Hiring tech talents in Singapore.
Expensive.
Not only are you hiring your employees in one of the most expensive countries in the world, the high demand for tech talents in recent years, no thanks to the entrance of Chinese companies, such as Tencent, and Bytedance, and to new digital agencies of the government of Singapore, such as GovTech and Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX), all serve to increase the asking salaries of tech talents in Singapore.
Conversely, if you are a tech talent, i.e., software engineer, mobile developer, programmer, data analyst, data scientist, devops, or other tech-related professions, looking for a guide to benchmark your current or expected salary, then these statistics will be useful for you.
How much can a typical tech software engineer earn in Singapore?
High.
Arguably the highest in Asia and one of the highest in the world.
Interesting Salary Statistics on Tech Talents in Singapore
- Tech talents earn an average of SGD 7,000 a month
- An intern software developer can earn up to SGD 4,000 a month
- Junior software engineers earn around SGD 5,000 a month
- Senior software engineers earn around SGD 9,400 a month
- Salary increment from junior-level to mid-level tech talents is around 35%
- Data and DevOps roles earn about 22% higher than the rest of the tech talents
- Data scientists are the highest earners across all seniority at SGD 8,813 per month
- Tiktok is the best paymaster, paying 50% higher salaries than the industry average
- Chinese companies pay well, 27% better than other countries’ companies
- IT software product companies pay 37% more than outsourcing development houses
- Job ads show a salary budget 7% lower than that earned by tech talents
- Cybersecurity tech talents earn 17% lower than data engineers
- Engineering managers earn up to SGD 25,000 a month
1. Tech talents earn an average of SGD 7,000 a month
Software Engineers and Tech Developers can earn, on average across all experience levels, and all specializations, an eye-watering monthly gross salary of SGD 7,000. This is higher by around 2.5 times higher than tech talents in Vietnam, a close country in the same Southeast Asian region.
2. An intern software developer can earn up to SGD 4,000 a month
Interns. Not full-time permanent employees.
We find that interns working at Salesforce Singapore can earn up to SGD 4,000 a month. These are interns working in a DevOps role, which might require a high level of cognitive thinking and robust mathematical and computing fundamentals. Hence, it might explain the huge amount of intern stipends received.
Well, I would be reporting for my internship smiling from ear to ear if I were to take home that stipend as an intern.
3. Junior software engineers earn around SGD 5,000 a month
Junior level with around 1-3 years of coding and software experience can take home around SGD 5,000 gross monthly salary on average. At a top e-commerce company, some junior developers even reportedly earn 7,500 SGD which is above the market average. This provides good motivation for junior-level developers to improve and sharpen their coding and software writing skills, as junior developers are heavily assessed for their technical skills rather than managerial leadership abilities.
4. Senior software engineers earn around SGD 9,400 a month
Senior-level software engineers with around 4-8 years of software experience can take home close to SGD10,000 a month. It definitely pays to learn coding and software in this time and age. However, this pales in comparison to what a typical senior software engineer earns in Silicon valley with some earning around SGD 12,600 a month, higher by 12.6%.
5. Salary increment from junior-level to mid-level tech talents is around 35%
We find that the salary increment from a junior software engineer to a mid-level software engineer is around 35% whereas for a mid-level to a senior level is around 15% and from a senior level to a lead software engineer is around 16%. This could be explained by the greater tendency for junior software engineers to change jobs for higher salary increments whereas, for those experienced coders, it is less likely they would jump hop and hence, a lower salary gap between their seniority.
6. Data and DevOps roles earn about 22% higher than the rest of the tech talents
Data and DevOps are the winning career paths in Singapore.
Junior data engineers, junior data scientists, and junior data analysts earned an average of SGD 6,000, SGD 6,500, and SGD 4,500 respectively. A junior devops earns around SGD 6,000 and a junior site reliability developer earns around SGD 6,500 a month. These amounts are more than the average junior-level tech talents’ salary at SGD 5,313, a disparity of 22%.
7. Data scientists are the highest earners across all seniority at SGD 8,813 per month
Considering all tech talent roles, the data scientist earns the most on average across all seniority at SGD 8,813 per month during his/her tech career (up to a lead role). This makes sense as the requirements needed for a Data Scientist can be pretty high. Companies usually need an MSc/Ph.D. in machine learning, statistics, math, data science, computer science, or other closely related areas, and hands-on experience in academia and/or industry. This sharply reduces the availability of talent in the pool and hence, with reduced supply comes higher salaries in the labor market, all else being equal.
8. Tiktok is the best paymaster, paying 50% higher salaries than the industry average
First, this is not a sponsored post by Tiktok. Second, based on the data submitted by junior software engineers, we analyzed 33 companies and Tiktok came out as the winner. Junior software engineers can earn around SGD 7,800 a month, and this figure is around 50% more than the market average for junior-level tech talents. Rather than aspiring to be a “Tiktoker”, be a software engineer at Tiktok instead?
9. Chinese companies pay well, 27% better than other countries’ companies
We all know that businesses and companies from China are flushed with cash. With domestic problems plaguing their economy in 2022, cue the consistent and almost daily lockdowns everywhere, faltering property sectors, and tightening of the economy, Chinese companies are increasingly looking outwards to spend and Singapore is the ideal and stable country to invest in talents. Tech talents applying to Chinese companies find themselves well compensated, to the tune of 27% more than their peers. Leading the vanguard of generous paymasters is Tiktok, of course (Read point 8 above).
10. IT software product companies pay 37% more than outsourcing development houses
This ends the debate about whether to apply for an IT product company versus an IT outsourcing development agency/house/company. IT software product companies pay their tech engineers 37% more than tech outsourcing development agencies. Some factors could be better funding availability for IT software product companies and startups, which do not mind shelling out more for tech talents. On the other hand, it is possible that one focus of development houses is mainly to reduce software development costs for their clients, and hence, they are reluctant to be offering high wages to tech talents.
11. Job ads show a salary budget 7% lower than that earned by tech talents
We find that the average salary budget posted by employers is roughly the same as the average earned by tech talents. Based on data from MyCareersFuture, a government-sponsored job portal in Singapore, the average salary budget disclosed by hiring companies is lower than the average salary disclosed by tech talents by around 7%. Perhaps this could explain the high number of job vacancies to unemployed person ratio. While companies are hiring, they are offering lower than market-average salaries so tech talents might not be motivated to apply to them.
12. Cybersecurity tech talents earn 17% lower than data engineers
Cybersecurity is heralded as the new growth area in Singapore for the coming years. With past episodes of cyber attacks on major corporations and government agencies in Singapore, we thought that demand for cybersecurity personnel will create a higher salary range. However, it seems that the salaries of cybersecurity tech talents have not caught up yet with their data counterparts. That said, we think in the coming years, the high growth of cybersecurity and increasing demand might push their salaries earned to be either on parity or above that of data talents.
13. Engineering managers earn up to SGD 25,000 a month
Well, what can you do with SGD 25,000 a month? A lot. But to earn that cheque amount every month, an engineering manager has to manage and lead a group of software engineers. He/she has to plan, and coordinate complex tech plans and tech strategies within the organization, sometimes even filling the role of a Chief Technology Officer as well.
Final Words
Salaries earned by tech talents and software developers in Singapore can be very high, and arguably the highest around in Asia and in the world.
Tech talents in Singapore are highly prized for their software development skills, determination, and focus on their soft skills.
For aspiring tech coders in Singapore, it definitely pays well to put in your best efforts to learn coding and to acquire software technical skills. With the upper limits of the salary range consistently getting broken in the past few years, we can foresee that the salaries earn by tech talents in Singapore to grow even higher in the coming years.
If you find this article useful, why not share it among your recruitment and talent acquisition counterparts, or your tech developer friends and network, and also leave a nice comment below?
We at 9cv9 Research Team strive to bring the latest and most meaningful data, guide, and statistics to your doorstep.
People also ask
What is the average tech salary in Singapore?
The average tech salary in Singapore is around SGD 7,000 a month. This is the average salary earned by a typical software engineer in Singapore.
What is considered a good salary in Singapore?
Based on our research, a good salary depends on the job scope and what your peers are earning. For software engineers, it ranges between SGD 5,000 to SGD 9,400 a month. That should be sufficient to cover your cost of living and to save for the future.
What is the salary of the IT head in Singapore?
An engineering manager or an IT head in Singapore can earn up to SGD 25,000 a month. The IT head can also expect other good compensation benefits such as equity stock options, insurance, bonuses, etc.
What is the basic salary of an IT engineer in Singapore?
The basic salary of an IT engineer in Singapore depends on the seniority level. For junior level, it can be up to SGD 5,000 a month, a mid-level IT engineer can earn up to SGD 6,750 a month, a senior-level IT engineer can earn up to 7,750 a month and a lead IT engineer can earn up to SGD 9,000 a month
How to hire tech developers in Singapore?
9cv9 has distilled and published our learnings into a guide on how to hire tech talents in Singapore. In it, you will find useful steps and practical tips on how to hire some of the best tech talents in Singapore. If you want to hire for free and post jobs for free, then you can read this guide on the Top 5 Free Job Sites in Singapore to post your Jobs for Free.
Sources
We give our gratitude and appreciation to all our data sources herein:
