Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is confident that the economic outlook remains upbeat with modern services, digitalisation and innovation activities as key drivers of growth.
Although in some areas of the economy and industry growth has been a little slow in the past 12 months. And with slower growth, we are seeing a similar salary outlook this year compared to 2018.
Like MAS’s prediction, we can confirm through observations among our clients that certain technology trends e.g. cloud systems and change of business values, customer-centricity have a heavy influence on the demand of certain roles – that are deemed more integral to an organisation’s digital transformation goals.
Here are some recent trends in the market around skills and salaries
Agencies Vs In house teams
The agency market has been thriving in APAC albeit the shakeups through mergers and acquisitions and consolidation over the past year. While more and more brands are developing their in-house digital capabilities, the agencies are still winning due to their in-depth technological edge, and ability to keep abreast with the ever-changing requirements of their clients.
Digital agency salaries appear to be more or less consistent across the years in most areas. However, the demands in project management and strategy have been growing. This demand has, in turn, led to a slight increase in salary expectations of the PMs across different levels as well as the strategy professionals, who were already in high demand with a decent pay-grade.
Overall, the growth has been in the experience design and customer experience work, so projects and talent that has focussed on new methods of customer engagement like mobile applications, gamification, interactive websites, chatbots and interactive (AR/VR) initiatives will be in high demand this year.
Experience design and UX Writing
In affirmation to the growing interest in experience design and customer experience, we noticed a lot more companies setting up design practices and trying to hire Senior to Mid-weight UX practitioners who have worked either in product companies or in-house roles (such as financial services or consumer-facing apps). The talent pool in UX at these levels is very small which in turn means their salaries relative other skills of the same level tend to be much more.
Another area which will see an increase in the need for in the creative space is UX writers who produce copy/words that a product or service’s user encounters as they navigate their way around a company’s product/service. Though UX writing still seems to be quite a niche area the role is gaining importance in the makeup of a design team and will only set to see a permanent place in businesses that are developing platforms.
Boom for cloud-based businesses
On the commercial side, we are receiving more hiring requests from Service as a Software (SaaS) companies as businesses continue to adopt the use of cloud technology. Solution-selling on licensing/subscription model is trending among clients looking for talents who can empathise and uncover customer’s pain points and then providing products and services that address the underlying business problem.
Singapore has always been the most attractive Asia-Pacific destination for start-ups and multinational companies (MNCs) to set up their regional headquarters or sales division and we can observe job opportunities to expand. Technology influences businesses of every size to be agile and proactive, expect more businesses to look for talents who are entrepreneurial, dynamic, risk-taking and who aren’t afraid to get hands on.
Some updates on Technology
With all the adoption of technology and innovation, a big area for demand from our clients are tech talents, especially those who are Singaporean which means companies can navigate the tightening manpower laws.
Businesses are starting to recognize the importance of having a DevOps practice as part of the development process to achieve a high-performance delivery. This means we are set to see the increase in demand for DevOps skill in-house, be it as a dedicated role or good-to-have in a software engineer.
One of the upcoming trends within the Singapore Tech sector are companies seeking talents for IoT roles, though it is usually not an expectation to have similar previous experience fundamentally one should be familiar with cloud-based solutions and general purpose language such as Javascript.
Onshore/Off Shore; the outlook for digital talent
In the previous year, we touched upon the increase in businesses who are keen to offshore their digital and technical teams as they face increasing operation costs. But going into 2019, we are confident to say that Singapore still remains a preferred choice to be for most talent, whether regional or global.
If you are looking for opportunities across Singapore, check out all open roles here or contact the team today.
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Singapore Dollars ($), Salary SGD (Annually)
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Head of Ecommerce
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Strategy
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Copywriter
Creative and Brand Design
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Director/Head of UX
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Lead/Principal UX Designer
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Head of Research
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Senior UX/UI Designer
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Senior Researcher
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UX Designer
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UI Designer
Experience Design
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Content Director
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Head of Social
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Chief Technology Officer
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Technical Manager
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Lead QA Tester/Engineer
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Creative Technologist
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Mobile Developer (iOS/Android)
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Mid-Weight Front-End Developer
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Mid-weight Back-End Developer
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Mid-weight QA Tester/Engineer
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Junior Developer
Software Engineering & Development
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Head of Data Science
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Lead Data Scientist
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Senior Data Sciecntist
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Data Scientist
Data Science and Engineering
Commercial
Singapore Dollars ($), Salary SGD (Monthly rate)
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Head of Ecommerce
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Digital/Online Marketing Manager
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Digital/Online Marketing Executive
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Social Media/Community Manager
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Brand Manager
Marketing
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Operations Director
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Project Director
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Associate Project Director
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Senior Project Manager
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Project Manager
Project & Programme Management
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Managing Director
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Business Director
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Group Account Director
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Senior Account Director
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Account Director
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Associate Account Director
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Senior Account Manager
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Account Manager
Sales & Account Management
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Head of Strategy
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Strategy Director
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Strategy Lead
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Senior Strategist/Planner
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Strategist/Planner
Strategy
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Head of Product
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Lead Product Manager
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Senior Product Manager
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Product Manager
Product Management
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Head of Analtyics
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Lead Analytics
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Senior Analyst
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Analyst
Analytics & Business Intelligence
Design
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Executive Creative Director
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Creative Director
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Design Director
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Associate Creative Director
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Senior Art Director
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Art Director
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Senior Digital Designer
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Digital Designer
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Senior Copywriter
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Copywriter
Creative and Brand Design
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Director/Head of UX
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Lead/Principal UX Designer
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Head of Research
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Lead UI Designer
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Senior UX/UI Designer
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Senior Researcher
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UX Designer
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UI Designer
Experience Design
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Content Director
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Head of Social
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Social Content Strategist
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Social Media Manager
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Social Media Designer
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Social Content Producer
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Content Producer
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Community Manager
Content and Production
Technology
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Chief Technology Officer
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Technical Director
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Technical Manager
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Principle/Senior Solutions Architect
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Principal Big Data Engineer/Team Lead
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Senior Big Data Engineer
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Technical Lead
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Lead QA Tester/Engineer
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Senior Front-End Developer
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Creative Technologist
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Senior Back-End/Full-Stack Developer
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Mobile Developer (iOS/Android)
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Big Data Engineer
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Mid-Weight Front-End Developer
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Mid-weight Back-End Developer
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Mid-weight QA Tester/Engineer
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Junior Developer
Software Engineering & Development
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Head of Data Science
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Lead Data Scientist
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Senior Data Scientist
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Data Scientist