IC designer wage: much lower than SG finDev+westCoast

Posted on by tiger40490 rendered_on [ Thu, 6 Mar 2025 ] 09:52 UTC

See also SGD 5k tech job @MainSt. The reality is, some sectors have so much money that even the mediocre guys in those domains get paid so much higher than the top performers in IC design.

* eg: web2.0 shops have so much money. Their main cost is salary. Once you pass their interviews, even a mediocre performance would earn you much more than any other tech sector
* eg: For a commercial bank like OCBC to compete for trading developers, it has to pay higher than it pays commercial banking tech developers.

On one hand I feel blessed, but on the other hand it’s crucial to avoid holding on too tight. Try gratitude with detachment.

— I single out IC design as it was, for decades, one of the most coveted job titles in the entire hardware industry (even the broader technology industry) at the very center of digital revolution and knowledge industry, a “poster child” profession with

  • moat — deep knowledge? It looks like west coast coding JIV requires similar amount of knowledge, which is more /accessible/ than IC design knowledge.
  • moat — work experience is extremely hard to get? It looks like there are plenty of IC designers and trading engine developers with sufficient experience, and west coast doesn’t need any work experience, just motivation and IQ
  • extremely upstream? doesn’t mean much in terms of salary. Look at Etch Process engineers.
  • explosive growth? yes in chip production but the amount of custom design has reduced after industry standardization.
    • Similarly, client-side software dev simplified significantly after browser became the standard client platform.

— IC designer salary in SG

https://www.glassdoor.sg/Salaries/singapore-ic-design-engineer-salary-SRCH_IL.0,9_IM1123_KO10,28.htm shows about S$50k/Y base but I know ibanks in SG pay about S$120-150k base

Even a senior/staff IC designer is only up to S$80k

Principal IC designer — S$140-160k. Might be a 1st percentile among IC designers in SG

— IC designer (senior) in Shanghai
up to USD 100k according to Zhang Jiong, pretty much identical to Ying Hui at RMB 60k/M