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

6 months to
24 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 95 64 78
Rank change year-on-year -31 +14 -12
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,559 1,257 1,046
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.84% 3.81% 2.74%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.36% 4.21% 3.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 931 807 623
10th Percentile £313 £303 £313
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.05% -5.00% -3.85%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £588
90th Percentile £713 £675 £699
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £475
% change year-on-year - -5.26% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 76 51 25
10th Percentile £18.78 £15.50 £25.78
25th Percentile £27.88 £25.15 £30.00
Median hourly rate £36.36 £36.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -0.38% -27.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £67.85 £55.88 £74.00
90th Percentile £76.00 £65.00 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £31.25 £51.77
% change year-on-year +8.77% -39.64% +192.16%

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 46,342 29,835 32,681
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.41% 90.50% 85.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,074 18,533 19,873
10th Percentile £325 £300 £309
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £626 £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 3,192 1,836 1,405
10th Percentile £13.74 £14.31 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.25 £17.32 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% -
75th Percentile £67.25 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £65.25 £74.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £22.32 £43.00
% change year-on-year +79.25% -48.10% +1.18%

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 24 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 24 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 24 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 -29 1,354 £475 - 2,792
UK excluding London -13 729 £450 - 1,331
London -27 694 £520 +4.00% 1,700
Work from Home -36 394 £493 -0.30% 1,206
North of England -8 258 £430 +2.69% 376
Midlands -13 154 £475 +6.26% 206
North West -31 127 £400 -5.88% 218
West Midlands 0 122 £475 -5.00% 144
South East -58 94 £400 -10.51% 286
Scotland -4 93 £538 +16.85% 96
Yorkshire 0 81 £500 +25.00% 116
South West 0 79 £475 -5.00% 149
North East -4 49 £338 -27.42% 45
East of England -15 42 £410 -18.00% 102
East Midlands -19 32 £500 +39.66% 62
Wales -14 12 £530 +73.20% 40
Northern Ireland +6 3 £638 +2.00% 80

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 66 (4.23%) CMS
3 47 (3.01%) Confluence
4 32 (2.05%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (1.03%) WordPress
6 9 (0.58%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 7 (0.45%) Apache
7 7 (0.45%) Headless CMS
7 7 (0.45%) Skype for Business
8 6 (0.38%) Drupal
8 6 (0.38%) Oracle Workflow
9 5 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
9 5 (0.32%) Traefik
10 4 (0.26%) Kentico
10 4 (0.26%) Mendix
11 3 (0.19%) ColdFusion
11 3 (0.19%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
12 2 (0.13%) IIS
12 2 (0.13%) Moodle
Applications
1 32 (2.05%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 28 (1.80%) Sketch
3 24 (1.54%) Microsoft Office
4 20 (1.28%) Microsoft Excel
5 18 (1.15%) Adobe After Effects
5 18 (1.15%) Chatbot
5 18 (1.15%) Photoshop
6 16 (1.03%) Adobe Illustrator
7 13 (0.83%) Adobe XD
8 9 (0.58%) MS Visio
9 8 (0.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 7 (0.45%) Final Cut Pro
11 3 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
12 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
12 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
13 1 (0.064%) Adobe Captivate
13 1 (0.064%) Adobe Premiere
13 1 (0.064%) Blender
13 1 (0.064%) InVision
13 1 (0.064%) Trello
Business Applications
1 10 (0.64%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.45%) Workday HCM
3 5 (0.32%) NetSuite
3 5 (0.32%) Shopify
4 4 (0.26%) Oracle iProcurement
4 4 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
5 3 (0.19%) IBM Planning Analytics
5 3 (0.19%) iTrent
5 3 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.13%) SAP HR
7 1 (0.064%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.064%) Eloqua
7 1 (0.064%) Magento
7 1 (0.064%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.064%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.064%) SAP HCM
7 1 (0.064%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 223 (14.30%) Azure
2 180 (11.55%) Figma
3 152 (9.75%) Microsoft 365
4 145 (9.30%) AWS
5 118 (7.57%) Power Platform
6 70 (4.49%) Entra ID
7 64 (4.11%) GitHub
8 60 (3.85%) Microsoft Copilot
9 57 (3.66%) SaaS
10 44 (2.82%) Azure DevOps
11 39 (2.50%) GCP
12 35 (2.25%) PowerApps
13 34 (2.18%) OneDrive
14 29 (1.86%) Copilot Studio
14 29 (1.86%) Power Automate
15 27 (1.73%) GitHub Actions
16 24 (1.54%) Serverless
17 23 (1.48%) Azure AI
18 18 (1.15%) GitHub Copilot
19 17 (1.09%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 47 (3.01%) DNS
2 39 (2.50%) DHCP
3 37 (2.37%) TCP/IP
4 28 (1.80%) Wi-Fi
5 21 (1.35%) VPN
6 19 (1.22%) Wireless
7 18 (1.15%) Firewall
8 17 (1.09%) LAN
9 16 (1.03%) WAN
10 13 (0.83%) NetScaler
11 11 (0.71%) Network Security
12 9 (0.58%) Internet
13 8 (0.51%) Cisco Wireless
13 8 (0.51%) SD-WAN
13 8 (0.51%) Skype
14 7 (0.45%) SNMP
15 6 (0.38%) Intranet
16 5 (0.32%) 5G
16 5 (0.32%) SMS
16 5 (0.32%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 67 (4.30%) Power BI
2 27 (1.73%) Metadata
3 19 (1.22%) NoSQL
4 18 (1.15%) PostgreSQL
5 17 (1.09%) SQL Server
6 14 (0.90%) Power Query
7 13 (0.83%) MongoDB
7 13 (0.83%) Tableau
8 12 (0.77%) Elasticsearch
9 11 (0.71%) Big Data
10 10 (0.64%) MySQL
10 10 (0.64%) Redis
10 10 (0.64%) Relational Database
11 9 (0.58%) Looker
12 8 (0.51%) Qlik Sense
13 7 (0.45%) Snowflake Schema
13 7 (0.45%) Star Schema
14 6 (0.38%) BigQuery
14 6 (0.38%) Flink
14 6 (0.38%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 94 (6.03%) Git
2 84 (5.39%) JIRA
3 33 (2.12%) Jenkins
4 28 (1.80%) Vite
5 26 (1.67%) Cypress.io
6 23 (1.48%) Storybook
7 16 (1.03%) GitLab
8 15 (0.96%) Claude Code
9 10 (0.64%) fastlane
10 9 (0.58%) Android Studio
10 9 (0.58%) Browser DevTools
11 8 (0.51%) webpack
11 8 (0.51%) Xcode
12 7 (0.45%) REST Assured
13 6 (0.38%) JMeter
13 6 (0.38%) Postman
14 5 (0.32%) Fiddler
14 5 (0.32%) Gradle
14 5 (0.32%) JUnit
14 5 (0.32%) MSI
General
1 512 (32.84%) Social Skills
2 261 (16.74%) Finance
3 217 (13.92%) Public Sector
4 152 (9.75%) Analytical Skills
5 104 (6.67%) Banking
6 79 (5.07%) Marketing
7 78 (5.00%) Retail
8 54 (3.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 48 (3.08%) Legal
10 47 (3.01%) Influencing Skills
11 28 (1.80%) Automotive
11 28 (1.80%) Publishing
12 25 (1.60%) Organisational Skills
13 23 (1.48%) Documentation Skills
13 23 (1.48%) Manufacturing
13 23 (1.48%) Presentation Skills
14 21 (1.35%) Military
15 17 (1.09%) Investment Banking
16 13 (0.83%) Front Office
17 12 (0.77%) Law
Job Titles
1 309 (19.82%) Designer
2 223 (14.30%) Developer
3 219 (14.05%) Senior
4 138 (8.85%) Lead
5 131 (8.40%) UX Designer
6 90 (5.77%) Analyst
7 78 (5.00%) UI Designer
8 73 (4.68%) Architect
9 67 (4.30%) Senior Designer
10 64 (4.11%) Consultant
11 60 (3.85%) User Researcher
12 53 (3.40%) IT Support
12 53 (3.40%) Support Engineer
13 52 (3.34%) Product Manager
14 50 (3.21%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
15 44 (2.82%) Business Analyst
15 44 (2.82%) User Experience Researcher
16 43 (2.76%) Content Designer
16 43 (2.76%) UI/UX Designer
17 42 (2.69%) Product Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 161 (10.33%) React
2 118 (7.57%) CSS
3 107 (6.86%) HTML
4 97 (6.22%) REST
5 59 (3.78%) RESTful
6 49 (3.14%) Terraform
7 48 (3.08%) HTML5
8 43 (2.76%) GraphQL
9 42 (2.69%) AngularJS
9 42 (2.69%) CSS3
10 37 (2.37%) Node.js
11 36 (2.31%) .NET
12 33 (2.12%) OAuth
13 32 (2.05%) Next.js
13 32 (2.05%) Playwright
13 32 (2.05%) Spring
14 31 (1.99%) Jest
14 31 (1.99%) Spring Boot
15 27 (1.73%) Redux
16 25 (1.60%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 162 (10.39%) Product Ownership
2 91 (5.84%) Mobile App
3 82 (5.26%) Onboarding
4 61 (3.91%) Cloud Native
5 51 (3.27%) AI Agents
6 32 (2.05%) Self-Motivation
7 31 (1.99%) Management Information System
8 30 (1.92%) Data Protection Act
9 29 (1.86%) Enterprise Software
10 28 (1.80%) Legacy Systems
11 24 (1.54%) Data Structures
12 22 (1.41%) Data Centre
12 22 (1.41%) NHS
12 22 (1.41%) Social Media
13 19 (1.22%) Educational Technology
14 17 (1.09%) Animation
15 16 (1.03%) Graphic Design
16 15 (0.96%) Taxonomies
17 13 (0.83%) Analytical Mindset
17 13 (0.83%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 156 (10.01%) Windows
2 67 (4.30%) Apple iOS
3 64 (4.11%) Android
4 59 (3.78%) Windows 10
5 37 (2.37%) Windows Server
6 32 (2.05%) Mac OS
7 18 (1.15%) Linux
8 13 (0.83%) 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
1 490 (31.43%) UX Design
2 457 (29.31%) Agile
3 305 (19.56%) AI
4 296 (18.99%) Stakeholder Management
5 253 (16.23%) Problem-Solving
6 245 (15.72%) Continuous Improvement
7 205 (13.15%) Analytics
8 204 (13.09%) User Research
9 189 (12.12%) CI/CD
10 180 (11.55%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 166 (10.65%) Roadmaps
12 155 (9.94%) Decision-Making
13 148 (9.49%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
14 130 (8.34%) Service Design
15 127 (8.15%) Scrum
16 126 (8.08%) DevOps
17 120 (7.70%) Service Management
18 119 (7.63%) Prototyping
18 119 (7.63%) Workshop Facilitation
19 112 (7.18%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 146 (9.36%) JavaScript
2 138 (8.85%) TypeScript
3 105 (6.74%) Python
4 99 (6.35%) SQL
5 98 (6.29%) Java
6 50 (3.21%) PowerShell
7 32 (2.05%) C#
8 29 (1.86%) Kotlin
9 20 (1.28%) Bash
9 20 (1.28%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 18 (1.15%) Swift
11 10 (0.64%) Go
12 8 (0.51%) PHP
13 7 (0.45%) Shell Script
13 7 (0.45%) VB
13 7 (0.45%) VBScript
14 6 (0.38%) Scala
15 5 (0.32%) Apex Code
15 5 (0.32%) C++
16 3 (0.19%) Perl
Qualifications
1 252 (16.16%) Security Cleared
2 194 (12.44%) SC Cleared
3 113 (7.25%) Degree
4 48 (3.08%) BPSS Clearance
5 30 (1.92%) Computer Science Degree
6 26 (1.67%) DV Cleared
7 21 (1.35%) Azure Certification
8 18 (1.15%) PMP
9 17 (1.09%) Microsoft Certification
10 8 (0.51%) AWS Certification
10 8 (0.51%) Cisco Certification
10 8 (0.51%) ITIL Certification
10 8 (0.51%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 7 (0.45%) DBS Check
12 6 (0.38%) MCSE
12 6 (0.38%) PMI Certification
13 5 (0.32%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 5 (0.32%) CCA
13 5 (0.32%) CISSP
13 5 (0.32%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 268 (17.19%) Accessibility
2 101 (6.48%) QA
2 101 (6.48%) WCAG
3 49 (3.14%) Data Quality
4 18 (1.15%) GDPR
5 17 (1.09%) Actionable Recommendations
6 14 (0.90%) SLA
7 10 (0.64%) PMO
8 7 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
9 6 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 6 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 3 (0.19%) GRC
11 2 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 2 (0.13%) GMP
11 2 (0.13%) GxP
11 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.13%) PSD2
11 2 (0.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.064%) HIPAA
12 1 (0.064%) WAI
System Software
1 113 (7.25%) Active Directory
2 53 (3.40%) Docker
3 27 (1.73%) Virtual Desktop
3 27 (1.73%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (1.03%) Hyper-V
5 10 (0.64%) Citrix Hypervisor
5 10 (0.64%) XenApp
6 9 (0.58%) XenDesktop
7 7 (0.45%) BitLocker
7 7 (0.45%) vSphere
8 5 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
9 4 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
10 3 (0.19%) UAG
10 3 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
11 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
11 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
12 1 (0.064%) Firmware
12 1 (0.064%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 53 (3.40%) Kubernetes
1 53 (3.40%) Microsoft Intune
2 35 (2.25%) Grafana
3 31 (1.99%) SCCM
4 21 (1.35%) Single Sign-On
5 18 (1.15%) Ansible
6 15 (0.96%) Jamf Pro
7 14 (0.90%) Prometheus
8 6 (0.38%) vCenter Server
9 5 (0.32%) Istio
9 5 (0.32%) SysTrack
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%) SCOM
12 2 (0.13%) vMotion
Vendors
1 282 (18.09%) Microsoft
2 92 (5.90%) ServiceNow
3 82 (5.26%) Adobe
4 49 (3.14%) Google
5 47 (3.01%) Oracle
6 34 (2.18%) Salesforce
7 32 (2.05%) SAP
8 30 (1.92%) VMware
9 26 (1.67%) Citrix
9 26 (1.67%) Dynatrace
9 26 (1.67%) Splunk
10 21 (1.35%) Databricks
11 20 (1.28%) OpenAI
12 18 (1.15%) Apple
13 16 (1.03%) Cisco
13 16 (1.03%) Foundry
13 16 (1.03%) Zscaler
14 15 (0.96%) Workday
15 9 (0.58%) Aruba
15 9 (0.58%) Okta