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

6 months to
5 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 79 59 78
Rank change year-on-year -20 +19 -20
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,507 1,102 1,176
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.07% 3.81% 2.74%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.62% 4.19% 3.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 969 728 782
10th Percentile £318 £304 £307
25th Percentile £400 £390 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.08% -4.00% -3.38%
75th Percentile £575 £580 £600
90th Percentile £675 £689 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £425 £475
% change year-on-year +11.76% -10.53% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 66 27 47
10th Percentile £16.00 £25.84 £16.25
25th Percentile £23.04 £40.38 £23.75
Median hourly rate £33.99 £53.50 £31.71
Median % change year-on-year -36.47% +68.72% +7.15%
75th Percentile £61.05 £68.75 £58.13
90th Percentile £76.00 £89.50 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £70.00 £25.00
% change year-on-year -51.44% +180.00% +42.86%

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 41,594 26,332 36,644
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.70% 91.01% 85.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,970 16,762 23,491
10th Percentile £325 £300 £300
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.49% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £614 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,502 1,133 2,525
10th Percentile £14.68 £14.20 £12.75
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.87 £16.00
Median hourly rate £43.96 £27.53 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +59.68% -24.58% +1.39%
75th Percentile £68.00 £56.25 £60.75
90th Percentile £81.24 £73.75 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.29 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +80.09% -34.02% +8.91%

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 5 June 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 5 June 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 5 June 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 -8 1,298 £485 -1.02% 1,072
UK excluding London +4 698 £475 +11.76% 610
London -22 649 £513 - 597
Work from Home -23 406 £500 +3.36% 953
North of England -7 204 £450 +5.88% 178
Midlands +10 167 £475 +18.16% 85
South East -15 130 £475 +4.63% 162
North West +2 128 £425 -4.92% 116
West Midlands -7 116 £475 -7.32% 60
Scotland +10 76 £510 +13.33% 25
South West -4 74 £475 +26.67% 45
Yorkshire -19 56 £525 +34.96% 42
East Midlands +3 51 £550 +55.81% 24
East of England -14 31 £410 -14.14% 66
North East -22 20 £450 -6.25% 22
Wales -16 15 £475 +55.23% 27
Northern Ireland 0 3 - - 28

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 60 (3.98%) SharePoint
2 49 (3.25%) Confluence
3 44 (2.92%) CMS
4 22 (1.46%) Microsoft Exchange
5 14 (0.93%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 8 (0.53%) Apache
7 7 (0.46%) WordPress
8 5 (0.33%) Camunda
8 5 (0.33%) Drupal
8 5 (0.33%) Mendix
8 5 (0.33%) Skype for Business
9 4 (0.27%) Ethereum
9 4 (0.27%) Hyperledger
9 4 (0.27%) Kentico
9 4 (0.27%) Umbraco
10 3 (0.20%) Anypoint
10 3 (0.20%) Headless CMS
10 3 (0.20%) nginx
11 2 (0.13%) Moodle
11 2 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 42 (2.79%) Sketch
2 24 (1.59%) Microsoft Excel
3 23 (1.53%) Adobe XD
3 23 (1.53%) Photoshop
4 20 (1.33%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 19 (1.26%) Chatbot
6 18 (1.19%) Adobe After Effects
6 18 (1.19%) Adobe Illustrator
7 15 (1.00%) MS Visio
8 14 (0.93%) Microsoft Office
9 8 (0.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 7 (0.46%) InVision
11 4 (0.27%) Adobe Captivate
11 4 (0.27%) Final Cut Pro
12 3 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
12 3 (0.20%) Trello
12 3 (0.20%) UserZoom
12 3 (0.20%) UXPin
13 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
14 1 (0.066%) Camtasia
Business Applications
1 13 (0.86%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (0.60%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (0.60%) Shopify
2 9 (0.60%) Workday HCM
3 6 (0.40%) Sage X3
4 4 (0.27%) NetSuite
5 2 (0.13%) Oracle iProcurement
5 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
5 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
5 2 (0.13%) Payment Gateway
5 2 (0.13%) Remedy ITSM
5 2 (0.13%) ResourceLink
5 2 (0.13%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.066%) Adobe Campaign
6 1 (0.066%) Eloqua
6 1 (0.066%) Integrated Workplace Management System
6 1 (0.066%) NEC Housing
6 1 (0.066%) Oracle EBS R12
6 1 (0.066%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.066%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 234 (15.53%) Azure
2 215 (14.27%) Figma
3 130 (8.63%) AWS
4 114 (7.56%) Microsoft 365
5 110 (7.30%) Power Platform
6 60 (3.98%) Entra ID
7 53 (3.52%) Azure DevOps
8 51 (3.38%) GitHub
9 48 (3.19%) SaaS
10 46 (3.05%) GCP
10 46 (3.05%) Microsoft Copilot
11 37 (2.46%) PowerApps
12 34 (2.26%) Power Automate
13 33 (2.19%) GitHub Actions
14 32 (2.12%) Serverless
15 29 (1.92%) OneDrive
16 25 (1.66%) Copilot Studio
16 25 (1.66%) Google Workspace
17 21 (1.39%) Google Sheets
18 19 (1.26%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 24 (1.59%) DNS
2 20 (1.33%) DHCP
2 20 (1.33%) Wi-Fi
3 17 (1.13%) Wireless
4 14 (0.93%) LAN
4 14 (0.93%) TCP/IP
5 13 (0.86%) Internet
5 13 (0.86%) Intranet
6 10 (0.66%) HTTP
6 10 (0.66%) SD-WAN
7 8 (0.53%) Cisco Wireless
7 8 (0.53%) VPN
7 8 (0.53%) WAN
8 7 (0.46%) 5G
8 7 (0.46%) Firewall
8 7 (0.46%) Skype
8 7 (0.46%) WLAN
9 6 (0.40%) Network Security
9 6 (0.40%) SNMP
10 5 (0.33%) 802.11
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (4.71%) Power BI
2 27 (1.79%) Relational Database
3 25 (1.66%) NoSQL
3 25 (1.66%) PostgreSQL
4 24 (1.59%) Metadata
5 22 (1.46%) SQL Server
6 16 (1.06%) Data Warehouse
6 16 (1.06%) Power Query
7 15 (1.00%) MongoDB
8 14 (0.93%) MySQL
9 10 (0.66%) Big Data
9 10 (0.66%) Tableau
10 8 (0.53%) DynamoDB
11 6 (0.40%) Elasticsearch
11 6 (0.40%) Oracle Database
11 6 (0.40%) Pinecone
11 6 (0.40%) Redis
11 6 (0.40%) ZAP BI
12 5 (0.33%) BigQuery
12 5 (0.33%) Oracle BI Publisher
Development Applications
1 97 (6.44%) JIRA
2 91 (6.04%) Git
3 30 (1.99%) GitLab
4 26 (1.73%) Cypress.io
5 23 (1.53%) Jenkins
6 17 (1.13%) JUnit
7 15 (1.00%) Gradle
7 15 (1.00%) Vite
8 12 (0.80%) Android Studio
9 11 (0.73%) Browser DevTools
10 10 (0.66%) Axure RP
10 10 (0.66%) CircleCI
10 10 (0.66%) Xcode
11 9 (0.60%) fastlane
11 9 (0.60%) Selenium
12 8 (0.53%) Visual Studio
13 7 (0.46%) Postman
14 6 (0.40%) Claude Code
14 6 (0.40%) Mockito
14 6 (0.40%) webpack
General
1 461 (30.59%) Social Skills
2 254 (16.85%) Finance
3 193 (12.81%) Public Sector
4 146 (9.69%) Analytical Skills
5 112 (7.43%) Banking
6 70 (4.64%) Retail
7 63 (4.18%) Marketing
8 36 (2.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 33 (2.19%) Legal
9 33 (2.19%) Presentation Skills
10 31 (2.06%) Influencing Skills
11 28 (1.86%) Automotive
11 28 (1.86%) Manufacturing
12 21 (1.39%) Publishing
13 17 (1.13%) Documentation Skills
13 17 (1.13%) Investment Banking
14 16 (1.06%) Organisational Skills
14 16 (1.06%) Pharmaceutical
15 13 (0.86%) Games
15 13 (0.86%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 324 (21.50%) Designer
2 226 (15.00%) Senior
3 204 (13.54%) Developer
4 144 (9.56%) UX Designer
5 116 (7.70%) Analyst
6 98 (6.50%) Lead
7 77 (5.11%) UI Designer
8 72 (4.78%) Consultant
9 67 (4.45%) Senior Designer
10 63 (4.18%) Product Designer
11 62 (4.11%) Architect
12 58 (3.85%) Business Analyst
13 50 (3.32%) Content Designer
14 48 (3.19%) User Experience Researcher
14 48 (3.19%) User Researcher
15 46 (3.05%) UI/UX Designer
16 45 (2.99%) IT Support
17 41 (2.72%) Product Manager
18 36 (2.39%) Senior Developer
18 36 (2.39%) Service Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 164 (10.88%) React
2 136 (9.02%) CSS
3 123 (8.16%) HTML
4 106 (7.03%) REST
5 76 (5.04%) AngularJS
6 74 (4.91%) RESTful
7 56 (3.72%) Spring
8 55 (3.65%) Spring Boot
9 54 (3.58%) .NET
10 38 (2.52%) GraphQL
11 37 (2.46%) Node.js
12 34 (2.26%) HTML5
12 34 (2.26%) JSON
13 32 (2.12%) CSS3
13 32 (2.12%) Redux
14 30 (1.99%) Jest
15 28 (1.86%) Kafka
16 24 (1.59%) ASP.NET
17 23 (1.53%) Next.js
17 23 (1.53%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 152 (10.09%) Product Ownership
2 73 (4.84%) Mobile App
3 59 (3.92%) Onboarding
4 34 (2.26%) AI Agents
5 32 (2.12%) Cloud Native
6 30 (1.99%) Data Structures
7 27 (1.79%) Enterprise Software
8 25 (1.66%) Legacy Systems
9 21 (1.39%) Animation
9 21 (1.39%) Self-Motivation
10 20 (1.33%) Data Protection Act
11 18 (1.19%) Analytical Mindset
12 17 (1.13%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 16 (1.06%) Data Centre
14 15 (1.00%) Graphic Design
15 14 (0.93%) Distributed Systems
15 14 (0.93%) Social Media
15 14 (0.93%) Taxonomies
15 14 (0.93%) Virtual Reality
16 13 (0.86%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 111 (7.37%) Windows
2 48 (3.19%) Android
3 46 (3.05%) Apple iOS
4 35 (2.32%) Windows 10
5 24 (1.59%) Mac OS
6 15 (1.00%) Linux
7 11 (0.73%) Windows Server
8 6 (0.40%) Windows 7
9 5 (0.33%) Unix
9 5 (0.33%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.27%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.066%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 515 (34.17%) UX Design
2 458 (30.39%) Agile
3 243 (16.12%) AI
4 224 (14.86%) Problem-Solving
5 204 (13.54%) User Research
6 200 (13.27%) Analytics
7 192 (12.74%) Stakeholder Management
8 190 (12.61%) Continuous Improvement
9 175 (11.61%) CI/CD
10 164 (10.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 163 (10.82%) Roadmaps
12 146 (9.69%) DevOps
13 145 (9.62%) Prototyping
14 140 (9.29%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
15 130 (8.63%) Wireframes
16 127 (8.43%) Service Design
17 126 (8.36%) Decision-Making
18 125 (8.29%) UX Research
19 108 (7.17%) Usability Testing
20 105 (6.97%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 164 (10.88%) JavaScript
2 121 (8.03%) Python
3 118 (7.83%) TypeScript
4 116 (7.70%) SQL
5 115 (7.63%) Java
6 57 (3.78%) C#
7 53 (3.52%) PowerShell
8 34 (2.26%) Kotlin
9 21 (1.39%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 18 (1.19%) Bash
11 14 (0.93%) Swift
12 11 (0.73%) C++
13 9 (0.60%) Lua
14 8 (0.53%) Korn
15 6 (0.40%) VBA
15 6 (0.40%) VBScript
16 5 (0.33%) Perl
16 5 (0.33%) R
16 5 (0.33%) Scala
16 5 (0.33%) VB
Qualifications
1 195 (12.94%) Security Cleared
2 144 (9.56%) Degree
3 141 (9.36%) SC Cleared
4 31 (2.06%) Computer Science Degree
5 28 (1.86%) BPSS Clearance
6 24 (1.59%) DV Cleared
7 22 (1.46%) Microsoft Certification
8 15 (1.00%) Azure Certification
9 13 (0.86%) Master's Degree
10 11 (0.73%) Cisco Certification
11 8 (0.53%) CCA
11 8 (0.53%) CCNP
11 8 (0.53%) ITIL Certification
12 7 (0.46%) CCIE
12 7 (0.46%) Citrix Certification
12 7 (0.46%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 6 (0.40%) DBS Check
14 5 (0.33%) MCSE
14 5 (0.33%) PMI Certification
14 5 (0.33%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 264 (17.52%) Accessibility
2 105 (6.97%) QA
3 93 (6.17%) WCAG
4 46 (3.05%) Data Quality
5 29 (1.92%) GDPR
6 19 (1.26%) Actionable Recommendations
7 17 (1.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 7 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials
8 7 (0.46%) SLA
9 6 (0.40%) GMP
9 6 (0.40%) GxP
9 6 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 6 (0.40%) PMO
10 4 (0.27%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 3 (0.20%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.13%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 2 (0.13%) GRC
12 2 (0.13%) HIPAA
12 2 (0.13%) NCSC
12 2 (0.13%) NIST
System Software
1 71 (4.71%) Active Directory
2 51 (3.38%) Docker
3 22 (1.46%) Virtual Desktop
4 18 (1.19%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.40%) Firmware
6 5 (0.33%) BitLocker
7 4 (0.27%) Microsoft App-V
8 3 (0.20%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.20%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.13%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
9 2 (0.13%) vSphere
9 2 (0.13%) XenApp
9 2 (0.13%) XenDesktop
10 1 (0.066%) ISA Server
10 1 (0.066%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 56 (3.72%) Kubernetes
2 49 (3.25%) Terraform
3 43 (2.85%) Microsoft Intune
4 36 (2.39%) SCCM
5 33 (2.19%) Grafana
6 18 (1.19%) Single Sign-On
7 16 (1.06%) Ansible
8 11 (0.73%) Jamf Pro
9 9 (0.60%) Prometheus
10 4 (0.27%) Podman
11 3 (0.20%) Clonezilla
11 3 (0.20%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 3 (0.20%) WSUS
12 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
12 2 (0.13%) HP ALM
12 2 (0.13%) Packer
12 2 (0.13%) SCOM
12 2 (0.13%) vCenter Server
12 2 (0.13%) vMotion
13 1 (0.066%) HAProxy
Vendors
1 236 (15.66%) Microsoft
2 97 (6.44%) Adobe
3 68 (4.51%) ServiceNow
4 65 (4.31%) Google
5 41 (2.72%) Salesforce
6 38 (2.52%) SAP
7 37 (2.46%) Oracle
8 24 (1.59%) Citrix
9 21 (1.39%) Databricks
10 19 (1.26%) Splunk
11 18 (1.19%) VMware
12 17 (1.13%) Cisco
12 17 (1.13%) Dynatrace
12 17 (1.13%) Workday
13 14 (0.93%) Apple
14 12 (0.80%) Aruba
15 11 (0.73%) Foundry
16 10 (0.66%) OpenAI
17 9 (0.60%) MuleSoft
18 8 (0.53%) Zscaler