Roles and experience
Product design dominates, individual contributors are the norm, and many designers are career switchers with more total work experience than design-specific experience.
Roles and experience
Job titles
Designers reported a wide variety of titles, but nearly 90% included the word "design." Over half (50.7%) featured "UX" and 25.3% had "UI" in the title. Around 40.8% of job titles indicated some level of seniority, suggesting that formal levelling is common but not universal across the region's design industry.
Chart proof
Job title distribution
Respondents by current job title (N=323, all markets). Product Designer is the largest named title, with most responses falling into Other.
Bar chart showing current job titles among respondents. Product Designer is the largest named title, while Other contains most of the remaining responses.
View data table
| Job title | Respondents (N=323) | Share (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Product Designer | 33 | 10.2 |
| UX Designer | 25 | 7.7 |
| Senior Product Designer | 18 | 5.6 |
| UI/UX Designer | 18 | 5.6 |
| UX Researcher | 10 | 3.1 |
| Product designer | 9 | 2.8 |
| Senior UX Designer | 9 | 2.8 |
| UIUX Designer | 7 | 2.2 |
| Other | 194 | 60.1 |
Career level distribution
Individual contributors make up 87% of respondents, with the remaining 13% holding people-management titles from manager through vice president.
Chart proof
Career level distribution
Junior ICs are the largest single cohort here, and management stays a narrow track rather than the ladder's default endpoint.
Distribution of respondents across career levels, from Junior IC to Vice President.
View data table
| Career Level | Respondents | Share (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Junior IC | 101 | 31.3 |
| Mid-level IC | 76 | 23.5 |
| Senior IC | 72 | 22.3 |
| Lead / Staff / Principal IC | 32 | 9.9 |
| People Manager | 27 | 8.4 |
| Director | 11 | 3.4 |
| VP | 4 | 1.2 |
Primary field of work
Product design dominates the field-of-work split; every other category, from research to design operations, sits in single digits.
Chart proof
Field of work
Respondents by primary design discipline (N=323, all markets)
Product design dominates at 67.5%. Research, design leadership, graphic design, content design, and design operations each account for 2–8%.
View data table
| Discipline | Share |
|---|---|
| Product design | 67.5% |
| Research | 7.4% |
| Design leadership & management | 6.8% |
| Graphic/marketing design | 4.6% |
| Content design/writing | 4.0% |
| Design operations | 2.5% |
Experience
The self-assessed picture matches the topline numbers: 48.4% of respondents describe their design experience as little to some, and 22.9% put it at exactly one year.
Chart proof
Years of design experience
Respondents by years of design experience (N=323, all markets). Almost half have three or fewer years of design experience.
The 2023 cohort is experience-young: 47.1% have 0–3 years of design experience. 15.5% have 10 or more years.
View data table
| Years of design experience | Respondents (N=323) | Share (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 0–3 years | 152 | 47.1 |
| 4–6 years | 75 | 23.2 |
| 7–9 years | 46 | 14.2 |
| 10+ years | 50 | 15.5 |
That two-year gap between the medians is the throughline for career switchers: design tenure alone undersells the professional experience they bring into a role.
Chart proof
Design experience vs total working experience
Median design experience is 4 years and median total working experience is 6 years, derived from responses (N=323, all markets). Each point is one design-experience/total-experience pairing; point size shows how many respondents share that exact pairing. The dashed diagonal marks where design experience equals total working experience, and the dashed guides mark the two medians.
Scatter chart plotting years of design experience (vertical axis) against years of total working experience (horizontal axis) for 323 respondents; point size shows how many respondents share each pairing. Dashed guide lines mark the medians derived from responses: 4 years of design experience and 6 years of total working experience. Many points sit on or near the diagonal reference line, where design experience equals total experience. Below the line, a spread of points shows respondents whose total working experience exceeds their design experience, consistent with career switchers who bring broader work history into design roles.
View data table
| Design × total YOE band | Respondents (N=323) | Share (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Design 0–3y / total 0–3y | 94 | 29.1 |
| Design 0–3y / total 4–6y | 37 | 11.5 |
| Design 0–3y / total 7–9y | 9 | 2.8 |
| Design 0–3y / total 10+y | 12 | 3.7 |
| Design 4–6y / total 0–3y | 5 | 1.5 |
| Design 4–6y / total 4–6y | 43 | 13.3 |
| Design 4–6y / total 7–9y | 11 | 3.4 |
| Design 4–6y / total 10+y | 16 | 5.0 |
| Design 7–9y / total 4–6y | 2 | 0.6 |
| Design 7–9y / total 7–9y | 26 | 8.0 |
| Design 7–9y / total 10+y | 18 | 5.6 |
| Design 10+y / total 4–6y | 1 | 0.3 |
| Design 10+y / total 7–9y | 4 | 1.2 |
| Design 10+y / total 10+y | 45 | 13.9 |
Education
Bachelor's degrees are the norm; master's and diploma holders form a smaller but sizeable minority.
22.3% have no formal design education at all, suggesting design credentials are not a strict prerequisite for entering the field.
Chart proof
Highest level of formal education
Respondents by highest formal education level (N=323, all markets). Two-thirds hold a bachelor's degree. Master's and diploma holders each make up roughly 14–16%.
Degree-holders dominate: 66.3% have a bachelor's and 15.5% hold a master's. One in seven has a diploma as their highest qualification.
View data table
| Education level | Respondents (N=323) | Share (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Bachelor's degree | 214 | 66.3 |
| Master's degree | 50 | 15.5 |
| Diploma | 44 | 13.6 |
| High school/secondary | 9 | 2.8 |
| Doctoral or higher | 2 | 0.6 |
Most respondents took a single route into design: 51.4% relied on just one form of design education, while 17.3% combined two different pathways, for example pairing formal study with a bootcamp or certification.
Chart proof
Design education pathways
Share of respondents who selected each learning pathway, out of 323 responses.
Shows the share of respondents selecting each design education pathway in the survey.
View data table
| Pathway | Count | Share (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Formal design education | 161 | 49.8 |
| Online certification | 94 | 29.1 |
| Bootcamps | 90 | 27.9 |
| In-person certified courses | 36 | 11.1 |
| No formal design education | 72 | 22.3 |
Chart proof
Design-related education
Restored yes/no split for raw column 12 using the original report's intended grouping.
Restores the chart that failed to render in the original report; any raw column 12 response other than exact "No formal design education" counts as yes.
View data table
| Answer | Count | Share (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 263 | 81.4 |
| No | 60 | 18.6 |
International experience
28.5% of respondents have lived and worked in another country. This international exposure is one of the strongest compensation predictors: an 85.5% premium over locally-only careers.
Chart proof
Lived and worked abroad
Whether respondents had lived and worked outside their home country, out of 323 responses.
Shows how many respondents said they had lived and worked abroad versus those who had not.
View data table
| Answer | Count | Share (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 92 | 28.5 |
| No | 231 | 71.5 |
Where this sits in the conversation
-
Overview
2023 report -
Landscape
Demographics -
Landscape
Roles and experience you are here -
Landscape
Compensation -
Landscape
Company landscape -
Sentiments
Sentiments: negotiations and pay -
Sentiments
Sentiments: work setup -
Sentiments
Sentiments: career progression -
Singapore deep dive
Analysis: gender 🇸🇬 -
Singapore deep dive
Analysis: experience 🇸🇬 -
Singapore deep dive
Analysis: company 🇸🇬 -
Singapore deep dive
Analysis: education 🇸🇬 -
Close
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