Singapore software engineer salaries rebound, but pay for AI roles fails to lift off amid hype

SINGAPORE – Software engineers in Singapore reversed 2023’s 1 per cent dip in salaries with a 3.3 per cent increase in 2024, reaffirming their status as talent in demand.

However, their peers in AI-related roles – specialising in areas like machine learning and natural language processing – saw their pay cheques shrink by up to 2.4 per cent, despite the global excitement around generative AI (artificial intelligence).

The contrasting trends, highlighted in tech talent portal NodeFlair’s 2025 Asia Tech Salary Report, reflect shifting priorities among enterprises.

Mr Ethan Ang, NodeFlair’s founding director, said firms are increasingly opting for cost-effective, off-the-shelf AI services like OpenAI interface solutions instead of building custom systems from scratch.

He said: “This allows them to focus on tailoring the technology to their specific use cases, an effort that typically requires more software engineers than specialised data science or machine learning talent.”

The report also revealed that multinationals such as Meta, Amazon, Google, as well as crypto currency exchange OKX, were the best paymasters for software engineers, giving 35 per cent to 52 per cent more than the median.

Software engineers form the largest group of tech professionals in Singapore, accounting for 31 per cent of the country’s 201,100 tech workers as at 2022.

They also command the highest salaries in the region, with lead engineers managing small technical teams earning a median monthly salary of US$6,705 (S$9,040) – 2.7 times higher than their peers in Malaysia and 5.7 times that of their Indian counterparts.

On the talent scale, Singapore’s share of senior-level software engineers lags behind Malaysia, and India – which has the largest proportion of senior and lead software experts in the region.

Commenting on the report, Mr Rajat Malhotra, chief technology officer of GXS Bank, said AI-generated code may replace developers who simply code, but not engineers who create solutions and produce code as part of the solution.

“We look at refining our processes to achieve engineering excellence that works for the bank, before applying AI tools to it,” he said.

Now in its fourth edition, NodeFlair’s annual study compiles more than 130,000 salary data points such as payslips, offer letters and job advertisements across six countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and India.

It found that in Singapore, job seekers were most likely to look up companies Shopee, Grab, TikTok, Google and JP Morgan Chase.

It also noted that other tech roles faced challenges in 2024: Median salaries for seven out of 16 job categories – including data scientists, system analysts, and quality assurance specialists – declined during the year.

Cyber-security professionals were hit hardest, with salaries dropping by 4.6 per cent amid layoffs and hiring freezes.

However, with the revival of crypto, Web3 and blockchain engineers saw top-tier salaries rise by up to 41 per cent. Web3 refers to the latest evolution in the internet, with concepts and features like decentralised finance, digital tokens and cryptocurrencies.

With most of the companies in this sector operating fully remotely, many top-tier talents in Singapore are working for its top-paying masters based overseas, Mr Ang added.

Conversely, he said, a growing trend of companies are moving headcount out of Singapore, either by not backfilling vacancies or by asking employees to resign or relocate to other countries, such as India.

Tech layoffs are expected to ease in 2025, continuing the decline in global retrenchment figures in 2024, Mr Ang noted.

In 2024, 653 workers were given the pink slip each day compared to 1,177 in 2023, as reported by tech layoff tracker TrueUp.

While salaries for software engineers in the other regional markets have seen significant declines, Malaysia is the other bright spot besides Singapore, Mr Ang said.

“Malaysia is now the rising tech hub for Asia. We see companies liking the talent there due to their very competitive price point, coupled with their ability to speak English well, versus say, Vietnam, where the command of English is weaker.”

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