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

6 months to
14 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 92 64 75
Rank change year-on-year -28 +11 -11
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,541 1,247 1,069
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.85% 3.81% 2.78%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.37% 4.21% 3.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 926 803 651
10th Percentile £305 £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 £589
90th Percentile £700 £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 48 23
10th Percentile £20.31 £15.50 £30.00
25th Percentile £27.45 £28.79 £30.51
Median hourly rate £35.22 £36.50 £50.50
Median % change year-on-year -3.51% -27.72% +6.32%
75th Percentile £67.88 £55.44 £74.00
90th Percentile £76.40 £66.55 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £32.50 £70.20
% change year-on-year +4.58% -53.70% +296.13%

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 45,698 29,594 32,877
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.42% 90.53% 85.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,784 18,388 20,318
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £403 £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 £726 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,048 1,782 1,485
10th Percentile £13.85 £14.23 £14.84
25th Percentile £17.44 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.50 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £66.95 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.00 £22.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year +82.22% -47.67% +7.50%

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 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 14 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 14 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 1,340 £475 - 2,533
UK excluding London -12 729 £450 +0.67% 1,073
London -32 679 £513 +2.50% 1,711
Work from Home -33 392 £475 -3.55% 1,917
North of England -12 256 £435 +3.88% 275
Midlands -9 149 £475 +9.20% 136
North West -31 128 £420 -1.18% 163
West Midlands -6 118 £469 -6.14% 101
South East -43 100 £403 -12.97% 231
Scotland +5 93 £538 +16.85% 100
South West -8 81 £475 - 137
Yorkshire -7 77 £500 +25.00% 79
North East -5 50 £338 -27.42% 36
East of England -12 42 £418 -20.48% 111
East Midlands -17 31 £500 +39.66% 35
Wales -15 11 £530 +73.20% 18
Northern Ireland +5 3 £638 +23.49% 71

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 71 (4.61%) SharePoint
2 58 (3.76%) CMS
3 43 (2.79%) Confluence
4 30 (1.95%) 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
8 6 (0.39%) Oracle Workflow
9 5 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
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 34 (2.21%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 28 (1.82%) Sketch
3 24 (1.56%) Microsoft Office
4 23 (1.49%) Microsoft Excel
5 21 (1.36%) Chatbot
6 19 (1.23%) Photoshop
7 18 (1.17%) Adobe After Effects
8 16 (1.04%) Adobe Illustrator
9 14 (0.91%) Adobe XD
10 11 (0.71%) 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 (0.065%) Adobe Captivate
15 1 (0.065%) Adobe Premiere
15 1 (0.065%) Blender
15 1 (0.065%) InVision
15 1 (0.065%) Trello
Business Applications
1 7 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
1 7 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.39%) Shopify
2 6 (0.39%) Workday HCM
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%) IBM Planning Analytics
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
7 1 (0.065%) Exchequer
7 1 (0.065%) Magento
7 1 (0.065%) NEC Housing
7 1 (0.065%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.065%) ResourceLink
7 1 (0.065%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 221 (14.34%) Azure
2 185 (12.01%) Figma
3 147 (9.54%) Microsoft 365
4 136 (8.83%) AWS
5 113 (7.33%) Power Platform
6 66 (4.28%) Entra ID
7 63 (4.09%) GitHub
8 58 (3.76%) Microsoft Copilot
9 56 (3.63%) SaaS
10 47 (3.05%) Azure DevOps
11 39 (2.53%) GCP
12 33 (2.14%) OneDrive
12 33 (2.14%) PowerApps
13 28 (1.82%) Copilot Studio
14 27 (1.75%) Power Automate
15 26 (1.69%) GitHub Actions
16 24 (1.56%) Azure AI
17 23 (1.49%) Serverless
18 18 (1.17%) GitHub Copilot
19 17 (1.10%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 45 (2.92%) DNS
2 38 (2.47%) DHCP
3 33 (2.14%) TCP/IP
4 29 (1.88%) Wi-Fi
5 20 (1.30%) Wireless
6 19 (1.23%) VPN
7 17 (1.10%) LAN
8 16 (1.04%) Firewall
9 15 (0.97%) WAN
10 11 (0.71%) NetScaler
11 9 (0.58%) Internet
12 8 (0.52%) Cisco Wireless
12 8 (0.52%) Network Security
12 8 (0.52%) SD-WAN
12 8 (0.52%) Skype
13 7 (0.45%) SNMP
14 6 (0.39%) Intranet
15 5 (0.32%) SMS
15 5 (0.32%) SSL
15 5 (0.32%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 66 (4.28%) Power BI
2 25 (1.62%) Metadata
3 18 (1.17%) NoSQL
3 18 (1.17%) PostgreSQL
4 14 (0.91%) Power Query
5 13 (0.84%) MongoDB
5 13 (0.84%) SQL Server
5 13 (0.84%) Tableau
6 12 (0.78%) Elasticsearch
7 11 (0.71%) Big Data
7 11 (0.71%) Relational Database
8 10 (0.65%) Redis
9 9 (0.58%) Looker
10 7 (0.45%) Qlik Sense
10 7 (0.45%) Snowflake Schema
11 6 (0.39%) Flink
11 6 (0.39%) MySQL
11 6 (0.39%) Star Schema
12 5 (0.32%) Data Warehouse
12 5 (0.32%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 87 (5.65%) Git
2 83 (5.39%) JIRA
3 32 (2.08%) Jenkins
4 27 (1.75%) Cypress.io
4 27 (1.75%) Vite
5 19 (1.23%) Storybook
6 16 (1.04%) GitLab
7 15 (0.97%) Claude Code
8 12 (0.78%) fastlane
9 10 (0.65%) Android Studio
10 9 (0.58%) Browser DevTools
10 9 (0.58%) Xcode
11 8 (0.52%) webpack
12 7 (0.45%) JMeter
12 7 (0.45%) Postman
12 7 (0.45%) REST Assured
13 6 (0.39%) Gradle
14 5 (0.32%) Fiddler
14 5 (0.32%) JUnit
14 5 (0.32%) MSI
General
1 500 (32.45%) Social Skills
2 256 (16.61%) Finance
3 215 (13.95%) Public Sector
4 155 (10.06%) Analytical Skills
5 107 (6.94%) Banking
6 79 (5.13%) Retail
7 74 (4.80%) Marketing
8 56 (3.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 43 (2.79%) Influencing Skills
10 42 (2.73%) Legal
11 28 (1.82%) Automotive
12 27 (1.75%) Organisational Skills
12 27 (1.75%) Publishing
13 23 (1.49%) Documentation Skills
13 23 (1.49%) Presentation Skills
14 22 (1.43%) Manufacturing
15 20 (1.30%) Military
16 18 (1.17%) Investment Banking
17 12 (0.78%) Front Office
18 10 (0.65%) Law
Job Titles
1 317 (20.57%) Designer
2 221 (14.34%) Senior
3 213 (13.82%) Developer
4 131 (8.50%) Lead
5 130 (8.44%) UX Designer
6 97 (6.29%) Analyst
7 80 (5.19%) UI Designer
8 70 (4.54%) Consultant
9 66 (4.28%) Senior Designer
10 64 (4.15%) Architect
11 59 (3.83%) User Researcher
12 55 (3.57%) IT Support
12 55 (3.57%) Product Manager
13 54 (3.50%) Support Engineer
14 49 (3.18%) Business Analyst
15 45 (2.92%) Content Designer
15 45 (2.92%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
16 43 (2.79%) UI/UX Designer
17 42 (2.73%) Product Designer
18 41 (2.66%) User Experience Researcher
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 159 (10.32%) React
2 119 (7.72%) CSS
3 108 (7.01%) HTML
4 94 (6.10%) REST
5 61 (3.96%) RESTful
6 50 (3.24%) Terraform
7 47 (3.05%) HTML5
8 45 (2.92%) AngularJS
9 44 (2.86%) CSS3
9 44 (2.86%) GraphQL
10 37 (2.40%) .NET
11 34 (2.21%) Node.js
12 32 (2.08%) Jest
12 32 (2.08%) Next.js
12 32 (2.08%) Playwright
12 32 (2.08%) Spring
13 31 (2.01%) Spring Boot
14 29 (1.88%) OAuth
15 28 (1.82%) Kafka
15 28 (1.82%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 149 (9.67%) Product Ownership
2 90 (5.84%) Mobile App
3 86 (5.58%) Onboarding
4 58 (3.76%) Cloud Native
5 52 (3.37%) AI Agents
6 32 (2.08%) Self-Motivation
7 31 (2.01%) Data Protection Act
8 30 (1.95%) Management Information System
9 29 (1.88%) Enterprise Software
10 27 (1.75%) Legacy Systems
11 25 (1.62%) Data Structures
12 22 (1.43%) NHS
12 22 (1.43%) Social Media
13 21 (1.36%) Data Centre
14 19 (1.23%) Educational Technology
15 17 (1.10%) Animation
16 16 (1.04%) Graphic Design
17 13 (0.84%) Analytical Mindset
17 13 (0.84%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
17 13 (0.84%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 152 (9.86%) Windows
2 68 (4.41%) Apple iOS
3 65 (4.22%) Android
4 58 (3.76%) Windows 10
5 34 (2.21%) Windows Server
6 32 (2.08%) Mac OS
7 19 (1.23%) Linux
8 12 (0.78%) 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 (0.065%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 495 (32.12%) UX Design
2 442 (28.68%) Agile
3 309 (20.05%) AI
4 284 (18.43%) Stakeholder Management
5 253 (16.42%) Problem-Solving
6 239 (15.51%) Continuous Improvement
7 209 (13.56%) Analytics
8 198 (12.85%) User Research
9 182 (11.81%) CI/CD
10 174 (11.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 154 (9.99%) Roadmaps
12 150 (9.73%) Decision-Making
12 150 (9.73%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
13 125 (8.11%) Service Design
14 124 (8.05%) Scrum
15 123 (7.98%) DevOps
16 118 (7.66%) Prototyping
16 118 (7.66%) Workshop Facilitation
17 114 (7.40%) Service Management
18 111 (7.20%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 144 (9.34%) JavaScript
2 129 (8.37%) TypeScript
3 109 (7.07%) Python
4 97 (6.29%) Java
5 94 (6.10%) SQL
6 50 (3.24%) PowerShell
7 33 (2.14%) C#
8 29 (1.88%) Kotlin
9 20 (1.30%) Bash
10 19 (1.23%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 18 (1.17%) Swift
12 9 (0.58%) Go
13 8 (0.52%) PHP
13 8 (0.52%) VBScript
14 7 (0.45%) Shell Script
14 7 (0.45%) VB
15 6 (0.39%) Scala
16 5 (0.32%) Apex Code
16 5 (0.32%) Korn
17 4 (0.26%) R
Qualifications
1 234 (15.18%) Security Cleared
2 182 (11.81%) SC Cleared
3 116 (7.53%) Degree
4 43 (2.79%) BPSS Clearance
5 33 (2.14%) Computer Science Degree
6 26 (1.69%) DV Cleared
7 24 (1.56%) Azure Certification
8 20 (1.30%) Microsoft Certification
9 16 (1.04%) PMP
10 9 (0.58%) ITIL Certification
11 8 (0.52%) AWS Certification
11 8 (0.52%) Cisco 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%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 5 (0.32%) CCA
14 5 (0.32%) CISSP
14 5 (0.32%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 266 (17.26%) Accessibility
2 101 (6.55%) WCAG
3 90 (5.84%) QA
4 47 (3.05%) Data Quality
5 19 (1.23%) GDPR
6 15 (0.97%) Actionable Recommendations
7 12 (0.78%) SLA
8 8 (0.52%) PMO
9 7 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 6 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials
11 5 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
12 3 (0.19%) GRC
13 2 (0.13%) GMP
13 2 (0.13%) 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%) NIST
14 1 (0.065%) SOC 2
System Software
1 108 (7.01%) Active Directory
2 46 (2.99%) Docker
3 29 (1.88%) Virtual Desktop
4 25 (1.62%) VMware Infrastructure
5 15 (0.97%) Hyper-V
6 9 (0.58%) Citrix Hypervisor
7 8 (0.52%) XenApp
7 8 (0.52%) 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
12 2 (0.13%) Firmware
12 2 (0.13%) Virtual Machines
12 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
12 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
13 1 (0.065%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 50 (3.24%) Microsoft Intune
2 48 (3.11%) Kubernetes
3 36 (2.34%) Grafana
4 31 (2.01%) SCCM
5 21 (1.36%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (1.10%) Ansible
7 16 (1.04%) Jamf Pro
8 14 (0.91%) Prometheus
9 5 (0.32%) SysTrack
9 5 (0.32%) vCenter Server
10 4 (0.26%) Clonezilla
10 4 (0.26%) Podman
11 3 (0.19%) Kibana
11 3 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 3 (0.19%) WSUS
12 2 (0.13%) Argo
12 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
12 2 (0.13%) Packer
12 2 (0.13%) SCOM
12 2 (0.13%) vMotion
Vendors
1 273 (17.72%) Microsoft
2 89 (5.78%) ServiceNow
3 87 (5.65%) Adobe
4 49 (3.18%) Google
5 44 (2.86%) Oracle
6 32 (2.08%) SAP
7 30 (1.95%) Salesforce
8 28 (1.82%) Dynatrace
8 28 (1.82%) VMware
9 25 (1.62%) Citrix
9 25 (1.62%) Splunk
10 22 (1.43%) Databricks
11 20 (1.30%) Apple
11 20 (1.30%) OpenAI
12 17 (1.10%) Cisco
13 16 (1.04%) Foundry
14 15 (0.97%) Workday
15 14 (0.91%) Zscaler
16 10 (0.65%) Aruba
16 10 (0.65%) Okta