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 15 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
15 Jul 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 84 65 77
Rank change year-on-year -19 +12 -18
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,589 1,192 1,158
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.02% 3.67% 2.71%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.55% 4.06% 3.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 983 783 765
10th Percentile £313 £305 £309
25th Percentile £402 £385 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% -5.00% -1.53%
75th Percentile £578 £588 £600
90th Percentile £679 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £465
% change year-on-year +5.56% -3.23% -0.48%
Number of hourly rates quoted 71 36 42
10th Percentile £16.00 £17.88 £16.25
25th Percentile £24.08 £34.48 £25.00
Median hourly rate £33.99 £49.25 £30.86
Median % change year-on-year -30.98% +59.62% +16.43%
75th Percentile £67.84 £64.06 £51.75
90th Percentile £85.00 £77.73 £74.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £70.00 £25.00
% change year-on-year -51.44% +180.00% +41.08%

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 44,765 29,340 36,482
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.08% 90.42% 85.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,853 18,476 23,295
10th Percentile £325 £300 £304
25th Percentile £418 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £624 £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 2,647 1,521 2,449
10th Percentile £14.94 £14.20 £12.79
25th Percentile £20.09 £17.61 £16.25
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -34.02% -4.70%
75th Percentile £68.50 £52.50 £61.30
90th Percentile £82.70 £70.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.25 £24.64 £38.12
% change year-on-year +83.64% -35.36% -0.99%

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 15 July 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 15 July 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 15 July 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 1,368 £475 -1.04% 1,433
UK excluding London -5 749 £475 +5.56% 1,293
London -20 685 £525 +5.00% 486
Work from Home -27 411 £500 +5.26% 1,202
North of England -19 214 £444 -1.44% 304
Midlands +5 157 £475 +11.90% 170
South East -23 140 £490 +3.16% 295
West Midlands -9 117 £475 -5.00% 92
North West -26 116 £430 -4.44% 157
Scotland +17 94 £518 +12.50% 161
South West +1 83 £475 +18.75% 105
Yorkshire -34 57 £500 +17.65% 100
East of England +6 46 £410 -13.68% 164
North East -12 41 £400 -16.67% 47
East Midlands +3 40 £550 +54.49% 78
Wales -5 18 £543 +77.29% 56
Northern Ireland +1 3 - - 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 69 (4.34%) SharePoint
2 54 (3.40%) CMS
3 46 (2.89%) Confluence
4 27 (1.70%) Microsoft Exchange
5 13 (0.82%) WordPress
6 8 (0.50%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 6 (0.38%) Apache
7 6 (0.38%) Drupal
7 6 (0.38%) Mendix
8 5 (0.31%) Skype for Business
9 4 (0.25%) Ethereum
9 4 (0.25%) Headless CMS
9 4 (0.25%) Hyperledger
9 4 (0.25%) Kentico
9 4 (0.25%) Umbraco
10 3 (0.19%) Camunda
10 3 (0.19%) Moodle
10 3 (0.19%) nginx
11 2 (0.13%) Apache Airflow
11 2 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 35 (2.20%) Sketch
2 31 (1.95%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 30 (1.89%) Microsoft Excel
4 21 (1.32%) Chatbot
5 20 (1.26%) Photoshop
6 19 (1.20%) Adobe After Effects
7 17 (1.07%) Microsoft Office
8 16 (1.01%) Adobe Illustrator
9 14 (0.88%) Adobe XD
10 12 (0.76%) MS Visio
11 10 (0.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
12 6 (0.38%) Final Cut Pro
13 4 (0.25%) Adobe Captivate
14 3 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
14 3 (0.19%) UserZoom
14 3 (0.19%) UXPin
15 2 (0.13%) InVision
15 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
15 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
16 1 (0.063%) Blender
Business Applications
1 13 (0.82%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (0.76%) Dynamics CRM
3 11 (0.69%) Workday HCM
4 9 (0.57%) Shopify
5 6 (0.38%) Sage X3
6 4 (0.25%) NetSuite
6 4 (0.25%) Oracle iProcurement
7 3 (0.19%) iTrent
7 3 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
8 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
8 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
8 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.13%) Remedy ITSM
8 2 (0.13%) ResourceLink
9 1 (0.063%) Eloqua
9 1 (0.063%) Magento
9 1 (0.063%) NEC Housing
9 1 (0.063%) Oracle EBS R12
9 1 (0.063%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 253 (15.92%) Azure
2 219 (13.78%) Figma
3 128 (8.06%) AWS
4 125 (7.87%) Microsoft 365
5 119 (7.49%) Power Platform
6 63 (3.96%) Entra ID
7 62 (3.90%) Azure DevOps
8 57 (3.59%) GitHub
8 57 (3.59%) SaaS
9 52 (3.27%) Microsoft Copilot
10 46 (2.89%) GCP
11 41 (2.58%) PowerApps
12 35 (2.20%) Power Automate
13 34 (2.14%) OneDrive
14 31 (1.95%) Serverless
15 30 (1.89%) Copilot Studio
16 28 (1.76%) GitHub Actions
17 26 (1.64%) Azure AI
18 17 (1.07%) Snowflake
19 15 (0.94%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 40 (2.52%) DNS
2 32 (2.01%) DHCP
3 28 (1.76%) TCP/IP
4 25 (1.57%) Wi-Fi
5 21 (1.32%) Wireless
6 20 (1.26%) LAN
7 14 (0.88%) Internet
7 14 (0.88%) WAN
8 13 (0.82%) Firewall
8 13 (0.82%) VPN
9 11 (0.69%) Intranet
9 11 (0.69%) SD-WAN
10 8 (0.50%) Cisco Wireless
10 8 (0.50%) Network Security
11 7 (0.44%) 5G
11 7 (0.44%) HTTP
11 7 (0.44%) Skype
11 7 (0.44%) SNMP
11 7 (0.44%) WLAN
12 5 (0.31%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (4.59%) Power BI
2 25 (1.57%) NoSQL
3 24 (1.51%) PostgreSQL
4 22 (1.38%) Metadata
4 22 (1.38%) Relational Database
5 19 (1.20%) Power Query
6 18 (1.13%) SQL Server
7 13 (0.82%) Data Warehouse
7 13 (0.82%) MongoDB
8 11 (0.69%) Big Data
8 11 (0.69%) MySQL
9 9 (0.57%) Tableau
10 7 (0.44%) Oracle Database
10 7 (0.44%) Snowflake Schema
11 6 (0.38%) Azure SQL Database
11 6 (0.38%) DynamoDB
11 6 (0.38%) Elasticsearch
11 6 (0.38%) Redis
11 6 (0.38%) ZAP BI
12 5 (0.31%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 98 (6.17%) JIRA
2 86 (5.41%) Git
3 26 (1.64%) Cypress.io
4 25 (1.57%) Jenkins
4 25 (1.57%) Vite
5 19 (1.20%) GitLab
6 13 (0.82%) JUnit
7 12 (0.76%) Claude Code
8 10 (0.63%) Android Studio
8 10 (0.63%) Browser DevTools
8 10 (0.63%) fastlane
8 10 (0.63%) Selenium
9 9 (0.57%) Storybook
9 9 (0.57%) webpack
9 9 (0.57%) Xcode
10 8 (0.50%) Gradle
10 8 (0.50%) Postman
11 7 (0.44%) Visual Studio
12 6 (0.38%) JMeter
13 5 (0.31%) Fiddler
General
1 497 (31.28%) Social Skills
2 282 (17.75%) Finance
3 208 (13.09%) Public Sector
4 159 (10.01%) Analytical Skills
5 122 (7.68%) Banking
6 83 (5.22%) Retail
7 73 (4.59%) Marketing
8 47 (2.96%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 42 (2.64%) Legal
10 35 (2.20%) Influencing Skills
11 32 (2.01%) Presentation Skills
12 29 (1.83%) Publishing
13 27 (1.70%) Automotive
14 26 (1.64%) Manufacturing
14 26 (1.64%) Organisational Skills
15 23 (1.45%) Documentation Skills
16 18 (1.13%) Investment Banking
17 16 (1.01%) Military
18 12 (0.76%) Front Office
18 12 (0.76%) Games
Job Titles
1 340 (21.40%) Designer
2 230 (14.47%) Senior
3 209 (13.15%) Developer
4 149 (9.38%) UX Designer
5 119 (7.49%) Analyst
5 119 (7.49%) Lead
6 88 (5.54%) UI Designer
7 80 (5.03%) Consultant
8 69 (4.34%) Architect
8 69 (4.34%) Senior Designer
9 62 (3.90%) Business Analyst
10 60 (3.78%) Product Designer
11 59 (3.71%) User Researcher
12 54 (3.40%) Content Designer
13 52 (3.27%) UI/UX Designer
14 50 (3.15%) Product Manager
15 47 (2.96%) IT Support
15 47 (2.96%) User Experience Researcher
16 41 (2.58%) Full-Stack Engineer
16 41 (2.58%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 151 (9.50%) React
2 118 (7.43%) CSS
3 104 (6.54%) HTML
4 102 (6.42%) REST
5 75 (4.72%) RESTful
6 55 (3.46%) AngularJS
7 53 (3.34%) .NET
8 43 (2.71%) Spring
9 42 (2.64%) Spring Boot
10 40 (2.52%) GraphQL
11 35 (2.20%) HTML5
12 34 (2.14%) Node.js
13 33 (2.08%) Jest
13 33 (2.08%) Redux
14 32 (2.01%) CSS3
15 31 (1.95%) Kafka
16 28 (1.76%) JSON
16 28 (1.76%) Next.js
17 25 (1.57%) Playwright
18 23 (1.45%) ASP.NET
Miscellaneous
1 171 (10.76%) Product Ownership
2 90 (5.66%) Mobile App
3 77 (4.85%) Onboarding
4 47 (2.96%) AI Agents
5 45 (2.83%) Cloud Native
6 34 (2.14%) Enterprise Software
7 33 (2.08%) Self-Motivation
8 32 (2.01%) Data Structures
9 29 (1.83%) Data Protection Act
10 25 (1.57%) Legacy Systems
11 23 (1.45%) Animation
12 21 (1.32%) Data Centre
13 20 (1.26%) Analytical Mindset
14 18 (1.13%) Social Media
15 16 (1.01%) Algorithms
15 16 (1.01%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 16 (1.01%) Graphic Design
16 15 (0.94%) Greenfield Project
16 15 (0.94%) Taxonomies
17 14 (0.88%) Educational Technology
Operating Systems
1 127 (7.99%) Windows
2 55 (3.46%) Apple iOS
3 54 (3.40%) Android
4 38 (2.39%) Windows 10
5 26 (1.64%) Mac OS
6 18 (1.13%) Linux
6 18 (1.13%) Windows Server
7 9 (0.57%) Unix
8 7 (0.44%) Windows 7
9 5 (0.31%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 527 (33.17%) UX Design
2 476 (29.96%) Agile
3 302 (19.01%) AI
4 245 (15.42%) Problem-Solving
5 230 (14.47%) Stakeholder Management
6 223 (14.03%) Continuous Improvement
7 208 (13.09%) User Research
8 202 (12.71%) Analytics
9 188 (11.83%) CI/CD
10 181 (11.39%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 170 (10.70%) Roadmaps
12 154 (9.69%) DevOps
12 154 (9.69%) Prototyping
13 152 (9.57%) Decision-Making
14 145 (9.13%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
15 130 (8.18%) Wireframes
16 128 (8.06%) UX Research
17 126 (7.93%) Service Design
18 116 (7.30%) Scrum
18 116 (7.30%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 141 (8.87%) JavaScript
2 126 (7.93%) Python
3 125 (7.87%) TypeScript
4 119 (7.49%) SQL
5 111 (6.99%) Java
6 56 (3.52%) C#
7 49 (3.08%) PowerShell
8 33 (2.08%) Kotlin
9 26 (1.64%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 17 (1.07%) Bash
10 17 (1.07%) Swift
11 12 (0.76%) C++
12 9 (0.57%) Lua
13 8 (0.50%) Korn
14 7 (0.44%) Apex Code
14 7 (0.44%) Go
14 7 (0.44%) R
15 6 (0.38%) PHP
15 6 (0.38%) VBA
15 6 (0.38%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 236 (14.85%) Security Cleared
2 178 (11.20%) SC Cleared
3 149 (9.38%) Degree
4 36 (2.27%) Computer Science Degree
5 32 (2.01%) BPSS Clearance
6 26 (1.64%) DV Cleared
7 24 (1.51%) Azure Certification
8 22 (1.38%) Microsoft Certification
9 11 (0.69%) Cisco Certification
10 10 (0.63%) Master's Degree
10 10 (0.63%) PMP
11 9 (0.57%) ITIL Certification
12 8 (0.50%) CCNP
13 7 (0.44%) AWS Certification
13 7 (0.44%) CCA
13 7 (0.44%) CCIE
13 7 (0.44%) Citrix Certification
13 7 (0.44%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 6 (0.38%) DBS Check
15 5 (0.31%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 274 (17.24%) Accessibility
2 99 (6.23%) QA
3 90 (5.66%) WCAG
4 47 (2.96%) Data Quality
5 27 (1.70%) GDPR
6 18 (1.13%) Actionable Recommendations
7 11 (0.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 9 (0.57%) PMO
8 9 (0.57%) SLA
9 7 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 6 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials
11 4 (0.25%) GRC
11 4 (0.25%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 3 (0.19%) GMP
12 3 (0.19%) GxP
13 2 (0.13%) HIPAA
13 2 (0.13%) NIST
13 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.13%) PSD2
14 1 (0.063%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 80 (5.03%) Active Directory
2 49 (3.08%) Docker
3 26 (1.64%) Virtual Desktop
4 18 (1.13%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (0.44%) vSphere
6 6 (0.38%) Firmware
7 5 (0.31%) BitLocker
7 5 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (0.25%) Microsoft App-V
9 3 (0.19%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.19%) UAG
9 3 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
10 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
10 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
10 2 (0.13%) XenApp
10 2 (0.13%) XenDesktop
11 1 (0.063%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 49 (3.08%) Kubernetes
1 49 (3.08%) Terraform
2 45 (2.83%) Microsoft Intune
3 34 (2.14%) Grafana
3 34 (2.14%) SCCM
4 17 (1.07%) Single Sign-On
5 16 (1.01%) Ansible
6 14 (0.88%) Jamf Pro
7 12 (0.76%) Prometheus
8 5 (0.31%) vCenter Server
9 4 (0.25%) Clonezilla
10 3 (0.19%) Podman
10 3 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 3 (0.19%) WSUS
11 2 (0.13%) Argo
11 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
11 2 (0.13%) Packer
11 2 (0.13%) SCOM
11 2 (0.13%) vMotion
12 1 (0.063%) HP ALM
Vendors
1 275 (17.31%) Microsoft
2 89 (5.60%) Adobe
3 72 (4.53%) ServiceNow
4 57 (3.59%) Google
5 47 (2.96%) SAP
6 43 (2.71%) Oracle
7 39 (2.45%) Salesforce
8 23 (1.45%) Databricks
9 22 (1.38%) Citrix
9 22 (1.38%) Dynatrace
10 21 (1.32%) Splunk
10 21 (1.32%) VMware
10 21 (1.32%) Workday
11 18 (1.13%) Cisco
11 18 (1.13%) OpenAI
12 17 (1.07%) Apple
12 17 (1.07%) Foundry
13 13 (0.82%) Zscaler
14 12 (0.76%) Aruba
15 8 (0.50%) Okta
1,765 User Experience jobs Nationwide