Singapore offers highest salaries for software developers in SEA

They get about $99,600 a year on average.

Applications developer in Singapore have the highest salaries across Southeast Asia as they earn $99,600 (US$72,993) a year on average, a study by venture capital (VC) firm Monk’s Hill Ventures and tech startup event Slush Singapore found.

In Singapore, low-end developers earn around $69,700 (US$51,095) a year whilst those who work for high-end outfits get around $129,500 (USD$94,891) in a year.

Following Singapore developers are their counterparts in Thailand who earn $54,100 (US$39,671) a year on average, with those who work for low-end and high-end outfits getting about $38,800 (US$28,443) and $69,400 (US$50,898) on average per year, respectively. Meanwhile, Vietnam recorded the lowest salary for software developers in the region with an average yearly pay of $29,300 (US$21,500).

In terms of demand, Singapore lags behind Indonesia for job openings in professional software development. The report noted that Linked In saw 1,119 job vacancies in Singapore whilst 1,845 openings were posted in Indonesia.

“These results aren’t surprising, given that Singapore is often the regional headquarters for multinational corporations,” the report noted. They cited that 20 major international tech firms have their SEA offices in the Lion City, including Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, Paypal, and Apple, amongst others.

Despite this, online lending platform MoneyMatch cofounder Nayasan Munusamy thinks that SEA salaries, in general, are still too low to attract world-class talents for the field.

“Only when the funding scene in SEA changes, and the VCs here and investors start to accept much higher valuations, then would startups be able to offer the best remuneration packages and stop the brain drain of highly skilled workers and engineers who migrate elsewhere to find more lucrative opportunities for themselves and their families,” he said.