AI and Data engineers at FPT earn up to tens of billions per year

At a working session with the delegation of the 14th Congress Document Subcommittee in Da Nang on the afternoon of June 13, Mr. Pham Minh Tuan, Deputy General Director of FPT, said that the group's largest expense at present is salaries for employees. "Every day when we open our eyes, FPT leaders spend more than 2 million USD to pay salaries for more than 30,000 people," Mr. Tuan said.

Accordingly, the average income of new graduates at FPT is about 10 million a month. In particular, AI experts and data analysts working in Vietnam have income equal to that of engineers in Europe and Japan, and about 10% lower than in France.

"The maximum number is uncertain, but the highest salary for Vietnamese engineers in the corporation is up to billions of dong per month, and the average annual salary can be more than 10 billion dong," said FPT's Deputy General Director.

Mr. Tuan noted that this is the salary that the corporation pays to Vietnamese engineers working in Vietnam. FPT does not limit the salary ceiling but calculates it based on ability and pays according to labor. If the engineer is good and can create supporting tools and software, they can increase their income. In some periods, the salary of AI and Data engineers at FPT is even higher than that of the General Director.

FPT leaders pointed out that the strengths of Vietnamese engineers are that they are young, dynamic and good at technology. However, there are also some fields where Vietnamese people lack experience compared to international personnel such as finance, banking and telecommunications. Therefore, the current structure of the corporation has about 10% of its personnel being foreigners. FPT aims to increase this structure to 20% in the next 3 years. "The goal is to be able to take advantage of the world's intelligence, building a combat-ready army that can fully complete the work of a project," Mr. Tuan shared.

Looking to the future, Mr. Pham Minh Tuan believes that AI is almost the weapon that determines the success and longevity of Vietnamese software companies as well as ensuring the long-term position of Vietnamese engineers.

According to TopCV's annual report on the 2023 recruitment market and 2024 needs, IT - software is the industry group with the second highest recruitment demand in Vietnam, after the business/sales group. Depending on each industry group, the salary of Vietnamese engineers also varies greatly. With more than 5 years of experience, a web programmer has a median salary of 36-48 million VND per month, while a security specialist's salary is 26-42 million VND, and a data management specialist's salary is 30-50 million VND.

According to statistics released at the end of May by Levels.fyi, each AI software engineer in the US has a median salary of $300,000 (7.6 billion VND) per year, while programmers and software engineers who do not specialize in artificial intelligence are about $100,000. "The salary gap between AI engineers and non-AI engineers was about 30% in mid-2022, but now it has increased to nearly 50%. It is clear that businesses value AI skills and are willing to pay much more, regardless of the job classification of the worker," data analyst Alina Kolesnikova commented in the Levels.fyi report.

According to FPT leaders, human resources are always an important foundation in the development process of the technology industry. Nowadays, the world is flat, foreign companies can hire Vietnamese people, work in Vietnam but receive salaries in the US and Europe. Domestic companies cannot "hold the shore" to retain talent with income but must also consider soft benefits such as attractive environment, happy office, empowerment...