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

6 months to
11 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 82 61 75
Rank change year-on-year -21 +14 -15
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,502 1,120 1,195
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.01% 3.81% 2.74%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.55% 4.19% 3.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 961 734 794
10th Percentile £325 £304 £313
25th Percentile £402 £386 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £493 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.68% -5.00% -2.91%
75th Percentile £585 £577 £600
90th Percentile £680 £688 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £425 £475
% change year-on-year +11.76% -10.53% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 65 30 49
10th Percentile £16.00 £31.11 £16.25
25th Percentile £21.33 £35.25 £23.75
Median hourly rate £33.99 £53.50 £31.71
Median % change year-on-year -36.47% +68.72% +7.15%
75th Percentile £52.49 £68.87 £61.25
90th Percentile £67.87 £86.50 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.98 £70.08 £25.00
% change year-on-year -51.51% +180.32% +42.86%

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 42,291 26,731 37,187
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.76% 91.01% 85.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,385 16,984 23,772
10th Percentile £325 £300 £300
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £508 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.99% -3.33% -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,541 1,182 2,587
10th Percentile £14.68 £14.20 £12.75
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.87 £16.00
Median hourly rate £43.96 £27.28 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +61.14% -25.26% +1.39%
75th Percentile £68.00 £56.00 £61.16
90th Percentile £81.25 £73.75 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +78.93% -34.02% +8.91%

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 June 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 June 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 June 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 -15 1,291 £488 +1.04% 638
UK excluding London +5 691 £475 +11.76% 437
London -26 653 £520 +4.00% 301
Work from Home -24 401 £500 +3.36% 359
North of England -19 199 £450 +7.46% 131
Midlands -7 156 £475 +18.16% 50
South East -12 134 £490 +3.16% 143
North West -9 122 £425 -4.92% 89
West Midlands -10 107 £475 -9.52% 36
Scotland +9 81 £510 +12.09% 11
South West -2 74 £475 +26.67% 37
Yorkshire -26 55 £513 +29.91% 28
East Midlands 0 49 £550 +55.81% 14
East of England -8 32 £410 -13.68% 47
North East -20 22 £450 -6.25% 15
Wales -12 14 £503 +64.22% 14
Northern Ireland -1 3 - - 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 59 (3.93%) SharePoint
2 50 (3.33%) Confluence
3 44 (2.93%) CMS
4 23 (1.53%) Microsoft Exchange
5 12 (0.80%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 7 (0.47%) WordPress
7 5 (0.33%) Apache
7 5 (0.33%) Camunda
7 5 (0.33%) Drupal
7 5 (0.33%) Mendix
7 5 (0.33%) Skype for Business
8 4 (0.27%) Ethereum
8 4 (0.27%) Hyperledger
8 4 (0.27%) Kentico
8 4 (0.27%) Umbraco
9 3 (0.20%) Headless CMS
9 3 (0.20%) nginx
10 2 (0.13%) IIS
10 2 (0.13%) Moodle
10 2 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 38 (2.53%) Sketch
2 24 (1.60%) Microsoft Excel
3 23 (1.53%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 22 (1.46%) Photoshop
5 20 (1.33%) Chatbot
6 19 (1.26%) Adobe After Effects
7 18 (1.20%) Adobe XD
8 17 (1.13%) Adobe Illustrator
9 14 (0.93%) Microsoft Office
9 14 (0.93%) MS Visio
10 8 (0.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 7 (0.47%) InVision
12 5 (0.33%) Final Cut Pro
13 4 (0.27%) Adobe Captivate
14 3 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
14 3 (0.20%) Trello
14 3 (0.20%) UserZoom
14 3 (0.20%) UXPin
15 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
16 1 (0.067%) Blender
Business Applications
1 13 (0.87%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (0.60%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (0.60%) Workday HCM
3 8 (0.53%) Shopify
4 6 (0.40%) Sage X3
5 4 (0.27%) NetSuite
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle iProcurement
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
6 2 (0.13%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.13%) Remedy ITSM
6 2 (0.13%) ResourceLink
6 2 (0.13%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.067%) Adobe Campaign
7 1 (0.067%) Eloqua
7 1 (0.067%) Integrated Workplace Management System
7 1 (0.067%) NEC Housing
7 1 (0.067%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.067%) Salesforce CRM
7 1 (0.067%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 236 (15.71%) Azure
2 215 (14.31%) Figma
3 129 (8.59%) AWS
4 114 (7.59%) Microsoft 365
5 109 (7.26%) Power Platform
6 62 (4.13%) Entra ID
7 55 (3.66%) Azure DevOps
8 49 (3.26%) GitHub
9 48 (3.20%) SaaS
10 47 (3.13%) Microsoft Copilot
11 43 (2.86%) GCP
12 36 (2.40%) PowerApps
13 34 (2.26%) Power Automate
14 32 (2.13%) GitHub Actions
14 32 (2.13%) OneDrive
15 31 (2.06%) Serverless
16 25 (1.66%) Copilot Studio
17 23 (1.53%) Google Workspace
18 20 (1.33%) Google Sheets
19 18 (1.20%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 28 (1.86%) DNS
2 24 (1.60%) DHCP
3 21 (1.40%) Wi-Fi
4 18 (1.20%) TCP/IP
4 18 (1.20%) Wireless
5 14 (0.93%) LAN
6 13 (0.87%) Internet
7 12 (0.80%) Intranet
8 10 (0.67%) SD-WAN
9 9 (0.60%) HTTP
10 8 (0.53%) Cisco Wireless
10 8 (0.53%) VPN
10 8 (0.53%) WAN
11 7 (0.47%) 5G
11 7 (0.47%) Firewall
11 7 (0.47%) Skype
11 7 (0.47%) WLAN
12 6 (0.40%) Network Security
12 6 (0.40%) SNMP
13 5 (0.33%) 802.11
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (4.73%) Power BI
2 25 (1.66%) PostgreSQL
2 25 (1.66%) Relational Database
3 24 (1.60%) NoSQL
4 23 (1.53%) Metadata
5 22 (1.46%) SQL Server
6 17 (1.13%) Power Query
7 16 (1.07%) Data Warehouse
8 14 (0.93%) MongoDB
9 13 (0.87%) MySQL
10 10 (0.67%) Big Data
11 9 (0.60%) Tableau
12 7 (0.47%) DynamoDB
12 7 (0.47%) Redis
13 6 (0.40%) Elasticsearch
13 6 (0.40%) Oracle Database
13 6 (0.40%) Pinecone
13 6 (0.40%) ZAP BI
14 5 (0.33%) BigQuery
14 5 (0.33%) Oracle BI Publisher
Development Applications
1 97 (6.46%) JIRA
2 86 (5.73%) Git
3 24 (1.60%) Cypress.io
3 24 (1.60%) Jenkins
4 22 (1.46%) GitLab
5 16 (1.07%) JUnit
6 15 (1.00%) Vite
7 12 (0.80%) Gradle
8 11 (0.73%) Android Studio
9 10 (0.67%) Axure RP
9 10 (0.67%) Browser DevTools
10 9 (0.60%) fastlane
10 9 (0.60%) Selenium
10 9 (0.60%) Xcode
11 8 (0.53%) CircleCI
11 8 (0.53%) Visual Studio
12 7 (0.47%) Claude Code
12 7 (0.47%) Postman
13 6 (0.40%) webpack
14 5 (0.33%) Crashlytics
General
1 455 (30.29%) Social Skills
2 255 (16.98%) Finance
3 193 (12.85%) Public Sector
4 139 (9.25%) Analytical Skills
5 113 (7.52%) Banking
6 73 (4.86%) Retail
7 63 (4.19%) Marketing
8 38 (2.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 33 (2.20%) Legal
10 31 (2.06%) Presentation Skills
11 30 (2.00%) Influencing Skills
12 28 (1.86%) Automotive
13 26 (1.73%) Manufacturing
14 21 (1.40%) Publishing
15 17 (1.13%) Documentation Skills
15 17 (1.13%) Investment Banking
16 15 (1.00%) Organisational Skills
16 15 (1.00%) Pharmaceutical
17 13 (0.87%) Games
18 12 (0.80%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 323 (21.50%) Designer
2 233 (15.51%) Senior
3 202 (13.45%) Developer
4 145 (9.65%) UX Designer
5 117 (7.79%) Analyst
6 97 (6.46%) Lead
7 78 (5.19%) UI Designer
8 73 (4.86%) Consultant
9 69 (4.59%) Senior Designer
10 63 (4.19%) Architect
10 63 (4.19%) Product Designer
11 59 (3.93%) Business Analyst
12 51 (3.40%) Content Designer
13 50 (3.33%) User Researcher
14 48 (3.20%) User Experience Researcher
15 47 (3.13%) IT Support
16 45 (3.00%) UI/UX Designer
17 42 (2.80%) Product Manager
18 39 (2.60%) Senior Developer
19 34 (2.26%) Senior UX Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 157 (10.45%) React
2 128 (8.52%) CSS
3 115 (7.66%) HTML
4 96 (6.39%) REST
5 70 (4.66%) AngularJS
6 69 (4.59%) RESTful
7 54 (3.60%) .NET
8 51 (3.40%) Spring
9 50 (3.33%) Spring Boot
10 34 (2.26%) GraphQL
11 33 (2.20%) Node.js
12 32 (2.13%) Redux
13 31 (2.06%) JSON
14 29 (1.93%) Kafka
15 28 (1.86%) HTML5
16 27 (1.80%) Jest
17 26 (1.73%) CSS3
18 25 (1.66%) ASP.NET
19 24 (1.60%) Next.js
19 24 (1.60%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 152 (10.12%) Product Ownership
2 74 (4.93%) Mobile App
3 61 (4.06%) Onboarding
4 37 (2.46%) AI Agents
5 34 (2.26%) Cloud Native
6 30 (2.00%) Data Structures
7 27 (1.80%) Enterprise Software
8 25 (1.66%) Legacy Systems
9 23 (1.53%) Self-Motivation
10 22 (1.46%) Animation
11 20 (1.33%) Data Protection Act
12 18 (1.20%) Data Centre
13 17 (1.13%) Analytical Mindset
14 16 (1.07%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 15 (1.00%) Distributed Systems
15 15 (1.00%) Social Media
15 15 (1.00%) Taxonomies
16 14 (0.93%) Algorithms
16 14 (0.93%) Graphic Design
17 13 (0.87%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 109 (7.26%) Windows
2 50 (3.33%) Apple iOS
3 48 (3.20%) Android
4 33 (2.20%) Windows 10
5 26 (1.73%) Mac OS
6 15 (1.00%) Linux
7 12 (0.80%) Windows Server
8 6 (0.40%) Windows 7
9 5 (0.33%) Unix
9 5 (0.33%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.27%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.067%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 511 (34.02%) UX Design
2 453 (30.16%) Agile
3 256 (17.04%) AI
4 225 (14.98%) Problem-Solving
5 204 (13.58%) User Research
6 199 (13.25%) Analytics
7 192 (12.78%) Stakeholder Management
8 185 (12.32%) Continuous Improvement
9 164 (10.92%) Roadmaps
9 164 (10.92%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 163 (10.85%) CI/CD
11 148 (9.85%) Prototyping
12 142 (9.45%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
13 141 (9.39%) DevOps
14 133 (8.85%) Wireframes
15 127 (8.46%) UX Research
16 123 (8.19%) Service Design
17 121 (8.06%) Decision-Making
18 109 (7.26%) Usability Testing
19 107 (7.12%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 157 (10.45%) JavaScript
2 119 (7.92%) Python
3 117 (7.79%) SQL
3 117 (7.79%) TypeScript
4 110 (7.32%) Java
5 59 (3.93%) C#
6 50 (3.33%) PowerShell
7 31 (2.06%) Kotlin
8 22 (1.46%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 16 (1.07%) Bash
10 13 (0.87%) Swift
11 11 (0.73%) C++
12 9 (0.60%) Lua
13 8 (0.53%) Korn
14 6 (0.40%) R
14 6 (0.40%) VBA
14 6 (0.40%) VBScript
15 5 (0.33%) Apex Code
15 5 (0.33%) Scala
15 5 (0.33%) VB
Qualifications
1 194 (12.92%) Security Cleared
2 144 (9.59%) Degree
2 144 (9.59%) SC Cleared
3 28 (1.86%) Computer Science Degree
4 27 (1.80%) BPSS Clearance
5 22 (1.46%) DV Cleared
5 22 (1.46%) Microsoft Certification
6 17 (1.13%) Azure Certification
7 11 (0.73%) Cisco Certification
8 9 (0.60%) ITIL Certification
8 9 (0.60%) Master's Degree
9 8 (0.53%) CCA
9 8 (0.53%) CCNP
10 7 (0.47%) CCIE
10 7 (0.47%) Citrix Certification
10 7 (0.47%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 6 (0.40%) DBS Check
11 6 (0.40%) PMP
12 5 (0.33%) MCSE
13 4 (0.27%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 260 (17.31%) Accessibility
2 97 (6.46%) QA
3 89 (5.93%) WCAG
4 46 (3.06%) Data Quality
5 26 (1.73%) GDPR
6 19 (1.26%) Actionable Recommendations
7 14 (0.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 6 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
8 6 (0.40%) GMP
8 6 (0.40%) GxP
8 6 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 42001
8 6 (0.40%) PMO
8 6 (0.40%) SLA
9 4 (0.27%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 3 (0.20%) GRC
10 3 (0.20%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.13%) HIPAA
11 2 (0.13%) NCSC
11 2 (0.13%) NIST
12 1 (0.067%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 72 (4.79%) Active Directory
2 50 (3.33%) Docker
3 25 (1.66%) Virtual Desktop
4 16 (1.07%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.40%) Firmware
6 5 (0.33%) BitLocker
7 4 (0.27%) Microsoft App-V
8 3 (0.20%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.20%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.13%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
9 2 (0.13%) vSphere
9 2 (0.13%) XenApp
9 2 (0.13%) XenDesktop
10 1 (0.067%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 50 (3.33%) Kubernetes
2 47 (3.13%) Microsoft Intune
3 46 (3.06%) Terraform
4 35 (2.33%) SCCM
5 31 (2.06%) Grafana
6 18 (1.20%) Single Sign-On
7 14 (0.93%) Jamf Pro
8 13 (0.87%) Ansible
9 9 (0.60%) Prometheus
10 4 (0.27%) Clonezilla
10 4 (0.27%) Podman
11 3 (0.20%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 3 (0.20%) WSUS
12 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
12 2 (0.13%) HP ALM
12 2 (0.13%) Packer
12 2 (0.13%) SCOM
12 2 (0.13%) vCenter Server
12 2 (0.13%) vMotion
13 1 (0.067%) AirWatch
Vendors
1 242 (16.11%) Microsoft
2 91 (6.06%) Adobe
3 70 (4.66%) ServiceNow
4 61 (4.06%) Google
5 40 (2.66%) Salesforce
5 40 (2.66%) SAP
6 36 (2.40%) Oracle
7 22 (1.46%) Citrix
8 21 (1.40%) Databricks
9 19 (1.26%) Dynatrace
10 17 (1.13%) Apple
10 17 (1.13%) Cisco
10 17 (1.13%) Splunk
10 17 (1.13%) Workday
11 16 (1.07%) VMware
12 12 (0.80%) Aruba
12 12 (0.80%) Foundry
13 11 (0.73%) OpenAI
14 8 (0.53%) Zscaler
15 6 (0.40%) Okta