Confronted with layoffs, hiring freezes, and a major decline in funding inside the Southeast Asian techecosystem, there was a notable shift in compensation traits in Singapore’s tech trade.
In distinction to the previous two years, throughout which expertise salaries skilled substantialgrowth, there may be now an total lower in salaries for numerous tech positions, in keeping with Nodeflair’s annual tech wage report. This consists of software program engineers, who’re historically among the many high earners within the trade.
Regardless of the overarching wage reductions, one sector stands out: synthetic intelligence (AI). Because the trade more and more pivots in the direction of AI applied sciences, compensation for roles on this area has witnessed a notable upswing.
Particularly, information science roles, together with positions equivalent to AI engineers, machine-learning specialists, and deep-learning specialists, have seen a noteworthy enhance of over 10 per cent in common salaries, marking a rising curiosity and funding in AI applied sciences.
The median beginning pay for junior information scientists in S$7,500
Primarily based on the wage information derived from NodeFlair’s proprietary database, which incorporates verified user-submitted pay slips and provide letters, the median pay for a junior information scientist hovers round S$7,500.
In the meantime, information scientist leads earn as much as S$17,000 monthly, marking a 27 per cent enhance as in comparison with the earlier 12 months.
Different tech roles which have seen an uptick in salaries apart from information scientists embody high quality assurance, techniques analysts, cell engineers, and product managers.
With a 22 per cent year-on-year enhance in cyber assaults throughout Asia Pacific, cybersecurity engineers additionally see a mean wage enhance of 8.24 per cent. The median wage of junior cybersecurity engineers is S$4,750, whereas the ninetieth percentile of lead cybersecurity engineers makes S$16,000 monthly.
Software program engineers nonetheless stay the highest-paid tech function
Primarily based on the report, the function that has seen the very best pay reduce is sport engineers, with their pay dipping by 6.66 per cent in 2023.
That is adopted by options engineers, blockchain engineers, DevOps, information engineers, information analysts, and software program engineers.
Software program engineer salaries decreased by a mean of 0.99 per cent in 2023, in comparison with a rise of seven.61 per cent in 2022. Regardless of this dip, they continue to be the highest-paid tech function, with the ninetieth percentile of software program engineer managers incomes S$20,500 monthly.
Regardless of the lower in salaries this 12 months, they nonetheless surpass these noticed two years in the past. This means that the present changes replicate a transfer in the direction of a extra balanced and life like compensation construction.
Nonetheless, the report additionally highlights a notable disparity between the trade’s highest and lowest earners, with the previous making as much as thrice greater than the latter.
Extra firms are paying tech abilities 20% above market median
Amid the upheavals within the tech trade, job seekers at the moment are prioritising firms that present stability—staff at the moment are drawn to companies that not solely provide aggressive salaries however are additionally financially secure and dedicated to avoiding layoffs.
Wage has additionally gained over priorities of earlier years, together with work-life stability and worker advantages.
On the identical time, an growing variety of firms are paying salaries 20 % increased than the market median. Among the many high 14 most searched tech firms, 10 provide salaries a minimum of 20 % above the market median, whereas most others provide salaries 10 % increased than the median.
This represents a major departure from the earlier 12 months, the place solely six out of 16 firms paid salaries 20 % above the market median.
Distant hiring will grow to be extra distinguished
Wanting ahead to 2024, the tech hiring panorama is poised for additional evolution and innovation, notably with the ascent of generative AI.
To deal with expertise shortages, Ethan Ang, the CEO of NodeFlair, anticipates a notable surge in cross-border and distant hiring practices inside the tech trade.
“As we step into 2024, the tech trade grapples with expertise challenges amidst the rise of generative AI and monetary prudence,” says Ethan. With versatile hiring methods, organisations will likely be empowered to construct resilient, globally various tech groups, driving unprecedented innovation and success in at present’s dynamic panorama.
Subsequent 12 months will even see a notable enhance in using AI instruments in hiring. These instruments streamline recruitment workflows for effectivity and unbiased candidate analysis. Superior AI techniques, notably in coding assessments, are set to rework interview and evaluation procedures, introducing safeguards for the integrity of the hiring course of.
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