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 16 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 84 66 78
Rank change year-on-year -18 +12 -20
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,590 1,193 1,154
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.02% 3.67% 2.71%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.55% 4.06% 3.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 983 781 762
10th Percentile £313 £305 £313
25th Percentile £402 £385 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% -5.00% -1.53%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £686 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £465
% change year-on-year +5.56% -3.23% -0.48%
Number of hourly rates quoted 72 36 42
10th Percentile £16.07 £17.88 £16.25
25th Percentile £24.54 £34.48 £25.00
Median hourly rate £33.99 £49.25 £30.86
Median % change year-on-year -30.98% +59.62% +16.43%
75th Percentile £67.84 £64.06 £51.75
90th Percentile £84.80 £77.73 £74.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £70.00 £25.00
% change year-on-year -51.44% +180.00% +41.08%

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 44,779 29,366 36,386
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.09% 90.39% 85.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,858 18,449 23,259
10th Percentile £325 £300 £304
25th Percentile £419 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £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 2,648 1,547 2,431
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.22 £12.79
25th Percentile £20.21 £17.45 £16.25
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -34.02% -5.29%
75th Percentile £68.50 £52.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £82.65 £70.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £24.34 £38.12
% change year-on-year +84.88% -36.15% -3.74%

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 16 July 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 16 July 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 16 July 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 -11 1,370 £475 - 668
UK excluding London -4 748 £475 +5.56% 424
London -17 686 £525 +5.00% 342
Work from Home -26 411 £500 +4.71% 294
North of England -15 218 £444 -1.44% 117
Midlands +3 156 £475 +11.90% 54
South East -21 138 £475 - 134
North West -26 117 £430 -4.44% 67
West Midlands -4 116 £475 -5.00% 38
Scotland +16 94 £518 +11.89% 15
South West +2 82 £475 +18.75% 51
Yorkshire -30 58 £500 +17.65% 29
East of England +8 46 £410 -14.14% 45
North East -11 43 £394 -17.97% 21
East Midlands +3 40 £550 +54.49% 16
Wales -3 17 £561 +83.25% 4
Northern Ireland +1 3 - - 16

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 68 (4.28%) SharePoint
2 53 (3.33%) CMS
3 46 (2.89%) Confluence
4 27 (1.70%) Microsoft Exchange
5 13 (0.82%) WordPress
6 8 (0.50%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 6 (0.38%) Apache
7 6 (0.38%) Drupal
7 6 (0.38%) Mendix
8 5 (0.31%) Skype for Business
9 4 (0.25%) Ethereum
9 4 (0.25%) Headless CMS
9 4 (0.25%) Hyperledger
9 4 (0.25%) Kentico
10 3 (0.19%) Camunda
10 3 (0.19%) Moodle
10 3 (0.19%) Umbraco
11 2 (0.13%) HCL Notes
11 2 (0.13%) IIS
11 2 (0.13%) nginx
Applications
1 37 (2.33%) Sketch
2 32 (2.01%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 30 (1.89%) Microsoft Excel
4 21 (1.32%) Chatbot
5 19 (1.19%) Adobe After Effects
5 19 (1.19%) Photoshop
6 17 (1.07%) Microsoft Office
7 16 (1.01%) Adobe XD
8 15 (0.94%) Adobe Illustrator
9 12 (0.75%) MS Visio
10 10 (0.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 6 (0.38%) Final Cut Pro
12 4 (0.25%) Adobe Captivate
13 3 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
13 3 (0.19%) UserZoom
14 2 (0.13%) InVision
14 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
14 2 (0.13%) Oracle Smart View
14 2 (0.13%) UXPin
15 1 (0.063%) Blender
Business Applications
1 13 (0.82%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (0.75%) Dynamics CRM
3 11 (0.69%) Workday HCM
4 8 (0.50%) Shopify
5 6 (0.38%) Sage X3
6 4 (0.25%) NetSuite
6 4 (0.25%) Oracle iProcurement
7 3 (0.19%) iTrent
7 3 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
8 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
8 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
8 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.13%) Remedy ITSM
8 2 (0.13%) ResourceLink
9 1 (0.063%) Eloqua
9 1 (0.063%) Magento
9 1 (0.063%) Oracle EBS R12
9 1 (0.063%) SAP HR
9 1 (0.063%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 251 (15.79%) Azure
2 220 (13.84%) Figma
3 129 (8.11%) AWS
4 125 (7.86%) Microsoft 365
5 119 (7.48%) Power Platform
6 63 (3.96%) Entra ID
7 61 (3.84%) Azure DevOps
8 58 (3.65%) GitHub
9 57 (3.58%) SaaS
10 52 (3.27%) Microsoft Copilot
11 46 (2.89%) GCP
12 41 (2.58%) PowerApps
13 34 (2.14%) Power Automate
14 33 (2.08%) OneDrive
15 31 (1.95%) Serverless
16 29 (1.82%) Copilot Studio
17 28 (1.76%) GitHub Actions
18 25 (1.57%) Azure AI
19 17 (1.07%) Snowflake
20 15 (0.94%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 40 (2.52%) DNS
2 32 (2.01%) DHCP
3 28 (1.76%) TCP/IP
4 24 (1.51%) Wi-Fi
5 20 (1.26%) Wireless
6 19 (1.19%) LAN
7 13 (0.82%) Firewall
7 13 (0.82%) Internet
7 13 (0.82%) VPN
7 13 (0.82%) WAN
8 11 (0.69%) Intranet
9 10 (0.63%) SD-WAN
10 8 (0.50%) Cisco Wireless
10 8 (0.50%) Network Security
11 7 (0.44%) HTTP
11 7 (0.44%) Skype
11 7 (0.44%) SNMP
12 6 (0.38%) 5G
12 6 (0.38%) WLAN
13 5 (0.31%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 74 (4.65%) Power BI
2 25 (1.57%) NoSQL
3 24 (1.51%) PostgreSQL
4 22 (1.38%) Metadata
4 22 (1.38%) Relational Database
5 19 (1.19%) Power Query
6 16 (1.01%) SQL Server
7 13 (0.82%) Data Warehouse
7 13 (0.82%) MongoDB
8 11 (0.69%) Big Data
9 10 (0.63%) MySQL
9 10 (0.63%) Tableau
10 7 (0.44%) Oracle Database
10 7 (0.44%) Snowflake Schema
11 6 (0.38%) Azure SQL Database
11 6 (0.38%) DynamoDB
11 6 (0.38%) Elasticsearch
11 6 (0.38%) Redis
11 6 (0.38%) ZAP BI
12 5 (0.31%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 98 (6.16%) JIRA
2 87 (5.47%) Git
3 27 (1.70%) Cypress.io
4 25 (1.57%) Jenkins
4 25 (1.57%) Vite
5 19 (1.19%) GitLab
6 13 (0.82%) JUnit
7 12 (0.75%) Claude Code
8 10 (0.63%) Android Studio
8 10 (0.63%) Browser DevTools
8 10 (0.63%) fastlane
8 10 (0.63%) Selenium
9 9 (0.57%) Storybook
9 9 (0.57%) webpack
9 9 (0.57%) Xcode
10 8 (0.50%) Gradle
10 8 (0.50%) Postman
11 6 (0.38%) JMeter
11 6 (0.38%) Visual Studio
12 5 (0.31%) Fiddler
General
1 499 (31.38%) Social Skills
2 282 (17.74%) Finance
3 212 (13.33%) Public Sector
4 162 (10.19%) Analytical Skills
5 122 (7.67%) Banking
6 86 (5.41%) Retail
7 73 (4.59%) Marketing
8 47 (2.96%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 42 (2.64%) Legal
10 34 (2.14%) Influencing Skills
11 31 (1.95%) Presentation Skills
12 29 (1.82%) Publishing
13 27 (1.70%) Automotive
14 26 (1.64%) Manufacturing
14 26 (1.64%) Organisational Skills
15 23 (1.45%) Documentation Skills
16 18 (1.13%) Investment Banking
17 17 (1.07%) Military
18 12 (0.75%) Front Office
18 12 (0.75%) Games
Job Titles
1 341 (21.45%) Designer
2 231 (14.53%) Senior
3 209 (13.14%) Developer
4 148 (9.31%) UX Designer
5 121 (7.61%) Lead
6 118 (7.42%) Analyst
7 90 (5.66%) UI Designer
8 80 (5.03%) Consultant
9 69 (4.34%) Senior Designer
10 68 (4.28%) Architect
11 62 (3.90%) Business Analyst
12 60 (3.77%) Product Designer
13 59 (3.71%) User Researcher
14 54 (3.40%) Content Designer
15 53 (3.33%) UI/UX Designer
16 50 (3.14%) Product Manager
17 47 (2.96%) User Experience Researcher
18 46 (2.89%) IT Support
19 43 (2.70%) Full-Stack Engineer
20 41 (2.58%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 155 (9.75%) React
2 119 (7.48%) CSS
3 105 (6.60%) HTML
3 105 (6.60%) REST
4 75 (4.72%) RESTful
5 56 (3.52%) AngularJS
6 51 (3.21%) .NET
7 43 (2.70%) Spring
8 42 (2.64%) Spring Boot
9 41 (2.58%) GraphQL
10 37 (2.33%) HTML5
11 34 (2.14%) CSS3
11 34 (2.14%) Jest
11 34 (2.14%) Node.js
12 33 (2.08%) Redux
13 31 (1.95%) Kafka
14 28 (1.76%) JSON
14 28 (1.76%) Next.js
15 26 (1.64%) Playwright
16 22 (1.38%) ASP.NET
Miscellaneous
1 169 (10.63%) Product Ownership
2 91 (5.72%) Mobile App
3 78 (4.91%) Onboarding
4 47 (2.96%) AI Agents
5 45 (2.83%) Cloud Native
6 34 (2.14%) Enterprise Software
6 34 (2.14%) Self-Motivation
7 32 (2.01%) Data Structures
8 29 (1.82%) Data Protection Act
9 25 (1.57%) Legacy Systems
10 23 (1.45%) Animation
11 21 (1.32%) Data Centre
12 20 (1.26%) Analytical Mindset
13 18 (1.13%) Social Media
14 17 (1.07%) Graphic Design
15 16 (1.01%) Algorithms
15 16 (1.01%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
16 15 (0.94%) Greenfield Project
16 15 (0.94%) Taxonomies
17 14 (0.88%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 127 (7.99%) Windows
2 55 (3.46%) Apple iOS
3 54 (3.40%) Android
4 38 (2.39%) Windows 10
5 26 (1.64%) Mac OS
6 18 (1.13%) Windows Server
7 17 (1.07%) Linux
8 9 (0.57%) Unix
9 7 (0.44%) Windows 7
10 5 (0.31%) Windows Server 2016
11 4 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 528 (33.21%) UX Design
2 477 (30.00%) Agile
3 305 (19.18%) AI
4 250 (15.72%) Problem-Solving
5 231 (14.53%) Stakeholder Management
6 228 (14.34%) Continuous Improvement
7 210 (13.21%) User Research
8 205 (12.89%) Analytics
9 190 (11.95%) CI/CD
10 181 (11.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 168 (10.57%) Roadmaps
12 154 (9.69%) Decision-Making
12 154 (9.69%) Prototyping
13 152 (9.56%) DevOps
14 143 (8.99%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
15 130 (8.18%) Wireframes
16 128 (8.05%) UX Research
17 127 (7.99%) Service Design
18 117 (7.36%) Scrum
19 115 (7.23%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 142 (8.93%) JavaScript
2 130 (8.18%) TypeScript
3 127 (7.99%) Python
4 119 (7.48%) SQL
5 110 (6.92%) Java
6 54 (3.40%) C#
7 49 (3.08%) PowerShell
8 33 (2.08%) Kotlin
9 26 (1.64%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 17 (1.07%) Swift
11 16 (1.01%) Bash
12 12 (0.75%) C++
13 9 (0.57%) Lua
14 8 (0.50%) Go
14 8 (0.50%) Korn
15 7 (0.44%) Apex Code
15 7 (0.44%) R
16 6 (0.38%) VBA
16 6 (0.38%) VBScript
17 5 (0.31%) VB
Qualifications
1 240 (15.09%) Security Cleared
2 180 (11.32%) SC Cleared
3 151 (9.50%) Degree
4 36 (2.26%) Computer Science Degree
5 32 (2.01%) BPSS Clearance
6 26 (1.64%) DV Cleared
7 24 (1.51%) Azure Certification
8 22 (1.38%) Microsoft Certification
9 11 (0.69%) PMP
10 10 (0.63%) Cisco Certification
10 10 (0.63%) Master's Degree
11 9 (0.57%) ITIL Certification
12 7 (0.44%) AWS Certification
12 7 (0.44%) CCA
12 7 (0.44%) CCNP
12 7 (0.44%) Citrix Certification
12 7 (0.44%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 6 (0.38%) CCIE
13 6 (0.38%) DBS Check
14 5 (0.31%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 276 (17.36%) Accessibility
2 98 (6.16%) QA
3 89 (5.60%) WCAG
4 48 (3.02%) Data Quality
5 27 (1.70%) GDPR
6 18 (1.13%) Actionable Recommendations
7 11 (0.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 10 (0.63%) SLA
9 9 (0.57%) PMO
10 7 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 6 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials
12 4 (0.25%) GRC
12 4 (0.25%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 3 (0.19%) GMP
13 3 (0.19%) GxP
14 2 (0.13%) HIPAA
14 2 (0.13%) NIST
14 2 (0.13%) PCI DSS
14 2 (0.13%) PSD2
15 1 (0.063%) California Consumer Privacy Act
System Software
1 81 (5.09%) Active Directory
2 47 (2.96%) Docker
3 26 (1.64%) Virtual Desktop
4 18 (1.13%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (0.44%) vSphere
6 6 (0.38%) Firmware
7 5 (0.31%) BitLocker
7 5 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (0.25%) Microsoft App-V
9 3 (0.19%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.19%) UAG
9 3 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
10 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
10 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
10 2 (0.13%) XenApp
10 2 (0.13%) XenDesktop
11 1 (0.063%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 50 (3.14%) Terraform
2 48 (3.02%) Kubernetes
3 45 (2.83%) Microsoft Intune
4 34 (2.14%) Grafana
4 34 (2.14%) SCCM
5 17 (1.07%) Single Sign-On
6 16 (1.01%) Ansible
7 14 (0.88%) Jamf Pro
8 12 (0.75%) Prometheus
9 5 (0.31%) vCenter Server
10 4 (0.25%) Clonezilla
11 3 (0.19%) Podman
11 3 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 3 (0.19%) WSUS
12 2 (0.13%) Argo
12 2 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
12 2 (0.13%) Packer
12 2 (0.13%) SCOM
12 2 (0.13%) vMotion
13 1 (0.063%) HP ALM
Vendors
1 276 (17.36%) Microsoft
2 93 (5.85%) Adobe
3 74 (4.65%) ServiceNow
4 57 (3.58%) Google
5 47 (2.96%) SAP
6 43 (2.70%) Oracle
7 38 (2.39%) Salesforce
8 23 (1.45%) Databricks
9 22 (1.38%) Citrix
9 22 (1.38%) Dynatrace
10 21 (1.32%) Splunk
10 21 (1.32%) VMware
10 21 (1.32%) Workday
11 17 (1.07%) Apple
11 17 (1.07%) Cisco
11 17 (1.07%) Foundry
11 17 (1.07%) OpenAI
12 13 (0.82%) Zscaler
13 11 (0.69%) Aruba
14 8 (0.50%) Okta