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

6 months to
25 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 95 65 76
Rank change year-on-year -30 +11 -10
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,561 1,249 1,061
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.84% 3.78% 2.76%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.37% 4.18% 3.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 935 801 629
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 £705 £675 £696
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £475
% change year-on-year - -5.26% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 75 51 27
10th Percentile £18.48 £15.50 £26.04
25th Percentile £27.67 £25.15 £30.22
Median hourly rate £35.22 £36.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -3.51% -14.12% -10.53%
75th Percentile £67.86 £55.88 £72.20
90th Percentile £76.20 £65.00 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £31.25 £51.77
% change year-on-year +8.77% -39.64% +192.16%

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 46,295 29,870 32,935
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.37% 90.52% 85.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,040 18,573 20,019
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 £627 £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 3,185 1,844 1,407
10th Percentile £13.72 £14.33 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.25 £17.33 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -40.82% -
75th Percentile £67.25 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £65.25 £74.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.03 £22.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year +77.91% -47.67% +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 25 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 25 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 25 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 -28 1,355 £475 - 2,751
UK excluding London -13 728 £450 - 1,313
London -28 695 £513 +3.02% 1,677
Work from Home -29 395 £495 +0.30% 1,198
North of England -6 260 £430 +1.18% 363
Midlands -12 151 £475 +6.26% 209
North West -33 129 £400 -5.88% 212
West Midlands -1 119 £475 -5.00% 143
South East -62 94 £400 -10.51% 282
Scotland -2 92 £538 +16.85% 94
Yorkshire -6 81 £500 +25.00% 110
South West -2 80 £475 -2.56% 140
North East -3 49 £338 -27.42% 44
East of England -18 42 £410 -18.00% 104
East Midlands -11 32 £500 +31.58% 66
Wales -16 12 £530 +73.20% 39
Northern Ireland +5 3 £638 +2.00% 87

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 66 (4.23%) CMS
3 49 (3.14%) Confluence
4 32 (2.05%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (1.02%) WordPress
6 9 (0.58%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 7 (0.45%) Apache
7 7 (0.45%) Headless CMS
7 7 (0.45%) Skype for Business
7 7 (0.45%) Traefik
8 6 (0.38%) Drupal
8 6 (0.38%) Oracle Workflow
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%) IIS
12 2 (0.13%) Moodle
12 2 (0.13%) nginx
Applications
1 32 (2.05%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 28 (1.79%) Sketch
3 24 (1.54%) Microsoft Office
4 20 (1.28%) Microsoft Excel
5 18 (1.15%) Adobe After Effects
5 18 (1.15%) Photoshop
6 17 (1.09%) Chatbot
7 16 (1.02%) Adobe Illustrator
8 13 (0.83%) Adobe XD
9 9 (0.58%) MS Visio
10 8 (0.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 7 (0.45%) Final Cut Pro
12 3 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
13 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
13 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
14 1 (0.064%) Adobe Captivate
14 1 (0.064%) Adobe Premiere
14 1 (0.064%) Blender
14 1 (0.064%) InVision
14 1 (0.064%) Trello
Business Applications
1 10 (0.64%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.45%) Workday HCM
3 5 (0.32%) NetSuite
3 5 (0.32%) Shopify
4 4 (0.26%) Oracle iProcurement
4 4 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
5 3 (0.19%) IBM Planning Analytics
5 3 (0.19%) iTrent
5 3 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.13%) SAP HR
7 1 (0.064%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.064%) Eloqua
7 1 (0.064%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.064%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.064%) Oracle Receivables
7 1 (0.064%) SAP HCM
7 1 (0.064%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 225 (14.41%) Azure
2 182 (11.66%) Figma
3 149 (9.55%) Microsoft 365
4 148 (9.48%) AWS
5 119 (7.62%) Power Platform
6 70 (4.48%) Entra ID
7 64 (4.10%) GitHub
8 60 (3.84%) Microsoft Copilot
9 57 (3.65%) SaaS
10 44 (2.82%) Azure DevOps
11 40 (2.56%) GCP
12 35 (2.24%) PowerApps
13 34 (2.18%) OneDrive
14 29 (1.86%) Copilot Studio
14 29 (1.86%) Power Automate
15 27 (1.73%) GitHub Actions
16 24 (1.54%) Serverless
17 23 (1.47%) Azure AI
18 18 (1.15%) GitHub Copilot
19 17 (1.09%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 47 (3.01%) DNS
2 39 (2.50%) DHCP
3 37 (2.37%) TCP/IP
4 28 (1.79%) Wi-Fi
5 21 (1.35%) VPN
6 19 (1.22%) Wireless
7 18 (1.15%) Firewall
8 16 (1.02%) LAN
8 16 (1.02%) WAN
9 13 (0.83%) NetScaler
10 11 (0.70%) Network Security
11 8 (0.51%) Cisco Wireless
11 8 (0.51%) Internet
11 8 (0.51%) SD-WAN
12 7 (0.45%) Skype
12 7 (0.45%) SNMP
13 6 (0.38%) Intranet
14 5 (0.32%) 5G
14 5 (0.32%) SMS
14 5 (0.32%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 68 (4.36%) Power BI
2 27 (1.73%) Metadata
3 19 (1.22%) NoSQL
4 18 (1.15%) PostgreSQL
4 18 (1.15%) SQL Server
5 15 (0.96%) Power Query
6 14 (0.90%) Tableau
7 13 (0.83%) MongoDB
7 13 (0.83%) MySQL
8 12 (0.77%) Big Data
8 12 (0.77%) Elasticsearch
9 11 (0.70%) Relational Database
10 10 (0.64%) Redis
11 9 (0.58%) Looker
12 8 (0.51%) Qlik Sense
13 7 (0.45%) Snowflake Schema
13 7 (0.45%) Star Schema
14 6 (0.38%) BigQuery
14 6 (0.38%) Flink
14 6 (0.38%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 93 (5.96%) Git
2 86 (5.51%) JIRA
3 33 (2.11%) Jenkins
4 27 (1.73%) Vite
5 25 (1.60%) Cypress.io
6 23 (1.47%) Storybook
7 16 (1.02%) Claude Code
7 16 (1.02%) GitLab
8 11 (0.70%) fastlane
9 9 (0.58%) Android Studio
9 9 (0.58%) Browser DevTools
10 8 (0.51%) webpack
10 8 (0.51%) Xcode
11 7 (0.45%) REST Assured
12 6 (0.38%) JMeter
12 6 (0.38%) Postman
13 5 (0.32%) Fiddler
13 5 (0.32%) Gradle
13 5 (0.32%) JUnit
13 5 (0.32%) MSI
General
1 512 (32.80%) Social Skills
2 258 (16.53%) Finance
3 217 (13.90%) Public Sector
4 150 (9.61%) Analytical Skills
5 102 (6.53%) Banking
6 79 (5.06%) Marketing
6 79 (5.06%) Retail
7 54 (3.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 48 (3.07%) Legal
9 47 (3.01%) Influencing Skills
10 28 (1.79%) Automotive
10 28 (1.79%) Publishing
11 25 (1.60%) Organisational Skills
12 23 (1.47%) Presentation Skills
13 22 (1.41%) Documentation Skills
13 22 (1.41%) Manufacturing
14 21 (1.35%) Military
15 17 (1.09%) Investment Banking
16 12 (0.77%) Front Office
17 11 (0.70%) Law
Job Titles
1 311 (19.92%) Designer
2 227 (14.54%) Developer
3 220 (14.09%) Senior
4 138 (8.84%) Lead
5 132 (8.46%) UX Designer
6 89 (5.70%) Analyst
7 78 (5.00%) UI Designer
8 72 (4.61%) Architect
9 67 (4.29%) Senior Designer
10 64 (4.10%) Consultant
11 62 (3.97%) User Researcher
12 52 (3.33%) IT Support
12 52 (3.33%) Support Engineer
13 51 (3.27%) Product Manager
14 50 (3.20%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
15 45 (2.88%) User Experience Researcher
16 43 (2.75%) Content Designer
16 43 (2.75%) UI/UX Designer
17 42 (2.69%) Business Analyst
17 42 (2.69%) Product Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 161 (10.31%) React
2 119 (7.62%) CSS
3 107 (6.85%) HTML
4 98 (6.28%) REST
5 58 (3.72%) RESTful
6 49 (3.14%) Terraform
7 47 (3.01%) HTML5
8 43 (2.75%) GraphQL
9 42 (2.69%) AngularJS
10 41 (2.63%) CSS3
11 37 (2.37%) Node.js
12 36 (2.31%) .NET
13 33 (2.11%) OAuth
14 32 (2.05%) Playwright
15 31 (1.99%) Next.js
15 31 (1.99%) Spring
15 31 (1.99%) Spring Boot
16 30 (1.92%) Jest
17 26 (1.67%) Redux
18 25 (1.60%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 163 (10.44%) Product Ownership
2 93 (5.96%) Mobile App
3 82 (5.25%) Onboarding
4 61 (3.91%) Cloud Native
5 51 (3.27%) AI Agents
6 31 (1.99%) Management Information System
6 31 (1.99%) Self-Motivation
7 30 (1.92%) Data Protection Act
8 29 (1.86%) Enterprise Software
9 28 (1.79%) Legacy Systems
10 24 (1.54%) Data Structures
11 22 (1.41%) Data Centre
11 22 (1.41%) Social Media
12 20 (1.28%) NHS
13 19 (1.22%) Educational Technology
14 17 (1.09%) Animation
15 16 (1.02%) Graphic Design
16 15 (0.96%) Taxonomies
17 13 (0.83%) Analytical Mindset
17 13 (0.83%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 153 (9.80%) Windows
2 68 (4.36%) Apple iOS
3 65 (4.16%) Android
4 56 (3.59%) Windows 10
5 37 (2.37%) Windows Server
6 32 (2.05%) Mac OS
7 18 (1.15%) Linux
8 13 (0.83%) Unix
9 9 (0.58%) 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 (0.064%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 490 (31.39%) UX Design
2 457 (29.28%) Agile
3 305 (19.54%) AI
4 296 (18.96%) Stakeholder Management
5 248 (15.89%) Problem-Solving
6 242 (15.50%) Continuous Improvement
7 208 (13.32%) User Research
8 206 (13.20%) Analytics
9 188 (12.04%) CI/CD
10 181 (11.60%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 165 (10.57%) Roadmaps
12 157 (10.06%) Decision-Making
13 149 (9.55%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
14 133 (8.52%) Service Design
15 126 (8.07%) DevOps
16 125 (8.01%) Scrum
17 120 (7.69%) Prototyping
17 120 (7.69%) Service Management
18 119 (7.62%) Workshop Facilitation
19 112 (7.17%) UX Research
Programming Languages
1 146 (9.35%) JavaScript
2 136 (8.71%) TypeScript
3 104 (6.66%) Python
4 102 (6.53%) SQL
5 97 (6.21%) Java
6 50 (3.20%) PowerShell
7 31 (1.99%) C#
8 30 (1.92%) Kotlin
9 21 (1.35%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 20 (1.28%) Bash
11 19 (1.22%) Swift
12 10 (0.64%) Go
13 8 (0.51%) PHP
14 7 (0.45%) Shell Script
14 7 (0.45%) VB
14 7 (0.45%) VBScript
15 6 (0.38%) Scala
16 5 (0.32%) Apex Code
16 5 (0.32%) C++
17 4 (0.26%) Perl
Qualifications
1 256 (16.40%) Security Cleared
2 198 (12.68%) SC Cleared
3 113 (7.24%) Degree
4 48 (3.07%) BPSS Clearance
5 30 (1.92%) Computer Science Degree
6 26 (1.67%) DV Cleared
7 21 (1.35%) Azure Certification
8 18 (1.15%) PMP
9 17 (1.09%) Microsoft Certification
10 8 (0.51%) AWS Certification
10 8 (0.51%) Cisco Certification
10 8 (0.51%) ITIL Certification
10 8 (0.51%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 7 (0.45%) DBS Check
12 6 (0.38%) MCSE
12 6 (0.38%) PMI Certification
13 5 (0.32%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 5 (0.32%) CCA
13 5 (0.32%) CISSP
13 5 (0.32%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 268 (17.17%) Accessibility
2 104 (6.66%) QA
3 101 (6.47%) WCAG
4 49 (3.14%) Data Quality
5 18 (1.15%) Actionable Recommendations
5 18 (1.15%) GDPR
6 14 (0.90%) SLA
7 10 (0.64%) PMO
8 7 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
9 6 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 6 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 3 (0.19%) GRC
11 2 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 2 (0.13%) GMP
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%) HIPAA
12 1 (0.064%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 112 (7.17%) Active Directory
2 54 (3.46%) Docker
3 27 (1.73%) Virtual Desktop
3 27 (1.73%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (1.02%) Hyper-V
5 10 (0.64%) Citrix Hypervisor
5 10 (0.64%) XenApp
6 9 (0.58%) XenDesktop
7 7 (0.45%) BitLocker
7 7 (0.45%) vSphere
8 5 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
9 4 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
10 3 (0.19%) UAG
10 3 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
11 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
11 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
12 1 (0.064%) Firmware
12 1 (0.064%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 55 (3.52%) Kubernetes
2 53 (3.40%) Microsoft Intune
3 35 (2.24%) Grafana
4 29 (1.86%) SCCM
5 21 (1.35%) Single Sign-On
6 18 (1.15%) Ansible
7 15 (0.96%) Jamf Pro
8 14 (0.90%) Prometheus
9 7 (0.45%) Istio
10 6 (0.38%) vCenter Server
11 5 (0.32%) SysTrack
12 4 (0.26%) Clonezilla
12 4 (0.26%) Podman
13 3 (0.19%) Kibana
13 3 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
13 3 (0.19%) WSUS
14 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
14 2 (0.13%) Packer
14 2 (0.13%) SCOM
14 2 (0.13%) vMotion
Vendors
1 280 (17.94%) Microsoft
2 92 (5.89%) ServiceNow
3 82 (5.25%) Adobe
4 49 (3.14%) Google
4 49 (3.14%) Oracle
5 33 (2.11%) Salesforce
6 32 (2.05%) SAP
7 30 (1.92%) VMware
8 26 (1.67%) Citrix
8 26 (1.67%) Dynatrace
8 26 (1.67%) Splunk
9 21 (1.35%) Databricks
10 19 (1.22%) OpenAI
11 18 (1.15%) Apple
12 16 (1.02%) Cisco
12 16 (1.02%) Foundry
12 16 (1.02%) Zscaler
13 15 (0.96%) Workday
14 9 (0.58%) Aruba
14 9 (0.58%) Okta