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

6 months to
14 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 94 64 78
Rank change year-on-year -30 +14 -18
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,508 1,239 1,016
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.82% 3.76% 2.61%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.33% 4.16% 3.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 909 784 637
10th Percentile £313 £301 £303
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -0.10%
75th Percentile £575 £576 £600
90th Percentile £688 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £447 £475
% change year-on-year +0.67% -5.89% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 46 33
10th Percentile £16.83 £22.63 £16.25
25th Percentile £26.00 £33.37 £30.00
Median hourly rate £33.99 £45.50 £41.68
Median % change year-on-year -25.30% +9.18% +57.26%
75th Percentile £67.84 £63.75 £70.39
90th Percentile £73.50 £72.25 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £42.30 £66.00
% change year-on-year -19.65% -35.91% +272.46%

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 45,278 29,786 33,285
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.80% 90.49% 85.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,840 18,586 21,275
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £423 £404 £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 2,823 1,710 1,832
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £14.05
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.31 £18.46
Median hourly rate £42.30 £25.15 £41.50
Median % change year-on-year +68.19% -39.40% -2.35%
75th Percentile £68.00 £48.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £81.25 £68.00 £74.83
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £23.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year +91.13% -45.88% +13.33%

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 14 August 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 14 August 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 14 August 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 -27 1,310 £475 - 1,105
UK excluding London -21 698 £450 +0.67% 576
London -25 669 £525 +4.90% 665
Work from Home -36 379 £495 +1.54% 477
North of England -15 222 £438 -2.01% 158
Midlands -10 141 £475 +9.83% 91
South East -50 113 £425 -5.56% 152
West Midlands -18 112 £475 -8.65% 71
North West -30 104 £420 -6.35% 83
Scotland +13 90 £544 +17.57% 35
South West -25 73 £475 +26.67% 66
Yorkshire -21 68 £500 +25.00% 47
North East -7 49 £363 -24.48% 28
East of England +8 48 £410 -14.14% 47
East Midlands -17 29 £468 +31.69% 20
Wales -13 14 £640 +108.99% 19
Northern Ireland +6 2 £644 +76.98% 19

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 62 (4.11%) SharePoint
2 58 (3.85%) CMS
3 40 (2.65%) Confluence
4 29 (1.92%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (1.06%) WordPress
6 8 (0.53%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 8 (0.53%) Apache
7 7 (0.46%) Skype for Business
8 6 (0.40%) Drupal
8 6 (0.40%) Mendix
9 5 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
9 5 (0.33%) Headless CMS
10 4 (0.27%) Kentico
10 4 (0.27%) Oracle Workflow
11 3 (0.20%) Moodle
11 3 (0.20%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.13%) Camunda
12 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
12 2 (0.13%) IIS
12 2 (0.13%) nginx
Applications
1 35 (2.32%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 34 (2.25%) Sketch
3 27 (1.79%) Microsoft Excel
4 23 (1.53%) Chatbot
5 19 (1.26%) Microsoft Office
5 19 (1.26%) Photoshop
6 18 (1.19%) Adobe After Effects
7 15 (0.99%) Adobe Illustrator
7 15 (0.99%) Adobe XD
8 8 (0.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
9 6 (0.40%) Final Cut Pro
9 6 (0.40%) MS Visio
10 2 (0.13%) Adobe Captivate
10 2 (0.13%) InVision
10 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
10 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
11 1 (0.066%) Blender
11 1 (0.066%) Camtasia
11 1 (0.066%) Microsoft Project
11 1 (0.066%) Trello
Business Applications
1 8 (0.53%) SAP S/4HANA
1 8 (0.53%) Workday HCM
2 7 (0.46%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (0.40%) Shopify
4 5 (0.33%) Sage X3
5 4 (0.27%) NetSuite
5 4 (0.27%) Oracle iProcurement
5 4 (0.27%) Remedy ITSM
6 3 (0.20%) iTrent
6 3 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
6 3 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
7 2 (0.13%) ResourceLink
8 1 (0.066%) Bloomberg TOMS
8 1 (0.066%) Eloqua
8 1 (0.066%) Oracle EBS R12
8 1 (0.066%) SAP HR
8 1 (0.066%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 225 (14.92%) Azure
2 192 (12.73%) Figma
3 139 (9.22%) Microsoft 365
4 131 (8.69%) AWS
5 113 (7.49%) Power Platform
6 67 (4.44%) Entra ID
7 57 (3.78%) GitHub
8 52 (3.45%) SaaS
9 51 (3.38%) Microsoft Copilot
10 50 (3.32%) Azure DevOps
11 43 (2.85%) GCP
12 32 (2.12%) OneDrive
12 32 (2.12%) PowerApps
13 26 (1.72%) Power Automate
14 25 (1.66%) Serverless
15 23 (1.53%) Azure AI
15 23 (1.53%) Copilot Studio
16 21 (1.39%) GitHub Actions
17 16 (1.06%) GitHub Copilot
17 16 (1.06%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 43 (2.85%) DNS
2 35 (2.32%) DHCP
3 31 (2.06%) Wi-Fi
4 29 (1.92%) TCP/IP
5 22 (1.46%) Wireless
6 21 (1.39%) LAN
7 16 (1.06%) Firewall
7 16 (1.06%) VPN
8 15 (0.99%) WAN
9 12 (0.80%) Internet
10 11 (0.73%) SD-WAN
11 9 (0.60%) Cisco Wireless
11 9 (0.60%) Intranet
11 9 (0.60%) Skype
12 8 (0.53%) Network Security
13 7 (0.46%) 5G
13 7 (0.46%) SNMP
13 7 (0.46%) WLAN
14 6 (0.40%) SSL
15 5 (0.33%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (4.71%) Power BI
2 26 (1.72%) Metadata
3 18 (1.19%) NoSQL
4 17 (1.13%) Power Query
5 16 (1.06%) PostgreSQL
6 14 (0.93%) Tableau
7 13 (0.86%) Relational Database
8 12 (0.80%) Data Warehouse
9 11 (0.73%) Big Data
9 11 (0.73%) SQL Server
10 10 (0.66%) Looker
11 9 (0.60%) MongoDB
12 7 (0.46%) Elasticsearch
12 7 (0.46%) MySQL
12 7 (0.46%) Snowflake Schema
13 6 (0.40%) BigQuery
13 6 (0.40%) Flink
13 6 (0.40%) Qlik Sense
13 6 (0.40%) Redis
13 6 (0.40%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 84 (5.57%) JIRA
2 74 (4.91%) Git
3 28 (1.86%) Cypress.io
4 26 (1.72%) Jenkins
5 24 (1.59%) Vite
6 19 (1.26%) GitLab
7 14 (0.93%) Claude Code
8 11 (0.73%) Storybook
9 10 (0.66%) Android Studio
9 10 (0.66%) Browser DevTools
9 10 (0.66%) fastlane
10 9 (0.60%) Selenium
10 9 (0.60%) Xcode
11 7 (0.46%) Gradle
11 7 (0.46%) JMeter
11 7 (0.46%) webpack
12 6 (0.40%) JUnit
12 6 (0.40%) Postman
13 5 (0.33%) MSI
13 5 (0.33%) Visual Studio
General
1 475 (31.50%) Social Skills
2 262 (17.37%) Finance
3 199 (13.20%) Public Sector
4 153 (10.15%) Analytical Skills
5 113 (7.49%) Banking
6 77 (5.11%) Retail
7 74 (4.91%) Marketing
8 51 (3.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 36 (2.39%) Influencing Skills
9 36 (2.39%) Legal
10 28 (1.86%) Publishing
11 27 (1.79%) Automotive
11 27 (1.79%) Organisational Skills
11 27 (1.79%) Presentation Skills
12 26 (1.72%) Manufacturing
13 21 (1.39%) Documentation Skills
14 18 (1.19%) Investment Banking
15 16 (1.06%) Military
16 10 (0.66%) Front Office
17 9 (0.60%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 328 (21.75%) Designer
2 218 (14.46%) Senior
3 193 (12.80%) Developer
4 134 (8.89%) UX Designer
5 121 (8.02%) Lead
6 99 (6.56%) Analyst
7 84 (5.57%) UI Designer
8 79 (5.24%) Consultant
9 67 (4.44%) User Researcher
10 64 (4.24%) Senior Designer
11 57 (3.78%) Architect
12 53 (3.51%) Content Designer
13 51 (3.38%) Support Engineer
14 50 (3.32%) Business Analyst
14 50 (3.32%) IT Support
15 48 (3.18%) Product Manager
15 48 (3.18%) UI/UX Designer
16 43 (2.85%) Product Designer
16 43 (2.85%) User Experience Researcher
17 35 (2.32%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 136 (9.02%) React
2 109 (7.23%) CSS
3 97 (6.43%) HTML
4 93 (6.17%) REST
5 61 (4.05%) RESTful
6 47 (3.12%) AngularJS
7 43 (2.85%) HTML5
8 41 (2.72%) GraphQL
9 40 (2.65%) CSS3
10 35 (2.32%) .NET
11 33 (2.19%) Node.js
12 32 (2.12%) Jest
13 29 (1.92%) Kafka
14 28 (1.86%) Playwright
15 26 (1.72%) Redux
16 25 (1.66%) OAuth
17 24 (1.59%) Next.js
17 24 (1.59%) Spring
18 23 (1.53%) Spring Boot
19 19 (1.26%) Android SDK
Miscellaneous
1 139 (9.22%) Product Ownership
2 96 (6.37%) Mobile App
3 85 (5.64%) Onboarding
4 49 (3.25%) Cloud Native
5 44 (2.92%) AI Agents
6 33 (2.19%) Self-Motivation
7 32 (2.12%) Enterprise Software
8 28 (1.86%) Data Protection Act
9 27 (1.79%) Data Structures
10 25 (1.66%) Legacy Systems
11 22 (1.46%) Social Media
12 21 (1.39%) Animation
12 21 (1.39%) Data Centre
13 19 (1.26%) Educational Technology
13 19 (1.26%) Management Information System
14 18 (1.19%) Analytical Mindset
14 18 (1.19%) NHS
15 17 (1.13%) Graphic Design
16 15 (0.99%) Virtual Reality
17 14 (0.93%) Algorithms
Operating Systems
1 140 (9.28%) Windows
2 62 (4.11%) Android
3 58 (3.85%) Apple iOS
4 49 (3.25%) Windows 10
5 28 (1.86%) Mac OS
6 21 (1.39%) Windows Server
7 18 (1.19%) Linux
8 10 (0.66%) Unix
8 10 (0.66%) Windows 7
9 4 (0.27%) Windows Server 2016
9 4 (0.27%) Windows Server 2019
10 3 (0.20%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 486 (32.23%) UX Design
2 428 (28.38%) Agile
3 304 (20.16%) AI
4 246 (16.31%) Problem-Solving
4 246 (16.31%) Stakeholder Management
5 219 (14.52%) Continuous Improvement
6 208 (13.79%) User Research
7 201 (13.33%) Analytics
8 175 (11.60%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 172 (11.41%) CI/CD
10 148 (9.81%) Roadmaps
11 141 (9.35%) Decision-Making
12 140 (9.28%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
13 132 (8.75%) Prototyping
14 124 (8.22%) DevOps
15 119 (7.89%) Service Design
16 116 (7.69%) Wireframes
17 114 (7.56%) Scrum
18 112 (7.43%) Workshop Facilitation
19 104 (6.90%) UX Research
Programming Languages
1 136 (9.02%) JavaScript
2 124 (8.22%) Python
3 112 (7.43%) TypeScript
4 99 (6.56%) SQL
5 91 (6.03%) Java
6 54 (3.58%) PowerShell
7 35 (2.32%) C#
8 29 (1.92%) Kotlin
9 22 (1.46%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 19 (1.26%) Bash
11 17 (1.13%) Swift
12 9 (0.60%) C++
13 8 (0.53%) Go
13 8 (0.53%) PHP
13 8 (0.53%) VBScript
14 7 (0.46%) VB
15 6 (0.40%) Apex Code
15 6 (0.40%) Scala
15 6 (0.40%) Shell Script
15 6 (0.40%) VBA
Qualifications
1 237 (15.72%) Security Cleared
2 179 (11.87%) SC Cleared
3 130 (8.62%) Degree
4 37 (2.45%) Computer Science Degree
5 33 (2.19%) BPSS Clearance
6 27 (1.79%) DV Cleared
7 23 (1.53%) Azure Certification
8 21 (1.39%) Microsoft Certification
9 13 (0.86%) PMP
10 10 (0.66%) Cisco Certification
11 8 (0.53%) AWS Certification
11 8 (0.53%) CCA
11 8 (0.53%) Citrix Certification
11 8 (0.53%) ITIL Certification
11 8 (0.53%) Master's Degree
11 8 (0.53%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 6 (0.40%) CCIE
12 6 (0.40%) CCNP
12 6 (0.40%) DBS Check
12 6 (0.40%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 260 (17.24%) Accessibility
2 93 (6.17%) WCAG
3 88 (5.84%) QA
4 47 (3.12%) Data Quality
5 19 (1.26%) GDPR
6 14 (0.93%) Actionable Recommendations
7 10 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 8 (0.53%) PMO
9 7 (0.46%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 7 (0.46%) SLA
10 6 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
11 4 (0.27%) GRC
11 4 (0.27%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 3 (0.20%) GMP
12 3 (0.20%) GxP
13 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.13%) PSD2
14 1 (0.066%) ISO 20022
14 1 (0.066%) NIST
14 1 (0.066%) WAI-ARIA
System Software
1 96 (6.37%) Active Directory
2 46 (3.05%) Docker
3 29 (1.92%) Virtual Desktop
4 16 (1.06%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (0.46%) BitLocker
5 7 (0.46%) vSphere
6 6 (0.40%) Firmware
6 6 (0.40%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (0.27%) Microsoft App-V
9 3 (0.20%) UAG
10 2 (0.13%) 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 (0.066%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 52 (3.45%) Terraform
2 48 (3.18%) Kubernetes
2 48 (3.18%) Microsoft Intune
3 34 (2.25%) Grafana
4 33 (2.19%) SCCM
5 19 (1.26%) Single Sign-On
6 18 (1.19%) Ansible
7 15 (0.99%) Jamf Pro
7 15 (0.99%) Prometheus
8 5 (0.33%) vCenter Server
9 4 (0.27%) Clonezilla
9 4 (0.27%) Podman
10 3 (0.20%) Kibana
10 3 (0.20%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 3 (0.20%) 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
1 259 (17.18%) Microsoft
2 92 (6.10%) Adobe
3 79 (5.24%) ServiceNow
4 53 (3.51%) Google
5 42 (2.79%) Oracle
6 34 (2.25%) SAP
7 32 (2.12%) Salesforce
8 25 (1.66%) Dynatrace
9 24 (1.59%) Citrix
10 22 (1.46%) Databricks
11 21 (1.39%) Splunk
12 19 (1.26%) Apple
12 19 (1.26%) VMware
13 18 (1.19%) Cisco
13 18 (1.19%) Workday
14 15 (0.99%) Foundry
14 15 (0.99%) OpenAI
15 14 (0.93%) Zscaler
16 12 (0.80%) Aruba
17 10 (0.66%) Okta