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

6 months to
17 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 82 65 79
Rank change year-on-year -17 +14 -20
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,594 1,192 1,133
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.03% 3.66% 2.68%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.56% 4.05% 3.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 985 779 746
10th Percentile £313 £305 £313
25th Percentile £402 £385 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% -1.19%
75th Percentile £588 £579 £600
90th Percentile £680 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £473 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +5.00% -5.26% +2.15%
Number of hourly rates quoted 72 36 41
10th Percentile £16.07 £17.88 £16.25
25th Percentile £24.54 £34.48 £25.00
Median hourly rate £33.99 £49.25 £31.71
Median % change year-on-year -30.98% +55.31% +19.66%
75th Percentile £67.84 £64.06 £51.75
90th Percentile £84.80 £77.73 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £70.00 £25.00
% change year-on-year -51.44% +180.00% +41.08%

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 44,805 29,397 36,049
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.08% 90.38% 85.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,846 18,489 23,062
10th Percentile £325 £300 £303
25th Percentile £419 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £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 2,636 1,550 2,325
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.20 £13.00
25th Percentile £20.09 £17.34 £16.30
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -34.02% -5.88%
75th Percentile £68.50 £51.65 £61.60
90th Percentile £82.75 £70.00 £73.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £24.33 £38.12
% change year-on-year +84.96% -36.18% -4.70%

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 17 July 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 17 July 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 17 July 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 -12 1,373 £475 - 947
UK excluding London -2 743 £473 +5.00% 787
London -24 694 £525 +5.00% 347
Work from Home -25 411 £500 +4.17% 683
North of England -16 217 £447 -0.67% 213
Midlands +4 155 £475 +11.90% 101
South East -25 136 £475 - 183
West Midlands -3 116 £475 -5.00% 60
North West -25 115 £430 -4.44% 118
Scotland +19 94 £525 +13.82% 67
South West -9 82 £475 +18.75% 80
Yorkshire -21 58 £500 +11.11% 64
East of England +7 45 £410 -13.68% 94
North East -10 44 £394 -17.97% 31
East Midlands 0 39 £550 +54.49% 41
Wales -7 17 £561 +83.25% 29
Northern Ireland +1 3 - - 38

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 (4.20%) SharePoint
2 55 (3.45%) CMS
3 45 (2.82%) Confluence
4 27 (1.69%) Microsoft Exchange
5 13 (0.82%) WordPress
6 8 (0.50%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 7 (0.44%) Apache
8 6 (0.38%) Drupal
8 6 (0.38%) Mendix
9 5 (0.31%) Skype for Business
10 4 (0.25%) Ethereum
10 4 (0.25%) Headless CMS
10 4 (0.25%) Hyperledger
10 4 (0.25%) Kentico
11 3 (0.19%) Apache Airflow
11 3 (0.19%) Camunda
11 3 (0.19%) Moodle
11 3 (0.19%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
12 2 (0.13%) IIS
Applications
1 38 (2.38%) Sketch
2 33 (2.07%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 31 (1.94%) Microsoft Excel
4 21 (1.32%) Chatbot
5 20 (1.25%) Photoshop
6 19 (1.19%) Adobe After Effects
7 17 (1.07%) Microsoft Office
8 16 (1.00%) Adobe XD
9 15 (0.94%) Adobe Illustrator
10 12 (0.75%) MS Visio
11 11 (0.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
12 6 (0.38%) Final Cut Pro
13 4 (0.25%) Adobe Captivate
14 3 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
14 3 (0.19%) UserZoom
15 2 (0.13%) InVision
15 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
15 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
16 1 (0.063%) Blender
16 1 (0.063%) Trello
Business Applications
1 13 (0.82%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (0.69%) Dynamics CRM
2 11 (0.69%) Workday HCM
3 7 (0.44%) Shopify
4 6 (0.38%) Sage X3
5 4 (0.25%) NetSuite
5 4 (0.25%) Oracle iProcurement
6 3 (0.19%) iTrent
6 3 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
6 3 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
7 2 (0.13%) Remedy ITSM
7 2 (0.13%) ResourceLink
8 1 (0.063%) Magento
8 1 (0.063%) Oracle EBS R12
8 1 (0.063%) SAP ERP
8 1 (0.063%) SAP HR
8 1 (0.063%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 252 (15.81%) Azure
2 222 (13.93%) Figma
3 131 (8.22%) AWS
4 124 (7.78%) Microsoft 365
5 118 (7.40%) Power Platform
6 62 (3.89%) Entra ID
7 60 (3.76%) Azure DevOps
7 60 (3.76%) GitHub
8 59 (3.70%) SaaS
9 51 (3.20%) Microsoft Copilot
10 48 (3.01%) GCP
11 40 (2.51%) PowerApps
12 33 (2.07%) Power Automate
13 32 (2.01%) OneDrive
14 30 (1.88%) Serverless
15 29 (1.82%) Copilot Studio
16 28 (1.76%) GitHub Actions
17 26 (1.63%) Azure AI
18 17 (1.07%) Snowflake
19 13 (0.82%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 40 (2.51%) DNS
2 32 (2.01%) DHCP
3 28 (1.76%) TCP/IP
4 24 (1.51%) Wi-Fi
5 20 (1.25%) Wireless
6 19 (1.19%) LAN
7 13 (0.82%) Firewall
7 13 (0.82%) Internet
7 13 (0.82%) VPN
7 13 (0.82%) WAN
8 10 (0.63%) Intranet
8 10 (0.63%) SD-WAN
9 8 (0.50%) Cisco Wireless
9 8 (0.50%) Network Security
10 7 (0.44%) HTTP
10 7 (0.44%) Skype
10 7 (0.44%) SNMP
11 6 (0.38%) 5G
11 6 (0.38%) WLAN
12 5 (0.31%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 74 (4.64%) Power BI
2 25 (1.57%) NoSQL
3 24 (1.51%) Metadata
3 24 (1.51%) PostgreSQL
4 22 (1.38%) Relational Database
5 19 (1.19%) Power Query
6 16 (1.00%) SQL Server
7 13 (0.82%) Data Warehouse
7 13 (0.82%) MongoDB
8 11 (0.69%) Big Data
9 10 (0.63%) MySQL
9 10 (0.63%) Tableau
10 7 (0.44%) Oracle Database
10 7 (0.44%) Snowflake Schema
11 6 (0.38%) Azure SQL Database
11 6 (0.38%) DynamoDB
11 6 (0.38%) Elasticsearch
11 6 (0.38%) Redis
11 6 (0.38%) ZAP BI
12 5 (0.31%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 97 (6.09%) JIRA
2 87 (5.46%) Git
3 28 (1.76%) Cypress.io
4 25 (1.57%) Jenkins
4 25 (1.57%) Vite
5 19 (1.19%) GitLab
6 13 (0.82%) JUnit
7 12 (0.75%) Claude Code
8 10 (0.63%) Android Studio
8 10 (0.63%) Browser DevTools
8 10 (0.63%) fastlane
8 10 (0.63%) Selenium
8 10 (0.63%) Storybook
9 9 (0.56%) webpack
9 9 (0.56%) Xcode
10 8 (0.50%) Gradle
10 8 (0.50%) Postman
11 6 (0.38%) JMeter
11 6 (0.38%) Visual Studio
12 5 (0.31%) REST Assured
General
1 499 (31.30%) Social Skills
2 286 (17.94%) Finance
3 213 (13.36%) Public Sector
4 162 (10.16%) Analytical Skills
5 124 (7.78%) Banking
6 84 (5.27%) Retail
7 73 (4.58%) Marketing
8 47 (2.95%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 41 (2.57%) Legal
10 35 (2.20%) Influencing Skills
11 31 (1.94%) Presentation Skills
12 29 (1.82%) Publishing
13 27 (1.69%) Automotive
14 26 (1.63%) Manufacturing
14 26 (1.63%) Organisational Skills
15 22 (1.38%) Documentation Skills
16 18 (1.13%) Investment Banking
17 17 (1.07%) Military
18 12 (0.75%) Games
18 12 (0.75%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 343 (21.52%) Designer
2 233 (14.62%) Senior
3 209 (13.11%) Developer
4 148 (9.28%) UX Designer
5 120 (7.53%) Lead
6 117 (7.34%) Analyst
7 91 (5.71%) UI Designer
8 79 (4.96%) Consultant
9 70 (4.39%) Senior Designer
10 68 (4.27%) Architect
11 62 (3.89%) Product Designer
12 61 (3.83%) Business Analyst
13 60 (3.76%) User Researcher
14 54 (3.39%) UI/UX Designer
15 52 (3.26%) Content Designer
16 50 (3.14%) Product Manager
17 48 (3.01%) User Experience Researcher
18 46 (2.89%) IT Support
19 43 (2.70%) Full-Stack Engineer
20 41 (2.57%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 156 (9.79%) React
2 118 (7.40%) CSS
3 107 (6.71%) REST
4 104 (6.52%) HTML
5 77 (4.83%) RESTful
6 57 (3.58%) AngularJS
7 51 (3.20%) .NET
8 43 (2.70%) Spring
9 42 (2.63%) Spring Boot
10 41 (2.57%) GraphQL
11 38 (2.38%) HTML5
12 35 (2.20%) CSS3
12 35 (2.20%) Jest
13 34 (2.13%) Node.js
14 33 (2.07%) Redux
15 32 (2.01%) Kafka
16 28 (1.76%) Next.js
17 27 (1.69%) JSON
17 27 (1.69%) Playwright
18 22 (1.38%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 167 (10.48%) Product Ownership
2 95 (5.96%) Mobile App
3 78 (4.89%) Onboarding
4 47 (2.95%) AI Agents
5 45 (2.82%) Cloud Native
6 34 (2.13%) Enterprise Software
6 34 (2.13%) Self-Motivation
7 32 (2.01%) Data Structures
8 29 (1.82%) Data Protection Act
9 25 (1.57%) Legacy Systems
10 23 (1.44%) Animation
11 21 (1.32%) Data Centre
12 19 (1.19%) Analytical Mindset
12 19 (1.19%) Social Media
13 17 (1.07%) Graphic Design
14 16 (1.00%) Algorithms
14 16 (1.00%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 15 (0.94%) Greenfield Project
15 15 (0.94%) Taxonomies
16 14 (0.88%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 127 (7.97%) Windows
2 56 (3.51%) Android
2 56 (3.51%) Apple iOS
3 38 (2.38%) Windows 10
4 26 (1.63%) Mac OS
5 18 (1.13%) Windows Server
6 17 (1.07%) Linux
7 9 (0.56%) Unix
8 7 (0.44%) Windows 7
9 5 (0.31%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 529 (33.19%) UX Design
2 476 (29.86%) Agile
3 310 (19.45%) AI
4 252 (15.81%) Problem-Solving
5 232 (14.55%) Stakeholder Management
6 229 (14.37%) Continuous Improvement
7 214 (13.43%) User Research
8 206 (12.92%) Analytics
9 192 (12.05%) CI/CD
10 182 (11.42%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 168 (10.54%) Roadmaps
12 155 (9.72%) Decision-Making
12 155 (9.72%) Prototyping
13 152 (9.54%) DevOps
14 144 (9.03%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
15 134 (8.41%) Wireframes
16 131 (8.22%) Service Design
17 126 (7.90%) UX Research
18 116 (7.28%) Scrum
18 116 (7.28%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 141 (8.85%) JavaScript
2 131 (8.22%) TypeScript
3 129 (8.09%) Python
4 120 (7.53%) SQL
5 112 (7.03%) Java
6 54 (3.39%) C#
7 49 (3.07%) PowerShell
8 34 (2.13%) Kotlin
9 26 (1.63%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 17 (1.07%) Swift
11 16 (1.00%) Bash
12 12 (0.75%) C++
13 9 (0.56%) Lua
14 8 (0.50%) Go
14 8 (0.50%) Korn
15 7 (0.44%) Apex Code
15 7 (0.44%) R
16 6 (0.38%) VBA
16 6 (0.38%) VBScript
17 5 (0.31%) VB
Qualifications
1 241 (15.12%) Security Cleared
2 181 (11.36%) SC Cleared
3 153 (9.60%) Degree
4 36 (2.26%) Computer Science Degree
5 32 (2.01%) BPSS Clearance
6 26 (1.63%) DV Cleared
7 24 (1.51%) Azure Certification
8 22 (1.38%) Microsoft Certification
9 11 (0.69%) PMP
10 10 (0.63%) Cisco Certification
10 10 (0.63%) Master's Degree
11 9 (0.56%) ITIL Certification
12 8 (0.50%) AWS Certification
13 7 (0.44%) CCA
13 7 (0.44%) CCNP
13 7 (0.44%) Citrix Certification
13 7 (0.44%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 6 (0.38%) CCIE
14 6 (0.38%) DBS Check
15 5 (0.31%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 278 (17.44%) Accessibility
2 97 (6.09%) QA
3 92 (5.77%) WCAG
4 49 (3.07%) Data Quality
5 25 (1.57%) GDPR
6 18 (1.13%) Actionable Recommendations
7 11 (0.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 10 (0.63%) SLA
9 9 (0.56%) PMO
10 7 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 6 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials
12 4 (0.25%) GRC
12 4 (0.25%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 3 (0.19%) GMP
13 3 (0.19%) GxP
14 2 (0.13%) HIPAA
14 2 (0.13%) NIST
14 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
14 2 (0.13%) PSD2
15 1 (0.063%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 81 (5.08%) Active Directory
2 49 (3.07%) Docker
3 26 (1.63%) Virtual Desktop
4 18 (1.13%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (0.44%) vSphere
6 6 (0.38%) Firmware
7 5 (0.31%) BitLocker
7 5 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (0.25%) Microsoft App-V
9 3 (0.19%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.19%) UAG
9 3 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
10 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
10 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
10 2 (0.13%) XenApp
10 2 (0.13%) XenDesktop
11 1 (0.063%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 51 (3.20%) Terraform
2 50 (3.14%) Kubernetes
3 46 (2.89%) Microsoft Intune
4 35 (2.20%) Grafana
5 34 (2.13%) SCCM
6 17 (1.07%) Single Sign-On
7 16 (1.00%) Ansible
8 14 (0.88%) Jamf Pro
9 13 (0.82%) Prometheus
10 5 (0.31%) vCenter Server
11 4 (0.25%) Clonezilla
12 3 (0.19%) Podman
12 3 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 3 (0.19%) WSUS
13 2 (0.13%) Argo
13 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
13 2 (0.13%) Packer
13 2 (0.13%) SCOM
13 2 (0.13%) vMotion
14 1 (0.063%) AirWatch
Vendors
1 275 (17.25%) Microsoft
2 92 (5.77%) Adobe
3 74 (4.64%) ServiceNow
4 61 (3.83%) Google
5 47 (2.95%) SAP
6 43 (2.70%) Oracle
7 36 (2.26%) Salesforce
8 23 (1.44%) Databricks
9 22 (1.38%) Citrix
9 22 (1.38%) Dynatrace
9 22 (1.38%) Splunk
10 21 (1.32%) VMware
10 21 (1.32%) Workday
11 18 (1.13%) OpenAI
12 17 (1.07%) Apple
12 17 (1.07%) Cisco
12 17 (1.07%) Foundry
13 13 (0.82%) Zscaler
14 11 (0.69%) Aruba
15 8 (0.50%) Okta