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

6 months to
25 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 80 58 71
Rank change year-on-year -22 +13 -9
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,422 1,101 1,242
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.05% 3.73% 2.85%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.60% 4.11% 3.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 976 750 830
10th Percentile £313 £305 £306
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £483 £500
Median % change year-on-year +0.93% -3.40% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £598
90th Percentile £678 £713 £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 46 23 49
10th Percentile £16.36 £28.31 £16.25
25th Percentile £21.01 £41.58 £23.75
Median hourly rate £47.25 £53.50 £31.71
Median % change year-on-year -11.68% +68.72% -9.40%
75th Percentile £61.25 £77.73 £64.53
90th Percentile £76.00 £93.50 £73.89
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.50 £70.00 £25.00
% change year-on-year -46.43% +180.00% -3.85%

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 39,506 26,799 37,659
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.73% 90.79% 86.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,946 17,322 24,335
10th Percentile £319 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.72% -0.05% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £744 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £487 £500
% change year-on-year -0.36% -2.65% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,360 1,068 2,432
10th Percentile £14.82 £14.84 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.91 £18.51 £16.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £29.07 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +37.60% -16.94% -6.67%
75th Percentile £65.60 £62.24 £58.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.33
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.86 £28.00 £35.58
% change year-on-year +49.48% -21.29% -4.62%

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 April 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 April 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 April 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 -15 1,232 £490 -2.00% 731
London -16 634 £513 -1.44% 183
UK excluding London -4 620 £475 +11.76% 632
Work from Home -29 359 £475 -3.46% 485
North of England +2 196 £450 +0.06% 297
Midlands -3 142 £500 +24.69% 106
North West +7 121 £425 -5.56% 228
South East -18 119 £488 +5.41% 103
West Midlands -19 93 £475 +1.33% 57
South West -27 64 £463 +23.33% 51
Scotland -1 55 £513 +13.89% 17
Yorkshire -30 50 £506 +26.40% 53
East Midlands -1 49 £550 +53.63% 49
East of England -25 31 £425 -10.53% 48
North East -7 23 £410 -9.39% 18
Wales -4 15 £375 +22.55% 9
Northern Ireland -3 3 - - 14

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 (3.66%) SharePoint
2 47 (3.31%) Confluence
3 38 (2.67%) CMS
4 19 (1.34%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 16 (1.13%) Microsoft Exchange
6 7 (0.49%) Apache
7 6 (0.42%) Headless CMS
7 6 (0.42%) Mendix
7 6 (0.42%) Sitecore CMS
7 6 (0.42%) Umbraco
8 5 (0.35%) Camunda
8 5 (0.35%) WordPress
9 4 (0.28%) Ethereum
9 4 (0.28%) Hyperledger
10 3 (0.21%) Anypoint
10 3 (0.21%) Apache Spark
10 3 (0.21%) Drupal
10 3 (0.21%) nginx
11 2 (0.14%) Appian
11 2 (0.14%) Kentico
Applications
1 47 (3.31%) Sketch
2 32 (2.25%) Adobe XD
3 24 (1.69%) Microsoft Excel
4 20 (1.41%) Chatbot
5 19 (1.34%) MS Visio
6 13 (0.91%) InVision
6 13 (0.91%) Microsoft Office
7 11 (0.77%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 10 (0.70%) Photoshop
9 8 (0.56%) Adobe After Effects
10 6 (0.42%) Adobe Illustrator
10 6 (0.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 5 (0.35%) Spreadsheet
11 5 (0.35%) Trello
12 4 (0.28%) UserZoom
13 3 (0.21%) Adobe Captivate
13 3 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
13 3 (0.21%) UXPin
14 2 (0.14%) Blender
14 2 (0.14%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 14 (0.98%) Dynamics CRM
1 14 (0.98%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (0.70%) Shopify
3 8 (0.56%) Workday HCM
4 6 (0.42%) Sage X3
5 2 (0.14%) NEC Housing
5 2 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
5 2 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
5 2 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
5 2 (0.14%) ResourceLink
5 2 (0.14%) SAP CO
5 2 (0.14%) SAP ERP
5 2 (0.14%) SAP FI
5 2 (0.14%) SAP FI/CO
5 2 (0.14%) Sprinklr
6 1 (0.070%) assyst
6 1 (0.070%) Oracle ERP
6 1 (0.070%) SAP CRM
6 1 (0.070%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 229 (16.10%) Azure
2 204 (14.35%) Figma
3 122 (8.58%) AWS
4 107 (7.52%) Power Platform
5 92 (6.47%) Microsoft 365
6 63 (4.43%) Azure DevOps
7 55 (3.87%) Entra ID
8 52 (3.66%) GCP
8 52 (3.66%) GitHub
9 39 (2.74%) SaaS
10 38 (2.67%) Power Automate
10 38 (2.67%) PowerApps
11 37 (2.60%) Microsoft Copilot
12 34 (2.39%) Serverless
13 30 (2.11%) GitHub Actions
14 23 (1.62%) Google Workspace
15 22 (1.55%) Copilot Studio
15 22 (1.55%) Dynamics 365
15 22 (1.55%) Miro
16 20 (1.41%) Google Sheets
Communications & Networking
1 16 (1.13%) DNS
2 13 (0.91%) Wireless
3 12 (0.84%) LAN
3 12 (0.84%) Wi-Fi
4 11 (0.77%) HTTP
4 11 (0.77%) Internet
4 11 (0.77%) Intranet
4 11 (0.77%) SD-WAN
5 10 (0.70%) DHCP
6 9 (0.63%) VPN
7 8 (0.56%) WAN
8 7 (0.49%) Cisco Wireless
8 7 (0.49%) TCP/IP
9 6 (0.42%) Firewall
9 6 (0.42%) Network Security
9 6 (0.42%) SSL
9 6 (0.42%) WLAN
10 5 (0.35%) Cisco ISE
10 5 (0.35%) SMS
10 5 (0.35%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (5.06%) Power BI
2 28 (1.97%) NoSQL
3 27 (1.90%) PostgreSQL
3 27 (1.90%) Relational Database
4 23 (1.62%) SQL Server
5 19 (1.34%) Data Warehouse
5 19 (1.34%) MySQL
6 16 (1.13%) MongoDB
7 15 (1.05%) Metadata
8 14 (0.98%) Tableau
9 11 (0.77%) BigQuery
10 10 (0.70%) Power Query
11 9 (0.63%) Big Data
12 7 (0.49%) Looker
12 7 (0.49%) Oracle BI Publisher
12 7 (0.49%) Pinecone
13 6 (0.42%) DynamoDB
13 6 (0.42%) Oracle Database
13 6 (0.42%) ZAP BI
14 5 (0.35%) Redis
Development Applications
1 109 (7.67%) JIRA
2 84 (5.91%) Git
3 38 (2.67%) GitLab
4 28 (1.97%) Cypress.io
5 26 (1.83%) Jenkins
6 25 (1.76%) JUnit
7 19 (1.34%) Axure RP
8 13 (0.91%) Gradle
8 13 (0.91%) Selenium
9 11 (0.77%) Browser DevTools
9 11 (0.77%) CircleCI
10 9 (0.63%) Android Studio
11 8 (0.56%) Visual Studio
11 8 (0.56%) Xcode
12 7 (0.49%) Mockito
12 7 (0.49%) Postman
12 7 (0.49%) Vite
13 6 (0.42%) Eclipse
13 6 (0.42%) Jasmine
13 6 (0.42%) Mocha
General
1 452 (31.79%) Social Skills
2 270 (18.99%) Finance
3 195 (13.71%) Public Sector
4 155 (10.90%) Analytical Skills
5 115 (8.09%) Banking
6 58 (4.08%) Marketing
7 52 (3.66%) Retail
8 35 (2.46%) Legal
9 31 (2.18%) Presentation Skills
10 27 (1.90%) Influencing Skills
11 23 (1.62%) Manufacturing
12 22 (1.55%) Documentation Skills
13 19 (1.34%) Pharmaceutical
14 17 (1.20%) Games
14 17 (1.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 15 (1.05%) Organisational Skills
15 15 (1.05%) Publishing
16 14 (0.98%) Investment Banking
17 12 (0.84%) Automotive
17 12 (0.84%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 297 (20.89%) Designer
2 216 (15.19%) Senior
3 198 (13.92%) Developer
4 140 (9.85%) UX Designer
5 127 (8.93%) Analyst
6 71 (4.99%) Consultant
7 67 (4.71%) Business Analyst
7 67 (4.71%) Lead
8 66 (4.64%) Product Designer
9 64 (4.50%) Architect
10 60 (4.22%) Senior Designer
11 56 (3.94%) User Researcher
12 52 (3.66%) UI Designer
13 44 (3.09%) Service Designer
14 41 (2.88%) Content Designer
15 39 (2.74%) UI/UX Designer
16 38 (2.67%) User Experience Researcher
17 36 (2.53%) Full-Stack Developer
17 36 (2.53%) IT Support
17 36 (2.53%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 158 (11.11%) React
2 145 (10.20%) CSS
3 134 (9.42%) HTML
4 107 (7.52%) REST
5 78 (5.49%) AngularJS
5 78 (5.49%) RESTful
6 64 (4.50%) Spring
7 63 (4.43%) Spring Boot
8 60 (4.22%) .NET
9 37 (2.60%) HTML5
9 37 (2.60%) Node.js
10 34 (2.39%) Redux
11 33 (2.32%) GraphQL
11 33 (2.32%) JSON
12 32 (2.25%) CSS3
13 30 (2.11%) Jest
14 27 (1.90%) Next.js
15 25 (1.76%) Kafka
16 21 (1.48%) Playwright
16 21 (1.48%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 134 (9.42%) Product Ownership
2 75 (5.27%) Mobile App
3 53 (3.73%) Onboarding
4 33 (2.32%) Enterprise Software
5 32 (2.25%) AI Agents
6 30 (2.11%) Data Structures
7 23 (1.62%) Cloud Native
8 22 (1.55%) Analytical Mindset
9 18 (1.27%) Distributed Systems
10 17 (1.20%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 16 (1.13%) Data Protection Act
12 14 (0.98%) NHS
12 14 (0.98%) Virtual Reality
13 13 (0.91%) Augmented Reality
13 13 (0.91%) Low-Code
13 13 (0.91%) Self-Motivation
14 12 (0.84%) Algorithms
14 12 (0.84%) Legacy Systems
14 12 (0.84%) Management Information System
15 10 (0.70%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 97 (6.82%) Windows
2 38 (2.67%) Android
2 38 (2.67%) Windows 10
3 31 (2.18%) Apple iOS
4 21 (1.48%) Mac OS
5 12 (0.84%) Linux
6 8 (0.56%) Windows Server
7 6 (0.42%) Unix
8 5 (0.35%) Windows Server 2016
9 4 (0.28%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.14%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.070%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.070%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 466 (32.77%) Agile
2 465 (32.70%) UX Design
3 222 (15.61%) AI
4 217 (15.26%) Problem-Solving
5 215 (15.12%) User Research
6 204 (14.35%) Analytics
7 177 (12.45%) CI/CD
8 171 (12.03%) Stakeholder Management
9 169 (11.88%) DevOps
10 165 (11.60%) Continuous Improvement
11 164 (11.53%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 152 (10.69%) Roadmaps
13 144 (10.13%) Prototyping
14 133 (9.35%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
14 133 (9.35%) Wireframes
15 128 (9.00%) Service Design
15 128 (9.00%) UX Research
16 116 (8.16%) Decision-Making
17 110 (7.74%) Usability Testing
17 110 (7.74%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 174 (12.24%) JavaScript
2 134 (9.42%) SQL
3 125 (8.79%) Java
4 119 (8.37%) Python
5 109 (7.67%) TypeScript
6 64 (4.50%) C#
7 44 (3.09%) PowerShell
8 27 (1.90%) Kotlin
9 20 (1.41%) Bash
10 15 (1.05%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 11 (0.77%) C++
12 9 (0.63%) Lua
13 8 (0.56%) Swift
14 7 (0.49%) Korn
14 7 (0.49%) PHP
14 7 (0.49%) PL/SQL
15 6 (0.42%) Go
15 6 (0.42%) Perl
15 6 (0.42%) Scala
15 6 (0.42%) VBA
Qualifications
1 183 (12.87%) Security Cleared
2 137 (9.63%) SC Cleared
3 119 (8.37%) Degree
4 35 (2.46%) BPSS Clearance
5 29 (2.04%) Computer Science Degree
6 20 (1.41%) Microsoft Certification
7 18 (1.27%) DV Cleared
8 13 (0.91%) Azure Certification
8 13 (0.91%) Master's Degree
9 12 (0.84%) Cisco Certification
10 10 (0.70%) CCNP
11 8 (0.56%) PMI Certification
12 6 (0.42%) CCA
12 6 (0.42%) CCIE
12 6 (0.42%) Citrix Certification
12 6 (0.42%) OCA
12 6 (0.42%) Oracle Certification
13 4 (0.28%) ISTQB
13 4 (0.28%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 4 (0.28%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 247 (17.37%) Accessibility
2 127 (8.93%) QA
3 75 (5.27%) WCAG
4 47 (3.31%) Data Quality
5 40 (2.81%) GDPR
6 24 (1.69%) Actionable Recommendations
7 16 (1.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 10 (0.70%) SLA
9 8 (0.56%) PMO
10 6 (0.42%) GMP
10 6 (0.42%) GxP
11 5 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials
11 5 (0.35%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 4 (0.28%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 4 (0.28%) 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 74 (5.20%) Active Directory
2 56 (3.94%) Docker
3 19 (1.34%) Virtual Desktop
4 18 (1.27%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.42%) Firmware
6 4 (0.28%) Hyper-V
7 3 (0.21%) XenApp
7 3 (0.21%) XenDesktop
8 2 (0.14%) Microsoft App-V
9 1 (0.070%) ISA Server
9 1 (0.070%) Varnish
9 1 (0.070%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.070%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 58 (4.08%) Kubernetes
2 48 (3.38%) Terraform
3 33 (2.32%) Grafana
3 33 (2.32%) Microsoft Intune
4 28 (1.97%) SCCM
5 17 (1.20%) Ansible
6 16 (1.13%) Single Sign-On
7 11 (0.77%) Prometheus
8 5 (0.35%) Jamf Pro
9 3 (0.21%) Argo
9 3 (0.21%) HP ALM
9 3 (0.21%) Nagios
9 3 (0.21%) Podman
9 3 (0.21%) Rancher
9 3 (0.21%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 2 (0.14%) Failover Clustering
10 2 (0.14%) FortiGate
10 2 (0.14%) SysTrack
10 2 (0.14%) WSUS
11 1 (0.070%) HAProxy
Vendors
1 209 (14.70%) Microsoft
2 91 (6.40%) Adobe
3 68 (4.78%) Google
4 52 (3.66%) ServiceNow
5 50 (3.52%) Oracle
5 50 (3.52%) SAP
6 42 (2.95%) Salesforce
7 24 (1.69%) Citrix
8 20 (1.41%) Splunk
9 18 (1.27%) VMware
10 17 (1.20%) Workday
11 15 (1.05%) Cisco
12 14 (0.98%) Apple
13 13 (0.91%) Databricks
14 10 (0.70%) Sitecore
15 9 (0.63%) Aruba
15 9 (0.63%) Foundry
15 9 (0.63%) MuleSoft
15 9 (0.63%) OpenAI
16 8 (0.56%) Zscaler