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

6 months to
24 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 95 65 78
Rank change year-on-year -30 +13 -17
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,524 1,257 1,012
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.84% 3.81% 2.61%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.36% 4.21% 3.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 917 793 628
10th Percentile £308 £300 £300
25th Percentile £390 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -1.96%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £695 £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 30
10th Percentile £16.88 £23.58 £15.98
25th Percentile £26.06 £34.11 £30.00
Median hourly rate £33.99 £47.50 £45.84
Median % change year-on-year -28.44% +3.63% +41.04%
75th Percentile £67.84 £63.75 £73.10
90th Percentile £73.38 £72.15 £74.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £48.25 £66.00
% change year-on-year -29.55% -26.89% +272.46%

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 45,360 29,849 33,165
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.57% 90.48% 85.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,797 18,603 21,010
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% -3.67%
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 2,875 1,763 1,706
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £13.87
25th Percentile £18.27 £17.30 £18.13
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -38.57% -3.67%
75th Percentile £67.89 £47.81 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £22.74 £42.50
% change year-on-year +93.36% -46.51% +7.39%

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 24 August 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 24 August 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 24 August 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 -25 1,322 £475 - 600
UK excluding London -17 713 £450 +0.67% 433
London -27 671 £520 +4.00% 281
Work from Home -43 381 £475 -2.56% 304
North of England -15 232 £425 - 111
Midlands -8 147 £475 +9.83% 71
West Midlands -6 118 £475 -8.65% 51
North West -34 112 £387 -13.53% 55
South East -56 108 £410 -8.89% 125
Scotland +5 91 £538 +16.85% 19
South West -17 78 £475 +1.28% 62
Yorkshire -17 70 £500 +25.00% 36
North East -6 49 £363 -24.48% 21
East of England -1 45 £410 -14.14% 27
East Midlands -9 29 £500 +40.85% 20
Wales -13 15 £579 +89.22% 10
Northern Ireland +5 3 £638 +56.44% 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 66 (4.33%) SharePoint
2 58 (3.81%) CMS
3 43 (2.82%) Confluence
4 32 (2.10%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (1.05%) WordPress
6 8 (0.52%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 7 (0.46%) Apache
7 7 (0.46%) Drupal
7 7 (0.46%) Skype for Business
8 5 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
8 5 (0.33%) Headless CMS
8 5 (0.33%) Mendix
8 5 (0.33%) Oracle Workflow
9 4 (0.26%) Kentico
10 3 (0.20%) Camunda
10 3 (0.20%) Moodle
10 3 (0.20%) Umbraco
11 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
11 2 (0.13%) IIS
11 2 (0.13%) nginx
Applications
1 35 (2.30%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 31 (2.03%) Sketch
3 23 (1.51%) Chatbot
3 23 (1.51%) Microsoft Excel
4 20 (1.31%) Microsoft Office
5 19 (1.25%) Photoshop
6 18 (1.18%) Adobe After Effects
7 15 (0.98%) Adobe Illustrator
8 13 (0.85%) Adobe XD
9 8 (0.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
9 8 (0.52%) MS Visio
10 6 (0.39%) Final Cut Pro
11 2 (0.13%) InVision
11 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
11 2 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
11 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
12 1 (0.066%) Adobe Captivate
12 1 (0.066%) Blender
12 1 (0.066%) Microsoft Project
12 1 (0.066%) Trello
Business Applications
1 7 (0.46%) Dynamics CRM
1 7 (0.46%) Workday HCM
2 6 (0.39%) Shopify
3 5 (0.33%) SAP S/4HANA
4 4 (0.26%) NetSuite
4 4 (0.26%) Oracle iProcurement
4 4 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
5 3 (0.20%) iTrent
5 3 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
5 3 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
6 2 (0.13%) ResourceLink
6 2 (0.13%) Sage X3
7 1 (0.066%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.066%) Eloqua
7 1 (0.066%) Magento
7 1 (0.066%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.066%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 232 (15.22%) Azure
2 191 (12.53%) Figma
3 148 (9.71%) Microsoft 365
4 139 (9.12%) AWS
5 112 (7.35%) Power Platform
6 73 (4.79%) Entra ID
7 62 (4.07%) GitHub
8 54 (3.54%) Microsoft Copilot
8 54 (3.54%) SaaS
9 50 (3.28%) Azure DevOps
10 40 (2.62%) GCP
11 33 (2.17%) OneDrive
12 32 (2.10%) PowerApps
13 26 (1.71%) Serverless
14 24 (1.57%) Copilot Studio
14 24 (1.57%) GitHub Actions
14 24 (1.57%) Power Automate
15 22 (1.44%) Azure AI
16 18 (1.18%) GitHub Copilot
16 18 (1.18%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 44 (2.89%) DNS
2 36 (2.36%) DHCP
3 31 (2.03%) TCP/IP
4 30 (1.97%) Wi-Fi
5 22 (1.44%) Wireless
6 21 (1.38%) LAN
7 17 (1.12%) VPN
8 16 (1.05%) Firewall
8 16 (1.05%) WAN
9 12 (0.79%) Internet
10 11 (0.72%) SD-WAN
11 9 (0.59%) Cisco Wireless
11 9 (0.59%) Intranet
11 9 (0.59%) Skype
12 8 (0.52%) Network Security
13 7 (0.46%) 5G
13 7 (0.46%) NetScaler
13 7 (0.46%) SNMP
13 7 (0.46%) WLAN
14 6 (0.39%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 68 (4.46%) Power BI
2 25 (1.64%) Metadata
3 18 (1.18%) NoSQL
3 18 (1.18%) PostgreSQL
4 15 (0.98%) Power Query
5 14 (0.92%) Relational Database
5 14 (0.92%) SQL Server
6 13 (0.85%) MongoDB
6 13 (0.85%) Tableau
7 12 (0.79%) Elasticsearch
8 11 (0.72%) Big Data
9 9 (0.59%) Looker
9 9 (0.59%) Redis
10 8 (0.52%) Data Warehouse
11 7 (0.46%) MySQL
11 7 (0.46%) Snowflake Schema
12 6 (0.39%) BigQuery
12 6 (0.39%) Flink
12 6 (0.39%) Qlik Sense
12 6 (0.39%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 88 (5.77%) JIRA
2 81 (5.31%) Git
3 29 (1.90%) Cypress.io
3 29 (1.90%) Jenkins
4 24 (1.57%) Vite
5 16 (1.05%) GitLab
6 14 (0.92%) Claude Code
7 11 (0.72%) Storybook
8 10 (0.66%) Android Studio
8 10 (0.66%) Browser DevTools
8 10 (0.66%) fastlane
9 9 (0.59%) Selenium
9 9 (0.59%) Xcode
10 7 (0.46%) Gradle
10 7 (0.46%) JMeter
11 6 (0.39%) JUnit
11 6 (0.39%) Postman
11 6 (0.39%) webpack
12 5 (0.33%) Oracle Forms
12 5 (0.33%) Visual Studio
General
1 483 (31.69%) Social Skills
2 261 (17.13%) Finance
3 203 (13.32%) Public Sector
4 153 (10.04%) Analytical Skills
5 111 (7.28%) Banking
6 78 (5.12%) Retail
7 74 (4.86%) Marketing
8 51 (3.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 38 (2.49%) Influencing Skills
9 38 (2.49%) Legal
10 28 (1.84%) Organisational Skills
11 27 (1.77%) Automotive
11 27 (1.77%) Publishing
12 26 (1.71%) Presentation Skills
13 23 (1.51%) Documentation Skills
14 22 (1.44%) Manufacturing
15 19 (1.25%) Investment Banking
16 17 (1.12%) Military
17 11 (0.72%) Front Office
18 10 (0.66%) Law
Job Titles
1 327 (21.46%) Designer
2 217 (14.24%) Senior
3 198 (12.99%) Developer
4 131 (8.60%) UX Designer
5 123 (8.07%) Lead
6 102 (6.69%) Analyst
7 80 (5.25%) UI Designer
8 75 (4.92%) Consultant
9 65 (4.27%) Senior Designer
10 63 (4.13%) User Researcher
11 59 (3.87%) Architect
12 53 (3.48%) Support Engineer
13 52 (3.41%) IT Support
14 50 (3.28%) Business Analyst
14 50 (3.28%) Content Designer
15 48 (3.15%) Product Manager
16 43 (2.82%) UI/UX Designer
17 42 (2.76%) Product Designer
18 41 (2.69%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
18 41 (2.69%) User Experience Researcher
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 150 (9.84%) React
2 119 (7.81%) CSS
3 106 (6.96%) HTML
4 95 (6.23%) REST
5 64 (4.20%) RESTful
6 49 (3.22%) AngularJS
6 49 (3.22%) Terraform
7 45 (2.95%) HTML5
8 42 (2.76%) CSS3
9 41 (2.69%) GraphQL
10 36 (2.36%) .NET
11 33 (2.17%) Jest
11 33 (2.17%) Next.js
12 31 (2.03%) Node.js
13 30 (1.97%) Kafka
13 30 (1.97%) Playwright
14 29 (1.90%) Spring
15 28 (1.84%) Spring Boot
16 26 (1.71%) OAuth
16 26 (1.71%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 139 (9.12%) Product Ownership
2 93 (6.10%) Mobile App
3 86 (5.64%) Onboarding
4 56 (3.67%) Cloud Native
5 46 (3.02%) AI Agents
6 34 (2.23%) Self-Motivation
7 32 (2.10%) Enterprise Software
8 29 (1.90%) Data Protection Act
9 27 (1.77%) Legacy Systems
10 26 (1.71%) Data Structures
11 22 (1.44%) Management Information System
11 22 (1.44%) Social Media
12 21 (1.38%) NHS
13 20 (1.31%) Animation
13 20 (1.31%) Data Centre
14 19 (1.25%) Educational Technology
15 17 (1.12%) Analytical Mindset
15 17 (1.12%) Graphic Design
16 15 (0.98%) Virtual Reality
17 13 (0.85%) Algorithms
Operating Systems
1 153 (10.04%) Windows
2 64 (4.20%) Android
3 63 (4.13%) Apple iOS
4 57 (3.74%) Windows 10
5 30 (1.97%) Mac OS
6 26 (1.71%) Windows Server
7 19 (1.25%) Linux
8 11 (0.72%) Unix
9 9 (0.59%) 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 (0.066%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 491 (32.22%) UX Design
2 439 (28.81%) Agile
3 307 (20.14%) AI
4 256 (16.80%) Stakeholder Management
5 252 (16.54%) Problem-Solving
6 220 (14.44%) Continuous Improvement
7 203 (13.32%) Analytics
8 193 (12.66%) User Research
9 181 (11.88%) CI/CD
10 172 (11.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 148 (9.71%) Roadmaps
12 143 (9.38%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
13 141 (9.25%) Decision-Making
14 128 (8.40%) Prototyping
15 126 (8.27%) DevOps
16 121 (7.94%) Scrum
17 120 (7.87%) Service Design
18 115 (7.55%) Wireframes
19 113 (7.41%) Workshop Facilitation
20 107 (7.02%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 141 (9.25%) JavaScript
2 124 (8.14%) TypeScript
3 118 (7.74%) Python
4 102 (6.69%) SQL
5 96 (6.30%) Java
6 55 (3.61%) PowerShell
7 36 (2.36%) C#
8 29 (1.90%) Kotlin
9 20 (1.31%) Bash
9 20 (1.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 16 (1.05%) Swift
11 8 (0.52%) Go
11 8 (0.52%) PHP
11 8 (0.52%) VBScript
12 7 (0.46%) C++
12 7 (0.46%) Shell Script
12 7 (0.46%) VB
13 6 (0.39%) Apex Code
13 6 (0.39%) Scala
14 5 (0.33%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 239 (15.68%) Security Cleared
2 180 (11.81%) SC Cleared
3 129 (8.46%) Degree
4 39 (2.56%) Computer Science Degree
5 37 (2.43%) BPSS Clearance
6 27 (1.77%) DV Cleared
7 23 (1.51%) Azure Certification
8 19 (1.25%) Microsoft Certification
9 14 (0.92%) PMP
10 10 (0.66%) Cisco Certification
11 9 (0.59%) ITIL Certification
12 8 (0.52%) AWS Certification
12 8 (0.52%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 7 (0.46%) DBS Check
13 7 (0.46%) Master's Degree
14 6 (0.39%) CCA
14 6 (0.39%) CCIE
14 6 (0.39%) CCNP
14 6 (0.39%) MCSE
15 5 (0.33%) Citrix Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 264 (17.32%) Accessibility
2 95 (6.23%) WCAG
3 89 (5.84%) QA
4 43 (2.82%) Data Quality
5 19 (1.25%) GDPR
6 16 (1.05%) Actionable Recommendations
7 9 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 9 (0.59%) SLA
8 8 (0.52%) PMO
9 7 (0.46%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 5 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials
11 4 (0.26%) GRC
11 4 (0.26%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 3 (0.20%) GMP
12 3 (0.20%) GxP
13 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.13%) PSD2
14 1 (0.066%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 1 (0.066%) NIST
14 1 (0.066%) WAI-ARIA
System Software
1 104 (6.82%) Active Directory
2 50 (3.28%) Docker
3 31 (2.03%) Virtual Desktop
4 22 (1.44%) VMware Infrastructure
5 11 (0.72%) Hyper-V
6 7 (0.46%) BitLocker
6 7 (0.46%) vSphere
7 6 (0.39%) Firmware
8 5 (0.33%) Citrix Hypervisor
8 5 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
8 5 (0.33%) XenApp
8 5 (0.33%) XenDesktop
9 4 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
10 3 (0.20%) UAG
11 2 (0.13%) Virtual Machines
11 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
11 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
12 1 (0.066%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 54 (3.54%) Microsoft Intune
2 51 (3.35%) Kubernetes
3 35 (2.30%) Grafana
4 33 (2.17%) SCCM
5 21 (1.38%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (1.12%) Ansible
7 15 (0.98%) Jamf Pro
7 15 (0.98%) Prometheus
8 5 (0.33%) vCenter Server
9 4 (0.26%) Clonezilla
9 4 (0.26%) Podman
9 4 (0.26%) SysTrack
10 3 (0.20%) Kibana
10 3 (0.20%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 3 (0.20%) 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
1 268 (17.59%) Microsoft
2 88 (5.77%) Adobe
3 82 (5.38%) ServiceNow
4 52 (3.41%) Google
5 45 (2.95%) Oracle
6 31 (2.03%) Salesforce
7 29 (1.90%) SAP
8 25 (1.64%) Citrix
8 25 (1.64%) Dynatrace
8 25 (1.64%) VMware
9 23 (1.51%) Databricks
10 22 (1.44%) Apple
10 22 (1.44%) Splunk
11 18 (1.18%) Cisco
12 17 (1.12%) OpenAI
12 17 (1.12%) Workday
13 14 (0.92%) Foundry
13 14 (0.92%) Zscaler
14 12 (0.79%) Aruba
15 10 (0.66%) Okta