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

6 months to
28 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 80 59 70
Rank change year-on-year -21 +11 -9
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,424 1,099 1,238
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.03% 3.74% 2.86%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.58% 4.12% 3.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 972 749 830
10th Percentile £313 £305 £305
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £489 £486 £500
Median % change year-on-year +0.57% -2.80% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £598
90th Percentile £687 £714 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £425 £475
% change year-on-year +11.76% -10.53% +2.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 23 50
10th Percentile £16.51 £28.31 £16.25
25th Percentile £21.22 £41.58 £24.06
Median hourly rate £47.25 £53.50 £32.11
Median % change year-on-year -11.68% +66.64% -8.27%
75th Percentile £61.81 £77.73 £63.84
90th Percentile £73.60 £93.50 £73.82
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.75 £70.00 £25.00
% change year-on-year -37.50% +180.00% +3.09%

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 39,735 26,655 37,382
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.58% 90.81% 86.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,044 17,231 24,097
10th Percentile £319 £306 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £523 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.40% -0.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £631 £638
90th Percentile £725 £744 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £485 £500
% change year-on-year - -3.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,400 1,068 2,424
10th Percentile £14.96 £14.84 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.98 £18.51 £16.00
Median hourly rate £40.25 £29.15 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +38.08% -16.71% -6.27%
75th Percentile £65.60 £62.24 £59.44
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.00 £28.00 £35.98
% change year-on-year +50.00% -22.17% -0.07%

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 28 April 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 28 April 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 28 April 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 -15 1,234 £491 -1.80% 986
London -18 637 £513 -1.44% 340
UK excluding London -1 619 £475 +11.76% 795
Work from Home -30 358 £475 -3.85% 405
North of England +5 197 £451 +0.11% 374
Midlands -8 145 £500 +24.69% 114
North West +13 121 £425 -5.56% 305
South East -25 114 £485 +5.84% 156
West Midlands -19 96 £475 +1.33% 66
South West -23 65 £469 +25.00% 52
Scotland -12 55 £500 +11.11% 27
Yorkshire -31 51 £513 +27.97% 50
East Midlands -5 49 £550 +53.63% 48
East of England -18 30 £418 -12.11% 54
North East -8 23 £410 -9.39% 21
Wales -7 15 £375 +22.55% 19
Northern Ireland -1 3 - - 17

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 52 (3.65%) SharePoint
2 51 (3.58%) Confluence
3 39 (2.74%) CMS
4 19 (1.33%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 16 (1.12%) Microsoft Exchange
6 7 (0.49%) Apache
7 6 (0.42%) Headless CMS
7 6 (0.42%) Mendix
7 6 (0.42%) Sitecore CMS
7 6 (0.42%) Umbraco
7 6 (0.42%) WordPress
8 5 (0.35%) Camunda
9 4 (0.28%) Drupal
9 4 (0.28%) Ethereum
9 4 (0.28%) Hyperledger
10 3 (0.21%) Anypoint
10 3 (0.21%) Apache Spark
10 3 (0.21%) nginx
11 2 (0.14%) Appian
11 2 (0.14%) Kentico
Applications
1 43 (3.02%) Sketch
2 30 (2.11%) Adobe XD
3 24 (1.69%) Microsoft Excel
4 21 (1.47%) Chatbot
5 19 (1.33%) MS Visio
6 13 (0.91%) Microsoft Office
7 12 (0.84%) InVision
8 11 (0.77%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 11 (0.77%) Photoshop
9 9 (0.63%) Adobe After Effects
10 7 (0.49%) Adobe Illustrator
11 6 (0.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
12 5 (0.35%) Spreadsheet
12 5 (0.35%) Trello
13 4 (0.28%) UserZoom
14 3 (0.21%) Adobe Captivate
14 3 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
14 3 (0.21%) UXPin
15 2 (0.14%) Blender
15 2 (0.14%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 14 (0.98%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (0.91%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.70%) Shopify
4 8 (0.56%) Workday HCM
5 6 (0.42%) Sage X3
6 2 (0.14%) NEC Housing
6 2 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
6 2 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
6 2 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.14%) ResourceLink
6 2 (0.14%) SAP CO
6 2 (0.14%) SAP ERP
6 2 (0.14%) SAP FI
6 2 (0.14%) SAP FI/CO
6 2 (0.14%) Sprinklr
7 1 (0.070%) assyst
7 1 (0.070%) Oracle ERP
7 1 (0.070%) SAP CRM
7 1 (0.070%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 228 (16.01%) Azure
2 204 (14.33%) Figma
3 121 (8.50%) AWS
4 109 (7.65%) Power Platform
5 93 (6.53%) Microsoft 365
6 62 (4.35%) Azure DevOps
7 55 (3.86%) Entra ID
8 52 (3.65%) GCP
8 52 (3.65%) GitHub
9 38 (2.67%) Microsoft Copilot
9 38 (2.67%) Power Automate
9 38 (2.67%) PowerApps
9 38 (2.67%) SaaS
10 35 (2.46%) Serverless
11 29 (2.04%) GitHub Actions
12 23 (1.62%) Copilot Studio
12 23 (1.62%) Google Workspace
13 21 (1.47%) Dynamics 365
13 21 (1.47%) Miro
14 20 (1.40%) Google Sheets
Communications & Networking
1 16 (1.12%) DNS
2 12 (0.84%) LAN
2 12 (0.84%) Wi-Fi
2 12 (0.84%) Wireless
3 11 (0.77%) HTTP
3 11 (0.77%) Internet
3 11 (0.77%) Intranet
3 11 (0.77%) SD-WAN
4 10 (0.70%) DHCP
5 9 (0.63%) VPN
6 8 (0.56%) WAN
7 7 (0.49%) Cisco Wireless
7 7 (0.49%) TCP/IP
8 6 (0.42%) Firewall
8 6 (0.42%) Network Security
8 6 (0.42%) SSL
8 6 (0.42%) WLAN
9 5 (0.35%) 5G
9 5 (0.35%) SMS
9 5 (0.35%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (5.13%) Power BI
2 28 (1.97%) NoSQL
3 26 (1.83%) Relational Database
4 25 (1.76%) PostgreSQL
5 23 (1.62%) SQL Server
6 19 (1.33%) Data Warehouse
7 16 (1.12%) MongoDB
7 16 (1.12%) MySQL
8 15 (1.05%) Metadata
9 13 (0.91%) Tableau
10 11 (0.77%) Power Query
11 10 (0.70%) BigQuery
12 9 (0.63%) Big Data
13 7 (0.49%) DynamoDB
13 7 (0.49%) Looker
13 7 (0.49%) Oracle BI Publisher
13 7 (0.49%) Pinecone
14 6 (0.42%) Oracle Database
14 6 (0.42%) ZAP BI
15 5 (0.35%) Redis
Development Applications
1 108 (7.58%) JIRA
2 83 (5.83%) Git
3 36 (2.53%) GitLab
4 30 (2.11%) Cypress.io
5 25 (1.76%) Jenkins
6 23 (1.62%) JUnit
7 17 (1.19%) Axure RP
8 13 (0.91%) Gradle
8 13 (0.91%) Selenium
9 11 (0.77%) CircleCI
10 10 (0.70%) Browser DevTools
11 8 (0.56%) Android Studio
11 8 (0.56%) Visual Studio
12 7 (0.49%) Mockito
12 7 (0.49%) Postman
12 7 (0.49%) Vite
12 7 (0.49%) Xcode
13 6 (0.42%) Jasmine
13 6 (0.42%) Mocha
14 5 (0.35%) Cucumber
General
1 451 (31.67%) Social Skills
2 270 (18.96%) Finance
3 200 (14.04%) Public Sector
4 155 (10.88%) Analytical Skills
5 111 (7.79%) Banking
6 58 (4.07%) Marketing
7 54 (3.79%) Retail
8 35 (2.46%) Legal
9 31 (2.18%) Presentation Skills
10 28 (1.97%) Influencing Skills
11 22 (1.54%) Documentation Skills
11 22 (1.54%) Manufacturing
12 19 (1.33%) Pharmaceutical
13 17 (1.19%) Games
13 17 (1.19%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 16 (1.12%) Organisational Skills
14 16 (1.12%) Publishing
15 14 (0.98%) Investment Banking
16 13 (0.91%) Automotive
17 12 (0.84%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 294 (20.65%) Designer
2 213 (14.96%) Senior
3 197 (13.83%) Developer
4 137 (9.62%) UX Designer
5 128 (8.99%) Analyst
6 75 (5.27%) Consultant
7 70 (4.92%) Lead
8 68 (4.78%) Business Analyst
9 66 (4.63%) Product Designer
10 65 (4.56%) Architect
11 57 (4.00%) Senior Designer
12 56 (3.93%) User Researcher
13 53 (3.72%) UI Designer
14 43 (3.02%) Service Designer
15 42 (2.95%) Content Designer
16 40 (2.81%) User Experience Researcher
17 39 (2.74%) UI/UX Designer
18 36 (2.53%) IT Support
19 35 (2.46%) Full-Stack Developer
19 35 (2.46%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 158 (11.10%) React
2 141 (9.90%) CSS
3 131 (9.20%) HTML
4 108 (7.58%) REST
5 75 (5.27%) AngularJS
5 75 (5.27%) RESTful
6 61 (4.28%) Spring
7 60 (4.21%) Spring Boot
8 59 (4.14%) .NET
9 37 (2.60%) HTML5
9 37 (2.60%) Node.js
10 34 (2.39%) Redux
11 33 (2.32%) JSON
12 32 (2.25%) CSS3
12 32 (2.25%) GraphQL
13 29 (2.04%) Jest
14 27 (1.90%) Next.js
15 25 (1.76%) Kafka
16 21 (1.47%) Playwright
16 21 (1.47%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 136 (9.55%) Product Ownership
2 73 (5.13%) Mobile App
3 53 (3.72%) Onboarding
4 35 (2.46%) AI Agents
5 33 (2.32%) Enterprise Software
6 30 (2.11%) Data Structures
7 24 (1.69%) Cloud Native
8 22 (1.54%) Analytical Mindset
9 18 (1.26%) Distributed Systems
10 17 (1.19%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 16 (1.12%) Data Protection Act
12 15 (1.05%) Virtual Reality
13 14 (0.98%) Augmented Reality
13 14 (0.98%) NHS
14 13 (0.91%) Low-Code
14 13 (0.91%) Management Information System
14 13 (0.91%) Self-Motivation
15 12 (0.84%) Algorithms
16 11 (0.77%) Legacy Systems
17 10 (0.70%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 97 (6.81%) Windows
2 38 (2.67%) Windows 10
3 37 (2.60%) Android
4 31 (2.18%) Apple iOS
5 21 (1.47%) Mac OS
6 12 (0.84%) Linux
7 9 (0.63%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.35%) Unix
8 5 (0.35%) Windows Server 2016
9 4 (0.28%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.14%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.070%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.070%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 464 (32.58%) UX Design
2 461 (32.37%) Agile
3 227 (15.94%) AI
4 216 (15.17%) Problem-Solving
5 215 (15.10%) User Research
6 206 (14.47%) Analytics
7 174 (12.22%) CI/CD
8 173 (12.15%) Stakeholder Management
9 166 (11.66%) DevOps
10 165 (11.59%) Continuous Improvement
11 164 (11.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 153 (10.74%) Roadmaps
13 146 (10.25%) Prototyping
14 133 (9.34%) Wireframes
15 129 (9.06%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
16 128 (8.99%) UX Research
17 126 (8.85%) Service Design
18 116 (8.15%) Decision-Making
19 111 (7.79%) Workshop Facilitation
20 110 (7.72%) Usability Testing
Programming Languages
1 173 (12.15%) JavaScript
2 129 (9.06%) SQL
3 123 (8.64%) Java
4 120 (8.43%) Python
5 111 (7.79%) TypeScript
6 63 (4.42%) C#
7 45 (3.16%) PowerShell
8 26 (1.83%) Kotlin
9 21 (1.47%) Bash
10 16 (1.12%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 11 (0.77%) C++
12 9 (0.63%) Lua
13 8 (0.56%) Swift
14 7 (0.49%) Korn
14 7 (0.49%) PHP
15 6 (0.42%) Go
15 6 (0.42%) Scala
15 6 (0.42%) VBA
16 5 (0.35%) PL/SQL
16 5 (0.35%) R
Qualifications
1 190 (13.34%) Security Cleared
2 143 (10.04%) SC Cleared
3 122 (8.57%) Degree
4 35 (2.46%) BPSS Clearance
5 30 (2.11%) Computer Science Degree
6 23 (1.62%) DV Cleared
7 21 (1.47%) Microsoft Certification
8 13 (0.91%) Azure Certification
8 13 (0.91%) Cisco Certification
8 13 (0.91%) Master's Degree
9 10 (0.70%) CCNP
10 8 (0.56%) PMI Certification
11 6 (0.42%) CCA
11 6 (0.42%) CCIE
11 6 (0.42%) Citrix Certification
12 4 (0.28%) CCNA
12 4 (0.28%) ITIL Certification
12 4 (0.28%) OCA
12 4 (0.28%) Oracle Certification
12 4 (0.28%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 248 (17.42%) Accessibility
2 125 (8.78%) QA
3 78 (5.48%) WCAG
4 48 (3.37%) Data Quality
5 38 (2.67%) GDPR
6 24 (1.69%) Actionable Recommendations
7 17 (1.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 10 (0.70%) SLA
9 8 (0.56%) PMO
10 6 (0.42%) Cyber Essentials
10 6 (0.42%) GMP
10 6 (0.42%) GxP
11 5 (0.35%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 4 (0.28%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 4 (0.28%) GRC
13 3 (0.21%) Disclosure Scotland
13 3 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 3 (0.21%) NCSC
13 3 (0.21%) NIST
13 3 (0.21%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 74 (5.20%) Active Directory
2 55 (3.86%) Docker
3 19 (1.33%) Virtual Desktop
3 19 (1.33%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (0.42%) Firmware
5 5 (0.35%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.21%) XenApp
6 3 (0.21%) XenDesktop
7 2 (0.14%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.070%) ISA Server
8 1 (0.070%) Varnish
8 1 (0.070%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.070%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 59 (4.14%) Kubernetes
2 48 (3.37%) Terraform
3 33 (2.32%) Grafana
3 33 (2.32%) Microsoft Intune
4 28 (1.97%) SCCM
5 17 (1.19%) Ansible
6 16 (1.12%) Single Sign-On
7 11 (0.77%) Prometheus
8 5 (0.35%) Jamf Pro
9 4 (0.28%) Podman
10 3 (0.21%) Argo
10 3 (0.21%) HP ALM
10 3 (0.21%) Nagios
10 3 (0.21%) Rancher
10 3 (0.21%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 2 (0.14%) Failover Clustering
11 2 (0.14%) FortiGate
11 2 (0.14%) SysTrack
11 2 (0.14%) WSUS
12 1 (0.070%) AirWatch
Vendors
1 208 (14.61%) Microsoft
2 90 (6.32%) Adobe
3 69 (4.85%) Google
4 52 (3.65%) ServiceNow
5 51 (3.58%) SAP
6 47 (3.30%) Oracle
7 43 (3.02%) Salesforce
8 24 (1.69%) Citrix
9 19 (1.33%) Splunk
9 19 (1.33%) VMware
10 17 (1.19%) Workday
11 16 (1.12%) Cisco
12 14 (0.98%) Apple
13 13 (0.91%) Databricks
14 10 (0.70%) OpenAI
14 10 (0.70%) Sitecore
15 9 (0.63%) Aruba
15 9 (0.63%) Foundry
15 9 (0.63%) MuleSoft
16 8 (0.56%) Zscaler