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

6 months to
6 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 98 66 79
Rank change year-on-year -32 +13 -10
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,552 1,227 1,032
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.84% 3.74% 2.74%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.36% 4.13% 3.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 930 787 612
10th Percentile £313 £300 £313
25th Percentile £402 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% -5.00% -2.44%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £588
90th Percentile £700 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £469
% change year-on-year - -4.05% -1.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 76 54 26
10th Percentile £18.63 £15.50 £27.63
25th Percentile £26.99 £21.44 £30.48
Median hourly rate £38.77 £35.60 £39.75
Median % change year-on-year +8.89% -10.44% -16.32%
75th Percentile £68.11 £53.44 £68.94
90th Percentile £77.00 £63.75 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.22 £27.58 £33.54
% change year-on-year +27.72% -17.78% +2.85%

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 46,176 29,707 32,376
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.50% 90.53% 85.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,774 18,450 19,527
10th Percentile £325 £297 £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 £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,315 1,863 1,324
10th Percentile £13.69 £14.38 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.14 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £38.50 £25.15 £41.08
Median % change year-on-year +53.08% -38.77% -3.91%
75th Percentile £65.41 £43.21 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.40 £65.00 £74.31
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.72 £22.32 £42.50
% change year-on-year +73.52% -47.49% -

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 6 October 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 6 October 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 6 October 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 1,343 £475 - 3,199
UK excluding London -14 737 £450 - 1,674
London -30 679 £509 +2.73% 1,810
Work from Home -36 391 £500 - 1,549
North of England -2 273 £425 +3.03% 453
Midlands -12 146 £464 +3.02% 226
North West -24 144 £403 -3.53% 255
West Midlands -7 116 £463 -7.34% 140
Scotland -1 93 £538 +18.13% 174
South East -56 92 £403 -10.56% 370
Yorkshire -5 82 £500 +23.08% 130
South West -5 78 £475 +5.56% 167
North East +2 46 £325 -27.78% 71
East of England -8 44 £410 -21.90% 152
East Midlands -9 30 £500 +24.38% 86
Wales -15 13 £530 +66.36% 74
Northern Ireland +9 4 £638 +2.00% 66

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 75 (4.83%) SharePoint
2 67 (4.32%) CMS
3 50 (3.22%) Confluence
4 30 (1.93%) Microsoft Exchange
5 17 (1.10%) WordPress
6 7 (0.45%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 7 (0.45%) Headless CMS
6 7 (0.45%) Skype for Business
7 6 (0.39%) Apache
7 6 (0.39%) Drupal
7 6 (0.39%) Oracle Workflow
7 6 (0.39%) Traefik
8 5 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
9 4 (0.26%) Kentico
9 4 (0.26%) Mendix
10 3 (0.19%) ColdFusion
10 3 (0.19%) Umbraco
11 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
11 2 (0.13%) IIS
11 2 (0.13%) Moodle
Applications
1 32 (2.06%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 26 (1.68%) Sketch
3 25 (1.61%) Microsoft Office
4 21 (1.35%) Microsoft Excel
5 19 (1.22%) Photoshop
6 18 (1.16%) Adobe After Effects
7 17 (1.10%) Adobe Illustrator
8 16 (1.03%) Chatbot
9 12 (0.77%) Adobe XD
10 10 (0.64%) MS Visio
11 8 (0.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
12 7 (0.45%) Final Cut Pro
13 3 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
14 2 (0.13%) Adobe Premiere
14 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
14 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
15 1 (0.064%) Adobe Captivate
15 1 (0.064%) Blender
15 1 (0.064%) Microsoft Project
15 1 (0.064%) Trello
Business Applications
1 11 (0.71%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.45%) Workday HCM
3 5 (0.32%) NetSuite
3 5 (0.32%) Salesforce CRM
4 4 (0.26%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 4 (0.26%) Oracle iProcurement
4 4 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.26%) Shopify
5 3 (0.19%) iTrent
5 3 (0.19%) SAP HR
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.13%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.13%) SAP HCM
6 2 (0.13%) SAP Payroll
7 1 (0.064%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.064%) Eloqua
7 1 (0.064%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.064%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.064%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 221 (14.24%) Azure
2 181 (11.66%) Figma
3 152 (9.79%) Microsoft 365
4 150 (9.66%) AWS
5 123 (7.93%) Power Platform
6 70 (4.51%) Entra ID
7 64 (4.12%) GitHub
8 60 (3.87%) SaaS
9 58 (3.74%) Microsoft Copilot
10 45 (2.90%) Azure DevOps
11 38 (2.45%) GCP
12 37 (2.38%) PowerApps
13 33 (2.13%) OneDrive
14 29 (1.87%) Power Automate
15 28 (1.80%) GitHub Actions
16 27 (1.74%) Copilot Studio
17 23 (1.48%) Serverless
18 20 (1.29%) Azure AI
19 17 (1.10%) GitHub Copilot
20 16 (1.03%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 45 (2.90%) DNS
2 38 (2.45%) DHCP
3 35 (2.26%) TCP/IP
4 28 (1.80%) Wi-Fi
5 20 (1.29%) VPN
6 19 (1.22%) Wireless
7 16 (1.03%) Firewall
8 15 (0.97%) LAN
9 14 (0.90%) NetScaler
9 14 (0.90%) WAN
10 9 (0.58%) Network Security
11 8 (0.52%) Cisco Wireless
12 7 (0.45%) Internet
12 7 (0.45%) Skype
12 7 (0.45%) SNMP
13 6 (0.39%) Intranet
13 6 (0.39%) SD-WAN
14 5 (0.32%) 5G
15 4 (0.26%) Remote Desktop
15 4 (0.26%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (4.70%) Power BI
2 25 (1.61%) Metadata
3 20 (1.29%) NoSQL
4 18 (1.16%) Power Query
5 17 (1.10%) PostgreSQL
5 17 (1.10%) SQL Server
6 14 (0.90%) MongoDB
7 13 (0.84%) MySQL
7 13 (0.84%) Tableau
8 12 (0.77%) Relational Database
9 11 (0.71%) Big Data
9 11 (0.71%) Elasticsearch
10 10 (0.64%) Redis
11 9 (0.58%) Looker
12 8 (0.52%) Qlik Sense
13 7 (0.45%) Snowflake Schema
13 7 (0.45%) Star Schema
14 6 (0.39%) BigQuery
14 6 (0.39%) Flink
14 6 (0.39%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 91 (5.86%) Git
2 87 (5.61%) JIRA
3 34 (2.19%) Jenkins
4 26 (1.68%) Cypress.io
4 26 (1.68%) Vite
5 23 (1.48%) Storybook
6 18 (1.16%) Claude Code
7 15 (0.97%) GitLab
8 12 (0.77%) fastlane
9 9 (0.58%) Android Studio
9 9 (0.58%) webpack
10 8 (0.52%) Xcode
11 7 (0.45%) REST Assured
12 6 (0.39%) Bitbucket
12 6 (0.39%) Browser DevTools
12 6 (0.39%) JMeter
12 6 (0.39%) Postman
13 5 (0.32%) JUnit
13 5 (0.32%) MSI
13 5 (0.32%) TeamCity
General
1 516 (33.25%) Social Skills
2 251 (16.17%) Finance
3 222 (14.30%) Public Sector
4 147 (9.47%) Analytical Skills
5 96 (6.19%) Banking
6 84 (5.41%) Marketing
7 76 (4.90%) Retail
8 54 (3.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 46 (2.96%) Influencing Skills
10 42 (2.71%) Legal
11 27 (1.74%) Automotive
11 27 (1.74%) Publishing
12 25 (1.61%) Organisational Skills
13 23 (1.48%) Presentation Skills
14 21 (1.35%) Manufacturing
14 21 (1.35%) Military
15 19 (1.22%) Documentation Skills
16 17 (1.10%) Investment Banking
17 11 (0.71%) Front Office
18 9 (0.58%) Law
Job Titles
1 306 (19.72%) Designer
2 237 (15.27%) Developer
3 211 (13.60%) Senior
4 137 (8.83%) Lead
5 131 (8.44%) UX Designer
6 96 (6.19%) Analyst
7 75 (4.83%) UI Designer
8 66 (4.25%) Senior Designer
9 63 (4.06%) Architect
10 62 (3.99%) User Researcher
11 61 (3.93%) Consultant
12 54 (3.48%) IT Support
13 53 (3.41%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
13 53 (3.41%) Support Engineer
14 52 (3.35%) Product Manager
15 50 (3.22%) Business Analyst
16 43 (2.77%) Product Designer
17 41 (2.64%) User Experience Researcher
18 40 (2.58%) Content Designer
18 40 (2.58%) UI/UX Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 163 (10.50%) React
2 119 (7.67%) CSS
3 108 (6.96%) HTML
4 94 (6.06%) REST
5 65 (4.19%) RESTful
6 47 (3.03%) Terraform
7 46 (2.96%) HTML5
8 44 (2.84%) AngularJS
9 42 (2.71%) GraphQL
10 41 (2.64%) CSS3
11 36 (2.32%) .NET
11 36 (2.32%) Node.js
12 33 (2.13%) OAuth
13 32 (2.06%) Next.js
13 32 (2.06%) Playwright
14 31 (2.00%) Spring
14 31 (2.00%) Spring Boot
15 29 (1.87%) Jest
16 25 (1.61%) OAuth2
17 24 (1.55%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 162 (10.44%) Product Ownership
2 95 (6.12%) Mobile App
3 81 (5.22%) Onboarding
4 62 (3.99%) Cloud Native
5 50 (3.22%) AI Agents
6 34 (2.19%) Management Information System
7 31 (2.00%) Self-Motivation
8 29 (1.87%) Legacy Systems
9 28 (1.80%) Enterprise Software
10 26 (1.68%) Data Protection Act
11 22 (1.42%) Data Centre
11 22 (1.42%) Social Media
12 21 (1.35%) Data Structures
13 20 (1.29%) NHS
14 19 (1.22%) Educational Technology
15 17 (1.10%) Animation
16 16 (1.03%) Graphic Design
17 15 (0.97%) Taxonomies
18 14 (0.90%) Analytical Mindset
19 13 (0.84%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 153 (9.86%) Windows
2 73 (4.70%) Apple iOS
3 66 (4.25%) Android
4 59 (3.80%) Windows 10
5 37 (2.38%) Windows Server
6 28 (1.80%) Mac OS
7 18 (1.16%) Linux
8 14 (0.90%) Unix
9 9 (0.58%) Windows 7
10 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.19%) AIX
12 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 490 (31.57%) UX Design
2 455 (29.32%) Agile
3 308 (19.85%) Stakeholder Management
4 296 (19.07%) AI
5 255 (16.43%) Continuous Improvement
6 246 (15.85%) Problem-Solving
7 215 (13.85%) User Research
8 211 (13.60%) Analytics
9 183 (11.79%) CI/CD
10 179 (11.53%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 170 (10.95%) Decision-Making
12 164 (10.57%) Roadmaps
13 153 (9.86%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
14 139 (8.96%) Service Design
15 125 (8.05%) Scrum
16 123 (7.93%) Workshop Facilitation
17 120 (7.73%) DevOps
18 119 (7.67%) Prototyping
19 118 (7.60%) Service Management
20 108 (6.96%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 148 (9.54%) JavaScript
2 137 (8.83%) TypeScript
3 99 (6.38%) SQL
4 97 (6.25%) Java
4 97 (6.25%) Python
5 52 (3.35%) PowerShell
6 32 (2.06%) C#
7 29 (1.87%) Kotlin
8 23 (1.48%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 20 (1.29%) Bash
9 20 (1.29%) Swift
10 10 (0.64%) Go
11 8 (0.52%) Shell Script
12 7 (0.45%) PHP
12 7 (0.45%) VB
12 7 (0.45%) VBScript
13 6 (0.39%) Scala
14 5 (0.32%) Apex Code
14 5 (0.32%) Objective-C
14 5 (0.32%) Perl
Qualifications
1 245 (15.79%) Security Cleared
2 189 (12.18%) SC Cleared
3 114 (7.35%) Degree
4 51 (3.29%) BPSS Clearance
5 31 (2.00%) Computer Science Degree
6 24 (1.55%) DV Cleared
7 18 (1.16%) Azure Certification
8 17 (1.10%) PMP
9 14 (0.90%) Microsoft Certification
10 9 (0.58%) DBS Check
11 8 (0.52%) AWS Certification
11 8 (0.52%) ITIL Certification
12 7 (0.45%) Cisco Certification
12 7 (0.45%) PMI Certification
12 7 (0.45%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 6 (0.39%) Master's Degree
14 5 (0.32%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 5 (0.32%) CCA
14 5 (0.32%) CISSP
14 5 (0.32%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 275 (17.72%) Accessibility
2 104 (6.70%) WCAG
3 100 (6.44%) QA
4 50 (3.22%) Data Quality
5 18 (1.16%) Actionable Recommendations
6 16 (1.03%) GDPR
7 15 (0.97%) SLA
8 12 (0.77%) PMO
9 6 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials
10 5 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 4 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 2 (0.13%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 2 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 2 (0.13%) GMP
12 2 (0.13%) GRC
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%) WAI
System Software
1 114 (7.35%) Active Directory
2 52 (3.35%) Docker
3 30 (1.93%) Virtual Desktop
4 27 (1.74%) VMware Infrastructure
5 16 (1.03%) Hyper-V
6 11 (0.71%) Citrix Hypervisor
7 10 (0.64%) XenApp
8 9 (0.58%) XenDesktop
9 7 (0.45%) BitLocker
9 7 (0.45%) vSphere
10 5 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
11 4 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
12 3 (0.19%) UAG
12 3 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
13 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
13 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
14 1 (0.064%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 55 (3.54%) Microsoft Intune
2 54 (3.48%) Kubernetes
3 36 (2.32%) Grafana
4 26 (1.68%) SCCM
5 17 (1.10%) Ansible
5 17 (1.10%) Single Sign-On
6 14 (0.90%) Jamf Pro
6 14 (0.90%) Prometheus
7 7 (0.45%) Istio
8 6 (0.39%) SysTrack
8 6 (0.39%) vCenter Server
9 4 (0.26%) Clonezilla
10 3 (0.19%) Kibana
10 3 (0.19%) Podman
10 3 (0.19%) WSUS
11 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
11 2 (0.13%) Packer
11 2 (0.13%) SCOM
11 2 (0.13%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 2 (0.13%) vMotion
Vendors
1 282 (18.17%) Microsoft
2 91 (5.86%) ServiceNow
3 78 (5.03%) Adobe
4 52 (3.35%) Google
5 48 (3.09%) Oracle
6 31 (2.00%) Salesforce
6 31 (2.00%) SAP
7 30 (1.93%) VMware
8 27 (1.74%) Dynatrace
8 27 (1.74%) Splunk
9 25 (1.61%) Citrix
10 22 (1.42%) Apple
11 20 (1.29%) Databricks
12 19 (1.22%) OpenAI
13 15 (0.97%) Cisco
13 15 (0.97%) Workday
14 14 (0.90%) Zscaler
15 13 (0.84%) Foundry
16 9 (0.58%) Aruba
16 9 (0.58%) Okta