AI skills pull in higher salaries for engineers, as demand shifts to senior roles: report

[SINGAPORE] Singapore-based software engineers with artificial intelligence skills earned higher salaries than their peers without such expertise in 2025, the Tech Salary Report 2026 by career platform NodeFlair found.

Released on Monday (May 4), the analysis showed that junior software engineers – defined as those with zero to two years of experience – with AI skills experienced a 25 per cent pay bump at the 50th percentile. They took home S$6,000 a month, while those without such skills earned S$4,800.

Meanwhile, mid-level software engineers with AI skills had a 13 per cent higher salary than those without at the 50th percentile, at S$8,000 versus S$7,100. This group had between two and five years of experience.

At the senior level, where software engineers have spent more than five years in their role, those with AI skills earned 18 per cent more than their peers without at the 50th percentile. Their salary stood at S$10,000, compared with S$8,500.

NodeFlair’s data was based on job titles and descriptions from submissions, classifying those with AI-related terms or tools as AI jobs.

“AI fluency is no longer a nice-to-have – it’s now a salary advantage,” said Ethan Ang, the platform’s founder.

Demand for experienced software engineers is on the rise, with the report noting salary increases across senior, lead and manager roles at the 10th, 30th, 50th, 70th and 90th percentiles.

On average, salaries for senior roles expanded 12.6 per cent, that of lead roles increased 11.6 per cent, and that of manager roles grew 10.8 per cent.

Mid-level and junior roles had lower pay increases on average, at 1.7 per cent and 5.3 per cent, respectively.

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At the junior level, salaries at the 10th percentile dipped 4 per cent to S$3,600 from S$3,750. Across all levels, software engineer salaries rose an average of 7.5 per cent.

“With the rise of tools like Claude Code and a broader wave of agentic coding workflows, engineering teams are now rethinking how software gets built around AI – including placing greater value on engineers who are truly AI-native,” said Ang.

Overall, senior tech roles across disciplines including platform, data, solutions and cybersecurity all posted pay increases.

Among data roles, data analysts had the lowest average salary rise at 0.5 per cent. Junior roles had a pay decrease of 1.8 per cent on average, and salaries for mid-level roles fell an average of 0.1 per cent.

Meanwhile, the pay for senior data analyst roles grew 12.7 per cent on average, and that of lead roles by 12.5 per cent, highlighting the demand for more experienced employees.

Ang noted that companies are viewing AI as a productivity multiplier, and not using the technology to replace engineers entirely.

“On-the-ground sentiment suggests AI is currently more effectively utilised by senior engineers, especially as today’s tools are still weaker at system design, architecture and big-picture planning – areas where experienced engineers add strong value,” he said.