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

6 months to
29 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 94 65 79
Rank change year-on-year -29 +14 -18
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,549 1,270 1,012
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.87% 3.85% 2.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.40% 4.26% 3.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 934 814 623
10th Percentile £302 £300 £305
25th Percentile £390 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -2.91%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £438 £475
% change year-on-year +2.86% -7.89% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 48 27
10th Percentile £16.88 £18.83 £16.28
25th Percentile £26.25 £33.00 £30.00
Median hourly rate £33.99 £45.50 £41.68
Median % change year-on-year -25.30% +9.18% +51.55%
75th Percentile £67.84 £63.75 £69.20
90th Percentile £76.40 £71.62 £74.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £41.55 £46.44
% change year-on-year -18.19% -10.52% +162.06%

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 45,621 29,800 32,930
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.64% 90.44% 85.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,920 18,562 20,756
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% -3.67%
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 2,892 1,765 1,620
10th Percentile £14.10 £14.21 £14.16
25th Percentile £17.85 £17.30 £18.50
Median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £42.03
Median % change year-on-year +63.02% -40.16% +0.31%
75th Percentile £67.84 £47.12 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.15 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.11 £22.63 £43.00
% change year-on-year +90.48% -47.37% +14.67%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 -28 1,346 £475 - 1,978
UK excluding London -13 731 £450 +2.86% 867
London -34 681 £513 +2.50% 1,343
Work from Home -36 392 £475 -2.56% 815
North of England -18 246 £425 +3.66% 240
Midlands -9 154 £475 +10.27% 109
West Midlands -4 124 £475 -6.77% 72
North West -36 123 £393 -7.53% 140
South East -54 104 £405 -9.40% 191
Scotland +2 90 £538 +16.53% 71
South West -9 80 £475 - 128
Yorkshire -20 74 £500 +25.00% 69
North East -4 48 £350 -27.08% 34
East of England 0 45 £410 -18.00% 77
East Midlands -12 30 £500 +39.66% 37
Wales -12 15 £579 +89.22% 23
Northern Ireland +5 3 £638 +56.44% 37

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 67 (4.33%) SharePoint
2 59 (3.81%) CMS
3 42 (2.71%) Confluence
4 32 (2.07%) 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%) Headless CMS
9 5 (0.32%) Oracle Workflow
10 4 (0.26%) Kentico
11 3 (0.19%) Camunda
11 3 (0.19%) ColdFusion
11 3 (0.19%) Mendix
11 3 (0.19%) Moodle
11 3 (0.19%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.13%) IIS
12 2 (0.13%) nginx
Applications
1 34 (2.19%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 31 (2.00%) Sketch
3 23 (1.48%) Chatbot
3 23 (1.48%) Microsoft Excel
4 20 (1.29%) Microsoft Office
4 20 (1.29%) Photoshop
5 18 (1.16%) Adobe After Effects
6 16 (1.03%) Adobe Illustrator
7 13 (0.84%) Adobe XD
8 9 (0.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
8 9 (0.58%) MS Visio
9 7 (0.45%) Final Cut Pro
10 2 (0.13%) InVision
10 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
10 2 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
10 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
11 1 (0.065%) Adobe Captivate
11 1 (0.065%) Blender
11 1 (0.065%) Microsoft Project
11 1 (0.065%) Trello
Business Applications
1 8 (0.52%) Workday HCM
2 7 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (0.39%) Shopify
4 5 (0.32%) NetSuite
4 5 (0.32%) SAP S/4HANA
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%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
7 2 (0.13%) ResourceLink
7 2 (0.13%) Sage X3
8 1 (0.065%) Exchequer
8 1 (0.065%) Magento
8 1 (0.065%) NEC Housing
8 1 (0.065%) Oracle EBS R12
8 1 (0.065%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 228 (14.72%) Azure
2 192 (12.40%) Figma
3 150 (9.68%) Microsoft 365
4 132 (8.52%) AWS
5 115 (7.42%) Power Platform
6 67 (4.33%) Entra ID
7 64 (4.13%) GitHub
8 56 (3.62%) SaaS
9 55 (3.55%) Microsoft Copilot
10 52 (3.36%) Azure DevOps
11 38 (2.45%) GCP
12 34 (2.19%) OneDrive
13 32 (2.07%) PowerApps
14 25 (1.61%) GitHub Actions
14 25 (1.61%) Power Automate
14 25 (1.61%) Serverless
15 24 (1.55%) Copilot Studio
16 23 (1.48%) Azure AI
17 18 (1.16%) GitHub Copilot
18 17 (1.10%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 45 (2.91%) DNS
2 37 (2.39%) DHCP
3 32 (2.07%) TCP/IP
4 30 (1.94%) Wi-Fi
5 22 (1.42%) Wireless
6 21 (1.36%) LAN
7 17 (1.10%) VPN
8 16 (1.03%) Firewall
8 16 (1.03%) WAN
9 13 (0.84%) Internet
10 11 (0.71%) SD-WAN
11 9 (0.58%) Cisco Wireless
11 9 (0.58%) NetScaler
11 9 (0.58%) Skype
12 8 (0.52%) Intranet
12 8 (0.52%) Network Security
13 7 (0.45%) 5G
13 7 (0.45%) SNMP
13 7 (0.45%) WLAN
14 6 (0.39%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (4.58%) Power BI
2 26 (1.68%) Metadata
3 18 (1.16%) NoSQL
3 18 (1.16%) PostgreSQL
4 16 (1.03%) Power Query
5 14 (0.90%) SQL Server
6 13 (0.84%) MongoDB
6 13 (0.84%) Relational Database
6 13 (0.84%) Tableau
7 12 (0.77%) Elasticsearch
8 11 (0.71%) Big Data
9 9 (0.58%) Looker
10 8 (0.52%) Data Warehouse
10 8 (0.52%) 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%) Oracle BI Publisher
Development Applications
1 88 (5.68%) JIRA
2 82 (5.29%) Git
3 30 (1.94%) Cypress.io
4 29 (1.87%) Jenkins
5 25 (1.61%) Vite
6 15 (0.97%) GitLab
7 14 (0.90%) Claude Code
7 14 (0.90%) Storybook
8 12 (0.77%) fastlane
9 10 (0.65%) Android Studio
9 10 (0.65%) Browser DevTools
10 9 (0.58%) Selenium
10 9 (0.58%) Xcode
11 8 (0.52%) JMeter
11 8 (0.52%) webpack
12 7 (0.45%) Gradle
12 7 (0.45%) Postman
13 6 (0.39%) JUnit
13 6 (0.39%) Visual Studio
14 5 (0.32%) Oracle Forms
General
1 495 (31.96%) Social Skills
2 265 (17.11%) Finance
3 212 (13.69%) Public Sector
4 158 (10.20%) Analytical Skills
5 112 (7.23%) Banking
6 79 (5.10%) Retail
7 73 (4.71%) Marketing
8 53 (3.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 41 (2.65%) Influencing Skills
10 39 (2.52%) Legal
11 28 (1.81%) Automotive
11 28 (1.81%) Organisational Skills
11 28 (1.81%) Publishing
12 26 (1.68%) Presentation Skills
13 23 (1.48%) Documentation Skills
13 23 (1.48%) Manufacturing
14 18 (1.16%) Military
15 17 (1.10%) Investment Banking
16 10 (0.65%) Law
17 9 (0.58%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 329 (21.24%) Designer
2 219 (14.14%) Senior
3 207 (13.36%) Developer
4 135 (8.72%) UX Designer
5 126 (8.13%) Lead
6 105 (6.78%) Analyst
7 81 (5.23%) UI Designer
8 76 (4.91%) Consultant
9 67 (4.33%) Senior Designer
10 63 (4.07%) User Researcher
11 61 (3.94%) Architect
12 55 (3.55%) Product Manager
13 54 (3.49%) Support Engineer
14 53 (3.42%) IT Support
15 52 (3.36%) Business Analyst
16 49 (3.16%) Content Designer
17 45 (2.91%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
18 44 (2.84%) UI/UX Designer
19 43 (2.78%) Product Designer
20 42 (2.71%) User Experience Researcher
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 153 (9.88%) React
2 123 (7.94%) CSS
3 111 (7.17%) HTML
4 90 (5.81%) REST
5 64 (4.13%) RESTful
6 48 (3.10%) AngularJS
6 48 (3.10%) Terraform
7 46 (2.97%) HTML5
8 45 (2.91%) CSS3
9 41 (2.65%) GraphQL
10 38 (2.45%) .NET
11 34 (2.19%) Jest
12 33 (2.13%) Next.js
12 33 (2.13%) Node.js
13 31 (2.00%) Playwright
14 30 (1.94%) Spring
15 29 (1.87%) Kafka
15 29 (1.87%) Spring Boot
16 26 (1.68%) OAuth
16 26 (1.68%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 144 (9.30%) Product Ownership
2 95 (6.13%) Mobile App
3 86 (5.55%) Onboarding
4 55 (3.55%) Cloud Native
5 46 (2.97%) AI Agents
6 33 (2.13%) Self-Motivation
7 32 (2.07%) Data Protection Act
8 31 (2.00%) Enterprise Software
9 26 (1.68%) Legacy Systems
10 25 (1.61%) Management Information System
11 24 (1.55%) Data Structures
12 22 (1.42%) Social Media
13 21 (1.36%) NHS
14 20 (1.29%) Data Centre
15 19 (1.23%) Educational Technology
16 18 (1.16%) Animation
16 18 (1.16%) Graphic Design
17 15 (0.97%) Virtual Reality
18 14 (0.90%) Taxonomies
19 13 (0.84%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 151 (9.75%) Windows
2 66 (4.26%) Apple iOS
3 65 (4.20%) Android
4 58 (3.74%) Windows 10
5 31 (2.00%) Mac OS
6 30 (1.94%) Windows Server
7 19 (1.23%) Linux
8 11 (0.71%) 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
1 505 (32.60%) UX Design
2 447 (28.86%) Agile
3 307 (19.82%) AI
4 270 (17.43%) Stakeholder Management
5 251 (16.20%) Problem-Solving
6 234 (15.11%) Continuous Improvement
7 211 (13.62%) Analytics
8 199 (12.85%) User Research
9 180 (11.62%) CI/CD
10 176 (11.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 154 (9.94%) Roadmaps
12 150 (9.68%) Decision-Making
13 146 (9.43%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
14 127 (8.20%) Prototyping
15 125 (8.07%) DevOps
16 124 (8.01%) Service Design
17 122 (7.88%) Scrum
18 118 (7.62%) Workshop Facilitation
19 115 (7.42%) Wireframes
20 108 (6.97%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 146 (9.43%) JavaScript
2 122 (7.88%) TypeScript
3 116 (7.49%) Python
4 97 (6.26%) SQL
5 93 (6.00%) Java
6 51 (3.29%) PowerShell
7 35 (2.26%) C#
8 29 (1.87%) Kotlin
9 21 (1.36%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 20 (1.29%) Bash
11 18 (1.16%) Swift
12 8 (0.52%) Go
12 8 (0.52%) PHP
12 8 (0.52%) VBScript
13 7 (0.45%) Shell Script
13 7 (0.45%) VB
14 6 (0.39%) Apex Code
14 6 (0.39%) Scala
15 5 (0.32%) Korn
15 5 (0.32%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 239 (15.43%) Security Cleared
2 179 (11.56%) SC Cleared
3 122 (7.88%) Degree
4 42 (2.71%) BPSS Clearance
5 35 (2.26%) Computer Science Degree
6 27 (1.74%) DV Cleared
7 24 (1.55%) Azure Certification
8 19 (1.23%) Microsoft Certification
9 15 (0.97%) PMP
10 10 (0.65%) Cisco Certification
10 10 (0.65%) ITIL Certification
11 8 (0.52%) AWS Certification
11 8 (0.52%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 7 (0.45%) DBS Check
13 6 (0.39%) CCIE
13 6 (0.39%) CCNP
13 6 (0.39%) Master's Degree
13 6 (0.39%) MCSE
13 6 (0.39%) PMI Certification
14 5 (0.32%) CCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 271 (17.50%) Accessibility
2 99 (6.39%) WCAG
3 95 (6.13%) QA
4 44 (2.84%) Data Quality
5 20 (1.29%) GDPR
6 16 (1.03%) Actionable Recommendations
7 11 (0.71%) SLA
8 9 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 7 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 7 (0.45%) PMO
10 6 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials
11 4 (0.26%) GRC
11 4 (0.26%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 3 (0.19%) GMP
12 3 (0.19%) GxP
13 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.13%) PSD2
14 1 (0.065%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 1 (0.065%) ISO 20022
14 1 (0.065%) SEPA
System Software
1 106 (6.84%) Active Directory
2 49 (3.16%) Docker
3 30 (1.94%) Virtual Desktop
4 24 (1.55%) VMware Infrastructure
5 13 (0.84%) Hyper-V
6 7 (0.45%) BitLocker
6 7 (0.45%) Citrix Hypervisor
6 7 (0.45%) vSphere
7 6 (0.39%) XenApp
7 6 (0.39%) XenDesktop
8 5 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
9 4 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
10 3 (0.19%) UAG
11 2 (0.13%) Firmware
11 2 (0.13%) Virtual Machines
11 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
11 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
12 1 (0.065%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 49 (3.16%) Kubernetes
1 49 (3.16%) Microsoft Intune
2 35 (2.26%) Grafana
3 33 (2.13%) SCCM
4 21 (1.36%) Single Sign-On
5 17 (1.10%) Ansible
6 15 (0.97%) Jamf Pro
7 14 (0.90%) Prometheus
8 5 (0.32%) SysTrack
8 5 (0.32%) vCenter Server
9 4 (0.26%) Clonezilla
9 4 (0.26%) Podman
10 3 (0.19%) Kibana
10 3 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 3 (0.19%) 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
1 267 (17.24%) Microsoft
2 88 (5.68%) Adobe
2 88 (5.68%) ServiceNow
3 50 (3.23%) Google
4 46 (2.97%) Oracle
5 31 (2.00%) Salesforce
5 31 (2.00%) SAP
6 27 (1.74%) Dynatrace
6 27 (1.74%) VMware
7 26 (1.68%) Citrix
8 23 (1.48%) Splunk
9 22 (1.42%) Databricks
10 21 (1.36%) Apple
11 19 (1.23%) Cisco
11 19 (1.23%) OpenAI
12 18 (1.16%) Workday
13 15 (0.97%) Foundry
14 14 (0.90%) Zscaler
15 12 (0.77%) Aruba
16 10 (0.65%) Okta