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

6 months to
18 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 69 66 70
Rank change year-on-year -3 +4 -2
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,306 1,055 1,274
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.52% 3.32% 2.94%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.01% 3.74% 3.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 883 644 868
10th Percentile £300 £313 £325
25th Percentile £375 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -6.98%
75th Percentile £568 £588 £588
90th Percentile £650 £702 £694
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £455 £475
% change year-on-year -1.10% -4.21% -4.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 50 26 30
10th Percentile £15.50 £25.26 £23.75
25th Percentile £17.69 £30.48 £31.37
Median hourly rate £35.55 £41.46 £60.25
Median % change year-on-year -14.24% -31.20% -3.60%
75th Percentile £58.06 £53.00 £73.54
90th Percentile £70.02 £74.22 £81.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £30.88 £71.93
% change year-on-year -2.83% -57.08% +10.66%

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 32,565 28,230 37,893
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.70% 88.92% 87.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,598 17,153 25,051
10th Percentile £304 £308 £304
25th Percentile £406 £413 £415
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £650
90th Percentile £723 £743 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,982 906 1,726
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.62 £14.15
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.80 £17.54
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -18.75% +17.96%
75th Percentile £56.69 £62.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £68.75 £74.81 £75.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.00 £30.78 £40.28
% change year-on-year -22.03% -23.58% +46.45%

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 18 January 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 18 January 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 18 January 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 0 1,130 £475 -5.00% 1,124
London -10 583 £475 -9.52% 248
UK excluding London +4 577 £450 -1.10% 1,043
Work from Home -23 337 £470 -6.00% 501
North of England +15 206 £410 -8.89% 214
North West +18 131 £400 -11.11% 91
South East -3 106 £436 -12.80% 325
Midlands -4 106 £488 +14.71% 145
West Midlands -14 66 £443 -11.50% 63
South West +13 65 £450 -20.70% 130
Yorkshire -11 59 £500 +11.11% 88
Scotland -15 57 £463 +2.78% 38
East Midlands +3 40 £523 +46.77% 78
East of England -2 33 £468 +3.43% 144
North East -1 15 £410 +17.14% 35
Wales +9 13 £316 -25.74% 52
Northern Ireland -13 1 £625 +66.67% 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 58 (4.44%) Confluence
2 55 (4.21%) SharePoint
3 48 (3.68%) CMS
4 23 (1.76%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 12 (0.92%) Headless CMS
5 12 (0.92%) Microsoft Exchange
6 11 (0.84%) SugarCRM
7 10 (0.77%) Apache
8 8 (0.61%) Sitecore CMS
8 8 (0.61%) Umbraco
9 3 (0.23%) Anypoint
9 3 (0.23%) Apache Spark
9 3 (0.23%) Jupyter
9 3 (0.23%) WordPress
10 2 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
10 2 (0.15%) Appian
10 2 (0.15%) Camunda
10 2 (0.15%) Drupal
11 1 (0.077%) IIS
11 1 (0.077%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 49 (3.75%) Sketch
2 34 (2.60%) Adobe XD
3 22 (1.68%) Microsoft Office
3 22 (1.68%) MS Visio
4 19 (1.45%) Chatbot
5 16 (1.23%) InVision
6 14 (1.07%) Microsoft Excel
7 11 (0.84%) Adobe Illustrator
7 11 (0.84%) Photoshop
8 8 (0.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
8 8 (0.61%) Trello
9 7 (0.54%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 7 (0.54%) Microsoft Project
10 5 (0.38%) Adobe After Effects
10 5 (0.38%) Camtasia
11 4 (0.31%) UXPin
12 3 (0.23%) Snagit
12 3 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
13 2 (0.15%) Blender
13 2 (0.15%) OmniGraffle
Business Applications
1 21 (1.61%) SAP S/4HANA
2 16 (1.23%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.31%) Shopify
4 3 (0.23%) Salesforce CRM
4 3 (0.23%) SAP CO
4 3 (0.23%) SAP FI
4 3 (0.23%) SAP FI/CO
4 3 (0.23%) Teamcenter
5 2 (0.15%) Adobe Campaign
5 2 (0.15%) iTrent
5 2 (0.15%) Magento
5 2 (0.15%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.15%) SAP SD
5 2 (0.15%) SAP Travel Management
6 1 (0.077%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.077%) Eloqua
6 1 (0.077%) NEC Housing
6 1 (0.077%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.077%) Sprinklr
6 1 (0.077%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 222 (17.00%) Azure
2 162 (12.40%) Figma
3 154 (11.79%) AWS
4 83 (6.36%) Power Platform
5 77 (5.90%) SaaS
6 75 (5.74%) Microsoft 365
7 60 (4.59%) GCP
8 50 (3.83%) Entra ID
9 49 (3.75%) Azure DevOps
10 44 (3.37%) GitHub
11 33 (2.53%) Miro
12 30 (2.30%) Serverless
13 24 (1.84%) GitHub Actions
13 24 (1.84%) Google Analytics
14 22 (1.68%) Power Automate
14 22 (1.68%) PowerApps
15 19 (1.45%) Dynamics 365
15 19 (1.45%) Google Workspace
16 18 (1.38%) Sauce Labs
17 16 (1.23%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 28 (2.14%) DNS
2 26 (1.99%) Wireless
3 16 (1.23%) Internet
4 13 (1.00%) HTTP
5 10 (0.77%) VPN
5 10 (0.77%) Wi-Fi
6 9 (0.69%) DHCP
6 9 (0.69%) Intranet
6 9 (0.69%) TCP/IP
7 8 (0.61%) BGP
7 8 (0.61%) Cisco ISE
8 7 (0.54%) Cisco Wireless
8 7 (0.54%) Firewall
8 7 (0.54%) NX-OS
8 7 (0.54%) VXLAN
9 6 (0.46%) Unified Communications
9 6 (0.46%) WAN
10 5 (0.38%) SSL
11 4 (0.31%) HTTPS
11 4 (0.31%) PPP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 51 (3.91%) Power BI
2 44 (3.37%) MySQL
3 39 (2.99%) Relational Database
4 32 (2.45%) PostgreSQL
5 27 (2.07%) SQL Server
6 24 (1.84%) NoSQL
7 18 (1.38%) Data Warehouse
8 16 (1.23%) Tableau
9 14 (1.07%) BigQuery
10 13 (1.00%) MongoDB
11 12 (0.92%) Looker
11 12 (0.92%) Metadata
12 8 (0.61%) SAP HANA
13 7 (0.54%) Mixpanel
13 7 (0.54%) Redis
14 5 (0.38%) DynamoDB
15 4 (0.31%) Big Data
15 4 (0.31%) Pinecone
16 3 (0.23%) Power Query
16 3 (0.23%) Qlik Sense
Development Applications
1 125 (9.57%) JIRA
2 93 (7.12%) Git
3 47 (3.60%) GitLab
4 42 (3.22%) Jenkins
5 31 (2.37%) Cypress.io
6 29 (2.22%) Xcode
7 26 (1.99%) Android Studio
7 26 (1.99%) Eclipse
8 23 (1.76%) Axure RP
9 20 (1.53%) Browser DevTools
10 19 (1.45%) JUnit
11 18 (1.38%) Gradle
12 13 (1.00%) Postman
13 12 (0.92%) CircleCI
14 10 (0.77%) Artifactory
14 10 (0.77%) webpack
15 9 (0.69%) Selenium
15 9 (0.69%) Visual Website Optimizer
16 8 (0.61%) Cucumber
16 8 (0.61%) IntelliJ
General
1 450 (34.46%) Social Skills
2 246 (18.84%) Finance
3 183 (14.01%) Public Sector
4 157 (12.02%) Analytical Skills
5 99 (7.58%) Banking
6 87 (6.66%) Marketing
7 37 (2.83%) Influencing Skills
8 30 (2.30%) Legal
9 26 (1.99%) Retail
10 25 (1.91%) Presentation Skills
11 22 (1.68%) Pharmaceutical
12 21 (1.61%) Manufacturing
13 18 (1.38%) Documentation Skills
14 16 (1.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 16 (1.23%) Telecoms
15 15 (1.15%) Financial Institution
16 13 (1.00%) Investment Banking
17 12 (0.92%) Automotive
18 9 (0.69%) Front Office
18 9 (0.69%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 232 (17.76%) Developer
2 227 (17.38%) Designer
3 174 (13.32%) Senior
4 128 (9.80%) UX Designer
5 109 (8.35%) Analyst
6 96 (7.35%) Lead
7 61 (4.67%) Business Analyst
8 54 (4.13%) Consultant
9 47 (3.60%) Senior Designer
10 45 (3.45%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
11 43 (3.29%) Architect
12 41 (3.14%) Product Designer
13 40 (3.06%) Service Designer
14 37 (2.83%) Support Engineer
14 37 (2.83%) User Researcher
15 35 (2.68%) Full-Stack Developer
16 33 (2.53%) UI Designer
17 32 (2.45%) Front-End Engineer (Client-Side Engineer)
17 32 (2.45%) Senior Developer
18 31 (2.37%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 184 (14.09%) CSS
2 174 (13.32%) React
3 168 (12.86%) HTML
4 107 (8.19%) REST
5 94 (7.20%) AngularJS
6 92 (7.04%) RESTful
7 53 (4.06%) Node.js
8 49 (3.75%) .NET
9 48 (3.68%) GraphQL
9 48 (3.68%) HTML5
10 41 (3.14%) Spring
11 38 (2.91%) Spring Boot
12 37 (2.83%) Jest
13 36 (2.76%) CSS3
14 27 (2.07%) SOAP
15 26 (1.99%) JSON
15 26 (1.99%) Redux
16 25 (1.91%) Playwright
17 24 (1.84%) Next.js
17 24 (1.84%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 124 (9.49%) Product Ownership
2 103 (7.89%) Mobile App
3 65 (4.98%) Onboarding
4 27 (2.07%) Analytical Mindset
5 26 (1.99%) Enterprise Software
6 21 (1.61%) Data Structures
7 20 (1.53%) Management Information System
8 18 (1.38%) Low-Code
8 18 (1.38%) NHS
9 17 (1.30%) e-Learning
10 16 (1.23%) AI Agents
11 15 (1.15%) Data Centre
12 14 (1.07%) Distributed Systems
12 14 (1.07%) Learning Management System
12 14 (1.07%) Legacy Systems
13 13 (1.00%) CMDB
13 13 (1.00%) Data Protection Act
14 12 (0.92%) Greenfield Project
14 12 (0.92%) Virtual Team
15 11 (0.84%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 124 (9.49%) Windows
2 72 (5.51%) Android
3 59 (4.52%) Apple iOS
4 37 (2.83%) Linux
5 36 (2.76%) Windows 10
6 23 (1.76%) Unix
7 22 (1.68%) Mac OS
8 7 (0.54%) Windows Server
9 4 (0.31%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.15%) VMS
11 1 (0.077%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.077%) tvOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 484 (37.06%) Agile
2 450 (34.46%) UX Design
3 214 (16.39%) Analytics
3 214 (16.39%) Problem-Solving
4 180 (13.78%) User Research
5 177 (13.55%) CI/CD
6 161 (12.33%) Stakeholder Management
7 154 (11.79%) DevOps
8 138 (10.57%) AI
8 138 (10.57%) Roadmaps
9 137 (10.49%) Continuous Improvement
10 134 (10.26%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 134 (10.26%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
11 120 (9.19%) Service Design
12 116 (8.88%) Front End Development
13 113 (8.65%) Wireframes
14 110 (8.42%) Usability Testing
15 107 (8.19%) Decision-Making
16 100 (7.66%) Prototyping
17 98 (7.50%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 211 (16.16%) JavaScript
2 121 (9.26%) Java
3 118 (9.04%) Python
4 117 (8.96%) SQL
5 100 (7.66%) TypeScript
6 59 (4.52%) PowerShell
7 48 (3.68%) C#
8 34 (2.60%) Kotlin
9 26 (1.99%) Swift
10 24 (1.84%) Bash
11 23 (1.76%) Perl
12 20 (1.53%) PHP
13 12 (0.92%) C++
14 11 (0.84%) Objective-C
14 11 (0.84%) PL/SQL
15 10 (0.77%) Go
16 9 (0.69%) Scala
17 7 (0.54%) Lisp
18 6 (0.46%) Data Analysis Expressions
19 5 (0.38%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 165 (12.63%) Security Cleared
2 119 (9.11%) Degree
3 118 (9.04%) SC Cleared
4 37 (2.83%) BPSS Clearance
5 27 (2.07%) Computer Science Degree
6 16 (1.23%) DV Cleared
6 16 (1.23%) Master's Degree
7 12 (0.92%) PMI Certification
8 11 (0.84%) MOS
9 9 (0.69%) CCNP
9 9 (0.69%) Cisco Certification
9 9 (0.69%) Microsoft Certification
9 9 (0.69%) OCA
9 9 (0.69%) Oracle Certification
10 6 (0.46%) MCP
10 6 (0.46%) PMP
11 3 (0.23%) ITIL Certification
12 2 (0.15%) AWS Certification
12 2 (0.15%) CISM
12 2 (0.15%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 245 (18.76%) Accessibility
2 137 (10.49%) QA
3 67 (5.13%) WCAG
4 63 (4.82%) GDPR
5 34 (2.60%) Data Quality
6 25 (1.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 18 (1.38%) Actionable Recommendations
8 17 (1.30%) SLA
9 8 (0.61%) GxP
10 6 (0.46%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 6 (0.46%) NCSC
10 6 (0.46%) PMO
11 5 (0.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 3 (0.23%) Disclosure Scotland
12 3 (0.23%) GMP
12 3 (0.23%) Government Security Classifications
12 3 (0.23%) NIST
12 3 (0.23%) SOC 2
13 2 (0.15%) GRC
13 2 (0.15%) PSD2
System Software
1 69 (5.28%) Active Directory
2 64 (4.90%) Docker
3 20 (1.53%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (0.46%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.23%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.15%) ProxySG
7 1 (0.077%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.077%) Firmware
7 1 (0.077%) ISA Server
7 1 (0.077%) Microsoft App-V
7 1 (0.077%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.077%) XenApp
7 1 (0.077%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 51 (3.91%) Kubernetes
2 42 (3.22%) Microsoft Intune
3 35 (2.68%) Terraform
4 33 (2.53%) SCCM
5 19 (1.45%) Ansible
6 17 (1.30%) Grafana
7 16 (1.23%) Single Sign-On
8 7 (0.54%) FortiGate
9 6 (0.46%) Jamf Pro
9 6 (0.46%) Prometheus
10 4 (0.31%) Argo
11 3 (0.23%) HP ALM
11 3 (0.23%) Nagios
11 3 (0.23%) Rancher
12 2 (0.15%) PingFederate
12 2 (0.15%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 2 (0.15%) SysTrack
13 1 (0.077%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 1 (0.077%) Istio
13 1 (0.077%) Podman
Vendors
1 208 (15.93%) Microsoft
2 94 (7.20%) Adobe
3 81 (6.20%) Google
4 74 (5.67%) ServiceNow
5 50 (3.83%) Oracle
6 46 (3.52%) Salesforce
7 45 (3.45%) SAP
8 28 (2.14%) Splunk
9 21 (1.61%) VMware
10 18 (1.38%) Apple
11 16 (1.23%) Citrix
12 13 (1.00%) Cisco
12 13 (1.00%) Red Hat
12 13 (1.00%) Zscaler
13 12 (0.92%) Optimizely
14 11 (0.84%) Hotjar
15 10 (0.77%) Amplitude
15 10 (0.77%) MuleSoft
16 8 (0.61%) Ekahau
16 8 (0.61%) OpenAI