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

6 months to
2 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 93 61 78
Rank change year-on-year -32 +17 -16
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,543 1,249 1,021
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.88% 3.84% 2.64%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.40% 4.25% 3.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 930 801 622
10th Percentile £300 £300 £305
25th Percentile £390 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £438 £475
% change year-on-year +2.86% -7.89% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 46 28
10th Percentile £16.88 £17.88 £16.74
25th Percentile £26.25 £33.00 £30.00
Median hourly rate £33.99 £43.50 £40.84
Median % change year-on-year -21.86% +6.52% +8.90%
75th Percentile £67.84 £63.75 £68.60
90th Percentile £76.40 £71.73 £74.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £35.60 £33.54
% change year-on-year -4.52% +6.14% +89.28%

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 45,329 29,411 32,997
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.59% 90.42% 85.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,714 18,306 20,733
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% -3.54%
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 2,913 1,754 1,602
10th Percentile £14.07 £14.20 £14.16
25th Percentile £17.75 £17.30 £18.79
Median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +63.02% -40.82% +2.41%
75th Percentile £67.89 £47.09 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.25 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.56 £22.63 £43.00
% change year-on-year +92.49% -47.37% +14.67%

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 2 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 2 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 2 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 -29 1,344 £475 - 2,103
UK excluding London -16 736 £450 +2.86% 888
London -33 673 £513 +2.50% 1,442
Work from Home -34 392 £475 -3.01% 893
North of England -17 249 £425 +3.34% 244
Midlands -7 156 £475 +10.27% 111
West Midlands -3 126 £475 -6.77% 75
North West -31 126 £393 -7.53% 143
South East -54 105 £405 -9.40% 177
Scotland +2 89 £538 +16.22% 70
South West -5 82 £475 - 135
Yorkshire -17 73 £500 +25.00% 70
North East -9 49 £338 -29.69% 34
East of England -2 43 £425 -15.00% 83
East Midlands -13 30 £500 +39.66% 36
Wales -12 15 £579 +89.22% 20
Northern Ireland +5 3 £638 +56.44% 53

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%) IIS
12 2 (0.13%) nginx
Applications
1 34 (2.20%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 30 (1.94%) Sketch
3 22 (1.43%) Chatbot
4 21 (1.36%) Microsoft Excel
4 21 (1.36%) Microsoft Office
5 19 (1.23%) Photoshop
6 18 (1.17%) Adobe After Effects
7 16 (1.04%) Adobe Illustrator
8 13 (0.84%) Adobe XD
9 10 (0.65%) MS Visio
10 9 (0.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 7 (0.45%) Final Cut Pro
12 2 (0.13%) InVision
12 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
12 2 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
12 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
13 1 (0.065%) Adobe Captivate
13 1 (0.065%) Adobe Premiere
13 1 (0.065%) Blender
13 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
1 227 (14.71%) Azure
2 190 (12.31%) Figma
3 152 (9.85%) Microsoft 365
4 130 (8.43%) 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 20 (1.30%) LAN
7 19 (1.23%) VPN
8 16 (1.04%) Firewall
8 16 (1.04%) WAN
9 12 (0.78%) Internet
10 10 (0.65%) NetScaler
10 10 (0.65%) SD-WAN
11 9 (0.58%) Skype
12 8 (0.52%) Cisco Wireless
12 8 (0.52%) Intranet
12 8 (0.52%) Network Security
13 7 (0.45%) SNMP
14 6 (0.39%) 5G
14 6 (0.39%) SSL
14 6 (0.39%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (4.67%) Power BI
2 26 (1.69%) Metadata
3 17 (1.10%) NoSQL
3 17 (1.10%) PostgreSQL
4 14 (0.91%) Power Query
4 14 (0.91%) SQL Server
5 12 (0.78%) Elasticsearch
5 12 (0.78%) MongoDB
5 12 (0.78%) Tableau
6 11 (0.71%) Big Data
6 11 (0.71%) Relational Database
7 9 (0.58%) Looker
8 8 (0.52%) Redis
9 7 (0.45%) MySQL
9 7 (0.45%) Snowflake Schema
10 6 (0.39%) Data Warehouse
10 6 (0.39%) Flink
10 6 (0.39%) Qlik Sense
10 6 (0.39%) Star Schema
11 5 (0.32%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 87 (5.64%) JIRA
2 84 (5.44%) Git
3 29 (1.88%) Jenkins
4 28 (1.81%) Cypress.io
5 25 (1.62%) Vite
6 17 (1.10%) Storybook
7 15 (0.97%) GitLab
8 14 (0.91%) Claude Code
9 12 (0.78%) fastlane
10 10 (0.65%) Android Studio
10 10 (0.65%) Browser DevTools
11 9 (0.58%) Xcode
12 8 (0.52%) JMeter
12 8 (0.52%) Selenium
12 8 (0.52%) webpack
13 7 (0.45%) Postman
14 6 (0.39%) Gradle
14 6 (0.39%) JUnit
14 6 (0.39%) Visual Studio
15 5 (0.32%) Oracle Forms
General
1 498 (32.27%) Social Skills
2 260 (16.85%) Finance
3 208 (13.48%) Public Sector
4 162 (10.50%) Analytical Skills
5 111 (7.19%) Banking
6 79 (5.12%) Retail
7 73 (4.73%) Marketing
8 53 (3.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 42 (2.72%) Influencing Skills
10 39 (2.53%) 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
16 20 (1.30%) Military
17 17 (1.10%) Investment Banking
18 10 (0.65%) Law
19 9 (0.58%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 324 (21.00%) Designer
2 215 (13.93%) Senior
3 206 (13.35%) Developer
4 132 (8.55%) UX Designer
5 126 (8.17%) Lead
6 101 (6.55%) Analyst
7 81 (5.25%) UI Designer
8 75 (4.86%) Consultant
9 65 (4.21%) Senior Designer
10 62 (4.02%) Architect
11 60 (3.89%) User Researcher
12 55 (3.56%) IT Support
12 55 (3.56%) Product Manager
13 54 (3.50%) Support Engineer
14 50 (3.24%) Business Analyst
15 47 (3.05%) Content Designer
15 47 (3.05%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
16 44 (2.85%) UI/UX Designer
17 43 (2.79%) Product Designer
18 41 (2.66%) User Experience Researcher
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 154 (9.98%) React
2 123 (7.97%) CSS
3 111 (7.19%) HTML
4 92 (5.96%) REST
5 62 (4.02%) RESTful
6 49 (3.18%) Terraform
7 47 (3.05%) AngularJS
8 44 (2.85%) HTML5
9 43 (2.79%) CSS3
10 41 (2.66%) 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 24 (1.56%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 147 (9.53%) Product Ownership
2 92 (5.96%) Mobile App
3 86 (5.57%) Onboarding
4 55 (3.56%) 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 26 (1.69%) Legacy Systems
9 25 (1.62%) Management Information System
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 18 (1.17%) Animation
15 18 (1.17%) Graphic Design
16 15 (0.97%) Virtual Reality
17 14 (0.91%) Analytical Mindset
17 14 (0.91%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 152 (9.85%) Windows
2 67 (4.34%) Apple iOS
3 66 (4.28%) Android
4 57 (3.69%) Windows 10
5 32 (2.07%) Mac OS
6 31 (2.01%) Windows Server
7 19 (1.23%) Linux
8 11 (0.71%) 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
1 496 (32.15%) UX Design
2 446 (28.90%) Agile
3 308 (19.96%) AI
4 273 (17.69%) Stakeholder Management
5 253 (16.40%) Problem-Solving
6 233 (15.10%) Continuous Improvement
7 210 (13.61%) Analytics
8 194 (12.57%) User Research
9 182 (11.80%) CI/CD
10 174 (11.28%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 159 (10.30%) Roadmaps
12 152 (9.85%) Decision-Making
13 147 (9.53%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
14 126 (8.17%) DevOps
14 126 (8.17%) Prototyping
15 124 (8.04%) Scrum
16 121 (7.84%) Service Design
17 117 (7.58%) Workshop Facilitation
18 112 (7.26%) Service Management
19 111 (7.19%) Wireframes
Programming Languages
1 150 (9.72%) JavaScript
2 124 (8.04%) TypeScript
3 115 (7.45%) Python
4 95 (6.16%) SQL
5 92 (5.96%) 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
15 5 (0.32%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 240 (15.55%) Security Cleared
2 183 (11.86%) SC Cleared
3 122 (7.91%) 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 10 (0.65%) ITIL Certification
11 9 (0.58%) Cisco Certification
12 8 (0.52%) AWS Certification
12 8 (0.52%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 7 (0.45%) DBS Check
14 6 (0.39%) Master's Degree
14 6 (0.39%) MCSE
14 6 (0.39%) PMI Certification
15 5 (0.32%) CCIE
15 5 (0.32%) CCNP
15 5 (0.32%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 271 (17.56%) Accessibility
2 100 (6.48%) 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%) NIST
System Software
1 107 (6.93%) 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
1 271 (17.56%) Microsoft
2 89 (5.77%) ServiceNow
3 87 (5.64%) Adobe
4 52 (3.37%) Google
5 47 (3.05%) 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