User Research Contracts

User Research
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring User Research skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited User Research over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 250 256 175
Rank change year-on-year +6 -81 -38
Contract jobs citing User Research 307 393 887
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.05% 0.90% 1.49%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.15% 1.05% 1.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 236 286 703
10th Percentile £339 £363 £400
25th Percentile £407 £425 £440
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £538 £525
Median % change year-on-year -7.99% +2.48% -
75th Percentile £550 £601 £600
90th Percentile £650 £675 £661
UK excluding London median daily rate £437 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -12.55% +5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 3 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £89.68 £25.25 -
Median hourly rate £93.08 £25.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +265.02% -43.33% +80.00%
75th Percentile £96.49 £25.75 -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - -

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

User Research 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 26,594 37,597 53,655
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.84% 86.31% 89.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,149 24,227 37,238
10th Percentile £308 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £630 £638 £650
90th Percentile £743 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.50% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,071 2,443 1,746
10th Percentile £14.41 £12.75 £11.00
25th Percentile £18.21 £16.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £29.00 £35.65 £37.30
Median % change year-on-year -18.65% -4.42% +49.20%
75th Percentile £60.38 £59.98 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £37.34 £36.00
% change year-on-year -26.35% +3.72% +80.00%

User Research
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing User Research as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for User Research in the UK

User Research
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing User Research.

Daily rate trend for User Research in the UK

User Research
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing User Research over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for User Research in the UK

User Research
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing User Research.

Hourly rate trend for User Research in the UK

User Research
Top 17 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing User Research within the UK over the 6 months to 1 May 2025. 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 +2 202 £499 -9.27% 311
London +19 139 £500 -5.88% 217
Work from Home -4 118 £463 -15.82% 170
UK excluding London +22 92 £437 -12.55% 117
Scotland -15 32 £425 -19.62% 5
North of England -5 28 £400 -3.03% 48
South West +52 12 £575 -8.00% 13
North West +1 11 £400 +10.34% 31
Midlands +27 9 £463 +2.78% 15
Yorkshire -1 9 £400 -15.79% 8
South East +46 8 £588 +20.51% 32
North East +1 8 £375 -38.14% 9
West Midlands +17 7 £550 +22.22% 8
East of England - 3 £450 - 2
East Midlands - 2 £318 - 6
Northern Ireland -10 1 £450 -12.20% 1
Wales - 1 - - 4

User Research
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 29 (9.45%) Confluence
2 5 (1.63%) CMS
3 4 (1.30%) nginx
4 1 (0.33%) Apache
4 1 (0.33%) Moodle
Applications
1 32 (10.42%) Sketch
2 27 (8.79%) Adobe XD
3 23 (7.49%) Trello
4 9 (2.93%) InVision
5 6 (1.95%) Autodesk Smoke
6 4 (1.30%) MS Visio
7 3 (0.98%) Microsoft Excel
7 3 (0.98%) Microsoft Office
7 3 (0.98%) UserZoom
8 2 (0.65%) Photoshop
9 1 (0.33%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
9 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
9 1 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
9 1 (0.33%) SPSS
9 1 (0.33%) Stata
9 1 (0.33%) UXPin
9 1 (0.33%) Zeplin
Cloud Services
1 73 (23.78%) Figma
2 24 (7.82%) AWS
3 22 (7.17%) Azure
4 20 (6.51%) Miro
5 17 (5.54%) SaaS
6 13 (4.23%) Azure DevOps
7 8 (2.61%) Serverless
8 7 (2.28%) Google Analytics
9 4 (1.30%) Power Platform
10 3 (0.98%) GCP
10 3 (0.98%) Microsoft 365
10 3 (0.98%) Slack
11 2 (0.65%) Azure Functions
11 2 (0.65%) GitHub
12 1 (0.33%) Azure Cosmos DB
12 1 (0.33%) dbt
12 1 (0.33%) Entra ID
12 1 (0.33%) GitHub Actions
12 1 (0.33%) Google Data Studio
12 1 (0.33%) Sentry
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.65%) Intranet
1 2 (0.65%) WebEx
2 1 (0.33%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (1.95%) NoSQL
2 3 (0.98%) Power BI
3 2 (0.65%) Data Warehouse
3 2 (0.65%) Mixpanel
3 2 (0.65%) MongoDB
3 2 (0.65%) SQL Server
3 2 (0.65%) Tableau
4 1 (0.33%) DTS
4 1 (0.33%) Elasticsearch
4 1 (0.33%) Flink
4 1 (0.33%) QGIS
Development Applications
1 42 (13.68%) JIRA
2 18 (5.86%) Axure RP
3 6 (1.95%) Git
4 4 (1.30%) Balsamiq
4 4 (1.30%) NUnit
5 2 (0.65%) GitLab
5 2 (0.65%) Postman
6 1 (0.33%) CircleCI
6 1 (0.33%) Selenium
6 1 (0.33%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.33%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 125 (40.72%) Public Sector
2 105 (34.20%) Social Skills
3 42 (13.68%) Analytical Skills
4 35 (11.40%) Finance
5 14 (4.56%) Marketing
6 12 (3.91%) Presentation Skills
7 9 (2.93%) Banking
7 9 (2.93%) Influencing Skills
8 7 (2.28%) Retail
9 6 (1.95%) Digital Health
9 6 (1.95%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 6 (1.95%) Publishing
9 6 (1.95%) Wearables
10 3 (0.98%) Games
10 3 (0.98%) Local Government
10 3 (0.98%) Organisational Skills
11 2 (0.65%) Documentation Skills
11 2 (0.65%) Police
12 1 (0.33%) Aviation
12 1 (0.33%) Legal
Job Titles
1 115 (37.46%) Designer
2 55 (17.92%) User Researcher
3 41 (13.36%) UX Designer
4 40 (13.03%) Senior
5 34 (11.07%) Analyst
6 29 (9.45%) Business Analyst
7 26 (8.47%) Service Designer
8 25 (8.14%) Interaction Designer
9 22 (7.17%) Product Manager
10 20 (6.51%) Developer
11 19 (6.19%) User Experience Researcher
12 18 (5.86%) Senior Designer
13 17 (5.54%) Lead
14 16 (5.21%) Product Designer
15 14 (4.56%) Content Designer
15 14 (4.56%) UI Designer
16 13 (4.23%) UI/UX Designer
17 7 (2.28%) .NET Developer
17 7 (2.28%) Delivery Manager
17 7 (2.28%) Senior UX Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (11.07%) HTML
2 31 (10.10%) CSS
3 10 (3.26%) RESTful
4 8 (2.61%) .NET
5 7 (2.28%) .NET Core
5 7 (2.28%) ASP.NET
5 7 (2.28%) OAuth
5 7 (2.28%) React
6 6 (1.95%) Node.js
7 4 (1.30%) ARM Templates
7 4 (1.30%) OpenID
8 3 (0.98%) FastAPI
8 3 (0.98%) OAuth2
9 2 (0.65%) JSON
9 2 (0.65%) OpenAPI
9 2 (0.65%) Swagger
9 2 (0.65%) Vue
9 2 (0.65%) XML
10 1 (0.33%) React Native
10 1 (0.33%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 50 (16.29%) Product Ownership
2 11 (3.58%) Mobile App
3 7 (2.28%) Enterprise Software
4 6 (1.95%) Analytical Mindset
4 6 (1.95%) IoT
5 4 (1.30%) Cloud Native
5 4 (1.30%) Life Science
5 4 (1.30%) Self-Motivation
5 4 (1.30%) Taxonomies
6 3 (0.98%) NHS
7 2 (0.65%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (0.65%) Graphic Design
7 2 (0.65%) Legacy Systems
7 2 (0.65%) Management Information System
7 2 (0.65%) SCADA
8 1 (0.33%) Educational Technology
8 1 (0.33%) Low-Code
8 1 (0.33%) Onboarding
8 1 (0.33%) Operational Technology
8 1 (0.33%) Sports Betting
Operating Systems
1 4 (1.30%) Android
1 4 (1.30%) Apple iOS
2 1 (0.33%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 172 (56.03%) User Experience
2 170 (55.37%) Agile
3 106 (34.53%) UX Design
4 94 (30.62%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
5 91 (29.64%) Usability Testing
6 72 (23.45%) Service Design
7 63 (20.52%) Prototyping
8 60 (19.54%) Wireframes
9 57 (18.57%) Stakeholder Management
10 53 (17.26%) Interaction Design
10 53 (17.26%) User Stories
11 46 (14.98%) Problem-Solving
12 44 (14.33%) Analytics
13 38 (12.38%) UX Research
14 37 (12.05%) Roadmaps
14 37 (12.05%) Workshop Facilitation
15 35 (11.40%) Actionable Insight
16 33 (10.75%) Sprint Planning
17 30 (9.77%) Decision-Making
18 29 (9.45%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 32 (10.42%) JavaScript
2 9 (2.93%) Python
3 7 (2.28%) C#
3 7 (2.28%) SQL
4 4 (1.30%) Java
5 2 (0.65%) TypeScript
6 1 (0.33%) Go
6 1 (0.33%) R
6 1 (0.33%) Ruby
6 1 (0.33%) Scala
Qualifications
1 69 (22.48%) Security Cleared
2 55 (17.92%) SC Cleared
3 19 (6.19%) Degree
4 5 (1.63%) BPSS Clearance
4 5 (1.63%) DV Cleared
4 5 (1.63%) Master's Degree
5 4 (1.30%) PhD
6 3 (0.98%) IIBA
6 3 (0.98%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 86 (28.01%) Accessibility
2 16 (5.21%) WCAG
3 13 (4.23%) QA
4 7 (2.28%) Actionable Recommendations
5 4 (1.30%) Disclosure Scotland
6 2 (0.65%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.33%) GDPR
7 1 (0.33%) PERC
System Software
1 14 (4.56%) Docker
2 1 (0.33%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 8 (2.61%) Kubernetes
2 6 (1.95%) Terraform
3 1 (0.33%) Ansible
3 1 (0.33%) Grafana
3 1 (0.33%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 34 (11.07%) Adobe
2 10 (3.26%) Microsoft
3 3 (0.98%) CA Agile Central
3 3 (0.98%) Google
3 3 (0.98%) Palantir
4 2 (0.65%) DataCore
4 2 (0.65%) Optimizely
4 2 (0.65%) Oracle
4 2 (0.65%) SAP
5 1 (0.33%) Brio
5 1 (0.33%) Databricks
5 1 (0.33%) Foundry
5 1 (0.33%) Hotjar
5 1 (0.33%) IBM
5 1 (0.33%) Qualtrics
5 1 (0.33%) Salesforce
5 1 (0.33%) ServiceNow