How to Hire Deep Tech Talent in Singapore

Deep tech hiring is where most non-technical founders come unstuck. You can read a CV for a sales director and form a reasonable view within ten minutes, but you cannot do the same for a computational biologist or an embedded systems engineer working on silicon photonics. This guide explains how to hire for deep tech in Singapore when you cannot personally assess the technical depth of the person sitting across from you, and what MOM expects of you as the employer once you have chosen someone.

Who this applies to

This guide is written for founders and hiring leads who own the commercial side of a technically demanding business:

A non-technical founder in a pre-seed to Series A company building hardware, semiconductors, robotics, quantum, advanced materials, biotech or AI infrastructure
An SME owner bringing research and development in-house for the first time
An HR generalist who has hired plenty of business roles but no research scientists
A regional manager setting up a Singapore engineering function for an overseas parent company

The term is worth pinning down. Deep tech is not simply “technical”. A payments company building a mobile app is technical. A company whose product depends on an unsolved scientific or engineering problem, with long development cycles and patents rather than features as the moat, is deep tech. The distinction matters because the talent pool is smaller and the signals of competence are different.

Key rules and requirements in Singapore

Most deep tech hires fall under the Employment Pass. The qualifying salary starts at SGD 5,600 a month for candidates aged 23 and below in most sectors, and SGD 6,200 in financial services, rising with age to SGD 10,700 and SGD 11,800 respectively at age 45 and above. From 1 January 2027, the entry floors rise to SGD 6,000 and SGD 6,600. A credible mid-career research engineer will sit well above these floors anyway.

Clearing the salary floor only gets you to stage two. The candidate must also score at least 40 points under COMPASS, which assesses salary against sector benchmarks, qualifications, the nationality diversity of your workforce, your share of local employment, and two bonus criteria. Those bonuses are where deep tech employers often gain ground: the Skills Bonus rewards roles on MOM’s Shortage Occupation List, and the Strategic Economic Priorities bonus rewards companies contributing to Singapore’s innovation goals. Candidates earning SGD 22,500 or more a month are exempt from COMPASS altogether.

Other rules that bear on the decision:

Fair Consideration Framework. Most employers must advertise the role on MyCareersFuture for at least 14 consecutive days before applying. Companies with fewer than 10 employees and roles paying SGD 22,500 or more a month have been exempt, but the exemption does not remove the duty to consider Singaporeans fairly.
Tech@SG. Run jointly by EDB and Enterprise Singapore, this programme gives a company-level endorsement to MOM and can support up to 10 new Employment Passes over two years for core team hires. It reduces application risk rather than bypassing the rules.
Tech.Pass and its successor. EDB stops accepting new and renewal Tech.Pass applications from 28 January 2027. The new ONE Pass (AI and Tech) track opens from January 2027 with a SGD 30,000 monthly threshold, five-year renewals, and vested equity counting towards qualifying pay.
S Pass. For technicians and lab staff, the salary floor is SGD 3,300 and the levy is SGD 650 a month. S Pass holders may form at most 10 per cent of your workforce in services, or 15 per cent in the non-services sectors.
Employment Act and CPF. Local hires are covered by the Employment Act and by CPF contributions under the CPF Act. CPF does not apply to work pass holders, though annual income reporting to IRAS applies to everyone on your payroll.
Employment Agencies Act. If you engage a recruiter, check they hold a valid MOM employment agency licence.

Step-by-step process

Write the role as a problem, not a title. “Senior Research Engineer” tells a candidate nothing. “Bring our sensor drift below 0.3 per cent over a 12-month deployment” tells the right candidate everything and filters out the wrong ones before you spend an hour with them.
Borrow technical judgement. Before you post anything, find someone who can assess depth: a technical adviser, an angel investor from the field, a contact at A*STAR or one of the local universities, or a fractional CTO. Three hours of expert assessment is cheaper than a bad 18-month hire.
Map the role to a pass route and budget the true cost. Fixed monthly salary, levy where applicable, relocation and the realistic probability of approval all belong in the same spreadsheet.
Advertise on MyCareersFuture and start the clock early. The advertising period is the most common cause of avoidable delay.
Replace the interview with a work sample. Give candidates a redacted version of a real problem you have already solved and ask how they would approach it. Your adviser scores the reasoning. You score how clearly they explained it to you, which is the part you are qualified to judge.
Check references and published work. Read one of their papers or patents and ask them to explain their specific contribution. Vague answers here are a reliable warning sign.
Structure the offer carefully. Equity does not count towards the Employment Pass qualifying salary today, so a cash-light, equity-heavy offer can fail the salary test even when the total package is generous.
Submit through MOM Work Pass Online and keep advertising records, interview notes and assessment scores on file.
Document the IP position on day one. Assignment of inventions, confidentiality and publication rights belong in the employment contract, not in a later conversation.

Common mistakes to avoid

Hiring a general software engineer for a physics or chemistry problem because the CV mentions Python
Judging candidates by the brand of their university rather than the relevance of their work
Budgeting the headline salary and forgetting levies, equipment, and the ramp-up a research hire genuinely needs
Treating COMPASS as paperwork. A team that is almost entirely one nationality loses points on the diversity criterion, and that can decide a marginal application
Applying before the MyCareersFuture advertisement has run its full 14 days
Presenting equity or expected bonuses as fixed monthly salary in a pass application
Treating a rejection as final. Appeals can generally be lodged within three months, and a well-evidenced appeal that addresses the specific weakness often succeeds

Practical examples

A robotics startup with six staff. The founders need a controls engineer. Their candidate is 31 and the offer is SGD 7,800. The salary clears the age-based floor comfortably, but COMPASS still needs 40 points, and with six staff of largely the same nationality the diversity criterion scores poorly. The founders check the Shortage Occupation List, confirm the role qualifies for the Skills Bonus, and pick up the points there. They advertise on MyCareersFuture regardless of the small-company exemption, because it costs nothing and strengthens the file.

A semiconductor company hiring a process technician. The role sits at S Pass level. The company operates in services, so S Pass holders may be at most 10 per cent of headcount. With one S Pass holder, the company needs a total workforce of at least ten. Running the quota arithmetic before making the offer avoids withdrawing it later.

How Singapore Employment Agency can help

We work with founders who know exactly what they need built, but not how to demonstrate to MOM that the person they want is the right person to build it. We advise on which pass route fits a given role and salary, run COMPASS scoring before you commit to an offer, prepare and lodge Employment Pass, S Pass, Work Permit and Dependant’s Pass applications, and handle renewals, appeals and work pass record-keeping for MOM inspections.

Requirements may change, so always check the latest guidance from MOM, IRAS or ACRA, or consult a professional adviser.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I hire a deep tech specialist without a technical co-founder?

Yes, and many founders do. What you cannot do is skip technical assessment entirely. Bring in an adviser, an investor with domain expertise, or a paid assessor to evaluate depth, and keep for yourself the judgement of communication, motivation and fit.

Does equity count towards the Employment Pass qualifying salary?

Not under the current rules, which look at fixed monthly salary. The ONE Pass (AI and Tech) track opening in January 2027 will recognise vested equity, but that is a separate and much higher tier at SGD 30,000 a month.

What happens if the application is rejected?

MOM gives a reason. Most rejections turn on salary against benchmark, COMPASS points, or insufficient evidence that the role needs this particular candidate. An appeal can usually be lodged within three months, and it should introduce new evidence rather than restate the original application.

Should I use an employment agency or recruit directly?

For a first deep tech hire, the constraint is usually assessment capability rather than candidate sourcing. Whichever route you take, confirm that any agency you engage holds a valid licence under the Employment Agencies Act.

Key takeaways

Deep tech hiring fails on assessment, not on sourcing. Borrow technical judgement before you post the role
Employment Pass qualifying salary starts at SGD 5,600 a month and rises with age, with higher floors from January 2027, and COMPASS still requires 40 points on top
Check the Shortage Occupation List early, because the Skills Bonus can decide a marginal application
Tech.Pass closes to new and renewal applications from 28 January 2027, replaced by the ONE Pass (AI and Tech) track at SGD 30,000 a month, where vested equity counts
Equity does not count towards the current Employment Pass salary test, so structure offers accordingly
Run the 14-day MyCareersFuture advertisement before you apply, and keep the records

If you would like to find out more about how Singapore Employment Agency can assist with your work pass and employment compliance requirements, please get in touch with the team at [email protected].

Yours sincerely,
The editorial team at Singapore Employment Agency

Disclaimer: This does not constitute legal advice. If you require legal advice, please contact a lawyer.