When I first came to Thailand, the software industry consisted of the corporate sector running software development units out of Bangkok. Few entrepreneurs in tech perceived it as an attractive market or a good base for operations. Jobs for foreigners were scarce and for many tech employees the only option was to freelance remotely for a company back home. This has changed.
However, the situation has been completely changed. Attractive investment promotion packages not only drew a lot of tech companies and business units to Thailand but also lifted a lot of the restrictions when it came to hiring foreigners. The result was a surge in demand for qualified prospects. Nowadays, when looking at anything from digital marketing to backend development in Thailand, it’s a job seeker’s market.
This guide to IT jobs in Thailand will show you how to best take advantage of that in order to find a great job as an expat. It’ll cover the most important job websites, employers, and networking events for people looking for a job in tech.
You’ll also find a listing of available tech positions–including experience and educational requirements and salary ranges.
Contents
- Key Takeaways
- Job Websites
- Employers
- Available Positions
- Events
- Additional Resources
- Work Permits and Visas for IT Professionals
- Next Steps
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Do I need a work permit for an IT job in Thailand?
- Can I work remotely for a foreign company while living in Thailand?
- How much do software developers earn in Thailand?
- Do BOI-promoted companies make it easier to get hired as a foreigner?
- Which cities have the most IT jobs in Thailand?
- Is the DTV or the LTR visa better for a remote IT job?
Key Takeaways
- Thailand’s tech job market has opened up significantly due to BOI investment promotions, which drew in international tech companies and eased restrictions on hiring foreign workers. For qualified candidates, it is now a job seeker’s market.
- The biggest tech employers in Bangkok actively hiring foreigners include Agoda (headquarters are in Bangkok), Grab, and Lazada, with roles spanning development, data, marketing, and operations.
- Iglu is a BOI-promoted company that specifically hires remote tech workers. Most positions are remote and can be performed from anywhere in the world, including from their Bangkok or Chiang Mai offices.
- Salary ranges vary widely. Senior data roles (Head of Data, Data Scientist) pay THB150,000-300,000 per month, while junior development positions typically start at THB25,000-50,000.
- Companies are generally willing to provide work permits for qualified foreign tech workers. A relevant degree and 1-5 years of specific experience are the typical requirements for most advertised roles.
- Search both general platforms (LinkedIn, JobsDB) and tech-specific sites (Iglu, Wellfound) to get full coverage of the market, including startup opportunities that don’t appear on the larger job boards.
Job Websites
Of course, there is no shortage of generic job websites in Thailand. Especially on the larger sites, you’ll find plenty of offers in tech from multinational corporations. In case you’re curious about some smaller startups or more unique opportunities however, you should check out the tech job websites listed below.
Iglu
Iglu is a BOI promoted company in Thailand that hires digital nomads from all over the world. They regularly have opening positions for experienced tech workers, software engineers, and UX/UI designers.
Most of the jobs there are remote. It means you can work from anywhere in the world — or from one of the Iglu offices in the United Kingdom, Estonia, Hong Kong, Thailand, or Vietnam.
If any position is based in Thailand, it means you can work remotely in Thailand or work in either Iglu’s Bangkok or Chiang Mai offices.
wellfound
You can also check for other startup opportunities on wellfound which compiles a list of startups in global locations, including Thailand. In its Thailand Startups page, there is a ‘VIEW JOBS’ button, indicating which companies on the list have open positions.
Employers
Here are some of the more established players in the tech, e-commerce and startup market that have at least 100 employees in their Thailand location.
Agoda
Agoda is an online hotel and accommodation booking company employing more than 2,000 employees in over 35 locations, with its most important office location being Bangkok (even though their formal headquarters are in Singapore). Agoda is known to hire a large number of foreign employees.
Working in a company headquarters isn’t something you should underestimate – it opens up a much bigger network and career opportunities than just being in a local representative office of a multinational that sees a lot of decisions (including ones about careers) being made elsewhere.
As of this writing, Agoda has 240 open positions, which run the gamut of positions that you can expect in a digital company, from Business Development, Content and Translation, Corporate, and Technology, more than half of which seem eligible for foreign applicants.
Its Thailand offices post several job ads in various platforms, including LinkedIn and JobsDB, and directly through its website’s careers page, so you might end up submitting duplicate applications for the same position in more than one source.
Grab
Grab’s expansion from a taxi-booking app into a full-service transportation app trickled into their Thailand location, having several requirements for positions in Business Development, Administration, Operations, Customer Service, and Marketing. Jobs are also up for grabs on their website and JobsDB pages.
Lazada
Lazada has a strong enough presence in Thailand, and there are a handful of positions to be filled mostly in Technology, Operations and Marketing. Go to the website’s careers page and filter by location (Thailand).
Available Positions
Below you’ll find a sample list of commonly advertised positions that are open to foreign applicants. The list illustrates for which positions and technologies companies like to recruit from abroad and are willing to provide work permits. It gives you an idea of the level of experience companies often ask for, in which fields they’re currently hiring these positions and an estimate of a realistic salary range a qualified candidate can expect to receive.
This is mostly provided as a reference – not every job in that category requires the specific experience and education mentioned and none require you to be familiar with all the technologies listed. Keep in mind that it’s only a sample of opportunities, so if your specific area of expertise or technology isn’t listed, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not asked for in the market.
You can use the job titles as part of your search for potential postings or, if your profile matches those requirements, you can also send me a message and I can put you in touch with a recruiter directly.
Salary Snapshot by Role
A quick reference before the detailed breakdown below. These ranges reflect what’s typically advertised for foreign applicants; your own offer depends on experience, the specific employer, and whether the role is local-hire or LTR/remote.
| IT Role | Typical Monthly Salary (THB) | Demand |
|---|---|---|
| Frontend / Backend Developer | 25,000 – 75,000 | High — the largest volume of foreign-eligible openings |
| Java Developer / Software Engineer | 25,000 – 100,000 | High |
| Mobile App Developer | 50,000 – 100,000 | Steady |
| UI / UX Designer | 16,000 – 45,000 | Moderate |
| Database Administrator / System Analyst | 75,000 – 125,000 | Moderate, mostly enterprise and SAP-linked roles |
| Data Scientist | 75,000 – 150,000 | Growing, tied to e-commerce and fintech expansion |
| Scrum Master | 100,000 – 150,000 | Moderate, concentrated at larger tech employers |
| Head of Data / CTO / IT Director | 170,000 – 350,000 | Low volume, senior-only openings |
Data Analytics and Data Science
- Database Administrator
- Experience: 1 – 5 years
- Education: Bachelor Degree and/or approved training courses
- Fields: Oracle, MS SQL, OLTP, OLAP, and Star Schema Databases
- Salary: THB75,000 – THB125,000
- Senior System Analyst
- Experience: 1 – 10 years
- Education: Bachelor Degree in Computer Science, Business Administration, Management Information System, Information Technology, or related fields
- Fields: SAP SD configuration and SAP integration
- Salary: THB75,000 – THB100,000
- Data Scientist
- Experience: 3 – 5 years
- Education: Bachelor Degree or higher in Computer Engineering, or related fields
- Fields: Linear Algebra, Calculus, Graph Theory, Probability, Mean/Variance Statistic, Bayesian Analysis, Hypothesis Testing
- Salary: THB75,000 – THB150,000
- Head of Data
- Experience: 2 – 3 years
- Education: Bachelor Degree in Computer Science, Math, or related fields
- Fields: SQL, Tableau, data visualization tools, Teradata, Experian Data, Astor, testing tools like Monetate, Test & Target, and Ensighten
- Salary: THB200,000 – THB300,000
Engineering and Development
- Scrum Master
- Experience: 1 – 3 years
- Education: Bachelor degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineer, or related fields
- Fields: Agile Framework; Agile space: XP, Kanban, Crystal, FDD; Agile techniques: User Stories, ATDD, TDD, Continuous Integration, Continuous Testing, Pairing, Automated Testing, and Agile Games
- Salary: THB100,000 – THB150,000
- Java Developer
- Experience: 1 – 3 years
- Education: Bachelor degree or higher in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology or related fields
- Fields: Web/Console application, Java, J2EE, J2ME, Struts2, JSF, Spring, Hibernate, Eclipse, Servlet, JSP, Oracle, Unix, Linux, PL/SQL, MySQL, SQL Command/Server, Shell Script, Visio, knowledge of SQL statement, Store Procedure, Query and Oracle PL/SQL, Jasper iReport Tools, Crystal Report, and BI
- Salary: THB25,000 – THB50,000
- Backend Developer
- Experience: 1 – 3 years
- Education: Bachelor Degree in Computer, Information System, IT, or related fields
- Fields: PHP, Restful API, AJAX, JSON, SQL and NoSQL, AWS Lambda, RDS, S3, EC2, GitHub, and Docker
- Salary: THB25,000 – THB75,000
- Frontend Developer
- Experience: 1 – 3 years
- Education: Bachelor Degree in Computer, Information System, IT, or related fields
- Fields: PHP, Restful API, AJAX, JSON, Bootstrap, JavaScript, CSS, and Responsive Design
- Salary: THB25,000 – THB75,000
- Software Engineer
- Experience: 5 years
- Education: Bachelor or Master Degree in Automation, Mechatronics, Electronic Engineering, or related fields
- Fields: PLC and CAD
- Salary: THB50,000 – THB100,000
- Mobile App Developer
- Experience: 2 – 3 years
- Education: Bachelor Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, or related fields
- Fields: Java, JSP, JSON, JQuery, C#, PHP, and HTML5
- Salary: THB50,000 – THB100,000
- Senior System Analyst
- Experience: 3 – 5 years
- Education: Bachelor Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineer, or related fields
- Fields: OOP, OOAD, UML, ASP.NET with MVC framework, C#, AJAX framework, Java Script, PowerBuilder
- Salary: THB75,000 – THB100,000
- Software QA
- Experience: 1 – 5 years
- Education: Bachelor Degree or above in Business Computer, Information Technology, Computer Science, or other related fields
- Fields: Selenium Cucumber, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), MS Word, MS Excel, and HPQC/ALM
- Salary: THB50,000 – THB75,000
UI and UX
- Web Designer
- Experience: 5 years
- Education: Bachelor Degree in Art, Fine Art , Web Design, or related fields
- Fields: HTML, HTML5, CSS3, AngularJS, JQuery, JavaScript, Photoshop, and Illustrator
- Salary: THB15,000 – THB35,000
- Web Developer
- Experience: 3 years
- Education: Bachelor or Master Degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Sciences, Information System, or related fields
- Fields: PHPUnit, Mocha, Kafka, Redis, API Gateway, Git, and SVN
- Salary: THB60,000 – THB110,000
- UI Designer
- Experience: 3 – 5 years
- Education: Bachelor Degree in Interactive Design, Multimedia design, Web/Mobile Application & Game Design, or related fields
- Fields: Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Sketch, and MAYA
- Salary: THB16,000 – THB25,000
- UX Designer
- Experience: 1 – 5 years
- Education: Bachelor or Master Degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Interaction Design, or related fields
- Fields: UI and Animation, iOS, Android, Scrum, Kanban, Adobe CS, Sketch, and Invision
- Salary: THB20,000 – THB45,000
- Art Director
- Experience: 3 – 5 years
- Education: Bachelor Degree or higher in Graphic Design, Visual Communication, or related fields
- Fields: 3D Max, Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effect, Premier Pro, Mac, and PC
- Salary: THB60,000 – THB100,000
Management and HR
- Technical Recruiter
- Experience: 2 – 3 years
- Education: Bachelor Degree or higher in Information System, IT, or related fields
- Fields: Recruiting SAP positions, CV Search, Social Media Marketing
- Salary: THB40,000 – THB50,000
- CTO
- Experience: 10 – 15 years
- Education: MBA/MS in Information Technology, or related fields
- Fields: High-level strategic thinking, planning, and stakeholder management; Agile Framework
- Salary: THB170,000 – THB300,000
- IT Director
- Experience: 10 years
- Education: Bachelor or Master Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related fields
- Fields: SAP/ERP, WMS, CRM, and Analytic tools
- Salary: THB250,000 – THB350,000
Events
The larger tech events on Meetup.com tend to attract a lot of recruiters – from recruitment firms to companies hiring directly. Some of the programming-related meetups even take place in venues provided by specific tech firms. It’s a good way to not only meet fellow expats in tech but also to get a hands-on look at some of the companies hiring for those positions.
Additional Resources
In case you want to cast a wider net to see what options are outside the usual suspects, there are number of websites where you can find some lesser known startups and tech companies. These will also give you a better picture of the overall job and tech market in the region.
BOI
Another good resource is the database of the Board of Investment (BOI): The investment promotion office of the Thai government has a database of all investment-promoted companies. What’s important to know is that for BOI-promoted companies, most work permit regulations do not apply, making it much, much easier for them to hire foreigners.
The BOI database can be used to find companies promoted in tech categories (check for ‘software’ and ‘e-commerce’) – it’s a useful tool if you’re looking to find great companies to work for, regardless if they are currently posting job ads or not.
TechInAsia
The Asian equivalent to TechCrunch is TechInAsia. You can bookmark this page for tech news and tech job posts. It isn’t specifically tailored for Thailand tech jobs search – there are way more ads for Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia – but it has a clean interface (as it should have being a tech media site) that makes job search quite convenient. Companies that post here are a combination of purely tech companies, startups, and the odd real estate and medical small businesses.
Networking
Thailand, especially Bangkok and Chiang Mai, is a hub for networking events in the IT industry. Every time I attended a networking event here, I always met IT professionals or entrepreneurs looking for developers. Therefore, if you’re in Bangkok or Chiang Mai right now, I recommend stopping by any IT-related networking event. You may be able to secure a job through connections and handshakes rather than a formal interview.
Read more: Networking in Bangkok: How You Can Connect with the Right People
Work Permits and Visas for IT Professionals
Before you apply anywhere, it helps to know what legal status you’re aiming for. Foreigners working for a Thai-registered employer normally need a Non-Immigrant B visa and a work permit. The employer sponsors both, and the process runs through the Ministry of Labour.
BOI-promoted tech companies get an easier path. A company holding a Board of Investment (BOI) promotion certificate can bring in foreign specialists through the BOI’s own Investment Promotion Act process instead of the standard work permit route, which skips the usual foreign-to-Thai staff ratio and minimum capital tests that smaller, non-promoted employers have to meet. It’s a big part of why BOI-promoted companies (Iglu among them) can hire foreigners for tech roles more readily than a typical local firm.
Long-Term Resident (LTR) Visa for Higher Earners
If your income clears a certain bar, the Long-Term Resident (LTR) visa is worth checking before you commit to the standard work permit route. It runs 10 years (issued 5+5) and has two categories relevant to IT professionals.
- Highly-Skilled Professional: for tech workers earning at least US$80,000 a year (or US$40,000 with a science or technology master’s degree), employed by a company in a targeted industry. Holders pay a flat 17% personal income tax rate on that employment income instead of Thailand’s standard progressive rates.
- Work-from-Thailand Professional: for people who keep their existing foreign job and simply relocate to Thailand. It needs the same income threshold, and the employer must be a public company, or a private company with at least US$50 million in revenue over the past three years (or its wholly owned subsidiary). No Thai work permit is required, since the salary is paid from abroad.
Destination Thailand Visa (DTV) for Freelancers and Remote Workers
Don’t clear the LTR income bar, or working as a freelancer rather than a single employer? The Destination Thailand Visa (DTV) is the more accessible option for remote IT work. Instead of an income test, it asks for a bank balance of at least THB500,000 (a 3-month statement, not a fixed deposit). It’s a 5-year multiple-entry visa good for 180 days per entry, extendable once, but unlike the LTR it carries no work permit and no tax benefit. See our DTV vs. LTR comparison to work out which one actually fits your situation.
Next Steps
Right now, it’s an employee-market in the tech scene: Lots of companies are now actively trying to recruit people all over the world and then relocate them to Thailand. Not a week goes by where I don’t hear from recruiters or startup founders who’d love to hear from anyone who could fill one of the above-listed positions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a work permit for an IT job in Thailand?
Yes, if you’re employed by a Thai-registered company. The standard route is a Non-Immigrant B visa plus a work permit, sponsored by your employer. BOI-promoted tech companies can bring in foreign specialists through a faster BOI process instead of the standard quota system.
Can I work remotely for a foreign company while living in Thailand?
Yes, with the right visa status. The LTR visa’s Work-from-Thailand Professional category covers this for higher earners with no Thai work permit required, and the DTV covers it for freelancers and remote workers who don’t meet the LTR income threshold.
How much do software developers earn in Thailand?
It varies widely by role and seniority. Junior developer positions typically start around THB25,000-50,000 a month, mid-level engineering roles run THB50,000-100,000, and senior data or leadership roles can reach THB150,000-350,000. See the salary snapshot table above for a role-by-role breakdown.
Do BOI-promoted companies make it easier to get hired as a foreigner?
Generally, yes. BOI-promoted companies aren’t bound by the standard foreign-to-Thai staff ratio or minimum capital tests that apply to other employers, which is why some of the more foreigner-friendly tech employers (Iglu is one) hold BOI promotion.
Which cities have the most IT jobs in Thailand?
Bangkok has by far the most openings and the most established tech employers. Chiang Mai has a smaller but active scene, especially for remote and startup-style roles.
Is the DTV or the LTR visa better for a remote IT job?
It depends on your income and how long you want to stay. The LTR needs a higher income but gives you 10 years, a digital work permit, and (for some categories) a tax break. The DTV needs no income test, just a THB500,000 bank balance, but runs shorter and carries no tax benefit. See our DTV vs. LTR comparison for the full breakdown.
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