'This signals a growing interest and investment in AI technologies'
Data scientist roles in Singapore saw a major 11.30% year-on-year increase in 2023 despite prevailing salary reductions across Asia's tech industry.
Junior data scientists, who typically have up to two years of experience, earned a median base salary of $7,500 a month, up from the previous $6,750.
Data scientists in lead positions, or those managing a small team, also earned a median base salary of $14,187 a month, according to NodeFlair's Tech Salary Report 2024.
Source: NodeFlair's Tech Salary Report 2024
The increase came despite the report's findings of a "prevailing theme" of salary decreases across roles and salaries in Asia.
"An intriguing trend is the resilience and growth in AI-related roles. Data scientist roles, in particular, have seen a significant upswing in Singapore, with a noteworthy increase of over 10% in average salaries," the report read.
"This signals a growing interest and investment in AI technologies."
Compensation in Singapore's tech industry
Other roles that saw a year-on-year increase in Singapore include:
- Systems Analyst (8.27% YoY)
- Cybersecurity Engineer (8.24% YoY)
- Quality Assurance (8.01% YoY)
- Mobile Engineers (2.23% YoY)
- Systems Engineer (1.87% YoY)
- Site Reliability Engineer (0.52% YoY)
- Product Engineer (0.20% YoY)
On the other hand, roles that reported a decrease include:
- Game Engineer (-6.66% YoY)
- Solutions Engineer (-5.69% YoY)
- Blockchain Engineer (-5.41% YoY)
- DevOps (-1.95% YoY)
- Data Engineer (-1.19 YoY)
- Data Analyst (-1.09% YoY)
- Software Engineer (-0.99% YoY)
Software engineer compensation
Despite the decrease in software engineer salaries, however, Singapore's median base salaries for the role remains above the compensation offered in other Asian markets.
Junior software engineers in Singapore receive $3,715, much higher than in other markets covered such as India ($599), Vietnam ($808), Indonesia ($475), Malaysia ($952), Philippines ($800), and Taiwan ($1,884).
Source: NodeFlair's Tech Salary Report 2024
Overall, the report said the notable shift in compensation trends was "primarily influenced" by the challenges in the tech industry, such as layoffs and hiring freezes.
"Layoffs and hiring freezes have played a significant role in this downward trend. The severity of salary decreases seems correlated to a country's startup and big tech ecosystem," it read.
"Countries with a more pronounced focus on startups and big tech witnessed larger drops in salaries, highlighting the sensitivity of salaries to the overall economic and business climate."
