Sunday, January 2, 2011

Singapore IT Salaries


What are IT salaries in Singapore? This is a question that I am asking to wise google for the last few months since I am moving back to Singapore and I have an intention to change my job to guarentee to settle down there (my company has sent me to The Netherlands and then Turkey for projects since March 2010 and will probably force me to leave Singapore for a long time in the future again in case I had stayed with them).

The best source for the answer is Singapore Employment Outlook and Salary Guide 2009/2010 from Kelly Services. According to the guide outlook for IT industry in Singapore is good:

Information technology is at the heart of Singapore and despite the downturn, projects such as Intelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015) in next generation networks have been implemented to improve Singapore's IT competiteveness. Talent skilled in next-generation Web technologies, Internet and mobile content development are in demand as unified communication and enhancements to existing systems are still being carried out. Start-up and established firms will continue to battle for top IT talent. Contract and temporary positions have gained momentum and this is a trend which will continue throughout 2009 as employers prefer the flexibility of plaving candidates with specific skills in special projects. A sizable base of IT services and outsourcing companies continue to ensure a reasonable market for IT talents. Another facet of IT outsourcing that remain strong is software application development and support.
According to the documents below are the IT minimum and maximum salaries for some IT titles:


TitleQualificationExperience (years)Minimum SalaryMaximum Salary
Analyst Programmer / Software Engineer Diploma / Degree 2-5 3,500 SGD 5,000 SGD
Business / System Analyst Degree 3-5 4,500 SGD 6,500 SGD
Database Administrator Degree 4-7 5,500 SGD 8,000 SGD
Technical consultant Degree 3-6 4,000 SGD 7,000 SGD
Application Consultant Degree 5-8 5,500 SGD 10,000 SGD
IT Manager Degree 5-10 6,500 SGD 9,000 SGD
Project Manager Degree 4 6,000 SGD 8,500 SGD
Pre-sales consultant Degree 3-5 5,000 SGD 8,000 SGD
Post-sales consultant Degree 3-5 5,000 SGD 8,000 SGD
Account Manager / Sales Manager Degree 3-5 5,000 SGD 8,000 SGD
Solutions Architect Degree 3-10 6,500 SGD 10,000 SGD


It is expected that salaries in Singapore will grow 4% in nominal terms but real increases will be around 1% due to inflation. In the past few years it was really difficult to find a good paying IT jobs. This was due to the fact that there were large numbers of IT professionals granted for PR in bubble years of 2005 - 2007 and then came the recession. Since it is now more difficult to have PR and the economy is growing, my prospects are good for finding a high paying IT jobs for residents.

It should also be noted that Financial Services IT salaries are higher than other IT services. According to Salary Information published by Hudson a Front Office Business Analyst with 8+ years or a Java Developer with 6+ years of experience and financial products knowledge can enjoy 100K - 150K (SGD) per year.

If we take a look at Top 100 Jobs In Singapore 2010 we can see some IT jobs in this list. This data is based on Report on Wages in Singapore 2009 by Ministery of Manpower (MOM). Below are IT related jobs in the list with their position in top 100 high paying jobs in Singapore:


RankingTitleSalary (SGD)/ Month
12Information technology auditor9,800
13Computer and information systems manager9,751
25Computer operations and network manager8,550
63Computer engineer6,006
65Information technology security specialist5,939
77Network systems and data communication analyst5,425
78Database administrator 5,375
79Application programmer5,328
93Systems designer and analyst5,000
97Systems programmer4,907
98Software engineer4,900


This MOM data is based on actual CPF data but only includes private sector. When public sector is included much of these IT titles would be kicked out of the list :)

In terms of salaries engineering is in 3rd tier in terms of pay. Although IT is in the upper end of the 3rd tier, it is still below banking and civil service. If you want a career in IT in Singapore, I advice to go for Financial Services IT. I believe Financial Services IT is pushing IT salaries up into this list and excluding them, IT salary avarages are lower.

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