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 7 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 79 59 72
Rank change year-on-year -20 +13 -11
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,462 1,091 1,241
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.07% 3.72% 2.86%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.63% 4.10% 3.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 983 736 830
10th Percentile £313 £304 £306
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.56% -4.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £588
90th Percentile £686 £708 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £425 £475
% change year-on-year +11.76% -10.53% +2.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 50 25 48
10th Percentile £16.65 £31.35 £16.25
25th Percentile £21.75 £45.50 £23.75
Median hourly rate £41.00 £53.50 £31.71
Median % change year-on-year -23.36% +68.72% +7.15%
75th Percentile £61.25 £72.50 £61.38
90th Percentile £71.20 £91.50 £73.36
UK excluding London median hourly rate £34.00 £61.75 £25.00
% change year-on-year -44.94% +147.00% +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 40,275 26,638 37,488
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.44% 90.95% 86.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,293 17,157 24,168
10th Percentile £320 £306 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £745 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £480 £500
% change year-on-year +1.56% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,413 1,083 2,449
10th Percentile £14.84 £14.63 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.75 £18.50 £16.00
Median hourly rate £41.56 £29.00 £35.96
Median % change year-on-year +43.29% -19.35% -0.11%
75th Percentile £67.25 £61.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £79.40 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.69 £27.94 £37.50
% change year-on-year +56.37% -25.49% +7.14%

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 7 May 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 7 May 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 7 May 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 -12 1,265 £489 -2.05% 806
London -19 649 £513 - 338
UK excluding London -5 642 £475 +11.76% 572
Work from Home -22 387 £475 -1.04% 432
North of England +13 202 £447 - 152
Midlands -4 151 £488 +21.88% 93
North West +7 125 £413 -8.33% 89
South East -9 115 £475 +2.70% 142
West Midlands -13 100 £475 +1.33% 66
South West -15 69 £475 +26.67% 62
Scotland -2 61 £481 +6.94% 38
Yorkshire -18 53 £513 +28.04% 33
East Midlands +4 51 £550 +53.63% 27
East of England -21 30 £418 -12.11% 68
North East -6 22 £433 -4.42% 31
Wales -10 15 £375 +22.55% 19
Northern Ireland -4 3 - - 11

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 52 (3.56%) SharePoint
2 51 (3.49%) Confluence
3 40 (2.74%) CMS
4 19 (1.30%) Microsoft Exchange
5 15 (1.03%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 7 (0.48%) Apache
6 7 (0.48%) WordPress
7 6 (0.41%) Mendix
8 5 (0.34%) Camunda
8 5 (0.34%) Drupal
9 4 (0.27%) Ethereum
9 4 (0.27%) Headless CMS
9 4 (0.27%) Hyperledger
10 3 (0.21%) Anypoint
10 3 (0.21%) Kentico
10 3 (0.21%) nginx
10 3 (0.21%) Umbraco
11 2 (0.14%) Apache Spark
11 2 (0.14%) Appian
11 2 (0.14%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 42 (2.87%) Sketch
2 29 (1.98%) Adobe XD
3 24 (1.64%) Microsoft Excel
4 19 (1.30%) Chatbot
5 18 (1.23%) MS Visio
6 17 (1.16%) Photoshop
7 14 (0.96%) Microsoft Office
8 12 (0.82%) Adobe Illustrator
9 11 (0.75%) Adobe After Effects
9 11 (0.75%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 11 (0.75%) InVision
10 6 (0.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 5 (0.34%) Trello
12 4 (0.27%) Spreadsheet
13 3 (0.21%) Adobe Captivate
13 3 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
13 3 (0.21%) UserZoom
13 3 (0.21%) UXPin
14 2 (0.14%) Autodesk Smoke
14 2 (0.14%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 13 (0.89%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (0.68%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (0.68%) Shopify
3 8 (0.55%) Workday HCM
4 6 (0.41%) Sage X3
5 3 (0.21%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.14%) NEC Housing
6 2 (0.14%) NetSuite
6 2 (0.14%) Oracle iProcurement
6 2 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
6 2 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
6 2 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.14%) ResourceLink
6 2 (0.14%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.068%) Adobe Campaign
7 1 (0.068%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.068%) Eloqua
7 1 (0.068%) Integrated Workplace Management System
7 1 (0.068%) iTrent
7 1 (0.068%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 223 (15.25%) Azure
2 212 (14.50%) Figma
3 120 (8.21%) AWS
4 110 (7.52%) Power Platform
5 96 (6.57%) Microsoft 365
6 56 (3.83%) Entra ID
7 54 (3.69%) Azure DevOps
8 48 (3.28%) GCP
9 46 (3.15%) GitHub
10 41 (2.80%) SaaS
11 38 (2.60%) Microsoft Copilot
11 38 (2.60%) Power Automate
12 37 (2.53%) PowerApps
13 32 (2.19%) Serverless
14 26 (1.78%) GitHub Actions
15 24 (1.64%) Google Workspace
16 23 (1.57%) Copilot Studio
17 21 (1.44%) Google Sheets
17 21 (1.44%) Miro
18 20 (1.37%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 16 (1.09%) DNS
2 13 (0.89%) Wi-Fi
3 12 (0.82%) Internet
3 12 (0.82%) Intranet
3 12 (0.82%) LAN
4 11 (0.75%) DHCP
4 11 (0.75%) HTTP
4 11 (0.75%) SD-WAN
4 11 (0.75%) Wireless
5 9 (0.62%) VPN
6 8 (0.55%) WAN
7 7 (0.48%) TCP/IP
8 6 (0.41%) 5G
8 6 (0.41%) Cisco Wireless
8 6 (0.41%) Firewall
8 6 (0.41%) Network Security
8 6 (0.41%) SNMP
8 6 (0.41%) WLAN
9 5 (0.34%) SMS
9 5 (0.34%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (5.20%) Power BI
2 27 (1.85%) Relational Database
3 26 (1.78%) NoSQL
4 23 (1.57%) PostgreSQL
5 21 (1.44%) SQL Server
6 19 (1.30%) Data Warehouse
6 19 (1.30%) Metadata
7 16 (1.09%) MongoDB
8 15 (1.03%) MySQL
9 12 (0.82%) Tableau
10 11 (0.75%) Power Query
11 10 (0.68%) Big Data
11 10 (0.68%) BigQuery
12 7 (0.48%) Looker
12 7 (0.48%) Oracle BI Publisher
12 7 (0.48%) Pinecone
13 6 (0.41%) DynamoDB
13 6 (0.41%) Oracle Database
13 6 (0.41%) Redis
13 6 (0.41%) ZAP BI
Development Applications
1 108 (7.39%) JIRA
2 86 (5.88%) Git
3 33 (2.26%) GitLab
4 29 (1.98%) Cypress.io
5 18 (1.23%) Jenkins
5 18 (1.23%) JUnit
6 17 (1.16%) Axure RP
7 13 (0.89%) Gradle
8 12 (0.82%) Browser DevTools
8 12 (0.82%) Vite
9 11 (0.75%) CircleCI
10 10 (0.68%) Android Studio
10 10 (0.68%) Selenium
11 9 (0.62%) Xcode
12 7 (0.48%) Postman
12 7 (0.48%) Visual Studio
13 6 (0.41%) Eclipse
13 6 (0.41%) Mocha
13 6 (0.41%) Mockito
14 5 (0.34%) Artifactory
General
1 446 (30.51%) Social Skills
2 265 (18.13%) Finance
3 203 (13.89%) Public Sector
4 154 (10.53%) Analytical Skills
5 114 (7.80%) Banking
6 59 (4.04%) Marketing
7 54 (3.69%) Retail
8 35 (2.39%) Legal
9 32 (2.19%) Presentation Skills
10 30 (2.05%) Influencing Skills
11 25 (1.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 22 (1.50%) Manufacturing
13 19 (1.30%) Pharmaceutical
13 19 (1.30%) Publishing
14 18 (1.23%) Automotive
14 18 (1.23%) Documentation Skills
15 17 (1.16%) Games
15 17 (1.16%) Organisational Skills
16 14 (0.96%) Investment Banking
17 12 (0.82%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 309 (21.14%) Designer
2 221 (15.12%) Senior
3 192 (13.13%) Developer
4 144 (9.85%) UX Designer
5 128 (8.76%) Analyst
6 79 (5.40%) Consultant
7 78 (5.34%) Lead
8 65 (4.45%) Business Analyst
8 65 (4.45%) Product Designer
9 63 (4.31%) Architect
10 60 (4.10%) Senior Designer
11 59 (4.04%) UI Designer
12 55 (3.76%) User Researcher
13 47 (3.21%) Content Designer
14 45 (3.08%) Service Designer
15 44 (3.01%) User Experience Researcher
16 42 (2.87%) UI/UX Designer
17 35 (2.39%) IT Support
17 35 (2.39%) Senior Developer
18 33 (2.26%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 154 (10.53%) React
2 136 (9.30%) CSS
3 123 (8.41%) HTML
4 104 (7.11%) REST
5 69 (4.72%) AngularJS
5 69 (4.72%) RESTful
6 54 (3.69%) Spring
7 53 (3.63%) Spring Boot
8 50 (3.42%) .NET
9 37 (2.53%) GraphQL
10 36 (2.46%) Node.js
11 34 (2.33%) HTML5
11 34 (2.33%) JSON
11 34 (2.33%) Redux
12 31 (2.12%) CSS3
13 29 (1.98%) Jest
14 28 (1.92%) Next.js
15 25 (1.71%) Kafka
16 22 (1.50%) OAuth
16 22 (1.50%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 139 (9.51%) Product Ownership
2 70 (4.79%) Mobile App
3 54 (3.69%) Onboarding
4 36 (2.46%) AI Agents
5 32 (2.19%) Data Structures
6 30 (2.05%) Enterprise Software
7 26 (1.78%) Cloud Native
8 21 (1.44%) Analytical Mindset
9 19 (1.30%) Data Protection Act
10 17 (1.16%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 16 (1.09%) Distributed Systems
11 16 (1.09%) Virtual Reality
12 14 (0.96%) Augmented Reality
12 14 (0.96%) Legacy Systems
12 14 (0.96%) NHS
13 13 (0.89%) Low-Code
13 13 (0.89%) Management Information System
13 13 (0.89%) Self-Motivation
14 12 (0.82%) Social Media
14 12 (0.82%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 97 (6.63%) Windows
2 44 (3.01%) Android
3 37 (2.53%) Apple iOS
4 35 (2.39%) Windows 10
5 20 (1.37%) Mac OS
6 16 (1.09%) Linux
7 9 (0.62%) Windows Server
8 6 (0.41%) Unix
9 5 (0.34%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.27%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.21%) Windows 7
12 2 (0.14%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.068%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 483 (33.04%) UX Design
2 460 (31.46%) Agile
3 223 (15.25%) AI
4 220 (15.05%) Problem-Solving
5 218 (14.91%) User Research
6 206 (14.09%) Analytics
7 180 (12.31%) Continuous Improvement
8 173 (11.83%) Stakeholder Management
9 168 (11.49%) CI/CD
10 164 (11.22%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 159 (10.88%) Roadmaps
12 151 (10.33%) DevOps
13 148 (10.12%) Prototyping
14 136 (9.30%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
15 132 (9.03%) UX Research
15 132 (9.03%) Wireframes
16 131 (8.96%) Service Design
17 123 (8.41%) Decision-Making
18 114 (7.80%) Usability Testing
19 112 (7.66%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 162 (11.08%) JavaScript
2 128 (8.76%) SQL
3 123 (8.41%) Python
4 116 (7.93%) Java
5 111 (7.59%) TypeScript
6 53 (3.63%) C#
7 46 (3.15%) PowerShell
8 28 (1.92%) Kotlin
9 20 (1.37%) Bash
10 17 (1.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 11 (0.75%) C++
12 10 (0.68%) Swift
13 9 (0.62%) Lua
14 7 (0.48%) Korn
15 6 (0.41%) Go
15 6 (0.41%) Perl
15 6 (0.41%) Scala
15 6 (0.41%) VBA
16 5 (0.34%) PL/SQL
16 5 (0.34%) R
Qualifications
1 197 (13.47%) Security Cleared
2 146 (9.99%) SC Cleared
3 129 (8.82%) Degree
4 35 (2.39%) BPSS Clearance
5 30 (2.05%) Computer Science Degree
6 25 (1.71%) DV Cleared
7 23 (1.57%) Microsoft Certification
8 14 (0.96%) Master's Degree
9 13 (0.89%) Azure Certification
10 12 (0.82%) Cisco Certification
11 9 (0.62%) CCNP
12 8 (0.55%) PMI Certification
13 7 (0.48%) CCA
14 6 (0.41%) CCIE
14 6 (0.41%) Citrix Certification
14 6 (0.41%) ITIL Certification
15 5 (0.34%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 4 (0.27%) CCNA
16 4 (0.27%) ISTQB
16 4 (0.27%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 262 (17.92%) Accessibility
2 124 (8.48%) QA
3 82 (5.61%) WCAG
4 47 (3.21%) Data Quality
5 38 (2.60%) GDPR
6 24 (1.64%) Actionable Recommendations
7 18 (1.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 9 (0.62%) SLA
9 7 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials
10 6 (0.41%) GMP
10 6 (0.41%) GxP
10 6 (0.41%) PMO
11 5 (0.34%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 4 (0.27%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 4 (0.27%) GRC
13 3 (0.21%) Disclosure Scotland
13 3 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 3 (0.21%) NCSC
13 3 (0.21%) NIST
13 3 (0.21%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 70 (4.79%) Active Directory
2 54 (3.69%) Docker
3 21 (1.44%) Virtual Desktop
4 20 (1.37%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.41%) Firmware
6 5 (0.34%) Hyper-V
7 4 (0.27%) Microsoft App-V
8 3 (0.21%) XenApp
8 3 (0.21%) XenDesktop
9 2 (0.14%) BitLocker
9 2 (0.14%) VMware Workstation
10 1 (0.068%) ISA Server
10 1 (0.068%) Varnish
10 1 (0.068%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 57 (3.90%) Kubernetes
2 48 (3.28%) Terraform
3 35 (2.39%) Grafana
4 33 (2.26%) Microsoft Intune
5 31 (2.12%) SCCM
6 18 (1.23%) Ansible
6 18 (1.23%) Single Sign-On
7 11 (0.75%) Prometheus
8 4 (0.27%) Jamf Pro
8 4 (0.27%) Podman
8 4 (0.27%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 3 (0.21%) HP ALM
10 2 (0.14%) Argo
10 2 (0.14%) Failover Clustering
10 2 (0.14%) Nagios
10 2 (0.14%) Packer
10 2 (0.14%) Rancher
10 2 (0.14%) SysTrack
10 2 (0.14%) WSUS
11 1 (0.068%) AirWatch
Vendors
1 211 (14.43%) Microsoft
2 91 (6.22%) Adobe
3 70 (4.79%) Google
4 55 (3.76%) ServiceNow
5 49 (3.35%) Oracle
6 46 (3.15%) SAP
7 44 (3.01%) Salesforce
8 23 (1.57%) Citrix
9 20 (1.37%) Splunk
9 20 (1.37%) VMware
10 17 (1.16%) Workday
11 16 (1.09%) Cisco
12 15 (1.03%) Databricks
13 13 (0.89%) Apple
14 11 (0.75%) Dynatrace
15 10 (0.68%) Aruba
16 9 (0.62%) Foundry
16 9 (0.62%) MuleSoft
16 9 (0.62%) OpenAI
16 9 (0.62%) Zscaler