The creative and digital industries in Hong Kong continue to be important economic drivers as they strive to increase their innovation capacity. Looking back at our 2015 Salary Benchmark – we explored Hong Kong’s digital employment market, concentrating on areas of talent shortages across emerging skill sets and discussing the preference towards local market hiring. This year we are continuing our insights, commenting on the current trends of the buoyant market and comparing the salary differences we’ve seen over the past 12 months.
Hong Kong’s digital development across the last five years has been hugely significant, as have the rest of the South East Asian nations, but with a youthful tech focused population it’s no surprise. That being said despite a “tech savvy” workforce, there remains a skills shortage with the more niche roles, such as UX researchers and QA’s and mobile developers.
The start-up community is continuing to grow in Hong Kong especially across gaming and mobile marketing. A recent $2 billion investment to boost innovation and technology means the market looks set to explode this year creating an array of opportunities.
In the first half of 2016 in-store retail sales have been hit hard and we have seen major retailers continuing to invest in driving sales online, so the demand for eCommerce related digital skills continue to rise.
Salary Summary:
Over the past 12 months Creative roles have seen a minor increase in salary with an average increase of around $5K per role.
Similarly, brand and client-side roles have enjoyed a significant increase, for example a head of eCommerce who would have commanded a salary in the region of $70-100K in 2015, can now hope to push up to $100-150K. Digital marketing roles, at all levels have seen a slight increase also, but not so significant.
Strategy and client service salaries have not fluctuated at all within the past 12 months, with client service directors to account executive salaries remaining the same.
Interestingly, social and content roles have not seen any change, which is surprising giving the growing industry, but this could be showing signs of an already saturated area.
Project management and production roles also appear to be growing, with a very slight increase of between $2-5K across the board.
Development roles have seen a big surge, with senior positions such as ‘technical director‘ increasing as much as $10K and while the lower tiered roles have seen smaller increases, the opportunities within this area are huge.
UX roles have unsurprisingly also seen a slight increase, but less than anticipated considering the increase in demand for these niche roles (around a $5K increase on average).
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 negotiable. There are a number of variables to take into account from skill set to type and size of company, number of years service, but also on time spent working in Hong Kong and on regional projects.
To compare Hong Kong salaries to those in Singapore, click here:
To compare Hong Kong salaries in 2016 with those in 2015, click here:
| Job Title | Full Time Salary (calculated monthly) |
| CREATIVE | HK Dollars |
| Executive Creative Director | $100K + |
| Senior Creative Director | $80K – $100K |
| Creative Director | $55K – $80K |
| Associate Creative Director | $40K – $55K |
| Design Director | $60K – $90K |
| Creative Technologist | $50K – $70K |
| Senior Art Director | $30K – $50K |
| Mid-weight Art Director | $22K – $30K |
| Junior Art Director | $16K – $22K |
| Senior Copywriter | $30K – $45K |
| Mid-weight Copywriter | $20K – $30K |
| Junior Copywriter | $15K – $20K |
| Senior Designer | $30K – $45K |
| Mid-weight Designer | $20K – $30K |
| Junior Designer | $15K – $20K |
| BRANDS / CLIENTSIDE | |
| Chief Marketing Officer | $120K+ |
| Marketing Director | $80K – $120K |
| Head of Ecommerce | $75K- $100K |
| Digital /Online Senior Marketing Manager | $50K – $75K |
| Digital /Online Marketing Manager | $35K – $50K |
| Digital/Online Assistant Marketing Manager | $25K – $35K |
| Digital/Online Senior Marketing Exec | $20K – $25K |
| Digital/Online Marketing Executive | $15K – $20K |
| Product Director | $75k + |
| Senior Product Manager | $55K – $75K |
| Product Manager | $40K – $55K |
| Business Analyst (Web) | $50K – $65K |
| Web Content Manager | $35K – $45K |
| Web Content Editor / Producer | $25K – $35K |
| Social Media / Community Manager | $25K – $35K |
| Digital Analytics Director | $55K – $85K |
| Web Analytics Manager | $40K – $55K |
| Web Analytics Executive | $25K – $35K |
| Senior Data Analyst | $45K – $55K |
| Data Analyst | $35K – $45K |
| STRATEGY | |
| Head of Planning / Strategy | $80K – $120K |
| Planning / Strategy Director | $60Kk – $80K |
| Senior Planner / Strategist | $40K – $60K |
| Planner / Strategist | $30K – $40K |
| Research Analyst / Junior Planner | $18K – $30K |
| SOCIAL & CONTENT | |
| Head of Social | $60K – $80K |
| Senior Social Strategist | $45K – $60K |
| Social Strategist | $30K – $45K |
| Senior Content Strategist | $60K – $70K |
| Content Strategist | $45K – $60K |
| Senior Community Manager | $30K – $45K |
| Community Manager | $25K – $35K |
| PERFORMANCE MARKETING | |
| SEO Manager | $35K – $45K |
| SEO Executive | $22K – $30K |
| SEM Search Manager | $35K – $45K |
| SEM Executive | $22K – $30K |
| CLIENT SERVICES | |
| Managing Director | $120K + |
| General Manager | $90K – $120K |
| Client Services Director | $75K – $90K |
| Business Director | $65K – $80K |
| Group Account Director | $55K – $65K |
| Senior Account Director | $45K – $55K |
| Account Director | $35K – $45K |
| Associate Account Director | $30K – $35K |
| Account Manager | $22K – $30K |
| Account Executive | $16K – £22k |
| PROJECT /PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT | |
| Operations Director | $90K + |
| Head of Project Management/Production | $70K – $100K |
| Project Director | $45K – $60K |
| Senior Project Manager | $30K – $45K |
| Project Manager | $22K – $30K |
| Junior Project Manager | $16K – $22K |
| Senior Resource/Traffic Manager / Director | $45K – $65K |
| Resource / Traffic Manager | $24K – $45K |
| DEVELOPMENT | |
| CTO | $80K + |
| Technical Director | $60K – $80K |
| Technical Lead | $45K – $60K |
| Mobile Application Lead | $35K – $50K |
| Senior Mobile Application Developer | $25K – $35K |
| Mobile Application Developer | $18K – $25K |
| Senior Java Developer | $40K – $50K |
| Java Developer | $30K – $40K |
| Senior Front End Developer | $25K – $40K |
| Front End Developer | $18K – $25K |
| Senior Back End Developer | $25K – $40K |
| Back End Developer | $18K – $25K |
| Full-stack Developer | $25K – $40K |
| QA Lead | $30K – $40K |
| QA Analyst/ Engineer | $20K – $30K |
| DevOps Engineer | $30K – $50K |
| System Administrator | $25K – $35K |
| USER EXPERIENCE | |
| Director/VP of User Experience | $90k + |
| Head of User Experience | $65K – $90K |
| Principal/Lead User Experience Architect/Designer/Researcher | $55K – $65K |
| Senior User Experience Architect/Designer/Researcher | $45K – $55K |
| Mid-weight User Experience Architect/Designer/Researcher | $30K – $45K |
| Junior User Experience Architect/Designer/Researcher | $20K – $30K |
If you would like to explore the current opportunities in Hong Kong check out our live digital jobs or speak to one of the team today.