UX Research Contracts

User Experience Research (UXR)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring UX Research skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited UX Research over the 6 months leading up to 30 April 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Apr 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 455 469 510
Rank change year-on-year +14 +41 -34
Contract jobs citing UX Research 64 131 203
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.22% 0.30% 0.34%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.24% 0.35% 0.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 47 100 134
10th Percentile £268 £424 £354
25th Percentile £424 £505 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £650 £544
Median % change year-on-year -19.23% +19.54% +2.59%
75th Percentile £600 £675 £625
90th Percentile £675 - £838
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £513 £438
% change year-on-year -17.07% +17.14% -12.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 2
10th Percentile - - £37.67
25th Percentile £48.25 - £45.14
Median hourly rate £49.50 - £58.85
75th Percentile £53.00 - £73.80
90th Percentile £54.35 - £82.02
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - -

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

UX 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 26,551 37,621 53,662
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.82% 86.30% 89.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,137 24,254 37,244
10th Percentile £308 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £521 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.86% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £630 £638 £650
90th Percentile £744 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.80% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,071 2,437 1,746
10th Percentile £14.70 £12.75 £11.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £29.00 £35.50 £37.30
Median % change year-on-year -18.31% -4.83% +49.20%
75th Percentile £62.00 £59.95 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.94 £36.50 £36.00
% change year-on-year -23.45% +1.39% +80.00%

UX Research
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for UX Research in the UK

UX Research
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for UX Research in the UK

UX Research
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing UX Research over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Daily rate histogram for UX Research in the UK

UX Research
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for UX Research in the UK

UX Research
Top 12 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing UX Research within the UK over the 6 months to 30 April 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 +11 60 £531 -18.36% 96
London +24 45 £531 -3.51% 65
UK excluding London +38 18 £425 -17.07% 35
Work from Home +3 16 £499 -23.23% 38
North of England +24 9 £200 -66.67% 16
South East +40 4 £650 +26.83% 6
North West +8 4 £257 -56.34% 13
North East 0 4 £200 -71.43% 1
South West +46 2 £625 +38.89% 4
Scotland +4 2 £425 -5.56% 4
Yorkshire +14 1 - - 2
Northern Ireland -12 1 £450 -12.20%

UX 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 7 (10.94%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (6.25%) Sketch
1 4 (6.25%) UserZoom
2 2 (3.13%) InVision
3 1 (1.56%) Adobe XD
3 1 (1.56%) Chatbot
Cloud Services
1 15 (23.44%) Figma
2 2 (3.13%) AppsFlyer
2 2 (3.13%) SaaS
3 1 (1.56%) Adobe Creative Cloud
3 1 (1.56%) Azure
3 1 (1.56%) Miro
Communications & Networking
1 2 (3.13%) WebEx
2 1 (1.56%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (3.13%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 7 (10.94%) JIRA
2 5 (7.81%) Axure RP
General
1 19 (29.69%) Finance
2 18 (28.13%) Social Skills
3 8 (12.50%) Analytical Skills
3 8 (12.50%) Banking
3 8 (12.50%) Public Sector
4 6 (9.38%) Digital Health
4 6 (9.38%) Retail
5 5 (7.81%) Presentation Skills
6 4 (6.25%) Influencing Skills
7 3 (4.69%) Legal
7 3 (4.69%) Marketing
8 2 (3.13%) Police
9 1 (1.56%) Corporate Banking
9 1 (1.56%) German Language
9 1 (1.56%) Investment Banking
9 1 (1.56%) Local Government
9 1 (1.56%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 27 (42.19%) User Experience Researcher
2 19 (29.69%) Senior
3 15 (23.44%) Designer
4 9 (14.06%) Senior User Experience Researcher
4 9 (14.06%) UX Designer
5 8 (12.50%) Senior Designer
6 5 (7.81%) Architect
6 5 (7.81%) Senior UX Designer
6 5 (7.81%) User Researcher
7 4 (6.25%) Analyst
7 4 (6.25%) Business Analyst
8 3 (4.69%) Consultant
8 3 (4.69%) Developer
8 3 (4.69%) Lead
8 3 (4.69%) Product Designer
8 3 (4.69%) Senior Product Designer
8 3 (4.69%) User Experience Consultant
9 2 (3.13%) Email Developer
9 2 (3.13%) Senior Service Designer
9 2 (3.13%) Service Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (12.50%) CSS
1 8 (12.50%) HTML
2 2 (3.13%) Kafka
3 1 (1.56%) Babylonjs
3 1 (1.56%) HTML5 Canvas
3 1 (1.56%) WebGL
Miscellaneous
1 9 (14.06%) Product Ownership
2 7 (10.94%) Mobile App
3 4 (6.25%) Life Science
4 2 (3.13%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (1.56%) Animation
5 1 (1.56%) Onboarding
5 1 (1.56%) W3C
Operating Systems
1 3 (4.69%) Android
1 3 (4.69%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 64 (100.00%) User Experience
2 38 (59.38%) User Research
3 29 (45.31%) UX Design
4 23 (35.94%) Agile
5 15 (23.44%) Design Thinking
6 14 (21.88%) Problem-Solving
7 13 (20.31%) Analytics
7 13 (20.31%) Usability Testing
7 13 (20.31%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
8 12 (18.75%) Prototyping
9 11 (17.19%) Wireframes
10 10 (15.63%) Stakeholder Management
11 9 (14.06%) Actionable Insight
11 9 (14.06%) Artificial Intelligence
11 9 (14.06%) Product Strategy
11 9 (14.06%) Roadmaps
11 9 (14.06%) User Stories
12 8 (12.50%) Decision-Making
12 8 (12.50%) Inclusive Design
12 8 (12.50%) Service Design
Programming Languages
1 5 (7.81%) JavaScript
2 2 (3.13%) SQL
3 1 (1.56%) Python
Qualifications
1 11 (17.19%) Security Cleared
2 8 (12.50%) Degree
2 8 (12.50%) SC Cleared
3 5 (7.81%) Master's Degree
4 4 (6.25%) PhD
5 3 (4.69%) CISSP
6 2 (3.13%) DV Cleared
7 1 (1.56%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (18.75%) Accessibility
2 2 (3.13%) Actionable Recommendations
2 2 (3.13%) WCAG
3 1 (1.56%) QA
System Software
1 2 (3.13%) VMware Infrastructure
Vendors
1 3 (4.69%) Adobe
1 3 (4.69%) CA Agile Central
2 2 (3.13%) Oracle
2 2 (3.13%) Qualtrics
2 2 (3.13%) Salesforce
2 2 (3.13%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
2 2 (3.13%) SAP
2 2 (3.13%) VMware
3 1 (1.56%) Microsoft