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

6 months to
19 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 96 63 76
Rank change year-on-year -33 +13 -12
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,555 1,264 1,068
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.83% 3.84% 2.77%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.36% 4.24% 3.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 930 810 644
10th Percentile £310 £300 £313
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £588
90th Percentile £703 £675 £699
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £475
% change year-on-year - -5.26% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 75 51 24
10th Percentile £20.31 £15.50 £27.59
25th Percentile £27.67 £27.58 £30.33
Median hourly rate £35.22 £36.50 £50.25
Median % change year-on-year -3.51% -27.36% +5.79%
75th Percentile £67.86 £55.88 £74.00
90th Percentile £76.20 £65.00 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £32.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year +4.58% -53.57% +295.03%

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 46,340 29,830 33,021
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.48% 90.53% 85.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,136 18,534 20,247
10th Percentile £325 £300 £308
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £730 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,159 1,812 1,459
10th Percentile £13.81 £14.23 £14.96
25th Percentile £17.25 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% -1.91%
75th Percentile £67.50 £44.76 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £67.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.00 £22.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year +82.22% -47.67% +1.18%

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 19 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 19 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 19 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 -28 1,353 £475 - 2,685
UK excluding London -16 733 £450 - 1,181
London -31 688 £520 +4.00% 1,720
Work from Home -34 390 £478 -3.05% 1,133
North of England -14 258 £435 +2.35% 338
Midlands -12 153 £475 +6.26% 170
North West -38 127 £410 -3.53% 214
West Midlands -6 121 £475 -5.00% 121
South East -49 99 £400 -10.81% 272
Scotland +1 93 £538 +16.85% 88
Yorkshire -5 80 £500 +25.00% 83
South West -1 79 £475 -2.56% 123
North East -10 50 £338 -25.00% 43
East of England -8 42 £410 -21.90% 105
East Midlands -15 32 £500 +39.66% 49
Wales -14 12 £530 +73.20% 25
Northern Ireland +5 3 £638 +2.00% 64

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 70 (4.50%) SharePoint
2 66 (4.24%) CMS
3 43 (2.77%) Confluence
4 32 (2.06%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (1.03%) WordPress
6 9 (0.58%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 7 (0.45%) Apache
7 7 (0.45%) Oracle Workflow
7 7 (0.45%) Skype for Business
8 6 (0.39%) Drupal
8 6 (0.39%) Headless CMS
9 5 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
10 4 (0.26%) Kentico
10 4 (0.26%) Mendix
11 3 (0.19%) ColdFusion
11 3 (0.19%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
12 2 (0.13%) IIS
12 2 (0.13%) Moodle
12 2 (0.13%) nginx
Applications
1 33 (2.12%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 28 (1.80%) Sketch
3 26 (1.67%) Microsoft Office
4 23 (1.48%) Microsoft Excel
5 20 (1.29%) Chatbot
6 19 (1.22%) Photoshop
7 18 (1.16%) Adobe After Effects
8 16 (1.03%) Adobe Illustrator
9 13 (0.84%) Adobe XD
10 10 (0.64%) MS Visio
11 9 (0.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
12 7 (0.45%) Final Cut Pro
13 3 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
14 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
14 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
15 1 (0.064%) Adobe Captivate
15 1 (0.064%) Adobe Premiere
15 1 (0.064%) Blender
15 1 (0.064%) InVision
15 1 (0.064%) Trello
Business Applications
1 10 (0.64%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (0.39%) Shopify
3 6 (0.39%) Workday HCM
4 5 (0.32%) NetSuite
5 4 (0.26%) Oracle iProcurement
5 4 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
5 4 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
6 3 (0.19%) IBM Planning Analytics
6 3 (0.19%) iTrent
6 3 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
8 1 (0.064%) Bloomberg TOMS
8 1 (0.064%) Elite 3E
8 1 (0.064%) Eloqua
8 1 (0.064%) Magento
8 1 (0.064%) Oracle EBS R12
8 1 (0.064%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.064%) Oracle Receivables
8 1 (0.064%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 222 (14.28%) Azure
2 182 (11.70%) Figma
3 150 (9.65%) Microsoft 365
4 140 (9.00%) AWS
5 114 (7.33%) Power Platform
6 69 (4.44%) Entra ID
7 63 (4.05%) GitHub
8 59 (3.79%) Microsoft Copilot
9 56 (3.60%) SaaS
10 47 (3.02%) Azure DevOps
11 39 (2.51%) GCP
12 34 (2.19%) OneDrive
13 33 (2.12%) PowerApps
14 28 (1.80%) Copilot Studio
14 28 (1.80%) Power Automate
15 27 (1.74%) GitHub Actions
16 24 (1.54%) Azure AI
17 23 (1.48%) Serverless
18 18 (1.16%) GitHub Copilot
19 17 (1.09%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 46 (2.96%) DNS
2 38 (2.44%) DHCP
3 36 (2.32%) TCP/IP
4 28 (1.80%) Wi-Fi
5 21 (1.35%) VPN
6 19 (1.22%) Wireless
7 18 (1.16%) Firewall
8 17 (1.09%) LAN
9 16 (1.03%) WAN
10 12 (0.77%) NetScaler
11 11 (0.71%) Network Security
12 9 (0.58%) Internet
13 8 (0.51%) Cisco Wireless
13 8 (0.51%) SD-WAN
13 8 (0.51%) Skype
14 7 (0.45%) SNMP
15 6 (0.39%) Intranet
16 5 (0.32%) 5G
16 5 (0.32%) SMS
16 5 (0.32%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 65 (4.18%) Power BI
2 26 (1.67%) Metadata
3 20 (1.29%) NoSQL
4 18 (1.16%) PostgreSQL
5 14 (0.90%) MongoDB
5 14 (0.90%) Power Query
5 14 (0.90%) SQL Server
6 13 (0.84%) Tableau
7 12 (0.77%) Elasticsearch
8 11 (0.71%) Big Data
8 11 (0.71%) Relational Database
9 10 (0.64%) Redis
10 9 (0.58%) Looker
11 8 (0.51%) Qlik Sense
12 7 (0.45%) MySQL
12 7 (0.45%) Snowflake Schema
12 7 (0.45%) Star Schema
13 6 (0.39%) BigQuery
13 6 (0.39%) Flink
13 6 (0.39%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 95 (6.11%) Git
2 81 (5.21%) JIRA
3 35 (2.25%) Jenkins
4 28 (1.80%) Vite
5 27 (1.74%) Cypress.io
6 22 (1.41%) Storybook
7 16 (1.03%) GitLab
8 15 (0.96%) Claude Code
9 12 (0.77%) fastlane
10 10 (0.64%) Android Studio
11 9 (0.58%) Browser DevTools
11 9 (0.58%) Xcode
12 8 (0.51%) webpack
13 7 (0.45%) JMeter
13 7 (0.45%) Postman
13 7 (0.45%) REST Assured
14 6 (0.39%) Gradle
15 5 (0.32%) Crashlytics
15 5 (0.32%) Fiddler
15 5 (0.32%) MSI
General
1 505 (32.48%) Social Skills
2 257 (16.53%) Finance
3 216 (13.89%) Public Sector
4 155 (9.97%) Analytical Skills
5 105 (6.75%) Banking
6 79 (5.08%) Marketing
6 79 (5.08%) Retail
7 56 (3.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 46 (2.96%) Influencing Skills
9 45 (2.89%) Legal
10 28 (1.80%) Automotive
10 28 (1.80%) Publishing
11 26 (1.67%) Organisational Skills
12 23 (1.48%) Documentation Skills
12 23 (1.48%) Manufacturing
12 23 (1.48%) Presentation Skills
13 20 (1.29%) Military
14 17 (1.09%) Investment Banking
15 13 (0.84%) Front Office
16 11 (0.71%) Law
Job Titles
1 312 (20.06%) Designer
2 222 (14.28%) Senior
3 221 (14.21%) Developer
4 133 (8.55%) Lead
5 129 (8.30%) UX Designer
6 94 (6.05%) Analyst
7 79 (5.08%) UI Designer
8 70 (4.50%) Architect
9 65 (4.18%) Consultant
9 65 (4.18%) Senior Designer
10 60 (3.86%) User Researcher
11 54 (3.47%) IT Support
11 54 (3.47%) Product Manager
11 54 (3.47%) Support Engineer
12 49 (3.15%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
13 47 (3.02%) Business Analyst
14 45 (2.89%) Content Designer
15 43 (2.77%) UI/UX Designer
15 43 (2.77%) User Experience Researcher
16 42 (2.70%) Product Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 162 (10.42%) React
2 120 (7.72%) CSS
3 109 (7.01%) HTML
4 96 (6.17%) REST
5 61 (3.92%) RESTful
6 50 (3.22%) Terraform
7 48 (3.09%) HTML5
8 44 (2.83%) AngularJS
8 44 (2.83%) GraphQL
9 43 (2.77%) CSS3
10 37 (2.38%) Node.js
11 36 (2.32%) .NET
12 33 (2.12%) OAuth
12 33 (2.12%) Playwright
13 32 (2.06%) Next.js
13 32 (2.06%) Spring
14 31 (1.99%) Jest
14 31 (1.99%) Spring Boot
15 27 (1.74%) Redux
16 26 (1.67%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 158 (10.16%) Product Ownership
2 93 (5.98%) Mobile App
3 82 (5.27%) Onboarding
4 60 (3.86%) Cloud Native
5 51 (3.28%) AI Agents
6 32 (2.06%) Self-Motivation
7 31 (1.99%) Data Protection Act
8 29 (1.86%) Enterprise Software
8 29 (1.86%) Management Information System
9 28 (1.80%) Legacy Systems
10 25 (1.61%) Data Structures
11 22 (1.41%) Data Centre
11 22 (1.41%) NHS
11 22 (1.41%) Social Media
12 19 (1.22%) Educational Technology
13 17 (1.09%) Animation
14 16 (1.03%) Graphic Design
15 14 (0.90%) Taxonomies
16 13 (0.84%) Analytical Mindset
17 12 (0.77%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 155 (9.97%) Windows
2 68 (4.37%) Apple iOS
3 66 (4.24%) Android
4 58 (3.73%) Windows 10
5 36 (2.32%) Windows Server
6 32 (2.06%) Mac OS
7 18 (1.16%) Linux
8 13 (0.84%) Unix
9 9 (0.58%) Windows 7
10 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.064%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 498 (32.03%) UX Design
2 453 (29.13%) Agile
3 305 (19.61%) AI
4 291 (18.71%) Stakeholder Management
5 254 (16.33%) Problem-Solving
6 239 (15.37%) Continuous Improvement
7 211 (13.57%) Analytics
8 200 (12.86%) User Research
9 189 (12.15%) CI/CD
10 173 (11.13%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 160 (10.29%) Roadmaps
12 153 (9.84%) Decision-Making
13 147 (9.45%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
14 127 (8.17%) DevOps
14 127 (8.17%) Scrum
15 125 (8.04%) Service Design
16 118 (7.59%) Prototyping
17 115 (7.40%) Service Management
18 113 (7.27%) Workshop Facilitation
19 110 (7.07%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 145 (9.32%) JavaScript
2 136 (8.75%) TypeScript
3 108 (6.95%) Python
4 96 (6.17%) Java
5 94 (6.05%) SQL
6 50 (3.22%) PowerShell
7 32 (2.06%) C#
8 30 (1.93%) Kotlin
9 20 (1.29%) Bash
9 20 (1.29%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 19 (1.22%) Swift
11 10 (0.64%) Go
12 8 (0.51%) PHP
13 7 (0.45%) Shell Script
13 7 (0.45%) VB
13 7 (0.45%) VBScript
14 6 (0.39%) Scala
15 5 (0.32%) Apex Code
15 5 (0.32%) C++
16 4 (0.26%) R
Qualifications
1 242 (15.56%) Security Cleared
2 184 (11.83%) SC Cleared
3 114 (7.33%) Degree
4 46 (2.96%) BPSS Clearance
5 31 (1.99%) Computer Science Degree
6 26 (1.67%) DV Cleared
7 21 (1.35%) Azure Certification
8 17 (1.09%) Microsoft Certification
8 17 (1.09%) PMP
9 8 (0.51%) AWS Certification
9 8 (0.51%) Cisco Certification
9 8 (0.51%) ITIL Certification
9 8 (0.51%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 7 (0.45%) DBS Check
11 6 (0.39%) MCSE
11 6 (0.39%) PMI Certification
12 5 (0.32%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 5 (0.32%) CCA
12 5 (0.32%) CISSP
12 5 (0.32%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 270 (17.36%) Accessibility
2 104 (6.69%) WCAG
3 99 (6.37%) QA
4 50 (3.22%) Data Quality
5 18 (1.16%) GDPR
6 15 (0.96%) Actionable Recommendations
7 13 (0.84%) SLA
8 8 (0.51%) PMO
9 7 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
9 7 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 6 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 3 (0.19%) GRC
12 2 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 2 (0.13%) GMP
12 2 (0.13%) GxP
12 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.13%) PSD2
12 2 (0.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 1 (0.064%) HIPAA
13 1 (0.064%) WAI
System Software
1 111 (7.14%) Active Directory
2 50 (3.22%) Docker
3 27 (1.74%) Virtual Desktop
4 26 (1.67%) VMware Infrastructure
5 15 (0.96%) Hyper-V
6 9 (0.58%) Citrix Hypervisor
6 9 (0.58%) XenApp
7 8 (0.51%) XenDesktop
8 7 (0.45%) BitLocker
8 7 (0.45%) vSphere
9 5 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
10 4 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
11 3 (0.19%) UAG
11 3 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
12 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
12 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
13 1 (0.064%) Firmware
13 1 (0.064%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 52 (3.34%) Microsoft Intune
2 50 (3.22%) Kubernetes
3 35 (2.25%) Grafana
4 30 (1.93%) SCCM
5 21 (1.35%) Single Sign-On
6 18 (1.16%) Ansible
7 15 (0.96%) Jamf Pro
8 14 (0.90%) Prometheus
9 6 (0.39%) vCenter Server
10 5 (0.32%) SysTrack
11 4 (0.26%) Clonezilla
11 4 (0.26%) Podman
12 3 (0.19%) Kibana
12 3 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 3 (0.19%) WSUS
13 2 (0.13%) Argo
13 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
13 2 (0.13%) Packer
13 2 (0.13%) SCOM
13 2 (0.13%) vMotion
Vendors
1 281 (18.07%) Microsoft
2 90 (5.79%) ServiceNow
3 85 (5.47%) Adobe
4 50 (3.22%) Google
5 44 (2.83%) Oracle
6 34 (2.19%) Salesforce
7 32 (2.06%) SAP
8 29 (1.86%) VMware
9 28 (1.80%) Dynatrace
10 26 (1.67%) Splunk
11 25 (1.61%) Citrix
12 23 (1.48%) Databricks
13 20 (1.29%) Apple
13 20 (1.29%) OpenAI
14 16 (1.03%) Cisco
14 16 (1.03%) Foundry
14 16 (1.03%) Zscaler
15 14 (0.90%) Workday
16 9 (0.58%) Aruba
16 9 (0.58%) Okta