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

6 months to
23 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 85 67 78
Rank change year-on-year -18 +11 -19
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,582 1,201 1,090
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.00% 3.68% 2.65%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.53% 4.07% 3.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 971 780 711
10th Percentile £313 £303 £313
25th Percentile £402 £380 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £578 £575 £600
90th Percentile £680 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £463 £438 £475
% change year-on-year +5.71% -7.89% +2.43%
Number of hourly rates quoted 72 37 36
10th Percentile £16.07 £18.35 £16.25
25th Percentile £24.54 £34.48 £25.00
Median hourly rate £33.99 £49.50 £36.54
Median % change year-on-year -31.33% +35.49% +21.40%
75th Percentile £67.84 £63.75 £58.25
90th Percentile £73.63 £76.68 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £63.25 £30.00
% change year-on-year -46.26% +110.83% +69.30%

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 44,826 29,510 35,120
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.01% 90.34% 85.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,774 18,532 22,551
10th Percentile £325 £300 £306
25th Percentile £419 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.11%
75th Percentile £625 £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 2,642 1,578 2,152
10th Percentile £14.82 £14.20 £13.25
25th Percentile £20.01 £17.46 £17.00
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £39.50
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -36.33% -7.06%
75th Percentile £68.55 £50.94 £62.76
90th Percentile £83.00 £69.13 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £24.34 £40.00
% change year-on-year +84.88% -39.15% -1.45%

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 23 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 23 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 23 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 -14 1,363 £475 - 906
UK excluding London -7 738 £463 +5.71% 481
London -26 686 £525 +5.00% 516
Work from Home -30 403 £500 +5.26% 428
North of England -20 217 £440 -1.90% 143
Midlands +1 152 £475 +13.10% 57
South East -33 133 £490 +3.16% 134
West Midlands -10 116 £475 -3.06% 41
North West -26 114 £425 -5.56% 72
Scotland +27 96 £518 +11.89% 29
South West -7 81 £475 +26.67% 60
Yorkshire -36 56 £500 +25.00% 48
North East -8 47 £381 -20.57% 23
East of England +5 46 £410 -13.68% 53
East Midlands +1 36 £550 +54.49% 16
Wales -12 16 £579 +89.22% 6
Northern Ireland +7 3 - - 13

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 64 (4.05%) SharePoint
2 56 (3.54%) CMS
3 43 (2.72%) Confluence
4 27 (1.71%) Microsoft Exchange
5 15 (0.95%) WordPress
6 8 (0.51%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 7 (0.44%) Apache
8 6 (0.38%) Drupal
8 6 (0.38%) Mendix
8 6 (0.38%) Skype for Business
9 4 (0.25%) Headless CMS
9 4 (0.25%) Kentico
10 3 (0.19%) Apache Airflow
10 3 (0.19%) Moodle
10 3 (0.19%) Umbraco
11 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
11 2 (0.13%) IIS
11 2 (0.13%) nginx
11 2 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
12 1 (0.063%) Liferay
Applications
1 37 (2.34%) Sketch
2 34 (2.15%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 31 (1.96%) Microsoft Excel
4 22 (1.39%) Chatbot
5 20 (1.26%) Photoshop
6 19 (1.20%) Adobe After Effects
7 18 (1.14%) Microsoft Office
8 17 (1.07%) Adobe XD
9 15 (0.95%) Adobe Illustrator
10 10 (0.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 10 (0.63%) MS Visio
11 6 (0.38%) Final Cut Pro
12 4 (0.25%) Adobe Captivate
13 3 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
13 3 (0.19%) UserZoom
14 2 (0.13%) InVision
14 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
14 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
15 1 (0.063%) Blender
15 1 (0.063%) Trello
Business Applications
1 13 (0.82%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (0.70%) Workday HCM
3 10 (0.63%) Dynamics CRM
4 7 (0.44%) 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%) Magento
9 1 (0.063%) Oracle EBS R12
9 1 (0.063%) SAP ERP
9 1 (0.063%) SAP HR
9 1 (0.063%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 247 (15.61%) Azure
2 223 (14.10%) Figma
3 132 (8.34%) AWS
4 126 (7.96%) Microsoft 365
5 114 (7.21%) Power Platform
6 63 (3.98%) Entra ID
7 59 (3.73%) Azure DevOps
7 59 (3.73%) GitHub
8 56 (3.54%) SaaS
9 49 (3.10%) Microsoft Copilot
10 48 (3.03%) GCP
11 39 (2.47%) PowerApps
12 31 (1.96%) OneDrive
12 31 (1.96%) Power Automate
13 30 (1.90%) Serverless
14 27 (1.71%) Copilot Studio
15 25 (1.58%) GitHub Actions
16 24 (1.52%) Azure AI
17 17 (1.07%) Snowflake
18 13 (0.82%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 40 (2.53%) DNS
2 32 (2.02%) DHCP
3 28 (1.77%) TCP/IP
4 24 (1.52%) Wi-Fi
5 20 (1.26%) Wireless
6 19 (1.20%) LAN
7 13 (0.82%) Firewall
7 13 (0.82%) Internet
7 13 (0.82%) VPN
7 13 (0.82%) WAN
8 10 (0.63%) Intranet
8 10 (0.63%) SD-WAN
9 8 (0.51%) Cisco Wireless
9 8 (0.51%) Network Security
9 8 (0.51%) Skype
10 7 (0.44%) SNMP
11 6 (0.38%) 5G
11 6 (0.38%) WLAN
12 5 (0.32%) SMS
12 5 (0.32%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (4.49%) Power BI
2 24 (1.52%) Metadata
3 23 (1.45%) PostgreSQL
4 22 (1.39%) NoSQL
4 22 (1.39%) Relational Database
5 18 (1.14%) Power Query
6 15 (0.95%) SQL Server
7 12 (0.76%) Data Warehouse
8 11 (0.70%) Big Data
9 10 (0.63%) MongoDB
9 10 (0.63%) MySQL
9 10 (0.63%) Tableau
10 7 (0.44%) Oracle Database
10 7 (0.44%) Redis
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%) ZAP BI
12 5 (0.32%) Data Mining
Development Applications
1 92 (5.82%) JIRA
2 82 (5.18%) Git
3 28 (1.77%) Cypress.io
4 25 (1.58%) Jenkins
4 25 (1.58%) Vite
5 18 (1.14%) GitLab
6 12 (0.76%) Claude Code
7 11 (0.70%) Storybook
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%) JUnit
9 9 (0.57%) webpack
9 9 (0.57%) Xcode
10 8 (0.51%) Gradle
11 7 (0.44%) Postman
12 6 (0.38%) JMeter
12 6 (0.38%) Visual Studio
13 5 (0.32%) Crashlytics
General
1 506 (31.98%) Social Skills
2 286 (18.08%) Finance
3 213 (13.46%) Public Sector
4 158 (9.99%) Analytical Skills
5 122 (7.71%) Banking
6 86 (5.44%) Retail
7 73 (4.61%) Marketing
8 48 (3.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 41 (2.59%) Legal
10 36 (2.28%) Influencing Skills
11 30 (1.90%) Presentation Skills
11 30 (1.90%) Publishing
12 27 (1.71%) Automotive
13 26 (1.64%) Manufacturing
14 25 (1.58%) Organisational Skills
15 22 (1.39%) Documentation Skills
16 19 (1.20%) Investment Banking
17 17 (1.07%) Military
18 12 (0.76%) Games
18 12 (0.76%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 344 (21.74%) Designer
2 230 (14.54%) Senior
3 199 (12.58%) Developer
4 147 (9.29%) UX Designer
5 119 (7.52%) Lead
6 114 (7.21%) Analyst
7 90 (5.69%) UI Designer
8 79 (4.99%) Consultant
9 70 (4.42%) Senior Designer
10 66 (4.17%) Architect
11 63 (3.98%) User Researcher
12 59 (3.73%) Business Analyst
12 59 (3.73%) Product Designer
13 52 (3.29%) Content Designer
14 51 (3.22%) UI/UX Designer
15 47 (2.97%) User Experience Researcher
16 46 (2.91%) Product Manager
17 45 (2.84%) IT Support
18 43 (2.72%) Full-Stack Engineer
19 42 (2.65%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 148 (9.36%) React
2 116 (7.33%) CSS
3 104 (6.57%) REST
4 102 (6.45%) HTML
5 73 (4.61%) RESTful
6 52 (3.29%) AngularJS
7 48 (3.03%) .NET
8 42 (2.65%) GraphQL
9 38 (2.40%) HTML5
9 38 (2.40%) Spring
10 37 (2.34%) Spring Boot
11 35 (2.21%) CSS3
12 34 (2.15%) Node.js
13 33 (2.09%) Jest
14 32 (2.02%) Redux
15 30 (1.90%) Kafka
16 26 (1.64%) JSON
16 26 (1.64%) Next.js
16 26 (1.64%) Playwright
17 23 (1.45%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 161 (10.18%) Product Ownership
2 99 (6.26%) Mobile App
3 79 (4.99%) Onboarding
4 46 (2.91%) Cloud Native
5 45 (2.84%) AI Agents
6 33 (2.09%) Enterprise Software
6 33 (2.09%) Self-Motivation
7 32 (2.02%) Data Structures
8 30 (1.90%) Data Protection Act
9 25 (1.58%) Legacy Systems
10 23 (1.45%) Animation
11 21 (1.33%) Data Centre
12 20 (1.26%) Analytical Mindset
12 20 (1.26%) Social Media
13 17 (1.07%) Graphic Design
14 16 (1.01%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 15 (0.95%) Algorithms
15 15 (0.95%) Educational Technology
16 14 (0.88%) Management Information System
16 14 (0.88%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 131 (8.28%) Windows
2 59 (3.73%) Android
3 58 (3.67%) Apple iOS
4 41 (2.59%) Windows 10
5 27 (1.71%) Mac OS
6 19 (1.20%) Linux
6 19 (1.20%) Windows Server
7 9 (0.57%) Unix
8 8 (0.51%) Windows 7
9 5 (0.32%) 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
1 521 (32.93%) UX Design
2 470 (29.71%) Agile
3 308 (19.47%) AI
4 251 (15.87%) Problem-Solving
5 237 (14.98%) Stakeholder Management
6 232 (14.66%) Continuous Improvement
7 217 (13.72%) User Research
8 205 (12.96%) Analytics
9 186 (11.76%) CI/CD
10 182 (11.50%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 166 (10.49%) Roadmaps
12 151 (9.54%) Prototyping
13 150 (9.48%) Decision-Making
14 149 (9.42%) DevOps
15 146 (9.23%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
16 136 (8.60%) Wireframes
17 129 (8.15%) Service Design
18 124 (7.84%) UX Research
19 118 (7.46%) Workshop Facilitation
20 113 (7.14%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 137 (8.66%) JavaScript
2 130 (8.22%) Python
3 121 (7.65%) TypeScript
4 115 (7.27%) SQL
5 108 (6.83%) Java
6 50 (3.16%) C#
6 50 (3.16%) PowerShell
7 35 (2.21%) Kotlin
8 25 (1.58%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 18 (1.14%) Bash
10 17 (1.07%) Swift
11 12 (0.76%) C++
12 9 (0.57%) Lua
13 8 (0.51%) Go
13 8 (0.51%) Korn
14 7 (0.44%) Apex Code
14 7 (0.44%) PHP
14 7 (0.44%) R
14 7 (0.44%) VBScript
15 6 (0.38%) VB
Qualifications
1 243 (15.36%) Security Cleared
2 183 (11.57%) SC Cleared
3 152 (9.61%) Degree
4 36 (2.28%) Computer Science Degree
5 31 (1.96%) BPSS Clearance
6 27 (1.71%) DV Cleared
7 23 (1.45%) Azure Certification
8 21 (1.33%) Microsoft Certification
9 12 (0.76%) PMP
10 11 (0.70%) Cisco Certification
11 9 (0.57%) ITIL Certification
11 9 (0.57%) Master's Degree
12 8 (0.51%) AWS Certification
12 8 (0.51%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 7 (0.44%) CCA
13 7 (0.44%) CCNP
13 7 (0.44%) Citrix Certification
14 6 (0.38%) CCIE
14 6 (0.38%) DBS Check
14 6 (0.38%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 282 (17.83%) Accessibility
2 96 (6.07%) QA
3 95 (6.01%) WCAG
4 47 (2.97%) Data Quality
5 22 (1.39%) GDPR
6 18 (1.14%) Actionable Recommendations
7 12 (0.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 10 (0.63%) SLA
9 9 (0.57%) PMO
10 7 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials
10 7 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 42001
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%) NIST
13 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.13%) PSD2
14 1 (0.063%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 1 (0.063%) EU AI Act
System Software
1 82 (5.18%) Active Directory
2 48 (3.03%) Docker
3 28 (1.77%) Virtual Desktop
4 19 (1.20%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (0.44%) vSphere
6 6 (0.38%) BitLocker
6 6 (0.38%) Firmware
7 5 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (0.25%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.25%) Microsoft App-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 51 (3.22%) Terraform
2 50 (3.16%) Kubernetes
3 47 (2.97%) Microsoft Intune
4 36 (2.28%) Grafana
4 36 (2.28%) SCCM
5 17 (1.07%) Ansible
5 17 (1.07%) Single Sign-On
6 14 (0.88%) Jamf Pro
6 14 (0.88%) Prometheus
7 5 (0.32%) vCenter Server
8 4 (0.25%) Clonezilla
8 4 (0.25%) Podman
9 3 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 3 (0.19%) WSUS
10 2 (0.13%) Argo
10 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
10 2 (0.13%) Packer
10 2 (0.13%) SCOM
10 2 (0.13%) vMotion
11 1 (0.063%) HP ALM
Vendors
1 273 (17.26%) Microsoft
2 94 (5.94%) Adobe
3 77 (4.87%) ServiceNow
4 61 (3.86%) Google
5 45 (2.84%) SAP
6 42 (2.65%) Oracle
7 34 (2.15%) Salesforce
8 23 (1.45%) Citrix
8 23 (1.45%) Databricks
9 22 (1.39%) Dynatrace
9 22 (1.39%) Splunk
9 22 (1.39%) VMware
10 21 (1.33%) Workday
11 18 (1.14%) Cisco
12 17 (1.07%) OpenAI
13 16 (1.01%) Apple
13 16 (1.01%) Foundry
14 14 (0.88%) Zscaler
15 11 (0.70%) Aruba
16 8 (0.51%) Okta