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 28 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 73 65 69
Rank change year-on-year -8 +4 -2
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,387 1,064 1,295
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.33% 3.48% 2.91%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.84% 3.86% 3.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 960 694 874
10th Percentile £313 £318 £313
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% - -2.44%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £650 £688 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +5.56% -5.26% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 49 23 43
10th Percentile £15.50 £25.26 £19.41
25th Percentile £17.69 £32.52 £25.00
Median hourly rate £38.94 £42.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -8.38% +6.25% -18.37%
75th Percentile £61.25 £52.25 £72.70
90th Percentile £70.85 £70.60 £80.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £30.33 £28.75
% change year-on-year +7.15% +5.50% -38.83%

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 36,087 27,535 38,701
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.65% 89.98% 86.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,916 17,126 25,279
10th Percentile £313 £306 £300
25th Percentile £412 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £723 £739 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £482 £491 £500
% change year-on-year -1.83% -1.80% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,149 888 2,215
10th Percentile £14.64 £15.62 £13.29
25th Percentile £18.13 £21.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £27.50 £32.50 £33.50
Median % change year-on-year -15.38% -2.99% -4.29%
75th Percentile £63.32 £63.75 £59.47
90th Percentile £72.71 £75.08 £72.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.76 £35.00
% change year-on-year -20.81% -9.26% -

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 28 February 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 28 February 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 28 February 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 -1 1,191 £486 -2.75% 1,022
London -17 619 £500 -4.76% 255
UK excluding London -9 599 £475 +5.56% 919
Work from Home -25 363 £489 -1.41% 530
North of England +14 206 £458 +1.67% 187
North West +14 134 £420 -6.67% 87
South East -7 122 £480 -4.24% 304
Midlands -15 107 £515 +28.75% 137
South West -9 67 £450 +16.13% 112
Scotland -8 61 £473 +5.00% 27
West Midlands -34 59 £456 -2.67% 63
Yorkshire -28 51 £519 +29.61% 69
East Midlands +10 48 £550 +54.49% 73
East of England -20 28 £425 -10.99% 114
North East 0 20 £388 -8.82% 32
Wales +4 15 £300 -29.41% 42
Northern Ireland -9 4 £625 +92.31% 15

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 59 (4.25%) SharePoint
2 55 (3.97%) Confluence
3 37 (2.67%) CMS
4 24 (1.73%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 15 (1.08%) Microsoft Exchange
6 11 (0.79%) Headless CMS
7 10 (0.72%) Apache
8 9 (0.65%) SugarCRM
9 8 (0.58%) Sitecore CMS
9 8 (0.58%) Umbraco
10 4 (0.29%) Camunda
10 4 (0.29%) Ethereum
10 4 (0.29%) Hyperledger
10 4 (0.29%) Mendix
11 3 (0.22%) Anypoint
11 3 (0.22%) Apache Spark
11 3 (0.22%) Drupal
11 3 (0.22%) Jupyter
12 2 (0.14%) Apache Airflow
12 2 (0.14%) WordPress
Applications
1 47 (3.39%) Sketch
2 38 (2.74%) Adobe XD
3 24 (1.73%) MS Visio
4 22 (1.59%) Microsoft Excel
5 17 (1.23%) Microsoft Office
6 16 (1.15%) Chatbot
7 14 (1.01%) InVision
8 11 (0.79%) Photoshop
9 10 (0.72%) Adobe Illustrator
10 7 (0.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 6 (0.43%) Spreadsheet
11 6 (0.43%) Trello
12 5 (0.36%) Adobe After Effects
12 5 (0.36%) Adobe Creative Suite
13 4 (0.29%) Microsoft Project
13 4 (0.29%) UXPin
14 3 (0.22%) Adobe Captivate
14 3 (0.22%) UserZoom
15 2 (0.14%) Camtasia
15 2 (0.14%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 22 (1.59%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (1.08%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.36%) Shopify
3 5 (0.36%) Workday HCM
4 4 (0.29%) Sage X3
5 3 (0.22%) SAP CO
5 3 (0.22%) SAP FI
5 3 (0.22%) SAP FI/CO
6 2 (0.14%) iTrent
6 2 (0.14%) Magento
6 2 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.14%) SAP ERP
6 2 (0.14%) SAP SD
6 2 (0.14%) SAP Travel Management
7 1 (0.072%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.072%) Eloqua
7 1 (0.072%) Integrated Workplace Management System
7 1 (0.072%) NEC Housing
7 1 (0.072%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.072%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 231 (16.65%) Azure
2 187 (13.48%) Figma
3 153 (11.03%) AWS
4 100 (7.21%) Power Platform
5 80 (5.77%) Microsoft 365
6 70 (5.05%) GCP
7 69 (4.97%) SaaS
8 56 (4.04%) Azure DevOps
9 55 (3.97%) Entra ID
10 51 (3.68%) GitHub
11 36 (2.60%) Power Automate
12 34 (2.45%) PowerApps
13 33 (2.38%) Serverless
14 32 (2.31%) GitHub Actions
15 30 (2.16%) Miro
16 23 (1.66%) Google Workspace
17 22 (1.59%) Cloud Computing
17 22 (1.59%) Dynamics 365
17 22 (1.59%) Microsoft Copilot
18 21 (1.51%) Google Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 23 (1.66%) DNS
2 19 (1.37%) Wireless
3 16 (1.15%) Internet
4 15 (1.08%) HTTP
5 12 (0.87%) Wi-Fi
6 11 (0.79%) VPN
7 10 (0.72%) DHCP
7 10 (0.72%) Intranet
8 9 (0.65%) TCP/IP
9 8 (0.58%) BGP
9 8 (0.58%) Cisco ISE
9 8 (0.58%) Firewall
10 7 (0.50%) Cisco Wireless
10 7 (0.50%) NX-OS
10 7 (0.50%) VXLAN
10 7 (0.50%) WAN
11 6 (0.43%) Unified Communications
12 5 (0.36%) Network Security
12 5 (0.36%) SD-WAN
12 5 (0.36%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 65 (4.69%) Power BI
2 37 (2.67%) MySQL
3 36 (2.60%) Relational Database
4 30 (2.16%) NoSQL
5 28 (2.02%) PostgreSQL
6 21 (1.51%) Data Warehouse
6 21 (1.51%) SQL Server
7 16 (1.15%) Tableau
8 15 (1.08%) Metadata
8 15 (1.08%) MongoDB
9 14 (1.01%) BigQuery
10 12 (0.87%) Looker
11 7 (0.50%) DynamoDB
11 7 (0.50%) Mixpanel
11 7 (0.50%) Pinecone
12 6 (0.43%) Power Query
12 6 (0.43%) Redis
13 5 (0.36%) Hadoop
13 5 (0.36%) SAP HANA
14 4 (0.29%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 119 (8.58%) JIRA
2 91 (6.56%) Git
3 47 (3.39%) GitLab
4 32 (2.31%) Jenkins
5 29 (2.09%) Cypress.io
6 26 (1.87%) JUnit
7 24 (1.73%) Axure RP
8 20 (1.44%) Android Studio
9 19 (1.37%) Xcode
10 16 (1.15%) Eclipse
11 15 (1.08%) Gradle
12 14 (1.01%) Browser DevTools
13 12 (0.87%) CircleCI
14 10 (0.72%) Postman
15 9 (0.65%) Artifactory
16 8 (0.58%) Mocha
16 8 (0.58%) Mockito
17 7 (0.50%) Selenium
18 6 (0.43%) IntelliJ
18 6 (0.43%) Jasmine
General
1 465 (33.53%) Social Skills
2 258 (18.60%) Finance
3 203 (14.64%) Public Sector
4 161 (11.61%) Analytical Skills
5 105 (7.57%) Banking
6 75 (5.41%) Marketing
7 40 (2.88%) Retail
8 32 (2.31%) Influencing Skills
9 29 (2.09%) Presentation Skills
10 28 (2.02%) Legal
11 22 (1.59%) Manufacturing
12 20 (1.44%) Pharmaceutical
13 17 (1.23%) Financial Institution
13 17 (1.23%) Investment Banking
14 16 (1.15%) Documentation Skills
15 14 (1.01%) Games
15 14 (1.01%) Telecoms
16 12 (0.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 11 (0.79%) Front Office
18 10 (0.72%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 245 (17.66%) Designer
2 234 (16.87%) Developer
3 205 (14.78%) Senior
4 135 (9.73%) UX Designer
5 125 (9.01%) Analyst
6 75 (5.41%) Lead
7 60 (4.33%) Business Analyst
8 58 (4.18%) Consultant
8 58 (4.18%) Product Designer
8 58 (4.18%) Senior Designer
9 51 (3.68%) Architect
10 46 (3.32%) User Researcher
11 41 (2.96%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
11 41 (2.96%) Service Designer
12 40 (2.88%) Full-Stack Developer
12 40 (2.88%) Senior Developer
12 40 (2.88%) Software Engineer
13 38 (2.74%) UI Designer
14 36 (2.60%) Support Engineer
15 35 (2.52%) Senior UX Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 176 (12.69%) React
2 169 (12.18%) CSS
3 153 (11.03%) HTML
4 118 (8.51%) REST
5 94 (6.78%) RESTful
6 93 (6.71%) AngularJS
7 60 (4.33%) Spring
7 60 (4.33%) Spring Boot
8 56 (4.04%) .NET
9 54 (3.89%) Node.js
10 41 (2.96%) HTML5
11 39 (2.81%) GraphQL
12 35 (2.52%) Jest
13 33 (2.38%) CSS3
13 33 (2.38%) JSON
14 29 (2.09%) Redux
15 25 (1.80%) Next.js
16 24 (1.73%) SOAP
17 22 (1.59%) OAuth
17 22 (1.59%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 143 (10.31%) Product Ownership
2 93 (6.71%) Mobile App
3 56 (4.04%) Onboarding
4 30 (2.16%) Analytical Mindset
5 27 (1.95%) AI Agents
6 26 (1.87%) Data Structures
6 26 (1.87%) Enterprise Software
7 17 (1.23%) Distributed Systems
8 16 (1.15%) Data Protection Act
8 16 (1.15%) Low-Code
9 15 (1.08%) Cloud Native
9 15 (1.08%) Data Centre
9 15 (1.08%) Legacy Systems
9 15 (1.08%) NHS
9 15 (1.08%) Virtual Team
10 13 (0.94%) CMDB
11 12 (0.87%) Algorithms
11 12 (0.87%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 11 (0.79%) Management Information System
13 10 (0.72%) e-Learning
Operating Systems
1 130 (9.37%) Windows
2 53 (3.82%) Android
3 39 (2.81%) Apple iOS
3 39 (2.81%) Windows 10
4 30 (2.16%) Linux
5 24 (1.73%) Mac OS
6 17 (1.23%) Unix
7 6 (0.43%) Windows Server
8 3 (0.22%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.14%) VMS
10 1 (0.072%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.072%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.072%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.072%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 478 (34.46%) Agile
2 456 (32.88%) UX Design
3 223 (16.08%) Problem-Solving
4 219 (15.79%) Analytics
5 216 (15.57%) User Research
6 184 (13.27%) CI/CD
7 169 (12.18%) DevOps
8 168 (12.11%) Stakeholder Management
9 164 (11.82%) AI
10 158 (11.39%) Continuous Improvement
11 149 (10.74%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 145 (10.45%) Roadmaps
13 143 (10.31%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
14 134 (9.66%) Prototyping
15 126 (9.08%) Wireframes
16 125 (9.01%) Service Design
17 122 (8.80%) Decision-Making
18 119 (8.58%) Usability Testing
19 114 (8.22%) UX Research
20 103 (7.43%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 205 (14.78%) JavaScript
2 138 (9.95%) SQL
3 123 (8.87%) Python
4 120 (8.65%) Java
5 116 (8.36%) TypeScript
6 65 (4.69%) PowerShell
7 60 (4.33%) C#
8 34 (2.45%) Kotlin
9 23 (1.66%) Bash
10 18 (1.30%) PHP
11 17 (1.23%) Perl
12 15 (1.08%) Swift
13 13 (0.94%) C++
14 11 (0.79%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 9 (0.65%) Go
16 8 (0.58%) PL/SQL
17 7 (0.50%) Lisp
17 7 (0.50%) Lua
18 6 (0.43%) Scala
19 4 (0.29%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 187 (13.48%) Security Cleared
2 137 (9.88%) SC Cleared
3 133 (9.59%) Degree
4 40 (2.88%) BPSS Clearance
5 24 (1.73%) Computer Science Degree
6 18 (1.30%) Master's Degree
7 17 (1.23%) DV Cleared
8 14 (1.01%) Microsoft Certification
9 11 (0.79%) MOS
10 10 (0.72%) CCNP
10 10 (0.72%) Cisco Certification
11 8 (0.58%) PMI Certification
12 7 (0.50%) OCA
12 7 (0.50%) Oracle Certification
13 5 (0.36%) CCA
13 5 (0.36%) Citrix Certification
14 4 (0.29%) Azure Certification
15 3 (0.22%) CESG Certified Professional
15 3 (0.22%) ITIL Certification
16 2 (0.14%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 248 (17.88%) Accessibility
2 138 (9.95%) QA
3 73 (5.26%) WCAG
4 45 (3.24%) Data Quality
5 44 (3.17%) GDPR
6 25 (1.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 23 (1.66%) Actionable Recommendations
8 20 (1.44%) SLA
9 8 (0.58%) PMO
10 6 (0.43%) NCSC
11 5 (0.36%) GxP
12 4 (0.29%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 3 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials
13 3 (0.22%) Disclosure Scotland
13 3 (0.22%) GMP
13 3 (0.22%) Government Security Classifications
13 3 (0.22%) HIPAA
13 3 (0.22%) NIST
13 3 (0.22%) SOC 2
14 2 (0.14%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 77 (5.55%) Active Directory
2 65 (4.69%) Docker
3 22 (1.59%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (0.94%) Virtual Desktop
5 4 (0.29%) Firmware
6 3 (0.22%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.14%) ProxySG
8 1 (0.072%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.072%) ISA Server
8 1 (0.072%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.072%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.072%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.072%) XenApp
8 1 (0.072%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 59 (4.25%) Kubernetes
2 50 (3.60%) Microsoft Intune
3 40 (2.88%) Terraform
4 38 (2.74%) SCCM
5 25 (1.80%) Grafana
6 16 (1.15%) Ansible
7 12 (0.87%) Single Sign-On
8 7 (0.50%) FortiGate
8 7 (0.50%) Prometheus
9 6 (0.43%) Jamf Pro
10 4 (0.29%) Argo
10 4 (0.29%) HP ALM
11 3 (0.22%) Nagios
11 3 (0.22%) Rancher
12 2 (0.14%) PingFederate
12 2 (0.14%) SysTrack
13 1 (0.072%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 1 (0.072%) Istio
13 1 (0.072%) Podman
13 1 (0.072%) SCOM
Vendors
1 229 (16.51%) Microsoft
2 93 (6.71%) Adobe
3 87 (6.27%) Google
4 79 (5.70%) ServiceNow
5 51 (3.68%) SAP
6 40 (2.88%) Oracle
7 36 (2.60%) Salesforce
8 27 (1.95%) Splunk
9 23 (1.66%) VMware
10 22 (1.59%) Citrix
11 15 (1.08%) Cisco
12 14 (1.01%) Apple
13 12 (0.87%) Red Hat
13 12 (0.87%) Zscaler
14 11 (0.79%) Amplitude
14 11 (0.79%) Hotjar
15 9 (0.65%) MuleSoft
15 9 (0.65%) OpenAI
15 9 (0.65%) Workday
16 8 (0.58%) Optimizely