 (18.11%) Stakeholder Management
5 256 (16.44%) Problem-Solving
6 238 (15.29%) Continuous Improvement
7 209 (13.42%) Analytics
8 199 (12.78%) User Research
9 181 (11.62%) CI/CD
10 171 (10.98%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 157 (10.08%) Roadmaps
12 152 (9.76%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
13 151 (9.70%) Decision-Making
14 126 (8.09%) DevOps
14 126 (8.09%) Scrum
15 125 (8.03%) Service Design
16 119 (7.64%) Prototyping
17 117 (7.51%) Workshop Facilitation
18 113 (7.26%) Service Management
19 110 (7.06%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 152 (9.76%) JavaScript
2 131 (8.41%) TypeScript
3 113 (7.26%) Python
4 99 (6.36%) SQL
5 95 (6.10%) Java
6 50 (3.21%) PowerShell
7 39 (2.50%) C#
8 29 (1.86%) Kotlin
9 20 (1.28%) Bash
10 19 (1.22%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 18 (1.16%) Swift
12 9 (0.58%) Go
13 8 (0.51%) PHP
13 8 (0.51%) 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%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 239 (15.35%) Security Cleared
2 185 (11.88%) SC Cleared
3 118 (7.58%) Degree
4 43 (2.76%) BPSS Clearance
5 35 (2.25%) Computer Science Degree
6 26 (1.67%) DV Cleared
7 24 (1.54%) Azure Certification
8 21 (1.35%) Microsoft Certification
9 16 (1.03%) PMP
10 9 (0.58%) Cisco Certification
10 9 (0.58%) ITIL Certification
11 8 (0.51%) AWS Certification
11 8 (0.51%) 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%) CCA
14 5 (0.32%) CCIE
14 5 (0.32%) CCNP
14 5 (0.32%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 269 (17.28%) Accessibility
2 104 (6.68%) WCAG
3 93 (5.97%) QA
4 46 (2.95%) Data Quality
5 20 (1.28%) GDPR
6 15 (0.96%) Actionable Recommendations
7 12 (0.77%) SLA
8 9 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 8 (0.51%) PMO
10 7 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 6 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials
12 4 (0.26%) GRC
12 4 (0.26%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 3 (0.19%) GMP
13 3 (0.19%) GxP
14 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
14 2 (0.13%) PSD2
15 1 (0.064%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 1 (0.064%) ISO 20022
15 1 (0.064%) SEPA
System Software
1 107 (6.87%) Active Directory
2 48 (3.08%) Docker
3 29 (1.86%) Virtual Desktop
4 25 (1.61%) VMware Infrastructure
5 15 (0.96%) Hyper-V
6 9 (0.58%) Citrix Hypervisor
7 8 (0.51%) XenApp
7 8 (0.51%) 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
12 2 (0.13%) Firmware
12 2 (0.13%) Virtual Machines
12 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
12 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
13 1 (0.064%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 50 (3.21%) Microsoft Intune
2 47 (3.02%) Kubernetes
3 35 (2.25%) Grafana
4 31 (1.99%) SCCM
5 21 (1.35%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (1.09%) Ansible
7 16 (1.03%) Jamf Pro
8 14 (0.90%) Prometheus
9 5 (0.32%) SysTrack
9 5 (0.32%) vCenter Server
10 4 (0.26%) Clonezilla
10 4 (0.26%) Podman
11 3 (0.19%) Kibana
11 3 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 3 (0.19%) WSUS
12 2 (0.13%) Argo
12 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
12 2 (0.13%) Packer
12 2 (0.13%) SCOM
12 2 (0.13%) vMotion
Vendors
1 282 (18.11%) Microsoft
2 89 (5.72%) ServiceNow
3 87 (5.59%) Adobe
4 51 (3.28%) Google
5 45 (2.89%) Oracle
6 32 (2.06%) SAP
7 30 (1.93%) Salesforce
8 28 (1.80%) VMware
9 27 (1.73%) Dynatrace
10 25 (1.61%) Citrix
11 24 (1.54%) Splunk
12 22 (1.41%) Apple
12 22 (1.41%) Databricks
13 20 (1.28%) OpenAI
14 18 (1.16%) Cisco
15 16 (1.03%) Foundry
15 16 (1.03%) Workday
16 14 (0.90%) Zscaler
17 11 (0.71%) Aruba
18 10 (0.64%) Okta