- Dedicated Team
- Custom Software
Outsourcing has helped companies optimize development cost, accelerate time-to-market, and access a broader IT talent pool. As a result, it has become a more prevalent approach in developed countries with high IT salary, such as Singapore. In 2025, the starting salaries among fresh graduates in information and digital technologies sector in Singapore are the highest, with median monthly pay reaching SGD$5,500, making it the best-paying field during a three-year period (2023 - 2025).
Many Singapore-based companies choose to outsource their software development to an offshore country, such as Vietnam, to reduce overall development cost., with three common engagement models, including dedicated team, project-based, and IT staff augmentation. In this blog, we will discover the dedicated development team in Vietnam, covering team structure, average salary in Vietnam for software engineer, and how to handle offshore teams effectively.
Key takeaways
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In Singapore, the starting salaries among graduates in IT sector are are the highest between 2023 and 2025, reaching around SGD$5,500 on average.
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Singapore-based businesses increasingly demand higher data protection and cross-border compliance, meaning that Vietnamese technology companies have to improve their security and information management capabilities.
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Roles in a dedicated development team may be diverse and not fixed, depending on the characteristics of projects. Some roles may be essential for one, but become redundant for others.
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Asking your potential development partners about their time to form team, risk management relating to trial, and Singapore-based regulations support before making the chosen decision.
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Developers in Vietnam earn around SGD$1,445 - $2,545 per month (no tax included and bonuses excluded), which is significantly lower compared to Singapore-based talent, with approximately SGD$6.417 per month.
Overview of dedicated development team in Vietnam
In 2024, Vietnam had nearly 1.26 million ICT workers in 2024, creating a strong IT labor force for software outsourcing, especially for companies looking to expand their internal engineering teams. While Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi remained the primary hubs, Da Nang has been emerging as a new delivery destination.
With advantages like minimal time-zone gap, highly skilled talent, and competitive cost, software outsourcing in Vietnam has become top choice for many businesses in Singapore.
In Vietnam, tech companies often provide services such as AI readiness assessment, data preparation, AI model integration, legacy code conversion, legacy code conversion, and audit automation. AI is also applied to increase developer productivity and expand the scope of work.
As foreign businesses increasingly demand higher data protection and cross-border compliance, Vietnamese technology companies are focusing more on improving their security and information management capabilities. Many businesses have adopted international certifications such as ISO 27001 and ISO 9001:2015, complied with PDPA requirements, and used NDAs.
Building a dedicated development team in Vietnam
Define your needed roles
The first step in structuring a dedicated development team is to identify the needed roles. These roles depend on the specific project requirements. If the companies can defind the necessary roles from the outset, they can directly request their software development vendor to provide them. However, it is not always the case. Many companies without in-depth technological capabilities may struggle to determine the roles required for a given project scope. In these situations, the development partner will break down the problem and propose the roles to their clients. Ultimately, the clients will finalize the team structues,
Roles in a dedicated development team may be diverse and not fixed, some roles may be essential for one project, but become redundant for others. For deach project, such as SaaS platform scaling or AI-enable product, Adamo APAC has built different offshore team composition for clients.
Building a dedicated development team in Vietnam process
Building a dedicated development team in Vietnam is quick, just a few weeks to finalize the team, especially after you have decided on the development partner.
Development partner receives request for available positions and provide client with suitable candidate CVs. Businesses then conduct interviews and make decisions on selecting the right candidates for the project. This shortens the recruitment and screening process, while avoiding additional costs.
Once the suitable candidates are selected and the dedicated team is formed, work can begin without minimal ramp up time, as software engineers already have experience and only need business knowledge transferred.
As such, choosing the right software outsourcing company in Vietnam plays an important role. So, what makes a software development partner suitable? What criteria should we use to evaluate them? With thousands of options in Vietnam, this is a real challenge for Singapore-based businesses.
Choosing a software outsourcing company in Vietnam
Checklist for choosing an offshore software development in Vietnam
Compared to building an in-house team, which provides complete control over development process, outsourcing can be a better approach when it comes to cost optimization. Having a criteria checklist is necessary to better assess potential vendors. However, there is no perfect benchmark for choosing dedicated teams, it is just a reference. There are some aspects that clients often check first, including technical expertise, domain focus, team location, or hourly rate
Key considerations
Asking potential vendors these specific questions before making your final decision. With 8+ of experience working with Singapore clients, Adamo APAC realized that there are some points that our clients truly paid attention to.
Time-to-start
Fast delivery time is a key strength of hiring an offshore dedicated team. So, having a short time to start is a priority of many businesses looking for dedicated teams. Ask your vendor about the estimated time for team formation. This process typically takes from 1 to 2 weeks after vendor selection. If it takes too long, around few monthes, the you should reconsider.
Risk-free trial
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Ask your vendor whether they offer trail period or not. If yes, is it free or paid?
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If a software engineer is looped into the project but do not perform as well as expected, how will your partner handle it? Is there any additional cost for replacing candidate, and who will be responsible for it?
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If you want to scale up, how long will it take to add staff? If you want to scale down, what is the notice period.
Singapore-based compliance
How your vendors ensure data protection? Is PDPA compliant? How is the cross border data transfer compliant?
If your vendors have strict data protection practices, such as holding ISO 27001 and 9001:2015, NDAs signed, and IP and source code transferred to client from day one, it is worth considering.
Manage the remote teams in Vietnam effectively
Managing an offshore teams often comes with multiple difficulties due to the time difference, making real time interactions impossible. Particularly, software engineers in each country has their own working style, office culture, communication, and report framwork. For example, while Indian dedicated teams tend to raise problems or ask questions immediately, Vietnamese developers are inclined to discretion as they typically check before reporting to team leader.
Working with a Vietnamse dedicated teams requires businesses to understand these differences to better manage the remote team and increase the overall productivity. professional capacity
How much does it cost to hire a dedicated team in Vietnam?
There is no fixed and clear number about the salary of Vietnamese software developers in Vietnam as it depends on company size, developer capabilities, expertise, and general market salary range. In this article, we will provide you the estimated figures compiled from recruitment websites, which can provide you with a more comprehensive overview of a dedicated development team cost in Vietnam.
Average salary in Vietnam for software engineer
According to TopDev (2024), developers in Vietnam earn around SGD$1,445 - $2,545 per month (no tax included and bonuses excluded). This number is significantly lower compared to Singapore-based talent, whoes salary is around SGD$6.417 per month (Indeed, 2026).
For developers working for global-oriented companies (Singapore, ANZ, USA, UK), this number can be higher as it requires more than just technical expertise. They have to be able to communicate seemlessly in English, work accordingly to Agile framework, and adapt quickly to cultural differences.
Hidden cost when hiring offshore teams in Vietnam
When hiring offshore teams, beside the average salary in Vietnam for software engineer, businesses should be aware of what is included in the contract and what is not. There are some hidden cost that many Singapore clients often ignore.
Replacing developer
If a developer leaves before the contract ends for any reason, who should be responsible for the replacement cost? In which case does the client have to cover it?
Working over time
Overtime payment matters when the pricing model is based on the actual working hours rather than the fixed cost (Time and Material contract). How much does the over time working cost? While this cost is significant, many businesses often overlook it.
Supporting tools, platforms, or frameworks
Some projects require additional supporting tools/ frameworks/ platforms, which are not covered in the development cost from the outset. In many cases, clients have to pay for them, which can increase the total cost.
Payment exchange rate
When hiring an offshore development team in Vietnam, it is necessary to clear about payment currency, exchange rate, exchange rate timing, and money transfer fees.
Building your dedicated development team with Adamo APAC
Adamo APAC is the Singapore-based office of Adamo Software, a premier AI & Software development company based in Vietnam. We offer three services, covering custom software development, dedicated development team, AI and data services.
With nearly ten years of experience working with Singapore clients across industries (mainly focus on Travel and Healthcare), we have a deep understanding of the working environment and differences in culture between countries. Most our dedicated teams onboard within 1-2 weeks, while it can take around 4-5 weeks if we have to recruit externally.
Our clients do not need to worry about security as we have implemented strong pactices for data protection. Source code is pushed to GitHub at the end of the working day and stored on GitLab during development process. Also, IP is transferred to you since day one. We do not reuse source code for other projects. Also, we hold ISO 27001 and ISO 9001:2015, our engineers sign NDAs when joining Adamo APAC Team.
FAQs
01. Does Adamo APAC charge any developer replacement cost?
If you are not satisfied with our software engineer, we will arrange a replacement without any cost. The handover will last around 1 to 2 weeks.
02. Who will be mainly responsible for communicating with client?
In almost our projects, Project Manager, Business Analyst, or a Tester will be responsible for communicating with you.
03. What is a typical team composition that Adamo APAC offers?
Normally, we do not have a fixed team composition. The number of members will be allocated based on each project characteristics. An ideal team may include 1 Project Manager (PM), 3 Software engineers, 1 Tester/ Quality Control, 1 Business Analyst (BA), and 1 UI Designer.