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

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 94 65 76
Rank change year-on-year -29 +11 -9
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,555 1,232 1,051
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.85% 3.78% 2.77%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.38% 4.17% 3.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 929 789 623
10th Percentile £313 £302 £313
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% -5.00% -3.85%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £588
90th Percentile £712 £675 £694
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £475
% change year-on-year - -5.26% -0.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 75 51 27
10th Percentile £18.48 £15.50 £28.10
25th Percentile £27.67 £25.15 £30.51
Median hourly rate £35.22 £36.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -3.51% -14.12% -10.53%
75th Percentile £67.89 £55.88 £72.20
90th Percentile £77.00 £65.00 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £31.25 £51.77
% change year-on-year +8.77% -39.64% +58.75%

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 46,073 29,551 32,512
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.35% 90.64% 85.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,867 18,364 19,652
10th Percentile £325 £294 £308
25th Percentile £425 £403 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £731 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,200 1,847 1,359
10th Percentile £13.74 £14.25 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.23 £17.30 £20.06
Median hourly rate £39.75 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +58.05% -40.82% -1.16%
75th Percentile £65.88 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £65.00 £74.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £22.32 £43.00
% change year-on-year +79.25% -48.10% +1.18%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 -27 1,347 £475 - 2,550
UK excluding London -9 727 £450 - 1,220
London -28 690 £513 +3.54% 1,493
Work from Home -34 385 £494 +1.33% 1,113
North of England -12 257 £425 - 356
Midlands -5 151 £463 +3.65% 200
North West -28 128 £400 -5.88% 204
West Midlands +1 120 £463 -7.34% 132
South East -59 93 £403 -10.26% 242
Scotland -7 91 £538 +16.85% 89
South West -1 81 £475 -5.00% 132
Yorkshire -8 81 £500 +25.00% 113
North East 0 47 £325 -32.29% 42
East of England -10 43 £410 -21.90% 106
East Midlands -18 31 £475 +18.16% 68
Wales -15 13 £530 +73.20% 33
Northern Ireland +6 4 £638 +2.00% 69

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 73 (4.69%) SharePoint
2 66 (4.24%) CMS
3 49 (3.15%) Confluence
4 32 (2.06%) Microsoft Exchange
5 17 (1.09%) WordPress
6 9 (0.58%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 7 (0.45%) Apache
7 7 (0.45%) Headless CMS
7 7 (0.45%) Skype for Business
7 7 (0.45%) Traefik
8 6 (0.39%) Drupal
8 6 (0.39%) Oracle Workflow
9 5 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
10 4 (0.26%) Kentico
10 4 (0.26%) Mendix
11 3 (0.19%) ColdFusion
11 3 (0.19%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
12 2 (0.13%) IIS
12 2 (0.13%) Moodle
Applications
1 32 (2.06%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 27 (1.74%) Sketch
3 26 (1.67%) Microsoft Office
4 20 (1.29%) Microsoft Excel
5 18 (1.16%) Adobe After Effects
5 18 (1.16%) Photoshop
6 17 (1.09%) Chatbot
7 16 (1.03%) Adobe Illustrator
8 12 (0.77%) Adobe XD
9 10 (0.64%) MS Visio
10 8 (0.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 7 (0.45%) Final Cut Pro
12 3 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
13 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
13 2 (0.13%) UserZoom
14 1 (0.064%) Adobe Captivate
14 1 (0.064%) Adobe Premiere
14 1 (0.064%) Blender
14 1 (0.064%) InVision
14 1 (0.064%) Trello
Business Applications
1 9 (0.58%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.45%) Workday HCM
3 5 (0.32%) NetSuite
4 4 (0.26%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 4 (0.26%) Oracle iProcurement
4 4 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
4 4 (0.26%) Shopify
5 3 (0.19%) iTrent
5 3 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.13%) SAP HR
7 1 (0.064%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.064%) Eloqua
7 1 (0.064%) Magento
7 1 (0.064%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.064%) SAP HCM
7 1 (0.064%) SAP MDG
7 1 (0.064%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 224 (14.41%) Azure
2 183 (11.77%) Figma
3 149 (9.58%) AWS
3 149 (9.58%) Microsoft 365
4 117 (7.52%) Power Platform
5 71 (4.57%) Entra ID
6 64 (4.12%) GitHub
7 58 (3.73%) Microsoft Copilot
8 57 (3.67%) SaaS
9 45 (2.89%) Azure DevOps
10 37 (2.38%) GCP
11 34 (2.19%) OneDrive
11 34 (2.19%) PowerApps
12 29 (1.86%) Power Automate
13 28 (1.80%) Copilot Studio
13 28 (1.80%) GitHub Actions
14 25 (1.61%) Serverless
15 21 (1.35%) Azure AI
16 18 (1.16%) GitHub Copilot
17 16 (1.03%) Miro
Communications & Networking
1 47 (3.02%) DNS
2 39 (2.51%) DHCP
3 37 (2.38%) TCP/IP
4 27 (1.74%) Wi-Fi
5 22 (1.41%) VPN
6 18 (1.16%) Firewall
6 18 (1.16%) Wireless
7 16 (1.03%) LAN
7 16 (1.03%) WAN
8 13 (0.84%) NetScaler
9 11 (0.71%) Network Security
10 8 (0.51%) Internet
11 7 (0.45%) Cisco Wireless
11 7 (0.45%) SD-WAN
11 7 (0.45%) Skype
11 7 (0.45%) SNMP
12 6 (0.39%) Intranet
13 5 (0.32%) SMS
13 5 (0.32%) SSL
14 4 (0.26%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 69 (4.44%) Power BI
2 25 (1.61%) Metadata
3 18 (1.16%) NoSQL
3 18 (1.16%) PostgreSQL
3 18 (1.16%) Power Query
4 17 (1.09%) SQL Server
5 13 (0.84%) MongoDB
5 13 (0.84%) MySQL
5 13 (0.84%) Tableau
6 12 (0.77%) Elasticsearch
7 11 (0.71%) Big Data
7 11 (0.71%) Relational Database
8 10 (0.64%) Redis
9 9 (0.58%) Looker
10 8 (0.51%) Qlik Sense
11 7 (0.45%) Snowflake Schema
11 7 (0.45%) Star Schema
12 6 (0.39%) BigQuery
12 6 (0.39%) Flink
12 6 (0.39%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 91 (5.85%) Git
2 86 (5.53%) JIRA
3 33 (2.12%) Jenkins
4 26 (1.67%) Cypress.io
4 26 (1.67%) Vite
5 23 (1.48%) Storybook
6 16 (1.03%) Claude Code
7 15 (0.96%) GitLab
8 11 (0.71%) fastlane
9 9 (0.58%) Android Studio
9 9 (0.58%) Browser DevTools
9 9 (0.58%) webpack
10 8 (0.51%) Xcode
11 7 (0.45%) REST Assured
12 6 (0.39%) JMeter
12 6 (0.39%) Postman
13 5 (0.32%) Fiddler
13 5 (0.32%) JUnit
13 5 (0.32%) MSI
13 5 (0.32%) TeamCity
General
1 507 (32.60%) Social Skills
2 251 (16.14%) Finance
3 219 (14.08%) Public Sector
4 148 (9.52%) Analytical Skills
5 98 (6.30%) Banking
6 81 (5.21%) Marketing
7 79 (5.08%) Retail
8 55 (3.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 44 (2.83%) Influencing Skills
9 44 (2.83%) Legal
10 28 (1.80%) Automotive
10 28 (1.80%) Publishing
11 26 (1.67%) Organisational Skills
12 23 (1.48%) Presentation Skills
13 22 (1.41%) Manufacturing
13 22 (1.41%) Military
14 20 (1.29%) Documentation Skills
15 18 (1.16%) Investment Banking
16 13 (0.84%) Front Office
17 9 (0.58%) Law
Job Titles
1 309 (19.87%) Designer
2 231 (14.86%) Developer
3 217 (13.95%) Senior
4 136 (8.75%) Lead
5 132 (8.49%) UX Designer
6 92 (5.92%) Analyst
7 79 (5.08%) UI Designer
8 70 (4.50%) Architect
9 66 (4.24%) Senior Designer
10 63 (4.05%) User Researcher
11 62 (3.99%) Consultant
12 53 (3.41%) IT Support
13 52 (3.34%) Support Engineer
14 51 (3.28%) Product Manager
15 50 (3.22%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
16 46 (2.96%) Business Analyst
17 44 (2.83%) UI/UX Designer
17 44 (2.83%) User Experience Researcher
18 43 (2.77%) Product Designer
19 42 (2.70%) Content Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 164 (10.55%) React
2 116 (7.46%) CSS
3 105 (6.75%) HTML
4 96 (6.17%) REST
5 63 (4.05%) RESTful
6 46 (2.96%) Terraform
7 45 (2.89%) HTML5
8 43 (2.77%) AngularJS
9 42 (2.70%) GraphQL
10 40 (2.57%) CSS3
11 36 (2.32%) Node.js
12 35 (2.25%) .NET
13 33 (2.12%) OAuth
14 32 (2.06%) Next.js
14 32 (2.06%) Playwright
14 32 (2.06%) Spring
14 32 (2.06%) Spring Boot
15 30 (1.93%) Jest
16 26 (1.67%) Redux
17 25 (1.61%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 163 (10.48%) Product Ownership
2 96 (6.17%) Mobile App
3 82 (5.27%) Onboarding
4 62 (3.99%) Cloud Native
5 50 (3.22%) AI Agents
6 32 (2.06%) Management Information System
6 32 (2.06%) Self-Motivation
7 30 (1.93%) Enterprise Software
8 29 (1.86%) Data Protection Act
8 29 (1.86%) Legacy Systems
9 22 (1.41%) Data Centre
9 22 (1.41%) Data Structures
9 22 (1.41%) Social Media
10 19 (1.22%) Educational Technology
10 19 (1.22%) NHS
11 17 (1.09%) Animation
12 16 (1.03%) Graphic Design
13 15 (0.96%) Taxonomies
14 13 (0.84%) CMDB
14 13 (0.84%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 154 (9.90%) Windows
2 69 (4.44%) Apple iOS
3 66 (4.24%) Android
4 57 (3.67%) Windows 10
5 36 (2.32%) Windows Server
6 32 (2.06%) Mac OS
7 17 (1.09%) Linux
8 13 (0.84%) 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%) AIX
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 485 (31.19%) UX Design
2 459 (29.52%) Agile
3 299 (19.23%) AI
4 296 (19.04%) Stakeholder Management
5 245 (15.76%) Problem-Solving
6 240 (15.43%) Continuous Improvement
7 211 (13.57%) User Research
8 206 (13.25%) Analytics
9 187 (12.03%) CI/CD
10 180 (11.58%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 164 (10.55%) Decision-Making
11 164 (10.55%) Roadmaps
12 149 (9.58%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
13 130 (8.36%) Service Design
14 126 (8.10%) DevOps
15 124 (7.97%) Scrum
16 118 (7.59%) Service Management
16 118 (7.59%) Workshop Facilitation
17 117 (7.52%) Prototyping
18 111 (7.14%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 146 (9.39%) JavaScript
2 139 (8.94%) TypeScript
3 101 (6.50%) SQL
4 99 (6.37%) Python
5 98 (6.30%) Java
6 49 (3.15%) PowerShell
7 31 (1.99%) C#
8 30 (1.93%) Kotlin
9 23 (1.48%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 19 (1.22%) Bash
10 19 (1.22%) Swift
11 10 (0.64%) Go
12 8 (0.51%) PHP
13 7 (0.45%) Shell Script
13 7 (0.45%) VB
13 7 (0.45%) VBScript
14 6 (0.39%) Scala
15 5 (0.32%) Apex Code
15 5 (0.32%) C++
16 4 (0.26%) Perl
Qualifications
1 254 (16.33%) Security Cleared
2 196 (12.60%) SC Cleared
3 113 (7.27%) Degree
4 48 (3.09%) BPSS Clearance
5 30 (1.93%) Computer Science Degree
6 24 (1.54%) DV Cleared
7 20 (1.29%) Azure Certification
8 18 (1.16%) PMP
9 15 (0.96%) Microsoft Certification
10 8 (0.51%) AWS Certification
10 8 (0.51%) ITIL Certification
11 7 (0.45%) DBS Check
11 7 (0.45%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 6 (0.39%) Cisco Certification
12 6 (0.39%) PMI Certification
13 5 (0.32%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 5 (0.32%) CCA
13 5 (0.32%) CISSP
13 5 (0.32%) Master's Degree
13 5 (0.32%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 272 (17.49%) Accessibility
2 106 (6.82%) QA
3 102 (6.56%) WCAG
4 50 (3.22%) Data Quality
5 19 (1.22%) GDPR
6 18 (1.16%) Actionable Recommendations
7 15 (0.96%) SLA
8 10 (0.64%) PMO
9 6 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials
10 5 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 4 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 3 (0.19%) GRC
13 2 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 2 (0.13%) GMP
13 2 (0.13%) GxP
13 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.13%) PSD2
13 2 (0.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 1 (0.064%) HIPAA
14 1 (0.064%) WAI
System Software
1 114 (7.33%) Active Directory
2 52 (3.34%) Docker
3 26 (1.67%) Virtual Desktop
3 26 (1.67%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (0.96%) Hyper-V
5 10 (0.64%) Citrix Hypervisor
5 10 (0.64%) XenApp
6 9 (0.58%) XenDesktop
7 7 (0.45%) BitLocker
7 7 (0.45%) vSphere
8 5 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
9 4 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
10 3 (0.19%) UAG
10 3 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
11 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
11 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
12 1 (0.064%) Firmware
12 1 (0.064%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 53 (3.41%) Kubernetes
1 53 (3.41%) Microsoft Intune
2 34 (2.19%) Grafana
3 29 (1.86%) SCCM
4 21 (1.35%) Single Sign-On
5 17 (1.09%) Ansible
6 15 (0.96%) Jamf Pro
7 14 (0.90%) Prometheus
8 7 (0.45%) Istio
9 6 (0.39%) vCenter Server
10 5 (0.32%) SysTrack
11 4 (0.26%) Clonezilla
12 3 (0.19%) Kibana
12 3 (0.19%) Podman
12 3 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 3 (0.19%) WSUS
13 2 (0.13%) Argo
13 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
13 2 (0.13%) SCOM
13 2 (0.13%) vMotion
Vendors
1 277 (17.81%) Microsoft
2 92 (5.92%) ServiceNow
3 79 (5.08%) Adobe
4 51 (3.28%) Google
5 50 (3.22%) Oracle
6 31 (1.99%) Salesforce
7 30 (1.93%) SAP
8 29 (1.86%) VMware
9 26 (1.67%) Citrix
9 26 (1.67%) Dynatrace
9 26 (1.67%) Splunk
10 20 (1.29%) Databricks
11 19 (1.22%) OpenAI
12 18 (1.16%) Apple
13 16 (1.03%) Zscaler
14 15 (0.96%) Workday
15 14 (0.90%) Cisco
15 14 (0.90%) Foundry
16 9 (0.58%) Okta
17 8 (0.51%) Cribl.io