Information technology is considered as a top priority of Vietnam’s economic development. The demand for experiencing and applying technology in daily life and work has made IT become a field for Vietnamese young talents to study and pursue.

Vietnam, it can be said that, becomes a pool of IT talents, which attracts plenty of foreign investors. If investors would like to run an IT business in Vietnam, looking for a salary standard in IT is an essential thing. 

Tech talents expectation for their job

Due to digital transformation, vacancies of digital products or UX have been sought by a lot of business owners. The need for better IT infrastructure is increasing to improve the product quality and user experience.

Candidates are predicted to consider factors when choosing their boss such as flexible working hours, insurance, remote working space and opportunities to learn or self-development. Besides, tech experts are keen on training workshops, courses on technical skills, cross-functional project involvement as well as the soft-skill course.  

Factors that affect the salary of tech talents

Before having an overview of salary in IT sector, we should acknowledge factors that will affect the salary increase. Four factors are years of experience, technical background, gender, and location.

First of all, IT employees’ salaries depend much on years of experience. Those having more hand-on experience are certainly got a higher payment. For example, Glassdoor - a platform offering hot jobs worldwide - estimates that a web developer from one to three years of experience can earn $63,805 while senior web developers with more than 10 years of experience can earn $87,160.

Second, the technical background can also impact on the tech talents’ salary. Your salary can be offered based on your mastery of programming languages (namely HTML, CSS or Javascript), regarding to developers. Besides, the educational background will not affect 100% of your salary. It does not mean that you can not earn top-dollar salary if you only have a bachelor’s degree. (Xanax) Your salary will increase when you have more years of experience and self-study to improve your skills day by day.

Third, gender. In fact, gender should not have affected the salary, however, Vietnamese women account for a minority in the IT industry compared to their counterparts. Hence, the salary for women in the IT sector might be lower than that of male tech talents.

Another factor that influences tech staffs is location. Obviously, companies in big cities will need and pay more for tech talents because of the high demand for using the Internet as well as trying new and high-quality service. 

Overview salary in Vietnam technology

The table below will show you salaries on a monthly basis for some positions in the IT sector. Job titles are mentioned including CTO (Chief Technology Officier), Architect, Project/ Program Manager, Developer, Quality Assurance (QA)/ Quality Control (QC), Data Scientist. 

Monthly Salaries in Tech in Vietnam 

Monthly salaries in tech vary among positions and required skills. In the chart, CTO takes charge of more duties and requires both senior technical skills and management skills, then the monthly salary for CTO is highest, range from $6,000 to $12,000, following by architect, program manager, developer, and quality control. In particular, the initial salary of Data Scientist starts at $1,500, which is higher than that of quality control and developers.

The reason lies in the hot trend of big data and artificial intelligence in the IT sector. In 2019, data science vacancies augmented 137% compared to the first half of 2017. More and more companies are keen on data science and willing to pouring money as data science will help employers analyze and make an appropriate decision.

To give a deeper view of the salary in the IT sector, the next part of this article will cover some factors that affect the developer’s salary. 

Programmer average salary in Vietnam in 2020

Average Salary By years of experience

Vietnamese developer salaries by years of experience

This table demonstrates the annual salaries of developers based on years of experience. Obviously, senior developers with more than 4 years of experience will earn approximately $25,000 and fresh developers can earn around $8,000 per year. The annual salary will increase when developers work longer. 

By educational background

Programmers who acquire higher education will easily earn more. From the table, a developer with a certificate from vocational institutions gets a lower salary than those obtaining a Bachelor’s Degree and Master’s Degree.

Master’s Degree can help developers receive the salary up to $13,000, much higher than those having a Bachelor’s Degree and Certificates. Moreover, developers obtaining a Master’s Degree also have better chances to be promoted to become leaders. 

Vietnamese developers salaries by educational background

By locations

Programmer salaries also vary from different locations. Two biggest cities (Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city) usually offer higher salaríe for developers than other places because they are two major centers that attract a lot of youngsters and provide plenty of job opportunities, though the gap is not too large. Developers working at HCMC can earn up to approximately $16,000 per year, $2000 higher than those working at Hanoi. Developers at Hue and Da Nang also get good salaries. 

Data Analyst Average Salary in Vietnam 

What do data analysts do? The main role of a data analyst is to gather data and use it to help companies to make better decisions.

How much can data analyst make? It also varies depending on factors namely experience and education. A data analyst salaries in Vietnam range from 7,650,000 VND (minimum salary) to 25,700,000 VND (maximum salary). 

Average Salary By years of experience

Data analyst salaries change by experience

A data analyst with less than 2 years experience is offered around 8,830,000 VND, then the salary will be increased gradually when the analyst work in this field longer. For example, after 5 years of working as a data analyst, the salary can rise to 38%, to approximately 12,200,000 VND.

By education

Salaries of a data analyst also change based on the education level. Those obtaining certificates or diplomas can earn an average salary of 10,500,000 VND, while students with Bachelor’s Degree earn 16,700,700 VND, which is 58% higher than the former. 

UX designer average salary in Vietnam

Another field in the tech sector that worth mentioning is UX/UI designer. The salary of UX designers varies depending on years of experience. According to UX designer salaries, UX designers can earn around $12,938 per year with less than 3 years of experience. From 4 to 7 years of experience, the annual salary can increase to $14,000.

Besides, you can look up for further information related to FDI guide or digital transformation at Viettonkin's blog. To sum up, Vietnam is a promising market for foreign investors with a pool of tech talents. Besides an attractive salary, Vietnamese tech talents also wish to develop themselves further via training workshops, get insurance and offer flexible working hours. This article hopes to help you understand basic insight into the salary standards in the Vietnam IT sector. 
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