The Business Times (Garage)
October 6, 2021
THE stubborn shortage of specialised talent is pushing tech companies to raise salary offers for roles such as software engineers, with some even doling out startling pay increases for top hires.
In just the last six months, the median monthly salary for lead software engineers has risen 11.8 per cent to S$9,500 in the third quarter, according to data from tech career platform NodeFlair, which aggregated Q3 salary figures based on over 5,600 data points from job listings and user submissions supported by payslips or offer letters.
At the 90th percentile, salaries for lead engineers have gone up to an eye-popping S$16,000, from S$12,000 in the first quarter. But the rise is not limited to top-tier talent, as entry-level, mid and senior software engineer salaries have also increased (see first chart). Based on NodeFlair's data, typical entry-level software engineers can command salaries anywhere from S$3,000 to S$7,250.
"The demand for talent is at an all-time-high right now, where companies are offering crazy amounts just to attract talents from other companies," said Adrian Goh, co-founder of NodeFlair. Some talents are seeing their salary rise by 50 per cent or even nearly doubling when they switch jobs, compared to increments of between 10 and 30 per cent last year.
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Specific roles in demand include developers versed in the programming language Go, as many companies are looking to build scalable microservices with it, NodeFlair's Mr Goh told The Business Times.
