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

6 months to
28 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 97 64 75
Rank change year-on-year -33 +11 -9
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,538 1,244 1,058
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.83% 3.79% 2.77%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.35% 4.18% 3.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 921 799 628
10th Percentile £313 £303 £313
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% -5.00% -3.85%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £588
90th Percentile £711 £675 £697
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £475
% change year-on-year - -5.26% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 51 27
10th Percentile £18.17 £15.50 £28.10
25th Percentile £27.45 £25.15 £30.51
Median hourly rate £35.22 £36.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -3.51% -14.12% -10.53%
75th Percentile £67.88 £55.88 £72.20
90th Percentile £76.40 £65.00 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £31.25 £51.77
% change year-on-year +8.77% -39.64% +58.75%

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 45,850 29,737 32,777
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.30% 90.62% 85.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,722 18,491 19,844
10th Percentile £325 £294 £308
25th Percentile £425 £403 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £630 £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 3,198 1,854 1,372
10th Percentile £13.69 £14.25 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.23 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £39.00 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +55.07% -40.82% -1.16%
75th Percentile £65.60 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.72 £65.00 £74.49
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 28 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 28 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 28 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 -27 1,333 £475 - 2,473
UK excluding London -11 718 £450 - 1,193
London -29 685 £513 +3.54% 1,449
Work from Home -36 380 £498 +0.91% 1,074
North of England -13 253 £425 - 339
Midlands -8 148 £475 +6.26% 196
North West -37 127 £400 -5.88% 197
West Midlands -4 117 £475 -5.00% 130
South East -51 94 £400 -10.81% 233
Scotland -4 91 £538 +16.85% 91
South West 0 79 £475 -5.00% 131
Yorkshire -12 78 £500 +25.00% 104
North East +1 47 £325 -32.29% 41
East of England -5 42 £410 -21.90% 105
East Midlands -17 31 £475 +18.16% 66
Wales -16 13 £530 +73.20% 33
Northern Ireland +6 4 £638 +2.00% 71

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 (4.68%) SharePoint
2 65 (4.23%) CMS
3 49 (3.19%) Confluence
4 32 (2.08%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (1.04%) WordPress
6 9 (0.59%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 7 (0.46%) Apache
7 7 (0.46%) Headless CMS
7 7 (0.46%) Skype for Business
7 7 (0.46%) Traefik
8 6 (0.39%) Drupal
8 6 (0.39%) Oracle Workflow
9 5 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
10 4 (0.26%) Kentico
10 4 (0.26%) Mendix
11 3 (0.20%) ColdFusion
11 3 (0.20%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
12 2 (0.13%) IIS
12 2 (0.13%) nginx
Applications
1 32 (2.08%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 27 (1.76%) Sketch
3 26 (1.69%) Microsoft Office
4 20 (1.30%) Microsoft Excel
5 18 (1.17%) Adobe After Effects
5 18 (1.17%) Photoshop
6 17 (1.11%) Chatbot
7 16 (1.04%) Adobe Illustrator
8 12 (0.78%) Adobe XD
9 10 (0.65%) MS Visio
10 8 (0.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 7 (0.46%) Final Cut Pro
12 3 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
13 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
13 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
14 1 (0.065%) Adobe Captivate
14 1 (0.065%) Adobe Premiere
14 1 (0.065%) Blender
14 1 (0.065%) InVision
14 1 (0.065%) Trello
Business Applications
1 9 (0.59%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (0.46%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.46%) Workday HCM
3 5 (0.33%) NetSuite
4 4 (0.26%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 4 (0.26%) Oracle iProcurement
4 4 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
4 4 (0.26%) Shopify
5 3 (0.20%) iTrent
5 3 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.13%) SAP HR
7 1 (0.065%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.065%) Eloqua
7 1 (0.065%) Magento
7 1 (0.065%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.065%) SAP HCM
7 1 (0.065%) SAP MDG
7 1 (0.065%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 219 (14.24%) Azure
2 178 (11.57%) Figma
3 149 (9.69%) Microsoft 365
4 148 (9.62%) AWS
5 114 (7.41%) Power Platform
6 70 (4.55%) Entra ID
7 63 (4.10%) GitHub
8 58 (3.77%) Microsoft Copilot
9 57 (3.71%) SaaS
10 44 (2.86%) Azure DevOps
11 37 (2.41%) GCP
12 34 (2.21%) OneDrive
12 34 (2.21%) PowerApps
13 29 (1.89%) Power Automate
14 28 (1.82%) Copilot Studio
14 28 (1.82%) GitHub Actions
15 25 (1.63%) Serverless
16 21 (1.37%) Azure AI
17 18 (1.17%) GitHub Copilot
18 16 (1.04%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 47 (3.06%) DNS
2 39 (2.54%) DHCP
3 37 (2.41%) TCP/IP
4 27 (1.76%) Wi-Fi
5 22 (1.43%) VPN
6 18 (1.17%) Firewall
6 18 (1.17%) Wireless
7 16 (1.04%) LAN
7 16 (1.04%) WAN
8 13 (0.85%) NetScaler
9 11 (0.72%) Network Security
10 8 (0.52%) Internet
11 7 (0.46%) Cisco Wireless
11 7 (0.46%) SD-WAN
11 7 (0.46%) Skype
11 7 (0.46%) SNMP
12 6 (0.39%) Intranet
13 5 (0.33%) SMS
13 5 (0.33%) SSL
14 4 (0.26%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 66 (4.29%) Power BI
2 25 (1.63%) Metadata
3 18 (1.17%) NoSQL
3 18 (1.17%) PostgreSQL
4 17 (1.11%) SQL Server
5 15 (0.98%) Power Query
6 13 (0.85%) MongoDB
6 13 (0.85%) MySQL
6 13 (0.85%) Tableau
7 12 (0.78%) Elasticsearch
8 11 (0.72%) Big Data
8 11 (0.72%) Relational Database
9 10 (0.65%) Redis
10 9 (0.59%) Looker
11 8 (0.52%) Qlik Sense
12 7 (0.46%) Snowflake Schema
12 7 (0.46%) Star Schema
13 6 (0.39%) BigQuery
13 6 (0.39%) Flink
13 6 (0.39%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 90 (5.85%) Git
2 85 (5.53%) JIRA
3 33 (2.15%) Jenkins
4 26 (1.69%) Cypress.io
4 26 (1.69%) Vite
5 23 (1.50%) Storybook
6 16 (1.04%) Claude Code
7 15 (0.98%) GitLab
8 11 (0.72%) fastlane
9 9 (0.59%) Android Studio
9 9 (0.59%) Browser DevTools
10 8 (0.52%) webpack
10 8 (0.52%) Xcode
11 7 (0.46%) REST Assured
12 6 (0.39%) JMeter
12 6 (0.39%) Postman
13 5 (0.33%) Fiddler
13 5 (0.33%) Gradle
13 5 (0.33%) JUnit
13 5 (0.33%) MSI
General
1 502 (32.64%) Social Skills
2 251 (16.32%) Finance
3 216 (14.04%) Public Sector
4 148 (9.62%) Analytical Skills
5 97 (6.31%) Banking
6 81 (5.27%) Marketing
7 78 (5.07%) Retail
8 55 (3.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 44 (2.86%) Influencing Skills
9 44 (2.86%) Legal
10 28 (1.82%) Automotive
10 28 (1.82%) Publishing
11 26 (1.69%) Organisational Skills
12 23 (1.50%) Presentation Skills
13 22 (1.43%) Manufacturing
13 22 (1.43%) Military
14 20 (1.30%) Documentation Skills
15 17 (1.11%) Investment Banking
16 13 (0.85%) Front Office
17 9 (0.59%) Law
Job Titles
1 304 (19.77%) Designer
2 226 (14.69%) Developer
3 217 (14.11%) Senior
4 136 (8.84%) Lead
5 130 (8.45%) UX Designer
6 90 (5.85%) Analyst
7 77 (5.01%) UI Designer
8 70 (4.55%) Architect
9 66 (4.29%) Senior Designer
10 62 (4.03%) Consultant
11 61 (3.97%) User Researcher
12 54 (3.51%) IT Support
13 53 (3.45%) Support Engineer
14 51 (3.32%) Product Manager
15 50 (3.25%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
16 44 (2.86%) Business Analyst
16 44 (2.86%) User Experience Researcher
17 42 (2.73%) Product Designer
17 42 (2.73%) UI/UX Designer
18 41 (2.67%) Content Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 162 (10.53%) React
2 115 (7.48%) CSS
3 104 (6.76%) HTML
4 96 (6.24%) REST
5 60 (3.90%) RESTful
6 46 (2.99%) Terraform
7 45 (2.93%) HTML5
8 42 (2.73%) AngularJS
8 42 (2.73%) GraphQL
9 40 (2.60%) CSS3
10 36 (2.34%) Node.js
11 34 (2.21%) .NET
12 33 (2.15%) OAuth
13 32 (2.08%) Next.js
13 32 (2.08%) Playwright
13 32 (2.08%) Spring
13 32 (2.08%) Spring Boot
14 30 (1.95%) Jest
15 26 (1.69%) Redux
16 25 (1.63%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 163 (10.60%) Product Ownership
2 94 (6.11%) Mobile App
3 82 (5.33%) Onboarding
4 61 (3.97%) Cloud Native
5 49 (3.19%) AI Agents
6 32 (2.08%) Management Information System
7 31 (2.02%) Self-Motivation
8 29 (1.89%) Data Protection Act
8 29 (1.89%) Enterprise Software
8 29 (1.89%) Legacy Systems
9 22 (1.43%) Data Centre
9 22 (1.43%) Data Structures
9 22 (1.43%) Social Media
10 19 (1.24%) Educational Technology
10 19 (1.24%) NHS
11 17 (1.11%) Animation
12 16 (1.04%) Graphic Design
13 15 (0.98%) Taxonomies
14 13 (0.85%) Analytical Mindset
14 13 (0.85%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 154 (10.01%) Windows
2 69 (4.49%) Apple iOS
3 66 (4.29%) Android
4 57 (3.71%) Windows 10
5 36 (2.34%) Windows Server
6 32 (2.08%) Mac OS
7 17 (1.11%) Linux
8 13 (0.85%) Unix
9 9 (0.59%) Windows 7
10 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.13%) AIX
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 478 (31.08%) UX Design
2 452 (29.39%) Agile
3 295 (19.18%) AI
4 291 (18.92%) Stakeholder Management
5 245 (15.93%) Problem-Solving
6 239 (15.54%) Continuous Improvement
7 206 (13.39%) User Research
8 201 (13.07%) Analytics
9 185 (12.03%) CI/CD
10 178 (11.57%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 162 (10.53%) Roadmaps
12 157 (10.21%) Decision-Making
13 147 (9.56%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
14 129 (8.39%) Service Design
15 125 (8.13%) DevOps
16 124 (8.06%) Scrum
17 118 (7.67%) Workshop Facilitation
18 117 (7.61%) Service Management
19 116 (7.54%) Prototyping
20 111 (7.22%) UX Research
Programming Languages
1 145 (9.43%) JavaScript
2 137 (8.91%) TypeScript
3 99 (6.44%) Python
4 98 (6.37%) SQL
5 97 (6.31%) Java
6 49 (3.19%) PowerShell
7 30 (1.95%) C#
7 30 (1.95%) Kotlin
8 20 (1.30%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 19 (1.24%) Bash
9 19 (1.24%) Swift
10 10 (0.65%) Go
11 8 (0.52%) PHP
12 7 (0.46%) Shell Script
12 7 (0.46%) VB
12 7 (0.46%) VBScript
13 6 (0.39%) Scala
14 5 (0.33%) Apex Code
14 5 (0.33%) C++
15 4 (0.26%) Perl
Qualifications
1 249 (16.19%) Security Cleared
2 191 (12.42%) SC Cleared
3 113 (7.35%) Degree
4 48 (3.12%) BPSS Clearance
5 30 (1.95%) Computer Science Degree
6 24 (1.56%) DV Cleared
7 20 (1.30%) Azure Certification
8 18 (1.17%) PMP
9 15 (0.98%) Microsoft Certification
10 8 (0.52%) AWS Certification
10 8 (0.52%) ITIL Certification
11 7 (0.46%) DBS Check
11 7 (0.46%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 6 (0.39%) Cisco Certification
12 6 (0.39%) PMI Certification
13 5 (0.33%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 5 (0.33%) CCA
13 5 (0.33%) CISSP
13 5 (0.33%) Master's Degree
13 5 (0.33%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 266 (17.30%) Accessibility
2 105 (6.83%) QA
3 100 (6.50%) WCAG
4 47 (3.06%) Data Quality
5 19 (1.24%) GDPR
6 18 (1.17%) Actionable Recommendations
7 14 (0.91%) SLA
8 10 (0.65%) PMO
9 6 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials
10 5 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 4 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 3 (0.20%) GRC
13 2 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 2 (0.13%) GMP
13 2 (0.13%) GxP
13 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.13%) PSD2
13 2 (0.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 1 (0.065%) HIPAA
14 1 (0.065%) WAI
System Software
1 114 (7.41%) Active Directory
2 51 (3.32%) Docker
3 26 (1.69%) Virtual Desktop
3 26 (1.69%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (0.98%) Hyper-V
5 10 (0.65%) Citrix Hypervisor
5 10 (0.65%) XenApp
6 9 (0.59%) XenDesktop
7 7 (0.46%) BitLocker
7 7 (0.46%) vSphere
8 5 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
9 4 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
10 3 (0.20%) UAG
10 3 (0.20%) Virtual Machines
11 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
11 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
12 1 (0.065%) Firmware
12 1 (0.065%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 53 (3.45%) Microsoft Intune
2 52 (3.38%) Kubernetes
3 34 (2.21%) Grafana
4 29 (1.89%) SCCM
5 21 (1.37%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (1.11%) Ansible
7 15 (0.98%) Jamf Pro
8 14 (0.91%) Prometheus
9 7 (0.46%) Istio
10 6 (0.39%) vCenter Server
11 5 (0.33%) SysTrack
12 4 (0.26%) Clonezilla
13 3 (0.20%) Kibana
13 3 (0.20%) Podman
13 3 (0.20%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
13 3 (0.20%) WSUS
14 2 (0.13%) Argo
14 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
14 2 (0.13%) SCOM
14 2 (0.13%) vMotion
Vendors
1 277 (18.01%) Microsoft
2 92 (5.98%) ServiceNow
3 79 (5.14%) Adobe
4 50 (3.25%) Google
4 50 (3.25%) Oracle
5 31 (2.02%) Salesforce
6 30 (1.95%) SAP
7 29 (1.89%) VMware
8 26 (1.69%) Citrix
8 26 (1.69%) Dynatrace
8 26 (1.69%) Splunk
9 20 (1.30%) Databricks
10 19 (1.24%) OpenAI
11 18 (1.17%) Apple
12 16 (1.04%) Zscaler
13 15 (0.98%) Workday
14 14 (0.91%) Cisco
14 14 (0.91%) Foundry
15 9 (0.59%) Okta
16 8 (0.52%) Cribl.io