Vietnam Semiconductor Salaries Revealed for the First Time. IC Design Leads Earn Up to VND 170 Million per Month.

Global staffing firm Adecco publishes a Vietnam salary guide every year. This year's is the 12th edition.

For the past 11 years, the report covered engineering, manufacturing, finance, tech, retail, and other major sectors, but never broke out semiconductor as a standalone category.

The 2025 edition is the first.

Adecco explained why: Vietnam's semiconductor industry is growing fast. Talent demand in IC design, advanced packaging, and testing has surged enough to warrant separate salary tracking.

The report surveyed 9,000 professionals across Asia Pacific, conducted in November 2024, with data for both HCMC and Hanoi.

Given how quickly Vietnam's semiconductor market is moving, actual salaries may already be higher than what the report shows.

Here are the key findings from the semiconductor chapter.

Engineer-Level Pay

Take HCMC as the benchmark.

An RTL design engineer with one to five years of experience earns roughly VND 25 to 45 million per month.

Design verification engineers sit slightly higher, at VND 25 to 50 million.

Physical design engineers (who convert circuits into chip layouts) fall in the VND 20 to 50 million range.

Analog mixed-signal design engineers are similar, at VND 20 to 50 million.

After five years, salaries jump noticeably.

RTL design engineers can reach VND 45 to 90 million, nearly double.

Design verification engineers go higher still, VND 50 to 100 million, crossing the nine-figure threshold.

Physical design and analog mixed-signal engineers land in similar ranges.

Hanoi salaries run about 10 to 20% lower across the board.

An RTL design engineer with five-plus years of experience earns VND 35 to 80 million in Hanoi, roughly 15% below HCMC.

Management-Level Ceiling

At the management level, pay takes another step up.

In HCMC, an RTL design lead with over five years of experience earns VND 130 to 160 million per month.

Design verification leads command the highest range: VND 130 to 170 million.

Physical design leads also fall between VND 120 to 170 million.

Analog mixed-signal design leads sit at VND 120 to 150 million.

Hanoi management salaries run about 80 to 90% of HCMC levels.

Design verification leads in Hanoi earn VND 100 to 135 million, a gap of roughly 20%.

One notable detail: DFT (Design for Testability) leads earn VND 120 to 150 million per month in HCMC, but the Hanoi column reads N/A. This means there is essentially no market for this role in Hanoi. DFT talent is heavily concentrated in the south.

High Compared to Other Industries?

In the same report, IT directors in HCMC earn VND 150 to 240 million per month (five-plus years of experience), well above semiconductor leads.

FMCG general managers earn VND 350 to 500 million, another level entirely.

But for engineers, semiconductor starting salaries match tech, and the growth trajectory is steeper.

A design verification engineer can go from VND 25 million at entry to VND 100 million after five years, a fourfold increase.

An IT support engineer over the same period goes from VND 20 million to VND 55 million, roughly half the growth rate.

Semiconductor sits in an interesting spot in Vietnam's salary hierarchy: engineer pay on par with tech, management pay slightly below tech executives, but far above traditional manufacturing at the same level.

For young STEM graduates, semiconductor offers one of the steepest salary growth curves available.

72% of Workers Are Considering a Job Change

One data point in the Adecco survey stands out (this is a cross-industry figure): 72% of Vietnamese respondents said they are considering a job switch, with 34% actively looking.

This ratio has climbed from 37% in 2023, to 69% in 2024, to 72% now.

Only 27% said they have no plans to change jobs.

For the semiconductor industry, this high mobility means retention pressure will persist.

Adecco recommends employers offer flexible compensation packages including performance bonuses, stock options, and clear career development paths. Base salary alone will not be enough.

How to Fill a 50,000-Person Gap

Vietnam currently has about 6,000 semiconductor engineers. The government's target is 50,000 by 2030.

Growing the talent pool eightfold in four years cannot be done through universities alone. Overseas recruitment has to happen simultaneously.

International chip companies are already scaling up.

Nvidia announced a USD 250 million investment in 2024 to build an R&D center in Vietnam.

Synopsys, Marvell, and Renesas have been expanding their HCMC teams.

The HCMC government has separately allocated USD 5 million for an IC design talent development fund.

When demand expands at this pace while supply is still catching up, salary inflation is inevitable.

The Adecco report draws a starting line for this talent war: companies can benchmark where their offers stand in the market.

Reference for Foreign Companies

This report has direct value for foreign companies setting up R&D centers in Vietnam.

In the past, foreign firms hiring semiconductor talent in Vietnam mostly had to figure out salary levels on their own or rely on fragmentary information from recruiters.

Now there is a systematic, cross-industry, cross-city dataset. At the very least, it provides a baseline for making offers.

A few practical takeaways:

HCMC is the most concentrated city for semiconductor talent. Hanoi has a smaller pool, and some roles do not even have a market rate yet.

Setting up IC design operations in Hanoi may require higher salaries to attract talent northward.

Management-level monthly pay runs between VND 120 and 170 million, and at the current pace, these numbers will only keep rising.

For companies planning semiconductor operations in Vietnam, this report serves as one useful reference for annual salary planning.

The full report link is in the comments.