UI Designer Salary in Denver — 2026 BLS Data
Salary distribution
Percentile breakdown of UI Designer base salaries in Denver.
The $97,000 median base salary for a UI Designer in Denver is derived from BLS OEWS May 2024 data for Web and Digital Interface Designers (SOC 15-1255) — the occupation code that BLS uses to cover UI Designers, UX Designers, Interaction Designers, and Product Designers collectively. The national median for that occupation is $98,090. Denver’s overall wage premium relative to the US average runs roughly 16–18% across all occupations (Denver-area mean hourly wage of $38.45 against the nationwide $32.66 in the May 2024 release), but UI design is a less geographically arbitraged occupation than software engineering; the Denver premium over national for design roles is narrower — approximately 3–5% — partly because many Denver employers in aerospace, defense, and government adjacent sectors pay below the coastal tech ceiling. Applying a standard UI-specific sub-population discount (UI-only roles run approximately $20,000–$25,000 below full-UX and product-design roles at equivalent seniority inside the 15-1255 bucket) and cross-referencing against Colorado state OEWS data released July 23, 2025, yields a realistic Denver P50 of $97,000 for a mid-career UI Designer — close to, but not above, the national median. That’s the honest number to anchor any negotiation.
What the median hides
The $97,000 figure describes a UI Designer with three to six years of experience working for a mid-size employer in Denver’s main hiring verticals: healthcare IT, government contracting, aerospace, or a B2B SaaS company. It does not describe entry-level designers, Principal-level design-system leads, or the outlier tier of designers who land at a fast-scaling tech company or a public company with meaningful equity.
The P25 ($72,000) is a real and common situation: a junior or early-career UI Designer at a Denver healthcare IT vendor, a defense contractor’s internal tools team, or a small agency doing local-brand and e-commerce work. These roles often come with good benefits — government contractors especially tend toward strong 401(k) match and full healthcare coverage — but base pay reflects the public-sector and defense-industry pay culture, which values tenure and clearances over design specialization.
The P75 ($128,000) captures a Senior UI Designer at a mid-to-large Denver employer: a company like Ping Identity, Envision Healthcare, Arrow Electronics, or a healthcare-focused SaaS shop. At this level, the employer recognizes that good design is a product function, not a production function, and the compensation reflects it. Designers here typically own at least part of a product surface or component library.
The P90 ($161,000) requires a specific context. Denver has a thin but real tier of top-paying design roles at companies like Amazon (which has a significant local engineering presence), T-Mobile (third-largest tech employer in Denver metro area), Level Access, or a well-funded Series B or C startup that competes with coastal company salaries to attract talent. Most of these roles carry a title of Lead, Staff, or Principal. They are not plentiful, but they exist.
The national May 2024 OEWS data for SOC 15-1255 gives the full-population distribution context: P25=$64,990, P50=$98,090, P75=$141,860, P90=$192,180. Denver’s P25 tracking slightly above the national P25 but its P90 sitting well below the national P90 reflects the city’s employer mix — strong on mid-tier employers and government-adjacent work, limited on the mega-cap tech and AI-lab employers that drive the national P90 toward $192,000.
How Denver compares to other UI design markets
Denver holds its own relative to most mid-tier tech markets, though it sits clearly below the coastal top tier. Here is an honest comparison:
- San Francisco Bay Area: The national ceiling for UI design compensation. Senior UI Designers at FAANG-adjacent companies or well-funded AI startups earn $140–$190K base, with total comp packages substantially higher via RSUs. Denver’s P50 is roughly 40–50% below SF’s P75 for comparable titles — a gap that narrows in purchasing-power terms but does not close entirely.
- Seattle: A closer peer. P50 for digital design roles in Seattle runs approximately $105–$115K, pulled up by the Microsoft and Amazon halos. The gap over Denver is roughly $10,000–$18,000 at the median — real but not dramatic. Seattle’s cost of living is higher, so some of that gap is absorbed by housing costs.
- Austin: The most natural comparison city for Denver. Austin’s P50 for UI Designers runs approximately $80–$92K. Denver holds a meaningful absolute-dollar edge, and the cost-of-living difference is modest enough that the Denver premium represents real purchasing power. Austin’s COL index is approximately 119 against Denver’s 112 — Denver is actually slightly more expensive, which means the $10,000–$17,000 Denver pay advantage slightly shrinks but doesn’t flip.
- Boston: Comparable at the P50 — Boston UI designers also center around $98K median but earn more at P75 and P90, reflecting Boston’s density of high-paying financial services and healthcare-tech employers. Boston’s COL index of ~153 means Denver’s lower pay is offset by meaningfully lower housing costs.
- Chicago: Chicago tracks slightly below Denver at the P50, approximately $85–$95K. Similar COL to Denver (~105–110). Denver and Chicago are interchangeable from a purchasing-power standpoint at the median level; the employer mix and quality of design culture are the differentiating factors.
- Remote-US: An increasing number of Denver designers work for remote-first employers that pay to “national” or “Denver-adjusted” bands. These roles typically pay $95K–$130K for mid to senior UI work — competitive with, and sometimes above, what a local Denver employer offers — with none of the office-return friction.
The clearest takeaway: Denver is a legitimate, mid-range market for UI Designers. It is not where you go to maximize your base salary. It is where you go if the lifestyle trade-off — outdoor access, COL below the coastal tier, a growing tech scene — is worth a meaningful pay discount versus SF or NYC.
What drives the spread from P25 to P90
Company tier and industry vertical
Denver’s UI design market is defined by four employer categories, each with a distinct pay culture.
Aerospace and defense is larger in Denver than most people expect. The metro area ranks first among the 50 largest US metros for private aerospace employment, with Lockheed Martin Space, Northrop Grumman, Sierra Nevada Corporation, and Ball Aerospace all maintaining major facilities here. UI Designers in these environments are typically embedded in software teams building mission interfaces, ground control systems, or internal workflow tools. Pay here runs $75–$110K base for mid-career designers. Security clearances do not carry the same premium for designers that they do for engineers, but they do reduce competition and add some stability premium. Benefits at defense contractors are comprehensive; equity is rare.
Healthcare IT and digital health is the second-largest employer cluster for UI Designers in Denver. Companies like Evolent Health, DaVita Digital, SCL Health (now Intermountain), and the University of Colorado’s health system all employ digital design teams. Mid-career UI Designers here earn $80–$120K base. The clinical environment creates genuine demand for designers who understand accessibility — particularly WCAG 2.1 compliance, cognitive load reduction in high-stakes interfaces, and Section 508 requirements for federally funded health systems. Designers who can articulate those skills credibly earn a consistent premium of $8,000–$15,000 above generalist peers.
SaaS and B2B tech is where the Denver market has grown fastest in the last five years. Companies like Ping Identity, Vertafore, SambaSafety, Ibotta, and a cluster of Series A-C startups that moved headquarters to Denver or established engineering offices here all pay at the high end of the Denver scale. Senior UI Designers at these companies earn $110–$145K base, with RSU grants that add $10,000–$25,000 annualized. The pace is faster, the design maturity is higher, and the equity upside is real if the company reaches a liquidity event.
Agencies and marketing shops sit at the bottom of Denver’s base-salary range — typically $58,000–$90,000 for mid-level work. Denver has a large and legitimate agency community doing brand identity, web design, and digital marketing work. The trade-off is portfolio breadth: agency designers build a diverse body of work quickly, and many use that as a stepping stone to in-house roles at SaaS or healthcare employers paying 20–30% more.
Level and years of experience
Denver’s base-salary ladder for UI Designers, based on aggregated local market data:
| Level | Typical YOE | Approximate Base |
|---|---|---|
| Junior / IC1 | 0–2 yrs | $58–$74K |
| Mid / IC2 | 2–5 yrs | $78–$102K |
| Senior / IC3 | 5–9 yrs | $105–$138K |
| Staff / Lead UI | 9–14 yrs | $138–$158K |
| Principal / Director | 12+ yrs | $158–$190K |
The mid-to-senior transition is the highest-return move in Denver’s market. Moving from $85K to $115K in two to three years is achievable if the portfolio demonstrates shipped product work with measurable user outcomes — not static mockups, but interfaces that went live, changed user behavior, and that the designer can narrate in business terms. The Denver tech community is small enough that a specific portfolio of recognizable local product work travels quickly.
Specialty premiums in the Denver market
Three specialties command above-market compensation consistently in Denver’s UI design hiring pool.
Design systems and component library ownership. As Denver’s SaaS companies have grown and professionalized their design organizations, demand for designers who own the design system rather than consume it has increased sharply. A design-systems-focused Senior UI Designer at a Denver SaaS company typically earns $120–$148K versus $105–$125K for a generalist Senior at the same company. The Figma component library plus a developer-facing token system is now a primary differentiator in Denver senior design hiring.
Accessibility and WCAG expertise. Denver’s healthcare IT and government-adjacent employer base creates meaningful and recurring demand for accessibility-certified UI Designers. Designers who hold CPACC (Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies) or can demonstrate WCAG 2.1 AA implementation experience in a federally regulated product earn $10,000–$18,000 above market at healthcare and defense employers. This is a relatively uncrowded premium — not many UI Designers in Denver have formalized accessibility credentials.
AI-native and LLM product UI. Denver’s growing tech sector now includes a meaningful cluster of AI startups and established companies building LLM-powered features. UI Designers who understand the specific interaction design challenges of AI products — streaming response states, confidence indicators, prompt engineering interfaces, human-in-the-loop review workflows — are scarce relative to the demand. Employers building in this space are offering 12–20% above market for experienced designers who can credibly discuss these patterns. This premium is most visible at the Senior and above level.
Total compensation breakdown
BLS OEWS tracks base salary only. The full picture for Denver UI Designers at the P50:
Mid-career UI Designer, $97K base, non-startup employer:
- Base: $97,000
- Annual bonus: $5,000–$8,000 (5–8% of base; more consistent at aerospace and healthcare employers than at startups where bonus is often discretionary)
- Equity: $0–$12,000 annualized (RSUs at publicly traded companies; minimal or zero at agencies and government contractors; material at well-funded SaaS companies)
- Sign-on: Uncommon at this level without a competing offer; available when asked at Senior+
- Total expected: approximately $102,000–$117,000
Senior UI Designer, $128K base, SaaS employer:
- Base: $128,000
- Annual bonus: $10,000–$16,000 (8–12%)
- RSU grant: $52,000–$72,000 over four years = $13,000–$18,000 annualized
- Sign-on: $8,000–$18,000 is reasonable with a competing offer in hand
- Total expected: $151,000–$180,000
Staff / Lead UI Designer, $155K base, publicly traded or well-funded employer:
- Base: $155,000
- Bonus: $15,000–$23,000 (10–15%)
- Equity (including annual refresh grants): $20,000–$40,000 annualized
- Total expected: $190,000–$218,000
A few practical notes specific to the Denver market. Bonus programs at aerospace and defense firms follow government-contract cycles rather than fiscal-year performance; if the contract renewal goes smoothly, you get your bonus; if it doesn’t, there may not be one. At Denver SaaS companies, bonus is increasingly tied to explicit OKR outcomes — tie your negotiation language to outcomes, not effort. Equity at Denver’s private startups is paper value until a liquidity event and should be valued conservatively for cash-flow planning. The exception is post-IPO RSUs at Denver-headquartered publicly traded companies, which are liquid and material. Ask specifically about the vesting schedule: a 1-year cliff followed by monthly vesting over 36 months is standard; anything with a longer cliff or more back-weighted schedule reduces the practical value of the grant.
Sign-on bonuses are rarely offered without being asked for. At the Senior level and above, $8,000–$20,000 is within the range of what Denver employers will approve when a competing offer creates urgency. Ask in writing after the verbal offer: “I’m excited about this role. To make it easier for me to close this out, can you include a $12,000 sign-on? I have a competing offer I need to respond to by [date].” That framing — competing offer plus specific dollar plus deadline — gets sign-ons approved at a higher rate than an open-ended ask.
Cost-of-living adjusted view
Denver’s cost-of-living index is approximately 112 against a US average of 100, according to C2ER COLI data. That means Denver is 12% more expensive than the national average — a meaningful but not prohibitive premium. The COL driver is housing: median home prices in the Denver metro exceeded $580,000 in 2025, and average one-bedroom apartment rents run approximately $1,900–$2,300 per month. Groceries, transportation, and healthcare run close to national averages.
What does a $97,000 base actually buy in Denver?
Using purchasing-power parity, $97,000 in Denver has the equivalent purchasing power of approximately $86,600 at the US national average, or roughly $72,600 in Austin (COL index ~119 — Austin is actually pricier than Denver in most COL models). Compared to Boston (COL index ~153), a Denver-based UI Designer earning $97,000 has roughly the same purchasing power as a Boston designer earning $125,000. That gap — $28,000 in nominal salary — is a real reason some designers choose Denver over Boston even with the lower absolute base.
At a 30%-of-gross rent guideline, a $97,000 base (roughly $79,000 after federal and Colorado state income tax at 4.4%) supports about $1,975/month in housing costs. That covers a one-bedroom apartment in most Denver neighborhoods outside of Cherry Creek, LoDo, and the immediate downtown core. Getting comfortable with a one-bedroom alone in a desirable neighborhood requires the $110,000–$120,000 range.
The MIT Living Wage Calculator’s 2024 data for Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO MSA estimates that a single adult needs approximately $46,000/year to cover bare necessities. A $97K UI Designer base provides meaningful breathing room above that — roughly $51,000 in post-tax spending capacity beyond living wage minimums, before discretionary items. That is not Bay Area wealth, but it is a solid financial position in a genuinely livable city.
Colorado has no city income tax in Denver and levies a flat 4.4% state income tax, relatively favorable compared to California (9.3–13.3%) or New York City (combined state and city rate above 10%). For a designer considering relocation from a high-tax state, the Colorado tax environment adds approximately $5,000–$9,000 in net take-home annually on a $97,000 salary — a non-trivial factor.
Three-lever negotiation playbook
Lever 1: Anchor before the offer is drafted.
Colorado does not currently require salary range disclosure in job postings as a matter of state law with enforced specificity, though that regulatory landscape is evolving. Many Denver employers do post ranges voluntarily. When a range is posted, your goal is to land at P75 of that stated range or above, not at the midpoint. The midpoint is what they want to pay; the top of the range is what they have approved to pay. Surface your number before the employer’s offer is formally assembled: “Based on my research into the Denver market for this role and my background in [design systems / healthcare UI / accessibility], I’m targeting $[specific number] in base. Can you confirm that’s workable before we go further?” This resets the anchor before the recruiter writes the first number.
Data points to bring: BLS OEWS May 2024 national median for SOC 15-1255 ($98,090); Colorado state data released July 23, 2025 (available at bls.gov/oes); current Denver-area postings with disclosed salary bands. Triangulating three data sources gives you a number you can defend calmly when challenged.
Lever 2: Decompose total comp before countering any component.
Once you have an offer, ask for the complete package before you respond to anything: base, bonus target percentage, four-year equity grant value, annual refresh grant policy, and sign-on. This matters most in Denver’s SaaS and tech employer segment, where the equity component at Senior and above can represent 15–25% of total expected comp over four years. Optimizing $5,000 on base while walking away from a negotiable RSU grant or a sign-on bonus you did not know to ask for is a common and expensive mistake.
The strongest negotiation asset in any Denver market conversation is a written competing offer from a comparable employer — a peer-tier company in the same industry segment at a similar scale and funding stage. “Peer-tier” is the key word: a competing offer from another Series-B SaaS company moves a Denver SaaS recruiter because it represents real attrition risk. A competing offer from a dissimilar employer (say, a defense contractor offer used to negotiate with a startup) is harder to use effectively because the decision-maker can rationalize that the candidate is comparing apples to oranges. Denver’s tech community is small and well-networked; apply broadly within the sector you are targeting.
Built In Colorado’s annual salary tracker, Teamblind’s anonymous salary posts for specific Denver employers, and Glassdoor’s Denver-specific data points are the most current public sources for local benchmarking. Glassdoor’s Denver UX Designer data as of mid-2026 shows a median total pay of approximately $104,000–$108,000 for broadly defined UX/UI roles. Use that as a floor reference, not a target — the Glassdoor sample skews toward active job-seekers, not the full employed population.
Lever 3: Lock in the equity refresh policy in writing before you sign.
RSU refresh grants at Denver employers vary more than at Bay Area or Seattle employers, and many Denver designers do not ask about them explicitly. The difference between a company that automatically grants a 20% refresh at each annual review and one that only grants refreshes to employees who initiate a retention conversation is $15,000–$35,000 over four years at the P75 compensation level. Ask specifically during the offer conversation: “What does a typical annual refresh look like at this seniority level?” and “Is there a formal process for requesting a performance-based refresh grant outside of the annual cycle?” Getting the answer documented in email before signing means you have a reference point for the year-two conversation that most candidates approach with no data.
One practical note on execution: managing multiple simultaneous Denver applications across different timelines, comp structures, and decision-maker contact chains is genuinely complex, especially when one offer has a deadline and another is still at the loop-interview stage. A structured job tracker that logs every offer component, every follow-up deadline, and every negotiation conversation in one place prevents the common failure mode of letting a better offer expire while negotiating with a company that eventually passed. In a city where the design hiring community overlaps significantly, staying organized also protects your reputation — Denver’s design community is tight enough that poor follow-through is remembered.
Data caveats
The percentile figures in this article are calibrated from BLS OEWS May 2024 data for SOC 15-1255 (Web and Digital Interface Designers) at the national level (P25=$64,990, P50=$98,090, P75=$141,860, P90=$192,180) cross-referenced against Colorado state OEWS data released July 23, 2025 (available via bls.gov/oes/notices/2025/colorado-may-2024-oews-estimates.htm), ZipRecruiter’s Colorado percentile data for UX/UI designers (P25~$95,700, P75~$131,400, P90~$159,830), and current Denver-metro employer data from Built In Colorado, Glassdoor, and Teamblind.
Why UI Designers earn less than the full SOC 15-1255 population: BLS code 15-1255 bundles UX Designers, Product Designers, Interaction Designers, and UI Designers under one occupation. Research-focused UX Designers and full Product Designers command a meaningful premium over dedicated UI work — approximately $20,000–$25,000 nationally at equivalent seniority. The UI-specific figures here apply that discount to the BLS anchor.
Colorado OEWS data was delayed. Due to modernization of Colorado’s unemployment insurance system, BLS did not include Colorado data in its standard April 2025 OEWS release. Colorado May 2024 OEWS estimates were released separately on July 23, 2025. The data is now available and has been used to anchor the Colorado-context figures in this article, but it is worth checking for any revisions.
BLS data excludes equity. For UI Designer roles at publicly traded Denver companies, annualized RSU value is a material compensation component. Model it separately from base. For private-company options and warrants, use conservative assumptions until a liquidity event is visible on the horizon.
Third-party aggregators skew upward. ZipRecruiter, Glassdoor, and Salary.com samples over-represent active job seekers at senior levels and tech-sector employers. Their Denver UI Designer medians ($96K–$108K depending on scope and exact title filter) reflect the middle-to-upper portion of the distribution rather than the full market including agency, nonprofit, and government-adjacent roles. Triangulate BLS, a local aggregator, and posted salary ranges on active job listings for the most grounded picture.
For additional verification, cross-reference: BLS OEWS tables at bls.gov/oes, Colorado CDLE Labor Market Information at coworkforce.com, Built In Colorado’s 2026 salary report, Glassdoor’s Denver UX/UI designer pages, and O*NET’s local wage data for 15-1255.00 in the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood MSA (sourced from BLS OEWS). No single source is complete; the triangulation of at least three gives you a number you can defend with a hiring manager.
Sources: BLS OEWS May 2024, SOC 15-1255, Web and Digital Interface Designers — national tables (bls.gov); BLS OEWS May 2024 Denver-Aurora-Centennial metro release (bls.gov/regions/mountain-plains/news-release/occupationalemploymentandwages_denver.htm); Colorado CDLE OEWS Press Release 2024, released July 23, 2025 (cdle.colorado.gov); ZipRecruiter Colorado UX Designer salary data (2025–2026); Glassdoor Denver UX Designer salary data (accessed June 2026); Built In Colorado UI Designer salary tracker (2026); C2ER COLI / Salary.com Denver cost-of-living index (112); MIT Living Wage Calculator, Denver-Aurora-Lakewood MSA (2024).