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

6 months to
4 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 95 64 79
Rank change year-on-year -31 +15 -17
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,543 1,230 1,033
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.88% 3.81% 2.71%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.40% 4.21% 3.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 927 784 635
10th Percentile £305 £300 £313
25th Percentile £391 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £583 £575 £600
90th Percentile £689 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £447 £475
% change year-on-year +0.67% -5.89% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 46 27
10th Percentile £16.88 £17.88 £23.19
25th Percentile £26.25 £33.00 £30.22
Median hourly rate £33.99 £43.50 £41.68
Median % change year-on-year -21.86% +4.38% +11.13%
75th Percentile £67.84 £63.75 £69.20
90th Percentile £76.40 £71.73 £74.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £35.60 £47.77
% change year-on-year -4.52% -25.48% +169.58%

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 45,398 29,222 32,553
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.63% 90.44% 85.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,773 18,158 20,413
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,911 1,744 1,558
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.20 £14.41
25th Percentile £17.72 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +63.02% -40.82% +2.41%
75th Percentile £67.84 £46.01 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.18 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £22.63 £43.00
% change year-on-year +87.80% -47.37% +12.13%

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 4 September 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 4 September 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 4 September 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 -30 1,343 £475 - 2,086
UK excluding London -10 734 £450 +0.67% 864
London -34 674 £513 +2.50% 1,440
Work from Home -37 393 £475 -3.46% 874
North of England -12 252 £425 - 235
Midlands -5 152 £475 +9.83% 110
North West -23 126 £397 -6.71% 142
West Midlands -1 123 £475 -6.77% 75
South East -52 105 £405 -12.43% 169
Scotland +5 89 £544 +18.21% 65
South West -5 82 £475 - 132
Yorkshire -17 76 £500 +25.00% 66
North East -2 49 £338 -29.69% 30
East of England +1 42 £438 -12.50% 89
East Midlands -19 29 £500 +39.66% 35
Wales -11 15 £579 +89.22% 19
Northern Ireland +6 3 £638 +56.44% 49

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 (4.47%) SharePoint
2 58 (3.76%) CMS
3 42 (2.72%) Confluence
4 30 (1.94%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (1.04%) WordPress
6 9 (0.58%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 7 (0.45%) Apache
7 7 (0.45%) Skype for Business
8 6 (0.39%) Drupal
9 5 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
9 5 (0.32%) Oracle Workflow
10 4 (0.26%) Headless CMS
10 4 (0.26%) Kentico
10 4 (0.26%) Mendix
11 3 (0.19%) Camunda
11 3 (0.19%) ColdFusion
11 3 (0.19%) Moodle
11 3 (0.19%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
12 2 (0.13%) IIS
Applications
1 33 (2.14%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 29 (1.88%) Sketch
3 21 (1.36%) Chatbot
3 21 (1.36%) Microsoft Excel
3 21 (1.36%) Microsoft Office
4 19 (1.23%) Photoshop
5 18 (1.17%) Adobe After Effects
6 16 (1.04%) Adobe Illustrator
7 13 (0.84%) Adobe XD
8 10 (0.65%) MS Visio
9 9 (0.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 7 (0.45%) Final Cut Pro
11 2 (0.13%) InVision
11 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
11 2 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
11 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
12 1 (0.065%) Adobe Captivate
12 1 (0.065%) Adobe Premiere
12 1 (0.065%) Blender
12 1 (0.065%) Trello
Business Applications
1 7 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
1 7 (0.45%) Workday HCM
2 6 (0.39%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.39%) Shopify
3 5 (0.32%) NetSuite
4 4 (0.26%) Oracle iProcurement
4 4 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
5 3 (0.19%) iTrent
5 3 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
6 2 (0.13%) ResourceLink
7 1 (0.065%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.065%) Eloqua
7 1 (0.065%) Exchequer
7 1 (0.065%) Magento
7 1 (0.065%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.065%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 228 (14.78%) Azure
2 188 (12.18%) Figma
3 151 (9.79%) Microsoft 365
4 131 (8.49%) AWS
5 118 (7.65%) Power Platform
6 67 (4.34%) Entra ID
7 63 (4.08%) GitHub
8 60 (3.89%) Microsoft Copilot
9 56 (3.63%) SaaS
10 53 (3.43%) Azure DevOps
11 37 (2.40%) GCP
11 37 (2.40%) PowerApps
12 34 (2.20%) OneDrive
13 29 (1.88%) Power Automate
14 28 (1.81%) Copilot Studio
15 26 (1.69%) Serverless
16 25 (1.62%) GitHub Actions
17 23 (1.49%) Azure AI
18 18 (1.17%) GitHub Copilot
19 17 (1.10%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 45 (2.92%) DNS
2 37 (2.40%) DHCP
3 32 (2.07%) TCP/IP
4 30 (1.94%) Wi-Fi
5 21 (1.36%) Wireless
6 19 (1.23%) LAN
6 19 (1.23%) VPN
7 16 (1.04%) Firewall
7 16 (1.04%) WAN
8 11 (0.71%) Internet
9 10 (0.65%) NetScaler
9 10 (0.65%) SD-WAN
10 8 (0.52%) Cisco Wireless
10 8 (0.52%) Intranet
10 8 (0.52%) Network Security
10 8 (0.52%) Skype
11 7 (0.45%) SNMP
12 6 (0.39%) 5G
12 6 (0.39%) SSL
12 6 (0.39%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (4.67%) Power BI
2 26 (1.69%) Metadata
3 18 (1.17%) NoSQL
4 16 (1.04%) PostgreSQL
5 14 (0.91%) Power Query
5 14 (0.91%) SQL Server
6 12 (0.78%) Elasticsearch
6 12 (0.78%) MongoDB
6 12 (0.78%) Tableau
7 11 (0.71%) Big Data
7 11 (0.71%) Relational Database
8 9 (0.58%) Looker
9 8 (0.52%) Redis
10 7 (0.45%) MySQL
10 7 (0.45%) Snowflake Schema
11 6 (0.39%) Data Warehouse
11 6 (0.39%) Flink
11 6 (0.39%) Qlik Sense
11 6 (0.39%) Star Schema
12 5 (0.32%) Data Mining
Development Applications
1 86 (5.57%) JIRA
2 83 (5.38%) Git
3 29 (1.88%) Jenkins
4 28 (1.81%) Cypress.io
5 26 (1.69%) Vite
6 18 (1.17%) Storybook
7 15 (0.97%) Claude Code
7 15 (0.97%) GitLab
8 12 (0.78%) fastlane
9 10 (0.65%) Android Studio
9 10 (0.65%) Browser DevTools
10 9 (0.58%) Xcode
11 8 (0.52%) JMeter
11 8 (0.52%) Selenium
11 8 (0.52%) webpack
12 7 (0.45%) Postman
13 6 (0.39%) Gradle
13 6 (0.39%) JUnit
13 6 (0.39%) Visual Studio
14 5 (0.32%) Oracle Forms
General
1 503 (32.60%) Social Skills
2 259 (16.79%) Finance
3 214 (13.87%) Public Sector
4 162 (10.50%) Analytical Skills
5 110 (7.13%) Banking
6 79 (5.12%) Retail
7 72 (4.67%) Marketing
8 55 (3.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 42 (2.72%) Influencing Skills
10 40 (2.59%) Legal
11 29 (1.88%) Organisational Skills
12 28 (1.81%) Automotive
13 26 (1.69%) Presentation Skills
13 26 (1.69%) Publishing
14 23 (1.49%) Documentation Skills
15 21 (1.36%) Manufacturing
15 21 (1.36%) Military
16 17 (1.10%) Investment Banking
17 10 (0.65%) Law
18 9 (0.58%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 322 (20.87%) Designer
2 216 (14.00%) Senior
3 206 (13.35%) Developer
4 132 (8.55%) UX Designer
5 130 (8.43%) Lead
6 100 (6.48%) Analyst
7 81 (5.25%) UI Designer
8 73 (4.73%) Consultant
9 66 (4.28%) Senior Designer
10 64 (4.15%) Architect
11 59 (3.82%) User Researcher
12 55 (3.56%) Product Manager
13 53 (3.43%) IT Support
14 52 (3.37%) Support Engineer
15 49 (3.18%) Business Analyst
16 47 (3.05%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
17 46 (2.98%) Content Designer
18 44 (2.85%) UI/UX Designer
19 43 (2.79%) Product Designer
20 41 (2.66%) User Experience Researcher
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 156 (10.11%) React
2 121 (7.84%) CSS
3 109 (7.06%) HTML
4 92 (5.96%) REST
5 62 (4.02%) RESTful
6 48 (3.11%) Terraform
7 47 (3.05%) AngularJS
8 44 (2.85%) HTML5
9 43 (2.79%) CSS3
10 42 (2.72%) GraphQL
11 38 (2.46%) .NET
12 36 (2.33%) Node.js
13 34 (2.20%) Playwright
14 32 (2.07%) Jest
14 32 (2.07%) Next.js
15 30 (1.94%) OAuth
15 30 (1.94%) Spring
16 29 (1.88%) Kafka
16 29 (1.88%) Spring Boot
17 26 (1.69%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 146 (9.46%) Product Ownership
2 91 (5.90%) Mobile App
3 87 (5.64%) Onboarding
4 56 (3.63%) Cloud Native
5 50 (3.24%) AI Agents
6 33 (2.14%) Self-Motivation
7 31 (2.01%) Data Protection Act
7 31 (2.01%) Enterprise Software
8 30 (1.94%) Management Information System
9 25 (1.62%) Legacy Systems
10 24 (1.56%) Data Structures
11 22 (1.43%) Social Media
12 21 (1.36%) NHS
13 20 (1.30%) Data Centre
14 19 (1.23%) Educational Technology
15 17 (1.10%) Animation
15 17 (1.10%) Graphic Design
16 15 (0.97%) Virtual Reality
17 14 (0.91%) Analytical Mindset
17 14 (0.91%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 152 (9.85%) Windows
2 67 (4.34%) Apple iOS
3 66 (4.28%) Android
4 55 (3.56%) Windows 10
5 32 (2.07%) Mac OS
5 32 (2.07%) Windows Server
6 19 (1.23%) Linux
7 11 (0.71%) Unix
8 9 (0.58%) Windows 7
9 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
9 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
10 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.065%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 494 (32.02%) UX Design
2 444 (28.78%) Agile
3 306 (19.83%) AI
4 277 (17.95%) Stakeholder Management
5 256 (16.59%) Problem-Solving
6 234 (15.17%) Continuous Improvement
7 208 (13.48%) Analytics
8 195 (12.64%) User Research
9 181 (11.73%) CI/CD
10 171 (11.08%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 158 (10.24%) Roadmaps
12 151 (9.79%) Decision-Making
13 148 (9.59%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
14 126 (8.17%) DevOps
15 124 (8.04%) Scrum
16 123 (7.97%) Prototyping
17 122 (7.91%) Service Design
18 116 (7.52%) Workshop Facilitation
19 111 (7.19%) Service Management
20 110 (7.13%) Wireframes
Programming Languages
1 149 (9.66%) JavaScript
2 126 (8.17%) TypeScript
3 113 (7.32%) Python
4 95 (6.16%) SQL
5 93 (6.03%) Java
6 50 (3.24%) PowerShell
7 36 (2.33%) C#
8 29 (1.88%) Kotlin
9 20 (1.30%) Bash
10 19 (1.23%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 18 (1.17%) Swift
12 8 (0.52%) Go
12 8 (0.52%) PHP
12 8 (0.52%) VBScript
13 7 (0.45%) Shell Script
13 7 (0.45%) VB
14 6 (0.39%) Scala
15 5 (0.32%) Apex Code
15 5 (0.32%) Korn
16 4 (0.26%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 237 (15.36%) Security Cleared
2 183 (11.86%) SC Cleared
3 120 (7.78%) Degree
4 44 (2.85%) BPSS Clearance
5 35 (2.27%) Computer Science Degree
6 26 (1.69%) DV Cleared
7 25 (1.62%) Azure Certification
8 20 (1.30%) Microsoft Certification
9 16 (1.04%) PMP
10 9 (0.58%) Cisco Certification
10 9 (0.58%) ITIL Certification
11 8 (0.52%) AWS Certification
11 8 (0.52%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 7 (0.45%) DBS Check
13 6 (0.39%) MCSE
13 6 (0.39%) PMI Certification
14 5 (0.32%) CCA
14 5 (0.32%) CCIE
14 5 (0.32%) CCNP
14 5 (0.32%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 271 (17.56%) Accessibility
2 102 (6.61%) WCAG
3 93 (6.03%) QA
4 43 (2.79%) Data Quality
5 20 (1.30%) GDPR
6 15 (0.97%) Actionable Recommendations
7 11 (0.71%) SLA
8 9 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 7 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 7 (0.45%) PMO
10 6 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials
11 4 (0.26%) GRC
11 4 (0.26%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 3 (0.19%) GMP
12 3 (0.19%) GxP
13 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.13%) PSD2
14 1 (0.065%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 1 (0.065%) ISO 20022
14 1 (0.065%) SEPA
System Software
1 106 (6.87%) Active Directory
2 48 (3.11%) Docker
3 30 (1.94%) Virtual Desktop
4 24 (1.56%) VMware Infrastructure
5 14 (0.91%) Hyper-V
6 8 (0.52%) Citrix Hypervisor
7 7 (0.45%) BitLocker
7 7 (0.45%) vSphere
7 7 (0.45%) XenApp
7 7 (0.45%) XenDesktop
8 5 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
9 4 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
10 3 (0.19%) UAG
11 2 (0.13%) Firmware
11 2 (0.13%) Virtual Machines
11 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
11 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
12 1 (0.065%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 48 (3.11%) Kubernetes
1 48 (3.11%) Microsoft Intune
2 35 (2.27%) Grafana
3 31 (2.01%) SCCM
4 22 (1.43%) Single Sign-On
5 17 (1.10%) Ansible
6 16 (1.04%) Jamf Pro
7 14 (0.91%) Prometheus
8 5 (0.32%) SysTrack
8 5 (0.32%) vCenter Server
9 4 (0.26%) Clonezilla
9 4 (0.26%) Podman
10 3 (0.19%) Kibana
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
Vendors
1 273 (17.69%) Microsoft
2 89 (5.77%) ServiceNow
3 86 (5.57%) Adobe
4 52 (3.37%) Google
5 46 (2.98%) Oracle
6 32 (2.07%) SAP
7 30 (1.94%) Salesforce
8 27 (1.75%) Dynatrace
8 27 (1.75%) VMware
9 26 (1.69%) Citrix
10 23 (1.49%) Splunk
11 22 (1.43%) Apple
11 22 (1.43%) Databricks
12 19 (1.23%) OpenAI
13 18 (1.17%) Cisco
14 17 (1.10%) Workday
15 15 (0.97%) Foundry
16 14 (0.91%) Zscaler
17 11 (0.71%) Aruba
18 10 (0.65%) Okta