In Singapore, there are many sectors that are prospering in terms of jobs created. One of those sectors that is seeing jobs in demand is the Information Technology (IT) industry. According to MOM, the job vacancy rate in the Information and Communications industry is the highest in Singapore.
Many roles that require IT skills potentially also mean higher salaries. But do IT professionals in Singapore get paid as well as individuals in financial services or law? Here’s a comprehensive salary guide to how much you can earn as an IT profession in Singapore.
Read Also: What’s The Median Salary In Singapore (At Every Age, Gender, Education and Race)
Range Of Incomes In IT Profession
As individuals can imagine, there are a range of roles within the IT sector and, accordingly, there’s also a wide dispersion in what someone can earn when they work as an IT professional.
At the lower end of the IT profession spectrum are roles such as IT Specialist. According to Glassdoor, IT Specialist roles can range anywhere from $3,000 to $6,000 per month with the average monthly base pay coming in at around $5,000.
If we look at MOM’s figures, the median salary for those working in the Information and Communications industry is $7,605 – which is at the higher end for median salaries across industries.
Last year, Nodeflair – a tech talent platform – released its Asia Tech Salary Report 2024 which outlined some of the key salary bands for tech jobs in Singapore as well as other Asian countries.
Overall, what Nodeflair observed in its report was that there was a significant range of salaries at each experience level, especially in higher percentiles. That suggests that factors like individual performance, specialised skills (like Data Science capabilities) and negotiation ability all play a crucial role in determining salaries for tech professionals.
For example, the salary gap between the 90th and 10th percentiles for Software Engineering roles widens by up to 2.7x as it goes up the seniority ladder – from $5,000 for junior positions to $13,500 for managerial positions.
Specific Roles In Demand
Out of all the roles surveyed by Nodeflair in Singapore, the best roles for junior positions in IT were to be found as a Data Scientist.
Junior Data Scientists in the 50th percentile earned $7,500 per month, which was also up 11% year-on-year from the same study in 2023. Similarly well-paid Junior roles included Site Reliability Engineer, where a Junior hire in the 50thpercentile could earn $6,250 per month.
On the whole, Data Scientist, Quality Assurance (QA), and Cybersecurity Engineer roles all saw significant year-on-year increases in pay, averaging 11.0%, 8.0%, and 8.2%, respectively, in 2024.
Bigger US Tech Companies Pay Better
It’s perhaps no surprise to learn that the large tech firms from the US pay a premium over the market average for tech professionals. According to the Nodeflair study, around 10 companies in the top 15 most searched companies (for analysis of salaries) paid more than 20% more than the market’s median wage.
Source: Nodeflair Asia Tech Salary Report 2024
The big players, like Meta Platforms (53%), Google (40%), Apple (39%), and ByteDance/TikTok (38%) all paid their software engineers significantly more than the market median.
Given the profitability and scale of these tech giants, it’s not unusual that they are among the highest payers in terms of salary.
So, for Singaporeans looking for IT jobs, how much you end up earning can depend on a variety of factors, including your seniority level, the type of role you take on, and the company you work for.
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