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

6 months to
4 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 97 64 79
Rank change year-on-year -33 +15 -10
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,552 1,242 1,047
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.84% 3.74% 2.76%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.36% 4.13% 3.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 926 796 624
10th Percentile £313 £303 £313
25th Percentile £402 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.05% -5.00% -2.44%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £590
90th Percentile £700 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £475
% change year-on-year - -5.26% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 77 53 27
10th Percentile £18.90 £15.50 £28.10
25th Percentile £27.24 £25.00 £30.51
Median hourly rate £35.22 £35.60 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -1.07% -16.24% -10.53%
75th Percentile £67.98 £53.75 £64.50
90th Percentile £77.00 £63.75 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £34.61 £30.00 £33.54
% change year-on-year +15.35% -10.55% +2.85%

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 46,144 30,062 32,646
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.46% 90.58% 85.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,776 18,666 19,743
10th Percentile £325 £300 £308
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 £634 £625 £638
90th Percentile £736 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,300 1,877 1,341
10th Percentile £13.65 £14.33 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.12 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £38.62 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +53.57% -40.82% -
75th Percentile £65.06 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £65.18 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.00 £22.32 £43.00
% change year-on-year +74.77% -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 4 October 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 4 October 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 4 October 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 1,345 £475 - 3,663
UK excluding London -7 729 £450 - 1,983
London -30 689 £510 +2.00% 2,015
Work from Home -41 384 £495 -1.00% 1,941
North of England -6 265 £425 +1.49% 524
Midlands -4 147 £464 +3.02% 283
North West -27 136 £400 -4.19% 294
West Midlands -8 117 £463 -7.34% 161
Scotland -4 92 £538 +18.13% 189
South East -58 92 £403 -10.26% 419
Yorkshire -8 82 £500 +21.21% 162
South West 0 79 £475 +5.56% 229
North East 0 46 £325 -27.78% 71
East of England -4 43 £410 -21.90% 204
East Midlands -10 30 £500 +24.38% 122
Wales -14 13 £530 +66.36% 84
Northern Ireland +7 4 £638 +2.00% 63

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 73 (4.70%) SharePoint
2 67 (4.32%) CMS
3 49 (3.16%) Confluence
4 30 (1.93%) Microsoft Exchange
5 17 (1.10%) WordPress
6 8 (0.52%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 7 (0.45%) Headless CMS
7 7 (0.45%) Skype for Business
8 6 (0.39%) Apache
8 6 (0.39%) Drupal
8 6 (0.39%) Oracle Workflow
8 6 (0.39%) Traefik
9 5 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
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 (2.06%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 26 (1.68%) Sketch
3 25 (1.61%) Microsoft Office
4 21 (1.35%) Microsoft Excel
5 19 (1.22%) Photoshop
6 18 (1.16%) Adobe After Effects
7 17 (1.10%) Adobe Illustrator
8 16 (1.03%) Chatbot
9 12 (0.77%) Adobe XD
10 10 (0.64%) MS Visio
11 8 (0.52%) 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%) Microsoft Project
15 1 (0.064%) Trello
Business Applications
1 9 (0.58%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.45%) Workday HCM
3 5 (0.32%) NetSuite
3 5 (0.32%) Salesforce CRM
4 4 (0.26%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 4 (0.26%) Oracle iProcurement
4 4 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.26%) Shopify
5 3 (0.19%) iTrent
5 3 (0.19%) SAP HR
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.13%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.13%) SAP HCM
6 2 (0.13%) SAP Payroll
7 1 (0.064%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.064%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.064%) Eloqua
7 1 (0.064%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.064%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 219 (14.11%) Azure
2 182 (11.73%) Figma
3 150 (9.66%) AWS
4 149 (9.60%) Microsoft 365
5 121 (7.80%) Power Platform
6 68 (4.38%) Entra ID
7 64 (4.12%) GitHub
8 59 (3.80%) Microsoft Copilot
9 58 (3.74%) SaaS
10 43 (2.77%) Azure DevOps
11 39 (2.51%) GCP
12 36 (2.32%) PowerApps
13 33 (2.13%) OneDrive
14 28 (1.80%) Copilot Studio
14 28 (1.80%) GitHub Actions
14 28 (1.80%) Power Automate
15 25 (1.61%) Serverless
16 21 (1.35%) Azure AI
17 18 (1.16%) GitHub Copilot
18 16 (1.03%) Miro
Communications & Networking
1 44 (2.84%) DNS
2 37 (2.38%) DHCP
3 35 (2.26%) TCP/IP
4 28 (1.80%) Wi-Fi
5 20 (1.29%) VPN
6 19 (1.22%) Wireless
7 16 (1.03%) Firewall
8 15 (0.97%) LAN
9 14 (0.90%) NetScaler
9 14 (0.90%) WAN
10 9 (0.58%) Network Security
11 8 (0.52%) Cisco Wireless
12 7 (0.45%) Internet
12 7 (0.45%) Skype
12 7 (0.45%) SNMP
13 6 (0.39%) Intranet
13 6 (0.39%) SD-WAN
14 5 (0.32%) 5G
15 4 (0.26%) Remote Desktop
15 4 (0.26%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (4.70%) Power BI
2 25 (1.61%) Metadata
3 20 (1.29%) NoSQL
4 18 (1.16%) Power Query
5 17 (1.10%) PostgreSQL
5 17 (1.10%) SQL Server
6 14 (0.90%) MongoDB
7 13 (0.84%) MySQL
7 13 (0.84%) Tableau
8 12 (0.77%) Relational Database
9 11 (0.71%) Big Data
10 10 (0.64%) Elasticsearch
10 10 (0.64%) Redis
11 9 (0.58%) Looker
12 8 (0.52%) Qlik Sense
13 7 (0.45%) Snowflake Schema
13 7 (0.45%) Star Schema
14 6 (0.39%) BigQuery
14 6 (0.39%) Flink
14 6 (0.39%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 91 (5.86%) Git
2 85 (5.48%) JIRA
3 34 (2.19%) Jenkins
4 26 (1.68%) Cypress.io
4 26 (1.68%) Vite
5 23 (1.48%) Storybook
6 18 (1.16%) Claude Code
7 15 (0.97%) GitLab
8 12 (0.77%) fastlane
9 9 (0.58%) Android Studio
9 9 (0.58%) webpack
10 8 (0.52%) Xcode
11 7 (0.45%) REST Assured
12 6 (0.39%) Bitbucket
12 6 (0.39%) Browser DevTools
12 6 (0.39%) JMeter
12 6 (0.39%) Postman
13 5 (0.32%) Gradle
13 5 (0.32%) JUnit
13 5 (0.32%) MSI
General
1 511 (32.93%) Social Skills
2 256 (16.49%) Finance
3 216 (13.92%) Public Sector
4 147 (9.47%) Analytical Skills
5 98 (6.31%) Banking
6 83 (5.35%) Marketing
7 77 (4.96%) Retail
8 54 (3.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 45 (2.90%) Legal
10 43 (2.77%) Influencing Skills
11 28 (1.80%) Automotive
12 27 (1.74%) Publishing
13 26 (1.68%) Organisational Skills
14 23 (1.48%) Presentation Skills
15 22 (1.42%) Manufacturing
16 21 (1.35%) Military
17 19 (1.22%) Documentation Skills
18 18 (1.16%) Investment Banking
19 12 (0.77%) Front Office
20 9 (0.58%) Law
Job Titles
1 309 (19.91%) Designer
2 234 (15.08%) Developer
3 214 (13.79%) Senior
4 136 (8.76%) Lead
5 133 (8.57%) UX Designer
6 95 (6.12%) Analyst
7 77 (4.96%) UI Designer
8 66 (4.25%) Senior Designer
9 65 (4.19%) Architect
10 62 (3.99%) User Researcher
11 59 (3.80%) Consultant
12 53 (3.41%) IT Support
13 52 (3.35%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
13 52 (3.35%) Support Engineer
14 51 (3.29%) Product Manager
15 49 (3.16%) Business Analyst
16 43 (2.77%) Product Designer
16 43 (2.77%) User Experience Researcher
17 42 (2.71%) UI/UX Designer
18 41 (2.64%) Content Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 164 (10.57%) React
2 119 (7.67%) CSS
3 108 (6.96%) HTML
4 95 (6.12%) REST
5 65 (4.19%) RESTful
6 46 (2.96%) HTML5
6 46 (2.96%) Terraform
7 44 (2.84%) AngularJS
8 42 (2.71%) GraphQL
9 41 (2.64%) CSS3
10 36 (2.32%) Node.js
11 35 (2.26%) .NET
12 32 (2.06%) Next.js
12 32 (2.06%) OAuth
12 32 (2.06%) Playwright
13 31 (2.00%) Spring
13 31 (2.00%) Spring Boot
14 29 (1.87%) Jest
15 25 (1.61%) Redux
16 24 (1.55%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 163 (10.50%) Product Ownership
2 97 (6.25%) Mobile App
3 81 (5.22%) Onboarding
4 62 (3.99%) Cloud Native
5 51 (3.29%) AI Agents
6 33 (2.13%) Management Information System
7 31 (2.00%) Self-Motivation
8 29 (1.87%) Data Protection Act
8 29 (1.87%) Legacy Systems
9 27 (1.74%) Enterprise Software
10 22 (1.42%) Data Centre
10 22 (1.42%) Social Media
11 21 (1.35%) Data Structures
12 20 (1.29%) NHS
13 19 (1.22%) Educational Technology
14 17 (1.10%) Animation
15 16 (1.03%) Graphic Design
16 15 (0.97%) Taxonomies
17 14 (0.90%) Analytical Mindset
17 14 (0.90%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 151 (9.73%) Windows
2 73 (4.70%) Apple iOS
3 68 (4.38%) Android
4 57 (3.67%) Windows 10
5 37 (2.38%) Windows Server
6 28 (1.80%) Mac OS
7 18 (1.16%) Linux
8 14 (0.90%) Unix
9 9 (0.58%) Windows 7
10 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.19%) AIX
12 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 488 (31.44%) UX Design
2 458 (29.51%) Agile
3 305 (19.65%) Stakeholder Management
4 300 (19.33%) AI
5 249 (16.04%) Continuous Improvement
6 244 (15.72%) Problem-Solving
7 216 (13.92%) User Research
8 211 (13.60%) Analytics
9 185 (11.92%) CI/CD
10 176 (11.34%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 168 (10.82%) Decision-Making
12 164 (10.57%) Roadmaps
13 150 (9.66%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
14 133 (8.57%) Service Design
15 124 (7.99%) Scrum
15 124 (7.99%) Workshop Facilitation
16 121 (7.80%) DevOps
16 121 (7.80%) Prototyping
17 116 (7.47%) Service Management
18 111 (7.15%) UX Research
Programming Languages
1 150 (9.66%) JavaScript
2 137 (8.83%) TypeScript
3 100 (6.44%) SQL
4 99 (6.38%) Java
5 98 (6.31%) Python
6 51 (3.29%) PowerShell
7 32 (2.06%) C#
8 31 (2.00%) Kotlin
9 23 (1.48%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 20 (1.29%) Bash
10 20 (1.29%) Swift
11 10 (0.64%) Go
12 8 (0.52%) Shell Script
13 7 (0.45%) PHP
13 7 (0.45%) VB
13 7 (0.45%) VBScript
14 6 (0.39%) Scala
15 5 (0.32%) Apex Code
15 5 (0.32%) C++
15 5 (0.32%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 247 (15.91%) Security Cleared
2 191 (12.31%) SC Cleared
3 114 (7.35%) Degree
4 48 (3.09%) BPSS Clearance
5 31 (2.00%) Computer Science Degree
6 24 (1.55%) DV Cleared
7 18 (1.16%) Azure Certification
8 17 (1.10%) PMP
9 14 (0.90%) Microsoft Certification
10 8 (0.52%) AWS Certification
10 8 (0.52%) DBS Check
10 8 (0.52%) ITIL Certification
11 7 (0.45%) Cisco Certification
11 7 (0.45%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 6 (0.39%) Master's Degree
12 6 (0.39%) PMI Certification
13 5 (0.32%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 5 (0.32%) CCA
13 5 (0.32%) CISSP
13 5 (0.32%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 270 (17.40%) Accessibility
2 104 (6.70%) WCAG
3 103 (6.64%) QA
4 50 (3.22%) Data Quality
5 19 (1.22%) Actionable Recommendations
5 19 (1.22%) GDPR
6 15 (0.97%) SLA
7 12 (0.77%) PMO
8 6 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials
9 5 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 4 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 2 (0.13%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 2 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 2 (0.13%) GMP
11 2 (0.13%) GRC
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%) WAI
System Software
1 111 (7.15%) Active Directory
2 52 (3.35%) Docker
3 29 (1.87%) Virtual Desktop
4 27 (1.74%) VMware Infrastructure
5 16 (1.03%) Hyper-V
6 11 (0.71%) Citrix Hypervisor
7 10 (0.64%) XenApp
8 9 (0.58%) XenDesktop
9 7 (0.45%) BitLocker
9 7 (0.45%) vSphere
10 5 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
11 4 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
12 3 (0.19%) UAG
12 3 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
13 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
13 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
14 1 (0.064%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 55 (3.54%) Kubernetes
2 53 (3.41%) Microsoft Intune
3 35 (2.26%) Grafana
4 26 (1.68%) SCCM
5 18 (1.16%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (1.10%) Ansible
7 14 (0.90%) Jamf Pro
7 14 (0.90%) Prometheus
8 7 (0.45%) Istio
9 6 (0.39%) SysTrack
9 6 (0.39%) vCenter Server
10 4 (0.26%) Clonezilla
11 3 (0.19%) Kibana
11 3 (0.19%) Podman
11 3 (0.19%) WSUS
12 2 (0.13%) Argo
12 2 (0.13%) Packer
12 2 (0.13%) SCOM
12 2 (0.13%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 2 (0.13%) vMotion
Vendors
1 279 (17.98%) Microsoft
2 90 (5.80%) ServiceNow
3 78 (5.03%) Adobe
4 52 (3.35%) Google
5 50 (3.22%) Oracle
6 31 (2.00%) Salesforce
6 31 (2.00%) SAP
7 30 (1.93%) VMware
8 27 (1.74%) Splunk
9 26 (1.68%) Dynatrace
10 25 (1.61%) Citrix
11 21 (1.35%) Apple
12 20 (1.29%) Databricks
13 19 (1.22%) OpenAI
14 15 (0.97%) Cisco
14 15 (0.97%) Workday
15 14 (0.90%) Foundry
15 14 (0.90%) Zscaler
16 9 (0.58%) Aruba
16 9 (0.58%) Okta