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 6 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 78 60 77
Rank change year-on-year -18 +17 -18
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,515 1,100 1,177
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.07% 3.79% 2.73%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.62% 4.16% 3.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 974 725 780
10th Percentile £322 £305 £306
25th Percentile £400 £390 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% -2.91%
75th Percentile £575 £577 £600
90th Percentile £675 £688 £689
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £425 £475
% change year-on-year +11.76% -10.53% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 66 29 47
10th Percentile £16.00 £29.42 £16.25
25th Percentile £23.04 £35.25 £23.75
Median hourly rate £33.99 £53.50 £31.71
Median % change year-on-year -36.47% +68.72% +7.15%
75th Percentile £61.05 £70.16 £58.13
90th Percentile £76.00 £87.50 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £70.08 £25.00
% change year-on-year -51.50% +180.32% +42.86%

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 41,843 26,418 36,777
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.72% 90.98% 85.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,135 16,804 23,539
10th Percentile £325 £300 £300
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.49% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,505 1,141 2,540
10th Percentile £14.68 £14.20 £12.75
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.87 £16.00
Median hourly rate £43.96 £27.76 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +58.36% -23.95% +1.39%
75th Percentile £68.00 £56.00 £60.75
90th Percentile £81.24 £73.75 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.78 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +82.03% -34.02% +8.91%

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 6 June 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 6 June 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 6 June 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 -10 1,304 £481 -1.44% 945
UK excluding London +8 704 £475 +11.76% 554
London -29 650 £513 +0.05% 512
Work from Home -20 406 £500 +2.56% 571
North of England -8 207 £450 +5.88% 166
Midlands +6 168 £475 +18.16% 73
North West 0 130 £425 -4.92% 109
South East -10 130 £475 +2.26% 156
West Midlands -11 117 £475 -7.32% 50
Scotland +8 77 £505 +10.99% 21
South West +2 75 £475 +26.67% 40
Yorkshire -31 56 £525 +34.96% 37
East Midlands +5 51 £550 +55.81% 23
East of England -12 31 £410 -14.14% 59
North East -19 21 £450 -6.25% 22
Wales -16 15 £475 +55.23% 22
Northern Ireland 0 3 - - 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 60 (3.96%) SharePoint
2 49 (3.23%) Confluence
3 44 (2.90%) CMS
4 22 (1.45%) Microsoft Exchange
5 14 (0.92%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 8 (0.53%) Apache
7 7 (0.46%) WordPress
8 5 (0.33%) Camunda
8 5 (0.33%) Drupal
8 5 (0.33%) Mendix
8 5 (0.33%) Skype for Business
9 4 (0.26%) Ethereum
9 4 (0.26%) Hyperledger
9 4 (0.26%) Kentico
9 4 (0.26%) Umbraco
10 3 (0.20%) Anypoint
10 3 (0.20%) Headless CMS
10 3 (0.20%) nginx
11 2 (0.13%) Moodle
11 2 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 42 (2.77%) Sketch
2 24 (1.58%) Microsoft Excel
3 23 (1.52%) Adobe XD
3 23 (1.52%) Photoshop
4 20 (1.32%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 19 (1.25%) Chatbot
6 18 (1.19%) Adobe After Effects
6 18 (1.19%) Adobe Illustrator
7 15 (0.99%) MS Visio
8 14 (0.92%) Microsoft Office
9 8 (0.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 7 (0.46%) InVision
11 4 (0.26%) Adobe Captivate
11 4 (0.26%) Final Cut Pro
12 3 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
12 3 (0.20%) Trello
12 3 (0.20%) UserZoom
12 3 (0.20%) UXPin
13 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
14 1 (0.066%) Camtasia
Business Applications
1 13 (0.86%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (0.59%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (0.59%) Shopify
2 9 (0.59%) Workday HCM
3 6 (0.40%) Sage X3
4 4 (0.26%) NetSuite
5 2 (0.13%) Oracle iProcurement
5 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
5 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
5 2 (0.13%) Payment Gateway
5 2 (0.13%) Remedy ITSM
5 2 (0.13%) ResourceLink
5 2 (0.13%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.066%) Adobe Campaign
6 1 (0.066%) Eloqua
6 1 (0.066%) Integrated Workplace Management System
6 1 (0.066%) NEC Housing
6 1 (0.066%) Oracle EBS R12
6 1 (0.066%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.066%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 235 (15.51%) Azure
2 215 (14.19%) Figma
3 131 (8.65%) AWS
4 113 (7.46%) Microsoft 365
5 111 (7.33%) Power Platform
6 60 (3.96%) Entra ID
7 54 (3.56%) Azure DevOps
8 52 (3.43%) GitHub
9 48 (3.17%) SaaS
10 46 (3.04%) GCP
10 46 (3.04%) Microsoft Copilot
11 37 (2.44%) PowerApps
12 34 (2.24%) GitHub Actions
12 34 (2.24%) Power Automate
13 32 (2.11%) Serverless
14 29 (1.91%) OneDrive
15 25 (1.65%) Copilot Studio
15 25 (1.65%) Google Workspace
16 21 (1.39%) Google Sheets
17 19 (1.25%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 24 (1.58%) DNS
2 21 (1.39%) Wi-Fi
3 20 (1.32%) DHCP
4 18 (1.19%) Wireless
5 14 (0.92%) LAN
5 14 (0.92%) TCP/IP
6 13 (0.86%) Internet
6 13 (0.86%) Intranet
7 10 (0.66%) HTTP
7 10 (0.66%) SD-WAN
8 8 (0.53%) Cisco Wireless
8 8 (0.53%) VPN
8 8 (0.53%) WAN
9 7 (0.46%) 5G
9 7 (0.46%) Firewall
9 7 (0.46%) Skype
9 7 (0.46%) WLAN
10 6 (0.40%) Network Security
10 6 (0.40%) SNMP
11 5 (0.33%) 802.11
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (4.75%) Power BI
2 27 (1.78%) Relational Database
3 25 (1.65%) NoSQL
3 25 (1.65%) PostgreSQL
4 24 (1.58%) Metadata
5 22 (1.45%) SQL Server
6 17 (1.12%) Power Query
7 16 (1.06%) Data Warehouse
8 15 (0.99%) MongoDB
9 14 (0.92%) MySQL
10 10 (0.66%) Big Data
10 10 (0.66%) Tableau
11 8 (0.53%) DynamoDB
12 6 (0.40%) Elasticsearch
12 6 (0.40%) Oracle Database
12 6 (0.40%) Pinecone
12 6 (0.40%) Redis
12 6 (0.40%) ZAP BI
13 5 (0.33%) BigQuery
13 5 (0.33%) Oracle BI Publisher
Development Applications
1 97 (6.40%) JIRA
2 92 (6.07%) Git
3 30 (1.98%) GitLab
4 27 (1.78%) Cypress.io
5 24 (1.58%) Jenkins
6 17 (1.12%) JUnit
7 15 (0.99%) Gradle
7 15 (0.99%) Vite
8 12 (0.79%) Android Studio
9 11 (0.73%) Browser DevTools
9 11 (0.73%) Xcode
10 10 (0.66%) Axure RP
10 10 (0.66%) CircleCI
10 10 (0.66%) fastlane
11 9 (0.59%) Selenium
12 8 (0.53%) Visual Studio
13 7 (0.46%) Postman
14 6 (0.40%) Claude Code
14 6 (0.40%) Mockito
14 6 (0.40%) webpack
General
1 464 (30.63%) Social Skills
2 255 (16.83%) Finance
3 195 (12.87%) Public Sector
4 146 (9.64%) Analytical Skills
5 112 (7.39%) Banking
6 70 (4.62%) Retail
7 63 (4.16%) Marketing
8 37 (2.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 34 (2.24%) Legal
10 33 (2.18%) Presentation Skills
11 31 (2.05%) Influencing Skills
12 28 (1.85%) Automotive
12 28 (1.85%) Manufacturing
13 21 (1.39%) Publishing
14 17 (1.12%) Documentation Skills
14 17 (1.12%) Investment Banking
15 16 (1.06%) Organisational Skills
15 16 (1.06%) Pharmaceutical
16 13 (0.86%) Games
16 13 (0.86%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 325 (21.45%) Designer
2 226 (14.92%) Senior
3 207 (13.66%) Developer
4 145 (9.57%) UX Designer
5 116 (7.66%) Analyst
6 99 (6.53%) Lead
7 77 (5.08%) UI Designer
8 72 (4.75%) Consultant
9 67 (4.42%) Senior Designer
10 63 (4.16%) Product Designer
11 62 (4.09%) Architect
12 58 (3.83%) Business Analyst
13 50 (3.30%) Content Designer
14 49 (3.23%) User Researcher
15 48 (3.17%) User Experience Researcher
16 46 (3.04%) UI/UX Designer
17 44 (2.90%) IT Support
18 41 (2.71%) Product Manager
19 36 (2.38%) Senior Developer
19 36 (2.38%) Service Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 165 (10.89%) React
2 137 (9.04%) CSS
3 124 (8.18%) HTML
4 106 (7.00%) REST
5 76 (5.02%) AngularJS
5 76 (5.02%) RESTful
6 56 (3.70%) Spring
7 55 (3.63%) Spring Boot
8 54 (3.56%) .NET
9 38 (2.51%) GraphQL
10 37 (2.44%) Node.js
11 34 (2.24%) HTML5
11 34 (2.24%) JSON
12 32 (2.11%) CSS3
12 32 (2.11%) Redux
13 31 (2.05%) Jest
14 29 (1.91%) Kafka
15 24 (1.58%) ASP.NET
16 23 (1.52%) Next.js
16 23 (1.52%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 153 (10.10%) Product Ownership
2 74 (4.88%) Mobile App
3 59 (3.89%) Onboarding
4 34 (2.24%) AI Agents
5 33 (2.18%) Cloud Native
6 30 (1.98%) Data Structures
7 27 (1.78%) Enterprise Software
8 25 (1.65%) Legacy Systems
9 21 (1.39%) Animation
9 21 (1.39%) Self-Motivation
10 20 (1.32%) Data Protection Act
11 18 (1.19%) Analytical Mindset
12 17 (1.12%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 16 (1.06%) Data Centre
14 15 (0.99%) Distributed Systems
14 15 (0.99%) Graphic Design
15 14 (0.92%) Social Media
15 14 (0.92%) Taxonomies
15 14 (0.92%) Virtual Reality
16 13 (0.86%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 110 (7.26%) Windows
2 48 (3.17%) Android
3 47 (3.10%) Apple iOS
4 34 (2.24%) Windows 10
5 24 (1.58%) Mac OS
6 15 (0.99%) Linux
7 11 (0.73%) Windows Server
8 6 (0.40%) Windows 7
9 5 (0.33%) Unix
9 5 (0.33%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.066%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 518 (34.19%) UX Design
2 462 (30.50%) Agile
3 245 (16.17%) AI
4 224 (14.79%) Problem-Solving
5 205 (13.53%) User Research
6 202 (13.33%) Analytics
7 192 (12.67%) Continuous Improvement
7 192 (12.67%) Stakeholder Management
8 177 (11.68%) CI/CD
9 166 (10.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 163 (10.76%) Roadmaps
11 147 (9.70%) DevOps
12 146 (9.64%) Prototyping
13 142 (9.37%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
14 131 (8.65%) Wireframes
15 128 (8.45%) Service Design
16 126 (8.32%) Decision-Making
17 125 (8.25%) UX Research
18 109 (7.19%) Usability Testing
19 106 (7.00%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 165 (10.89%) JavaScript
2 122 (8.05%) Python
3 119 (7.85%) TypeScript
4 117 (7.72%) SQL
5 116 (7.66%) Java
6 57 (3.76%) C#
7 53 (3.50%) PowerShell
8 34 (2.24%) Kotlin
9 22 (1.45%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 18 (1.19%) Bash
11 15 (0.99%) Swift
12 11 (0.73%) C++
13 9 (0.59%) Lua
14 8 (0.53%) Korn
15 6 (0.40%) VBA
15 6 (0.40%) VBScript
16 5 (0.33%) Perl
16 5 (0.33%) R
16 5 (0.33%) Scala
16 5 (0.33%) VB
Qualifications
1 195 (12.87%) Security Cleared
2 144 (9.50%) Degree
3 141 (9.31%) SC Cleared
4 31 (2.05%) Computer Science Degree
5 28 (1.85%) BPSS Clearance
6 24 (1.58%) DV Cleared
7 22 (1.45%) Microsoft Certification
8 15 (0.99%) Azure Certification
9 13 (0.86%) Master's Degree
10 11 (0.73%) Cisco Certification
11 8 (0.53%) CCA
11 8 (0.53%) CCNP
11 8 (0.53%) ITIL Certification
12 7 (0.46%) CCIE
12 7 (0.46%) Citrix Certification
12 7 (0.46%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 6 (0.40%) DBS Check
14 5 (0.33%) MCSE
14 5 (0.33%) PMI Certification
14 5 (0.33%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 267 (17.62%) Accessibility
2 105 (6.93%) QA
3 94 (6.20%) WCAG
4 46 (3.04%) Data Quality
5 29 (1.91%) GDPR
6 19 (1.25%) Actionable Recommendations
7 17 (1.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 7 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials
8 7 (0.46%) SLA
9 6 (0.40%) GMP
9 6 (0.40%) GxP
9 6 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 6 (0.40%) PMO
10 4 (0.26%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 3 (0.20%) GRC
11 3 (0.20%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.13%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 2 (0.13%) HIPAA
12 2 (0.13%) NCSC
12 2 (0.13%) NIST
System Software
1 70 (4.62%) Active Directory
2 51 (3.37%) Docker
3 22 (1.45%) Virtual Desktop
4 18 (1.19%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.40%) Firmware
6 5 (0.33%) BitLocker
7 4 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
8 3 (0.20%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.20%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.13%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
9 2 (0.13%) vSphere
9 2 (0.13%) XenApp
9 2 (0.13%) XenDesktop
10 1 (0.066%) ISA Server
10 1 (0.066%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 56 (3.70%) Kubernetes
2 49 (3.23%) Terraform
3 43 (2.84%) Microsoft Intune
4 36 (2.38%) SCCM
5 34 (2.24%) Grafana
6 18 (1.19%) Single Sign-On
7 16 (1.06%) Ansible
8 11 (0.73%) Jamf Pro
9 9 (0.59%) Prometheus
10 4 (0.26%) Podman
11 3 (0.20%) Clonezilla
11 3 (0.20%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 3 (0.20%) WSUS
12 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
12 2 (0.13%) HP ALM
12 2 (0.13%) Packer
12 2 (0.13%) SCOM
12 2 (0.13%) vCenter Server
12 2 (0.13%) vMotion
13 1 (0.066%) HAProxy
Vendors
1 237 (15.64%) Microsoft
2 97 (6.40%) Adobe
3 68 (4.49%) ServiceNow
4 65 (4.29%) Google
5 41 (2.71%) Salesforce
6 38 (2.51%) SAP
7 37 (2.44%) Oracle
8 24 (1.58%) Citrix
9 21 (1.39%) Databricks
10 19 (1.25%) Splunk
11 18 (1.19%) Dynatrace
11 18 (1.19%) VMware
12 17 (1.12%) Cisco
12 17 (1.12%) Workday
13 15 (0.99%) Apple
14 12 (0.79%) Aruba
15 11 (0.73%) Foundry
16 10 (0.66%) OpenAI
17 9 (0.59%) MuleSoft
18 8 (0.53%) Zscaler