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

6 months to
16 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 94 64 76
Rank change year-on-year -30 +12 -13
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,533 1,260 1,065
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.82% 3.83% 2.78%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.34% 4.23% 3.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 918 806 642
10th Percentile £305 £300 £313
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £588
90th Percentile £700 £675 £694
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £475
% change year-on-year - -5.26% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 50 23
10th Percentile £20.31 £15.50 £30.00
25th Percentile £27.45 £26.36 £30.51
Median hourly rate £35.22 £36.50 £50.50
Median % change year-on-year -3.51% -27.72% +6.32%
75th Percentile £67.88 £54.69 £74.00
90th Percentile £76.40 £65.52 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £32.50 £70.20
% change year-on-year +4.58% -53.70% +296.13%

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 45,839 29,816 32,769
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.46% 90.52% 85.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,855 18,531 20,147
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
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 £625 £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 3,070 1,799 1,460
10th Percentile £13.84 £14.25 £14.84
25th Percentile £17.36 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.50 £44.68 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £67.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.56 £22.63 £43.00
% change year-on-year +83.63% -47.37% +5.81%

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 16 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 16 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 16 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 - 3,206
UK excluding London -14 731 £450 - 1,384
London -36 671 £513 +2.50% 2,102
Work from Home -29 390 £475 -2.56% 1,361
North of England -10 257 £430 +1.18% 372
Midlands -10 150 £464 +5.13% 199
North West -34 126 £400 -5.88% 235
West Midlands -10 118 £463 -7.34% 148
South East -52 101 £400 -10.81% 284
Scotland +2 93 £538 +16.85% 122
South West -8 80 £475 -2.56% 149
Yorkshire -11 80 £500 +25.00% 94
North East -3 50 £338 -25.00% 45
East of England -5 41 £410 -21.90% 141
East Midlands -13 32 £500 +31.58% 51
Wales -14 12 £530 +73.20% 30
Northern Ireland +5 3 £638 +23.49% 92

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 71 (4.63%) SharePoint
2 62 (4.04%) CMS
3 42 (2.74%) Confluence
4 32 (2.09%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (1.04%) WordPress
6 9 (0.59%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 7 (0.46%) Apache
7 7 (0.46%) Skype for Business
8 6 (0.39%) Drupal
8 6 (0.39%) Oracle Workflow
9 5 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
9 5 (0.33%) Headless CMS
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%) Moodle
12 2 (0.13%) nginx
Applications
1 33 (2.15%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 28 (1.83%) Sketch
3 25 (1.63%) Microsoft Office
4 23 (1.50%) Microsoft Excel
5 20 (1.30%) Chatbot
6 19 (1.24%) Photoshop
7 18 (1.17%) Adobe After Effects
8 16 (1.04%) Adobe Illustrator
9 13 (0.85%) Adobe XD
10 11 (0.72%) MS Visio
11 9 (0.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
12 7 (0.46%) Final Cut Pro
13 3 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
14 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
14 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
15 1 (0.065%) Adobe Captivate
15 1 (0.065%) Adobe Premiere
15 1 (0.065%) Blender
15 1 (0.065%) InVision
15 1 (0.065%) Trello
Business Applications
1 9 (0.59%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (0.46%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (0.39%) Shopify
3 6 (0.39%) Workday HCM
4 5 (0.33%) NetSuite
5 4 (0.26%) Oracle iProcurement
5 4 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
5 4 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
6 3 (0.20%) iTrent
6 3 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
7 2 (0.13%) IBM Planning Analytics
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
8 1 (0.065%) Elite 3E
8 1 (0.065%) Exchequer
8 1 (0.065%) Magento
8 1 (0.065%) Oracle EBS R12
8 1 (0.065%) SAP HR
8 1 (0.065%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 222 (14.48%) Azure
2 181 (11.81%) Figma
3 149 (9.72%) Microsoft 365
4 136 (8.87%) AWS
5 111 (7.24%) Power Platform
6 68 (4.44%) Entra ID
7 63 (4.11%) GitHub
8 59 (3.85%) Microsoft Copilot
9 55 (3.59%) SaaS
10 47 (3.07%) Azure DevOps
11 40 (2.61%) GCP
12 34 (2.22%) OneDrive
13 33 (2.15%) PowerApps
14 28 (1.83%) Copilot Studio
15 27 (1.76%) Power Automate
16 26 (1.70%) GitHub Actions
17 24 (1.57%) Azure AI
18 23 (1.50%) Serverless
19 18 (1.17%) GitHub Copilot
20 17 (1.11%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 46 (3.00%) DNS
2 38 (2.48%) DHCP
3 35 (2.28%) TCP/IP
4 29 (1.89%) Wi-Fi
5 21 (1.37%) VPN
6 20 (1.30%) Wireless
7 17 (1.11%) Firewall
7 17 (1.11%) LAN
8 15 (0.98%) WAN
9 12 (0.78%) NetScaler
10 10 (0.65%) Network Security
11 9 (0.59%) Internet
12 8 (0.52%) Cisco Wireless
12 8 (0.52%) SD-WAN
12 8 (0.52%) Skype
13 7 (0.46%) SNMP
14 6 (0.39%) Intranet
15 5 (0.33%) SMS
15 5 (0.33%) SSL
15 5 (0.33%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 65 (4.24%) Power BI
2 25 (1.63%) Metadata
3 18 (1.17%) NoSQL
3 18 (1.17%) PostgreSQL
4 14 (0.91%) Power Query
4 14 (0.91%) SQL Server
5 13 (0.85%) MongoDB
5 13 (0.85%) Tableau
6 12 (0.78%) Elasticsearch
7 11 (0.72%) Big Data
7 11 (0.72%) Relational Database
8 10 (0.65%) Redis
9 9 (0.59%) Looker
10 8 (0.52%) Qlik Sense
11 7 (0.46%) MySQL
11 7 (0.46%) Snowflake Schema
12 6 (0.39%) BigQuery
12 6 (0.39%) Flink
12 6 (0.39%) QlikView
12 6 (0.39%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 88 (5.74%) Git
2 80 (5.22%) JIRA
3 33 (2.15%) Jenkins
4 28 (1.83%) Vite
5 27 (1.76%) Cypress.io
6 19 (1.24%) Storybook
7 16 (1.04%) GitLab
8 15 (0.98%) Claude Code
9 12 (0.78%) fastlane
10 10 (0.65%) Android Studio
11 9 (0.59%) Browser DevTools
11 9 (0.59%) Xcode
12 8 (0.52%) webpack
13 7 (0.46%) JMeter
13 7 (0.46%) Postman
14 6 (0.39%) Gradle
14 6 (0.39%) REST Assured
15 5 (0.33%) Crashlytics
15 5 (0.33%) Fiddler
15 5 (0.33%) JUnit
General
1 498 (32.49%) Social Skills
2 251 (16.37%) Finance
3 215 (14.02%) Public Sector
4 155 (10.11%) Analytical Skills
5 102 (6.65%) Banking
6 77 (5.02%) Marketing
6 77 (5.02%) Retail
7 56 (3.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 44 (2.87%) Influencing Skills
9 43 (2.80%) Legal
10 28 (1.83%) Automotive
11 27 (1.76%) Organisational Skills
11 27 (1.76%) Publishing
12 23 (1.50%) Manufacturing
12 23 (1.50%) Presentation Skills
13 22 (1.44%) Documentation Skills
14 20 (1.30%) Military
15 17 (1.11%) Investment Banking
16 11 (0.72%) Law
17 10 (0.65%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 308 (20.09%) Designer
2 220 (14.35%) Senior
3 212 (13.83%) Developer
4 130 (8.48%) Lead
5 126 (8.22%) UX Designer
6 95 (6.20%) Analyst
7 77 (5.02%) UI Designer
8 68 (4.44%) Consultant
9 66 (4.31%) Architect
10 65 (4.24%) Senior Designer
11 59 (3.85%) User Researcher
12 55 (3.59%) Product Manager
13 54 (3.52%) IT Support
14 53 (3.46%) Support Engineer
15 48 (3.13%) Business Analyst
16 46 (3.00%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
17 43 (2.80%) Content Designer
18 42 (2.74%) User Experience Researcher
19 41 (2.67%) Product Designer
19 41 (2.67%) UI/UX Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 155 (10.11%) React
2 118 (7.70%) CSS
3 107 (6.98%) HTML
4 94 (6.13%) REST
5 59 (3.85%) RESTful
6 50 (3.26%) Terraform
7 47 (3.07%) HTML5
8 44 (2.87%) CSS3
9 43 (2.80%) AngularJS
9 43 (2.80%) GraphQL
10 36 (2.35%) .NET
11 34 (2.22%) Node.js
12 31 (2.02%) Jest
12 31 (2.02%) Next.js
12 31 (2.02%) Playwright
12 31 (2.02%) Spring
13 30 (1.96%) OAuth
13 30 (1.96%) Spring Boot
14 26 (1.70%) Kafka
14 26 (1.70%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 151 (9.85%) Product Ownership
2 90 (5.87%) Mobile App
3 84 (5.48%) Onboarding
4 60 (3.91%) Cloud Native
5 52 (3.39%) AI Agents
6 32 (2.09%) Self-Motivation
7 31 (2.02%) Data Protection Act
8 29 (1.89%) Enterprise Software
8 29 (1.89%) Management Information System
9 28 (1.83%) Legacy Systems
10 25 (1.63%) Data Structures
11 22 (1.44%) NHS
11 22 (1.44%) Social Media
12 21 (1.37%) Data Centre
13 19 (1.24%) Educational Technology
14 17 (1.11%) Animation
15 16 (1.04%) Graphic Design
16 13 (0.85%) Analytical Mindset
16 13 (0.85%) Taxonomies
16 13 (0.85%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 153 (9.98%) Windows
2 67 (4.37%) Apple iOS
3 64 (4.17%) Android
4 58 (3.78%) Windows 10
5 35 (2.28%) Windows Server
6 32 (2.09%) Mac OS
7 19 (1.24%) Linux
8 12 (0.78%) 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%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.065%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 488 (31.83%) UX Design
2 444 (28.96%) Agile
3 301 (19.63%) AI
4 285 (18.59%) Stakeholder Management
5 252 (16.44%) Problem-Solving
6 236 (15.39%) Continuous Improvement
7 211 (13.76%) Analytics
8 197 (12.85%) User Research
9 182 (11.87%) CI/CD
10 172 (11.22%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 156 (10.18%) Roadmaps
12 150 (9.78%) Decision-Making
13 149 (9.72%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
14 126 (8.22%) DevOps
15 125 (8.15%) Scrum
16 124 (8.09%) Service Design
17 118 (7.70%) Prototyping
18 115 (7.50%) Workshop Facilitation
19 113 (7.37%) Service Management
20 109 (7.11%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 142 (9.26%) JavaScript
2 129 (8.41%) TypeScript
3 111 (7.24%) Python
4 96 (6.26%) Java
5 94 (6.13%) SQL
6 51 (3.33%) PowerShell
7 32 (2.09%) C#
8 29 (1.89%) Kotlin
9 20 (1.30%) Bash
10 19 (1.24%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 19 (1.24%) Swift
11 9 (0.59%) Go
12 8 (0.52%) PHP
12 8 (0.52%) VBScript
13 7 (0.46%) Shell Script
13 7 (0.46%) VB
14 6 (0.39%) Scala
15 5 (0.33%) Apex Code
16 4 (0.26%) C++
16 4 (0.26%) R
Qualifications
1 235 (15.33%) Security Cleared
2 182 (11.87%) SC Cleared
3 115 (7.50%) Degree
4 43 (2.80%) BPSS Clearance
5 32 (2.09%) Computer Science Degree
6 26 (1.70%) DV Cleared
7 23 (1.50%) Azure Certification
8 19 (1.24%) Microsoft Certification
9 17 (1.11%) PMP
10 8 (0.52%) AWS Certification
10 8 (0.52%) Cisco Certification
10 8 (0.52%) ITIL Certification
10 8 (0.52%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 7 (0.46%) DBS Check
12 6 (0.39%) MCSE
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
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 261 (17.03%) Accessibility
2 100 (6.52%) WCAG
3 93 (6.07%) QA
4 49 (3.20%) Data Quality
5 19 (1.24%) GDPR
6 15 (0.98%) Actionable Recommendations
7 12 (0.78%) SLA
8 8 (0.52%) PMO
9 7 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials
9 7 (0.46%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 6 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 3 (0.20%) GRC
12 2 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 2 (0.13%) GMP
12 2 (0.13%) GxP
12 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.13%) PSD2
13 1 (0.065%) HIPAA
13 1 (0.065%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 1 (0.065%) WAI
System Software
1 110 (7.18%) Active Directory
2 47 (3.07%) Docker
3 28 (1.83%) Virtual Desktop
4 26 (1.70%) VMware Infrastructure
5 15 (0.98%) Hyper-V
6 9 (0.59%) Citrix Hypervisor
6 9 (0.59%) XenApp
7 8 (0.52%) XenDesktop
8 7 (0.46%) BitLocker
8 7 (0.46%) vSphere
9 5 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
10 4 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
11 3 (0.20%) UAG
11 3 (0.20%) Virtual Machines
12 2 (0.13%) Firmware
12 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
12 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
13 1 (0.065%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 52 (3.39%) Microsoft Intune
2 50 (3.26%) Kubernetes
3 36 (2.35%) Grafana
4 31 (2.02%) SCCM
5 21 (1.37%) Single Sign-On
6 18 (1.17%) Ansible
7 16 (1.04%) Jamf Pro
8 14 (0.91%) Prometheus
9 6 (0.39%) vCenter Server
10 5 (0.33%) SysTrack
11 4 (0.26%) Clonezilla
11 4 (0.26%) Podman
12 3 (0.20%) Kibana
12 3 (0.20%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 3 (0.20%) WSUS
13 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
13 2 (0.13%) Istio
13 2 (0.13%) Packer
13 2 (0.13%) SCOM
13 2 (0.13%) vMotion
Vendors
1 277 (18.07%) Microsoft
2 90 (5.87%) ServiceNow
3 85 (5.54%) Adobe
4 50 (3.26%) Google
5 45 (2.94%) Oracle
6 32 (2.09%) SAP
7 30 (1.96%) Salesforce
8 29 (1.89%) VMware
9 28 (1.83%) Dynatrace
10 25 (1.63%) Citrix
10 25 (1.63%) Splunk
11 22 (1.44%) Databricks
12 20 (1.30%) Apple
12 20 (1.30%) OpenAI
13 17 (1.11%) Cisco
14 16 (1.04%) Foundry
15 15 (0.98%) Zscaler
16 14 (0.91%) Workday
17 10 (0.65%) Aruba
18 9 (0.59%) Okta