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Technology, Marketing & Agency, User Experience & Design
View profileUX is a well established but fast-changing profession. As a UX specialist you could realistically have a number of different titles, depending on the specifics of the role, the UX maturity of the business and the output needed in the role. You could be called a UX Consultant, a User Researcher, a UX Designer a Service Designer as well as a number of other titles.
Why consider a career as a UX Consultant?
If you’re fascinated by how people use products and services, then UX might be for you. You’ll be called upon to understand the user of any chosen product or service, train colleagues in UX best practice and evangelise the latest user experience methodologies. Sometimes your work will be closely related to ROI, in other environments, you may be further removed from the end product or result.
What does a career or job in UX entail?
Whether you’re client-side or working for an agency, you’ll be responsible for championing the user when redesigning a public-facing site, mobile app, internal system or any other platform within the digital ecosystem. Work could also spread to other touchpoints outside of digital and encompass offline services.
Working in UX means collaborating with a wide variety of skillsets, especially if your team works to agile principles and in cross-functional teams. You’ll most likely interface a lot with product people, BA’s, project managers, developers, creatives, data specialists and marketing people.
User experience as a practice involves many skills from research, testing, design, workshop and facilitation, analytics, strategy and more.
What are typical UX job titles?
UX Consultant
UX Designer
UX Researcher
User Researcher
Information Architect
Service Designer
UX Analyst
What does career progression in UX look like?
Junior / Midweight / Senior / Principal / Lead
UX Manager
UX Design Manager
Head of UX / Head of UX Design
Director of UX / UX Director / UX Design Director
What is the average UX Salary?
We’ve outlined the latest salary benchmarks for UX Design roles in the guides below:
Is it right for me? The skills it takes…
Being a ‘design thinker’, user-centred, analytical, strategic and above all else a problem solver. To work in UX you’ll need soft skills including empathy, communication and a collaborative mindset. The tools available and in use vary depending on environment but an ability to wireframe and prototype in more design orientated roles is common. Tools such as Sketch, InVision, Figma, the Adobe suite. An understanding of project management practices and processes, research and testing software also.
What qualifications do you need for a job in UX?
There are many pathways into UX, so a degree in something design-oriented is common (this could be product design or digital media). Computer science degrees are common, along with Psychology degrees.
CAREER PATH
This guide maps out the progression of roles in User Experience (UX) Design, from entry-level roles through to senior leadership, including job descriptions, salary bands, and key skills for the UK market.
Junior UX Designer
Salary:
£25k – £32k
What They Do:
Supports the UX team in conducting user research, designing wireframes and prototypes, and helping to improve digital products and services.
Skills Needed:
- Understanding of UX fundamentals and design thinking
- Proficiency in wireframing and prototyping tools (Figma, Adobe XD, Sketch)
- Basic user research and testing skills
- Collaboration with developers and designers
- Good communication and presentation skills
UX Designer
Salary:
£32k – £42k
What They Do:
Designs user experiences for websites, apps, and digital platforms. Conducts research, analyses data, and translates insights into user-friendly designs.
Skills Needed:
- Prototyping, wireframing, and user flow design
- Strong user research and usability testing experience
- Understanding of accessibility and inclusive design
- Ability to work with stakeholders to gather requirements
- Experience working in agile environments
Senior UX Designer
Salary:
£42k – £55k
What They Do:
Leads UX projects, mentors juniors, and ensures products meet both user needs and business objectives.
Skills Needed:
- Advanced user research and testing methods
- Experience designing for complex systems and platforms
- Knowledge of analytics and data-driven design
- Strong stakeholder management and facilitation skills
- Ability to champion user-centred design within an organisation
Lead UX Designer / UX Manager
Salary:
£55k – £70k
What They Do:
Oversees the UX function for multiple products or teams, aligns user experience with business strategy, and manages designers.
Skills Needed:
- Leadership and team management
- Expertise in UX strategy and service design
- Ability to develop design systems and standards
- Senior stakeholder and client engagement
- Project and resource management
Head of UX / Head of Experience Design
Salary:
£70k – £90k
What They Do:
Leads the UX department, sets vision and strategy, and ensures user-centred design is embedded across the business.
Skills Needed:
- Department leadership and culture development
- Executive-level stakeholder engagement
- Commercial awareness and business strategy input
- Proven track record of delivering measurable UX impact
- Experience building and scaling design teams
Director of UX / Chief Experience Officer (CXO)
Salary:
£90k – £120k+
What They Do:
Owns the organisation’s user experience strategy at board level. Drives innovation and ensures all customer touchpoints are optimised.
Skills Needed:
- Visionary leadership and strategic thinking
- Extensive experience in UX and service design
- Strong executive and client-facing skills
- Ability to integrate UX with wider business transformation
- Experience leading cross-functional and multi-location teams
JOB
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Our latest User Experience & Design jobs
We connect ambitious organisations with their greatest assets, equally ambitious talent.
Our User Experience & Design recruitment team
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Ben Halligan
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Sam Firth
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Chris Nasrawi
User Experience & Design case studies
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"As a content design lead with a rapidly scaling team, I recently needed 3 experienced senior content designers asap - and luckily I got to work with Sam. He took the time to understand my team, and how we work as content designers and ux writers in our specific working environment. Sam quickly found outstanding candidates, and made my busy days easy by organising interviews, setting up calls, ensuring I had information and details quickly and without hassle. Especially helpful was that Sam had clearly taken the time to get to know each candidate - he understands all the UX skillsets including all the various aspects of content design, and could also help me understand each candidates’ background, a bit about their character and preferences. That meant I was able to have meaningful conversations with him about fit and capability, which helped me make hiring decisions. I was able to hire 3 amazing content designers in about 3 weeks."
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Working with a recruitment partner like ADLIB means you’re working with a group of people who get to understand you and match candidates up with your culture and goals. ADLIB worked at a breakneck speed to introduce us to the marketing experts we needed to build our team in a matter of months. With their help we recruited and onboarded a new team much faster than planned and ended up spoilt for choice because of the way they work and market insights.
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“Since joining Create Health, I’ve had a clear vision of what I want to build. ADLIB have invested the time to truly understand this, meaning the permanent and freelance candidates they send through are always spot on. This not only makes the process easier and more enjoyable, it saves a lot of time.”
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"Sam has helped us recruit UX Designers, Service Designers and Accessibility experts for the last 18 months. During this time, I have come to understand that Sam has exemplary knowledge of UX disciplines, knows many candidates on a personal level, and only ever refers highly-skilled top-tier humans. What sets Sam apart from others in the field is the time and energy he puts into understanding the current (and envisioned) culture of the team he is recruiting for. This dedication allows him to spot people who will support your culture and not (negatively) disrupt it."
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