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

6 months to
10 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 94 63 76
Rank change year-on-year -31 +13 -13
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,563 1,257 1,052
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.87% 3.81% 2.75%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.39% 4.21% 3.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 939 804 645
10th Percentile £305 £300 £313
25th Percentile £397 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -4.35%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £600
90th Percentile £700 £675 £698
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £447 £475
% change year-on-year +0.67% -5.89% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 49 23
10th Percentile £16.88 £15.50 £30.00
25th Percentile £26.25 £30.00 £30.51
Median hourly rate £33.99 £36.50 £50.50
Median % change year-on-year -6.88% -27.72% +34.67%
75th Percentile £67.84 £63.75 £72.20
90th Percentile £76.40 £71.56 £74.35
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £35.60 £66.00
% change year-on-year -4.52% -46.06% +272.46%

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 46,112 29,840 32,750
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.63% 90.46% 85.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,098 18,520 20,299
10th Percentile £325 £300 £312
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 £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 3,038 1,780 1,507
10th Percentile £13.87 £14.23 £14.70
25th Percentile £17.38 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% +2.87%
75th Percentile £67.50 £45.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.03 £22.63 £43.00
% change year-on-year +76.89% -47.37% +8.65%

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 10 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 10 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 10 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 -30 1,359 £475 - 1,144
UK excluding London -12 742 £450 +0.67% 571
London -31 685 £516 +3.25% 704
Work from Home -34 400 £475 -2.56% 490
North of England -14 259 £425 - 161
Midlands -14 152 £475 +10.27% 74
North West -29 131 £400 -5.88% 87
West Midlands -5 122 £475 -5.00% 52
South East -51 104 £403 -12.97% 138
Scotland -12 91 £544 +20.83% 31
South West -7 82 £475 - 81
Yorkshire -16 77 £500 +25.00% 57
North East -8 50 £338 -29.69% 20
East of England -10 42 £438 -16.67% 56
East Midlands -14 30 £500 +39.66% 22
Wales -8 15 £579 +89.22% 12
Northern Ireland +6 3 £638 +56.44% 23

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 (4.61%) SharePoint
2 59 (3.77%) CMS
3 43 (2.75%) Confluence
4 31 (1.98%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (1.02%) WordPress
6 9 (0.58%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 7 (0.45%) Apache
7 7 (0.45%) Skype for Business
8 6 (0.38%) Drupal
9 5 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
9 5 (0.32%) Oracle Workflow
10 4 (0.26%) Headless CMS
10 4 (0.26%) Kentico
10 4 (0.26%) Mendix
11 3 (0.19%) Camunda
11 3 (0.19%) ColdFusion
11 3 (0.19%) Moodle
11 3 (0.19%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
12 2 (0.13%) IIS
Applications
1 34 (2.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 29 (1.86%) Sketch
3 25 (1.60%) Microsoft Excel
4 24 (1.54%) Microsoft Office
5 21 (1.34%) Chatbot
6 19 (1.22%) Photoshop
7 18 (1.15%) Adobe After Effects
8 16 (1.02%) Adobe Illustrator
9 14 (0.90%) Adobe XD
10 11 (0.70%) MS Visio
11 9 (0.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
12 7 (0.45%) Final Cut Pro
13 3 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
14 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
14 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
15 1 (0.064%) Adobe Captivate
15 1 (0.064%) Adobe Premiere
15 1 (0.064%) Blender
15 1 (0.064%) InVision
15 1 (0.064%) Trello
Business Applications
1 7 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
1 7 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
1 7 (0.45%) Workday HCM
2 6 (0.38%) Shopify
3 5 (0.32%) NetSuite
4 4 (0.26%) Oracle iProcurement
4 4 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
5 3 (0.19%) iTrent
5 3 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.13%) IBM Planning Analytics
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
6 2 (0.13%) ResourceLink
7 1 (0.064%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.064%) Eloqua
7 1 (0.064%) Exchequer
7 1 (0.064%) Magento
7 1 (0.064%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 228 (14.59%) Azure
2 190 (12.16%) Figma
3 153 (9.79%) Microsoft 365
4 133 (8.51%) AWS
5 119 (7.61%) Power Platform
6 66 (4.22%) Entra ID
7 65 (4.16%) GitHub
8 61 (3.90%) Microsoft Copilot
9 56 (3.58%) SaaS
10 52 (3.33%) Azure DevOps
11 38 (2.43%) GCP
12 37 (2.37%) PowerApps
13 35 (2.24%) OneDrive
14 29 (1.86%) Power Automate
15 28 (1.79%) Copilot Studio
16 26 (1.66%) GitHub Actions
16 26 (1.66%) Serverless
17 24 (1.54%) Azure AI
18 18 (1.15%) GitHub Copilot
19 17 (1.09%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 45 (2.88%) DNS
2 37 (2.37%) DHCP
3 32 (2.05%) TCP/IP
4 29 (1.86%) Wi-Fi
5 21 (1.34%) Wireless
6 18 (1.15%) VPN
7 17 (1.09%) LAN
8 15 (0.96%) Firewall
8 15 (0.96%) WAN
9 10 (0.64%) Internet
9 10 (0.64%) NetScaler
10 9 (0.58%) SD-WAN
11 8 (0.51%) Cisco Wireless
11 8 (0.51%) Intranet
11 8 (0.51%) Skype
12 7 (0.45%) Network Security
12 7 (0.45%) SNMP
13 6 (0.38%) 5G
13 6 (0.38%) WLAN
14 5 (0.32%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (4.67%) Power BI
2 26 (1.66%) Metadata
3 18 (1.15%) NoSQL
4 17 (1.09%) PostgreSQL
5 14 (0.90%) Power Query
5 14 (0.90%) SQL Server
6 13 (0.83%) Tableau
7 12 (0.77%) Elasticsearch
7 12 (0.77%) MongoDB
8 11 (0.70%) Big Data
8 11 (0.70%) Relational Database
9 9 (0.58%) Looker
10 8 (0.51%) Redis
11 7 (0.45%) MySQL
11 7 (0.45%) Snowflake Schema
12 6 (0.38%) Data Warehouse
12 6 (0.38%) Flink
12 6 (0.38%) Qlik Sense
12 6 (0.38%) Star Schema
13 5 (0.32%) Data Mining
Development Applications
1 88 (5.63%) Git
2 84 (5.37%) JIRA
3 31 (1.98%) Jenkins
4 27 (1.73%) Cypress.io
4 27 (1.73%) Vite
5 19 (1.22%) Storybook
6 16 (1.02%) GitLab
7 15 (0.96%) Claude Code
8 12 (0.77%) fastlane
9 10 (0.64%) Android Studio
10 9 (0.58%) Browser DevTools
10 9 (0.58%) JMeter
10 9 (0.58%) Xcode
11 8 (0.51%) webpack
12 7 (0.45%) Postman
12 7 (0.45%) REST Assured
12 7 (0.45%) Selenium
13 6 (0.38%) Gradle
13 6 (0.38%) JUnit
13 6 (0.38%) Visual Studio
General
1 507 (32.44%) Social Skills
2 260 (16.63%) Finance
3 216 (13.82%) Public Sector
4 162 (10.36%) Analytical Skills
5 108 (6.91%) Banking
6 80 (5.12%) Retail
7 74 (4.73%) Marketing
8 56 (3.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 42 (2.69%) Influencing Skills
10 41 (2.62%) Legal
11 29 (1.86%) Organisational Skills
12 28 (1.79%) Automotive
12 28 (1.79%) Publishing
13 26 (1.66%) Presentation Skills
14 23 (1.47%) Documentation Skills
15 21 (1.34%) Manufacturing
15 21 (1.34%) Military
16 17 (1.09%) Investment Banking
17 12 (0.77%) Front Office
18 10 (0.64%) Law
Job Titles
1 319 (20.41%) Designer
2 222 (14.20%) Senior
3 216 (13.82%) Developer
4 133 (8.51%) Lead
5 131 (8.38%) UX Designer
6 102 (6.53%) Analyst
7 80 (5.12%) UI Designer
8 73 (4.67%) Consultant
9 67 (4.29%) Senior Designer
10 66 (4.22%) Architect
11 61 (3.90%) User Researcher
12 55 (3.52%) IT Support
12 55 (3.52%) Product Manager
13 54 (3.45%) Support Engineer
14 50 (3.20%) Business Analyst
15 47 (3.01%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
16 45 (2.88%) Content Designer
17 43 (2.75%) UI/UX Designer
18 42 (2.69%) Product Designer
19 41 (2.62%) User Experience Researcher
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 160 (10.24%) React
2 125 (8.00%) CSS
3 113 (7.23%) HTML
4 94 (6.01%) REST
5 62 (3.97%) RESTful
6 48 (3.07%) HTML5
6 48 (3.07%) Terraform
7 47 (3.01%) AngularJS
8 45 (2.88%) CSS3
9 44 (2.82%) GraphQL
10 40 (2.56%) .NET
11 36 (2.30%) Node.js
12 33 (2.11%) Playwright
13 32 (2.05%) Jest
13 32 (2.05%) Next.js
13 32 (2.05%) Spring
14 31 (1.98%) Spring Boot
15 30 (1.92%) OAuth
16 29 (1.86%) Kafka
17 28 (1.79%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 151 (9.66%) Product Ownership
2 90 (5.76%) Mobile App
3 86 (5.50%) Onboarding
4 56 (3.58%) Cloud Native
5 50 (3.20%) AI Agents
6 33 (2.11%) Self-Motivation
7 31 (1.98%) Data Protection Act
7 31 (1.98%) Management Information System
8 30 (1.92%) Enterprise Software
9 26 (1.66%) Legacy Systems
10 24 (1.54%) Data Structures
11 22 (1.41%) Social Media
12 21 (1.34%) NHS
13 20 (1.28%) Data Centre
14 19 (1.22%) Educational Technology
15 17 (1.09%) Animation
15 17 (1.09%) Graphic Design
16 14 (0.90%) Analytical Mindset
16 14 (0.90%) Taxonomies
16 14 (0.90%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 152 (9.72%) Windows
2 68 (4.35%) Apple iOS
3 67 (4.29%) Android
4 56 (3.58%) Windows 10
5 32 (2.05%) Mac OS
5 32 (2.05%) Windows Server
6 19 (1.22%) Linux
7 11 (0.70%) Unix
8 9 (0.58%) Windows 7
9 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
9 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
10 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.064%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 499 (31.93%) UX Design
2 450 (28.79%) Agile
3 312 (19.96%) AI
4 281 (17.98%) Stakeholder Management
5 259 (16.57%) Problem-Solving
6 239 (15.29%) Continuous Improvement
7 213 (13.63%) Analytics
8 200 (12.80%) User Research
9 183 (11.71%) CI/CD
10 173 (11.07%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 157 (10.04%) Roadmaps
12 153 (9.79%) Decision-Making
13 151 (9.66%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
14 127 (8.13%) Scrum
15 126 (8.06%) DevOps
16 125 (8.00%) Service Design
17 122 (7.81%) Prototyping
18 118 (7.55%) Workshop Facilitation
19 111 (7.10%) Service Management
20 110 (7.04%) Wireframes
Programming Languages
1 154 (9.85%) JavaScript
2 131 (8.38%) TypeScript
3 114 (7.29%) Python
4 98 (6.27%) SQL
5 96 (6.14%) Java
6 50 (3.20%) PowerShell
7 39 (2.50%) C#
8 29 (1.86%) Kotlin
9 20 (1.28%) Bash
10 19 (1.22%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 18 (1.15%) Swift
12 9 (0.58%) Go
13 8 (0.51%) PHP
13 8 (0.51%) VBScript
14 7 (0.45%) Shell Script
14 7 (0.45%) VB
15 6 (0.38%) Scala
16 5 (0.32%) Apex Code
16 5 (0.32%) Korn
17 4 (0.26%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 238 (15.23%) Security Cleared
2 184 (11.77%) SC Cleared
3 120 (7.68%) Degree
4 44 (2.82%) BPSS Clearance
5 35 (2.24%) Computer Science Degree
6 26 (1.66%) DV Cleared
7 24 (1.54%) Azure Certification
8 20 (1.28%) Microsoft Certification
9 16 (1.02%) PMP
10 9 (0.58%) Cisco Certification
10 9 (0.58%) ITIL Certification
11 8 (0.51%) AWS Certification
11 8 (0.51%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 7 (0.45%) DBS Check
13 6 (0.38%) MCSE
13 6 (0.38%) PMI Certification
14 5 (0.32%) CCA
14 5 (0.32%) CCIE
14 5 (0.32%) CCNP
14 5 (0.32%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 273 (17.47%) Accessibility
2 104 (6.65%) WCAG
3 95 (6.08%) QA
4 47 (3.01%) Data Quality
5 22 (1.41%) GDPR
6 15 (0.96%) Actionable Recommendations
7 12 (0.77%) SLA
8 9 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 8 (0.51%) PMO
10 7 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 6 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials
12 4 (0.26%) GRC
12 4 (0.26%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 3 (0.19%) GMP
13 3 (0.19%) GxP
14 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
14 2 (0.13%) PSD2
15 1 (0.064%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 1 (0.064%) ISO 20022
15 1 (0.064%) SEPA
System Software
1 107 (6.85%) Active Directory
2 48 (3.07%) Docker
3 30 (1.92%) Virtual Desktop
4 24 (1.54%) VMware Infrastructure
5 14 (0.90%) Hyper-V
6 8 (0.51%) Citrix Hypervisor
7 7 (0.45%) BitLocker
7 7 (0.45%) vSphere
7 7 (0.45%) XenApp
7 7 (0.45%) 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 (0.064%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 49 (3.13%) Microsoft Intune
2 48 (3.07%) Kubernetes
3 35 (2.24%) Grafana
4 31 (1.98%) SCCM
5 21 (1.34%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (1.09%) Ansible
7 16 (1.02%) Jamf Pro
8 14 (0.90%) Prometheus
9 5 (0.32%) SysTrack
9 5 (0.32%) vCenter Server
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%) Packer
12 2 (0.13%) SCOM
12 2 (0.13%) vMotion
Vendors
1 281 (17.98%) Microsoft
2 89 (5.69%) ServiceNow
3 88 (5.63%) Adobe
4 51 (3.26%) Google
5 46 (2.94%) Oracle
6 33 (2.11%) SAP
7 30 (1.92%) Salesforce
8 27 (1.73%) Dynatrace
8 27 (1.73%) VMware
9 25 (1.60%) Citrix
10 23 (1.47%) Splunk
11 22 (1.41%) Apple
11 22 (1.41%) Databricks
12 20 (1.28%) OpenAI
13 18 (1.15%) Cisco
14 17 (1.09%) Workday
15 16 (1.02%) Foundry
16 13 (0.83%) Zscaler
17 11 (0.70%) Aruba
18 10 (0.64%) Okta