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

6 months to
25 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 86 67 79
Rank change year-on-year -19 +12 -20
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,581 1,200 1,069
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.98% 3.67% 2.64%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.51% 4.06% 3.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 973 776 693
10th Percentile £313 £305 £313
25th Percentile £400 £381 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.05% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £578 £600
90th Percentile £686 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £438 £475
% change year-on-year +2.86% -7.89% +2.15%
Number of hourly rates quoted 72 39 34
10th Percentile £16.07 £19.30 £16.25
25th Percentile £24.54 £34.87 £25.39
Median hourly rate £33.99 £49.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -31.33% +23.75% +32.91%
75th Percentile £67.84 £64.38 £64.75
90th Percentile £73.63 £74.59 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £63.25 £46.00
% change year-on-year -46.26% +37.50% +159.59%

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 45,072 29,587 34,698
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.08% 90.43% 85.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,942 18,578 22,301
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% -4.55%
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 2,665 1,596 2,086
10th Percentile £14.82 £14.20 £13.50
25th Percentile £20.02 £17.33 £17.31
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -37.13% -5.88%
75th Percentile £68.00 £50.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £82.80 £68.75 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £24.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +83.17% -40.00% -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 25 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 25 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 25 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 -13 1,364 £475 - 784
UK excluding London -8 741 £450 +2.86% 467
London -23 688 £525 +2.74% 417
Work from Home -29 396 £500 +4.17% 366
North of England -18 219 £438 -2.01% 141
Midlands 0 148 £475 +11.24% 52
South East -32 133 £490 +3.16% 130
West Midlands -4 116 £475 -5.00% 42
North West -32 112 £425 -5.56% 64
Scotland +17 98 £518 +12.20% 27
South West -6 81 £475 +26.67% 58
Yorkshire -34 59 £500 +25.00% 47
East of England +14 49 £410 -13.68% 53
North East -10 48 £375 -21.88% 30
East Midlands -5 32 £525 +47.47% 10
Wales -11 16 £579 +89.22% 7
Northern Ireland +4 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 64 (4.05%) SharePoint
2 57 (3.61%) CMS
3 43 (2.72%) Confluence
4 27 (1.71%) Microsoft Exchange
5 15 (0.95%) WordPress
6 8 (0.51%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 8 (0.51%) Apache
7 6 (0.38%) Drupal
7 6 (0.38%) Mendix
7 6 (0.38%) Skype for Business
8 4 (0.25%) Apache Airflow
8 4 (0.25%) Headless CMS
8 4 (0.25%) Kentico
9 3 (0.19%) Moodle
9 3 (0.19%) Umbraco
10 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
10 2 (0.13%) IIS
10 2 (0.13%) nginx
10 2 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
11 1 (0.063%) Oracle Workflow
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 (1.27%) Photoshop
6 19 (1.20%) Adobe After Effects
7 18 (1.14%) Microsoft Office
8 17 (1.08%) 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 2 (0.13%) InVision
13 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
13 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
13 2 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
13 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
14 1 (0.063%) Camtasia
14 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
1 248 (15.69%) Azure
2 220 (13.92%) Figma
3 133 (8.41%) AWS
4 128 (8.10%) Microsoft 365
5 115 (7.27%) Power Platform
6 63 (3.98%) Entra ID
7 58 (3.67%) Azure DevOps
7 58 (3.67%) GitHub
8 55 (3.48%) SaaS
9 50 (3.16%) GCP
10 49 (3.10%) Microsoft Copilot
11 38 (2.40%) PowerApps
12 31 (1.96%) OneDrive
12 31 (1.96%) Serverless
13 30 (1.90%) Power Automate
14 27 (1.71%) Copilot Studio
15 24 (1.52%) Azure AI
15 24 (1.52%) GitHub Actions
16 17 (1.08%) Snowflake
17 14 (0.89%) 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 (1.27%) Wireless
6 19 (1.20%) LAN
7 13 (0.82%) Firewall
7 13 (0.82%) VPN
7 13 (0.82%) WAN
8 12 (0.76%) Internet
9 10 (0.63%) Intranet
9 10 (0.63%) SD-WAN
10 8 (0.51%) Cisco Wireless
10 8 (0.51%) Network Security
10 8 (0.51%) Skype
11 7 (0.44%) SNMP
12 6 (0.38%) 5G
12 6 (0.38%) WLAN
13 5 (0.32%) SMS
13 5 (0.32%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (4.55%) Power BI
2 25 (1.58%) Metadata
3 24 (1.52%) PostgreSQL
4 22 (1.39%) Relational Database
5 21 (1.33%) NoSQL
6 18 (1.14%) Power Query
7 15 (0.95%) SQL Server
8 14 (0.89%) Data Warehouse
9 12 (0.76%) Tableau
10 11 (0.70%) Big Data
11 10 (0.63%) MongoDB
11 10 (0.63%) MySQL
12 7 (0.44%) Oracle Database
12 7 (0.44%) Redis
12 7 (0.44%) Snowflake Schema
13 6 (0.38%) Azure SQL Database
13 6 (0.38%) DynamoDB
13 6 (0.38%) Elasticsearch
13 6 (0.38%) Star Schema
13 6 (0.38%) ZAP BI
Development Applications
1 90 (5.69%) JIRA
2 81 (5.12%) Git
3 27 (1.71%) Cypress.io
4 26 (1.64%) Jenkins
5 25 (1.58%) Vite
6 17 (1.08%) GitLab
7 12 (0.76%) Claude Code
8 11 (0.70%) Storybook
9 10 (0.63%) Android Studio
9 10 (0.63%) Browser DevTools
9 10 (0.63%) fastlane
9 10 (0.63%) Selenium
10 9 (0.57%) webpack
10 9 (0.57%) Xcode
11 8 (0.51%) Gradle
11 8 (0.51%) JUnit
12 6 (0.38%) JMeter
12 6 (0.38%) Postman
12 6 (0.38%) Visual Studio
13 5 (0.32%) REST Assured
General
1 503 (31.82%) Social Skills
2 286 (18.09%) Finance
3 211 (13.35%) Public Sector
4 158 (9.99%) Analytical Skills
5 121 (7.65%) Banking
6 84 (5.31%) Retail
7 73 (4.62%) Marketing
8 48 (3.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 40 (2.53%) Legal
10 38 (2.40%) 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 18 (1.14%) Investment Banking
17 17 (1.08%) Military
18 12 (0.76%) Front Office
18 12 (0.76%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 341 (21.57%) Designer
2 228 (14.42%) Senior
3 200 (12.65%) Developer
4 145 (9.17%) UX Designer
5 121 (7.65%) Lead
6 113 (7.15%) Analyst
7 89 (5.63%) UI Designer
8 79 (5.00%) Consultant
9 69 (4.36%) Senior Designer
10 66 (4.17%) Architect
11 65 (4.11%) User Researcher
12 59 (3.73%) Business Analyst
12 59 (3.73%) Product Designer
13 52 (3.29%) Content Designer
14 50 (3.16%) UI/UX Designer
15 47 (2.97%) IT Support
15 47 (2.97%) Product Manager
16 46 (2.91%) User Experience Researcher
17 44 (2.78%) Support Engineer
18 43 (2.72%) Full-Stack Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 147 (9.30%) React
2 116 (7.34%) CSS
3 103 (6.51%) HTML
4 102 (6.45%) REST
5 70 (4.43%) RESTful
6 51 (3.23%) AngularJS
7 43 (2.72%) .NET
8 42 (2.66%) GraphQL
9 40 (2.53%) HTML5
10 37 (2.34%) CSS3
10 37 (2.34%) Spring
11 36 (2.28%) Spring Boot
12 34 (2.15%) Node.js
13 33 (2.09%) Jest
14 31 (1.96%) Redux
15 29 (1.83%) Kafka
16 26 (1.64%) JSON
17 25 (1.58%) Next.js
17 25 (1.58%) Playwright
18 24 (1.52%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 160 (10.12%) Product Ownership
2 94 (5.95%) Mobile App
3 80 (5.06%) Onboarding
4 47 (2.97%) Cloud Native
5 46 (2.91%) AI Agents
6 33 (2.09%) Enterprise Software
6 33 (2.09%) Self-Motivation
7 32 (2.02%) Data Structures
8 29 (1.83%) Data Protection Act
9 25 (1.58%) Legacy Systems
10 23 (1.45%) Animation
11 21 (1.33%) Data Centre
12 20 (1.27%) Analytical Mindset
12 20 (1.27%) Social Media
13 17 (1.08%) Graphic Design
14 16 (1.01%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 15 (0.95%) Algorithms
15 15 (0.95%) Educational Technology
16 14 (0.89%) Management Information System
16 14 (0.89%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 132 (8.35%) Windows
2 57 (3.61%) Android
2 57 (3.61%) Apple iOS
3 43 (2.72%) Windows 10
4 27 (1.71%) Mac OS
5 19 (1.20%) Linux
5 19 (1.20%) Windows Server
6 9 (0.57%) Unix
7 8 (0.51%) Windows 7
8 5 (0.32%) Windows Server 2016
9 4 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
10 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 515 (32.57%) UX Design
2 468 (29.60%) Agile
3 311 (19.67%) AI
4 250 (15.81%) Problem-Solving
5 240 (15.18%) Stakeholder Management
6 229 (14.48%) Continuous Improvement
7 219 (13.85%) User Research
8 208 (13.16%) Analytics
9 187 (11.83%) CI/CD
10 179 (11.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 168 (10.63%) Roadmaps
12 152 (9.61%) Decision-Making
13 149 (9.42%) Prototyping
14 147 (9.30%) DevOps
14 147 (9.30%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
15 136 (8.60%) Wireframes
16 130 (8.22%) Service Design
17 123 (7.78%) UX Research
18 117 (7.40%) Workshop Facilitation
19 116 (7.34%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 137 (8.67%) JavaScript
2 132 (8.35%) Python
3 118 (7.46%) TypeScript
4 114 (7.21%) SQL
5 108 (6.83%) Java
6 51 (3.23%) PowerShell
7 45 (2.85%) C#
8 35 (2.21%) Kotlin
9 25 (1.58%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 18 (1.14%) Bash
11 17 (1.08%) Swift
12 12 (0.76%) C++
13 9 (0.57%) Lua
14 8 (0.51%) Go
14 8 (0.51%) Korn
15 7 (0.44%) Apex Code
15 7 (0.44%) PHP
15 7 (0.44%) R
15 7 (0.44%) VBScript
16 6 (0.38%) VB
Qualifications
1 246 (15.56%) Security Cleared
2 185 (11.70%) SC Cleared
3 150 (9.49%) Degree
4 37 (2.34%) Computer Science Degree
5 33 (2.09%) BPSS Clearance
6 29 (1.83%) 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%) CCA
12 8 (0.51%) Citrix Certification
12 8 (0.51%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 7 (0.44%) CCNP
14 6 (0.38%) CCIE
14 6 (0.38%) DBS Check
14 6 (0.38%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 280 (17.71%) Accessibility
2 96 (6.07%) QA
3 95 (6.01%) WCAG
4 48 (3.04%) 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 85 (5.38%) Active Directory
2 49 (3.10%) Docker
3 30 (1.90%) 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 54 (3.42%) Terraform
2 51 (3.23%) Kubernetes
3 47 (2.97%) Microsoft Intune
4 38 (2.40%) Grafana
5 36 (2.28%) SCCM
6 17 (1.08%) Ansible
6 17 (1.08%) Single Sign-On
7 14 (0.89%) Jamf Pro
7 14 (0.89%) Prometheus
8 5 (0.32%) vCenter Server
9 4 (0.25%) Clonezilla
9 4 (0.25%) 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%) Kibana
11 2 (0.13%) Packer
11 2 (0.13%) SCOM
11 2 (0.13%) vMotion
Vendors
1 273 (17.27%) Microsoft
2 94 (5.95%) Adobe
3 78 (4.93%) ServiceNow
4 59 (3.73%) Google
5 44 (2.78%) SAP
6 42 (2.66%) Oracle
7 34 (2.15%) Salesforce
8 25 (1.58%) Citrix
9 24 (1.52%) Splunk
10 23 (1.45%) Databricks
10 23 (1.45%) Dynatrace
11 22 (1.39%) VMware
12 21 (1.33%) Workday
13 18 (1.14%) Cisco
14 17 (1.08%) OpenAI
15 16 (1.01%) Apple
15 16 (1.01%) Foundry
16 14 (0.89%) Zscaler
17 11 (0.70%) Aruba
18 8 (0.51%) Okta