With a slew of digital businesses setting up, plus a number high-profile events and a good geographical position – Singapore presents a huge opportunity for the digital market and is emerging as strong force. With Cogs Singapore established for over two years now we have developed a strong insight into how the digital industry is evolving. This 2016 salary benchmark has been gathered from the industry, based on the range of digital roles we’ve worked on in the past one year.
When you think of Singapore, you often think of “start-ups” and technology. While it is no ‘Silicon Valley’ and it has a way to go before it is a real competitor in global tech hubs, it is on its way. In the words of Lee Hsien Loong – a Singapore’s Prime Minister who can code – companies are starting to realise that developers and engineers are not the people to call to fix your computer but that they actually have the capabilities to make vital business focused contributions and to help companies make the next ‘right’ move.
As this shift continues, the race is now on to attract more technical talent to join the buzzing tech and start-up scene here. But as it is still an emerging scene, it is no surprise that salaries are not as competitive as other countries yet, but we expect to see this change in over the next 12-18 months.
Social media is one area that is ever-growing in Singapore, with its reach strengthening with the ongoing developments of social media platforms and apps such as Snapchat and Meitu. There is still room for growth with mostly junior to mid-weight community managers and social media managers to work on start-ups or digital product led companies.
However, there’s a shift towards social media and community management roles leaning towards data, analytics and strategy to give a comprehensive evaluation of returns on the efforts in the social media front. Observations from the past year also have led to the growth of conceptual and executional designers who have the capability to craft interesting and captivating visual content across the social media space with roles such as social media designers.
With regards to user experience, there is definitely a demand of UX practitioners due to the booming start-up scene which is keenly supported by the government. Similarly, to Technology roles – there is still a slight misunderstand at how truly necessary UX is and thus salaries are not as high as they are in other locations. There was actually an overall drop in full time salaries across UX roles since 2015 but a slight up in day rates with contracting as that is becoming far more common. We do hope to see a leap in salaries as the digital scene here continues to grow.
As a whole, digital creatives are still a hot property, competition for agencies and businesses has never been tougher, so branding, marketing and digital advertising is getting a lot more focus. There has not been the increase we had hoped to see this year, however what is promising is that the freelance market in growing, with day rates seeing an uplift.
With an emerging market, comes natural caution and many companies and agencies seem to have realigned and re-strategise their management from within to ensure they have the foundations to be secure and prosperous business. As such, roles for client servicing that come in are far more specific – agencies are looking for those with certain account experience or experience on a particular project.
On the project management front, agencies are actually broadening their offerings into more of UX, CMS and CRM projects which leads to the demand for talents who’ve dabbled in such projects. There’s also been an influx of the need for freelancing project and program managers to be engaged on short-term contracts to deliver specific projects within a fixed time-frame.
We talk to our clients and candidates on a daily basis and know that any salary listed on a job spec or on our benchmark is of course negotiable. There are a number of variables to take into account from skill set to type and size of company – MNCs, locally owned or the global network owned to experience – (years in total but also on time spent working in Singapore and on regional projects). We strive to help out candidates achieve their desired salaries, and as Singapore’s industry continues to grow and strengthen – we believe that these salaries are going go only one way – and that is up!
To compare this year’s salaries to 2015 click here:
| Title | Annual | Monthly |
| CREATIVE | Salary (SGD) | Salary (SGD) |
| Executive Creative Director | $140 – 260k | $11,500 -$21,500 |
| Creative Director | $120 – 175k | $10,000 – $14,500 |
| Associate Creative Director | $85 – 130k | $7,000 – $10,500 |
| Creative Group Head | $85 – 110k | $7,000 – $9,000 |
| Senior Copywriter | $45 – 90k | $3,750 – $7,500 |
| Copywriter | $35 – 60k | $2,900 – $5,000 |
| Social Content Creative | $35 – 55K | $2,900 – $4,500 |
| Senior Art Director | $45 – 75K | $3,750 – $6,250 |
| Senior Digital Designer | $60 – 85k | £5,000 – $7,000 |
| Art Director | $35– 60k | $2,900 – $5,000 |
| Digital Designer | $35 – 60k | $2,900 – $5,000 |
| Junior Designer | $30 – 45k | $2,500 – $3,750 |
| CLIENT SERVICING | ||
| Managing Director | $240K- $360K | $20,000 – $30,000 |
| Business Director | $144K – $216K | $12,000 – $18,000 |
| Group Account Director | $144K – $180K | $12,000 – $15,000 |
| Senior Account Director | $96K – $120K | $8,000 – $10,000 |
| Account Director | $84K- $120K | $7,000 – $10,000 |
| Associate Account Director | $60K – $84K | $5,000 – $7,000 |
| Senior Account Manager | $48K – $72K | $4,000 – $6,000 |
| Account Manager | $42K – $60K | $3,500 – $5,000 |
| Senior Account Executive | $30K- $42K | $2,500 – $3,500 |
| Account Executive/ Fresh Grad | $28.8K – $36K | $2,500 – $3,000 |
| PROJECT MANAGEMENT | ||
| Head of Operations | $180K – $240K | $15,000 – $20,000 |
| Project Director | $120K – $180K | $10,000 – $15,000 |
| Associate Project Director | $84K – $108K | $7,000 – $9,000 |
| Senior Project Manager | $60K – $96K | $5,000 – $8,000 |
| Project Manager | $48K – $72K | $4,000 – $6,000 |
| Senior Project Executive | $33.6K – $42K | $2,800 – $3,500 |
| Project Executive/ Fresh Grad | $28.8K – $33.6K | $2,400 – $2,800 |
| SOCIAL/ COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT | ||
| Head of Social | $120K – $180K | $12,000 – $15,000 |
| Account Director | $84K – $120K | $7,000 – $10,000 |
| Social Content Strategist | $60K – $84K | $5,000 – $7,000 |
| Social Media Manager | $42K- $60K | $3,500 – $5,000 |
| Social Media Designer | $45.6K – $54K | $3,800 – $4,500 |
| Community Manager | $36K – $45.6K | $3,000 – $3,800 |
| Social Media Executive | $30K – $42K | $2,500 – $3,500 |
| UX | ||
| Director/Head of UX | $140K – $260K | $11,500 -$21,500 |
| Lead/Principal UX Designer | $95K – $150K | $7,900 – $12,500 |
| Senior Consultant (Strategy) | $125K – 180K | $10,500 – $15,000 |
| Consultant (Strategy) | $80K – $120K | $6,600 – $10,000 |
| Senior Information Architect | $80K – $20K | $6,600 – $10,000 |
| Information Architect | $50K – $80K | $4,000 – $6,600 |
| Senior Researcher | $60K – $95K | $5,000 – $7,900 |
| Researcher | $40K – $60K | $3,300 – $5,000 |
| Senior UX/UI Designer | $60K – $95K | $5,000 – $7,900 |
| UX/UI Designer | $40K – $70k | $3,300 – $5,800 |
| Interaction Designer | $40K – $70K | $3,300 – $5,800 |
| UX Developer | $40K – $60K | $3,300 – $5,000 |
| Junior UI Designer | $35K – $45K | $2,900 – $3,750 |
| Junior UX Designer | $35K- $45K | $2,900 – $3,750 |
| TECHNOLOGY | ||
| Chief Technology Officer | $140K – $210K | $15,000 – $18,000 |
| Technical Director | $120K – $180K | $10,000 – $15,000 |
| Technical Manager | $96K – $120K | $8,000 – $10,000 |
| Technical Lead | $60K – $84K | $5,000 to $7,000 |
| Creative Technologist | $96K – $180K | $8,000 – $15,000 |
| Senior Front-End Developer | $60K – $96K | $5,000 – $8,000 |
| Mid-Weight Front-End Developer | $48K – $60K | $4,000 -$5,000 |
| Junior Developer | $36K – $48K | $3,000 – $4,000 |
| Mobile Developer (iOS/Android) | $60K – $96K | $5,000 – $8,000 |
| Principle / Senior Solutions Architect | $96K – $140K | $8,000 – $12,000 |
| Solutions Architect (AEM) | $72K – $96K | $6,000 – $8,000 |
| Senior Java Developer / Engineer | $72K – $96K | $6,000 – $8,000 |
| Senior Back-End / Full-Stack Developer | $60K – $84K | $5,000 – $7,000 |
| Mid-weight Back-End Developer | $48K – $60K | $4,000 – $5,000 |
| Junior Back-End Developer | $36K – 48K | $3,000 – $4,000 |
| Lead QA Tester/Engineer | $72K – $96K | $6,000 – $8,000 |
| QA Tester/ Analyst | $48K – $60K | $4,000 – $5,000 |
| Principal Big Data Engineer /Team Lead | $96K – $120K | $8,000 – $10,000 |
| Senior Big Data Engineer | $84K – $108K | $7000- $9,000 |
| Big Data Engineer | $60K – $84K | $5,000- $7,000 |
| Data Scientist | $48K – $72K | $4,000- $6,000 |
Check out the 2015 Singapore Salary Benchmark to compare, or contact our Singapore office today to discuss potential opportunities.