Hiring Engineers in Vietnam: a Guide for US and European Companies

TL;DR

If you are a US or European company hiring engineers in Vietnam with nobody on the ground, a specialist recruitment partner with local delivery teams is usually the strongest route. It can benchmark salaries, test technical depth and check working English before you see a CV. Companies without a Vietnamese entity typically pair that partner with an employer of record (EOR), and GoAsia Talent works this way: it recruits the engineers, then advises on EOR partners and makes the introductions.

Key Overview

• Software talent: developers are concentrated in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, with Da Nang a smaller third hub (TopDev Vietnam IT Market Report 2023).
• Supply gap: TopDev’s 2023 report forecast an annual shortfall of 150,000 to 200,000 developers and engineers during 2023–2025. This is a historical forecast rather than a current measure of the hiring market.
• Semiconductor: Decision No. 1017/QD-TTg approves a national programme to train at least 50,000 semiconductor engineers and workers with a bachelor's degree or higher by 2030.
• English: in the EF English Proficiency Index 2025, Vietnam moved into the "moderate" band and placed 7th of 25 in Asia. Hanoi scored highest nationally, at 532.
• Employer costs: allow for applicable social, health and unemployment insurance contributions, plus any trade-union funding obligations. Ask your employment partner to confirm the current rates, contribution bases and caps for the employees you plan to hire.
• GoAsia Talent shortlists: 3 to 4 candidates, each video-screened for 30 to 45 minutes, with the first shortlist in 3 to 5 working days as standard. This year, 89% of shortlisted candidates were taken to interview.

Software or other engineering: two different searches

Vietnam is often discussed as a software destination, but a large share of its engineering hiring happens around factories. The candidate pool, the locations and the way you test people all differ, so decide early which search you are running.

Software engineers

Most software candidates sit in the two big cities. Strong mid-level and senior developers often have more than one option. A clear brief and prompt interview decisions help keep them engaged, while a slow or vague process risks losing them.

Common first hires include backend, full-stack, mobile, QA automation and data engineers. A tech lead often follows once the team has a shape.

Manufacturing, quality and semiconductor engineers

GoAsia Talent counts Vietnam among the manufacturing hubs where it hires quality control and manufacturing engineers, alongside China, Taiwan and Thailand. These searches turn on process knowledge, quality standards and shop-floor experience. The best candidates often work near the plants rather than in the tech districts.

Semiconductor hiring is the newest layer. A government programme of that scale is designed to grow the pool, so experienced chip design and verification engineers are worth searching for deliberately rather than waiting for applications.

Your hiring routes compared

Specialist recruitment partner with local teams

• Who judges the candidates: Recruiters on the ground who screen every candidate.
• Best fit: First hires, first teams, scarce engineering roles.
• What to check: That it has recruited your discipline before.

Large generalist agency

• Who judges the candidates: Depends on the desk handling your role.
• Best fit: Hiring across many functions at once.
• What to check: Who actually runs your search.

EOR hiring service

• Who judges the candidates: Usually a recruitment partner working behind the platform.
• Best fit: Companies already employing through that EOR.
• What to check: Who does the screening, and how.

Job boards and in-house recruiters from abroad

• Who judges the candidates: Your own team, without a local network.
• Best fit: Companies with a hiring manager already in Vietnam.
• What to check: Time spent and confidence judging unfamiliar CVs.

Development outsourcing firm

• Who judges the candidates: The firm, which employs and manages the engineers.
• Best fit: Project delivery without building your own team.
• What to check: Whether you want your own employees in the long run.

For a first hire with nobody on the ground, the deciding question is simple: who will judge the people? That is the gap a specialist partner fills, and it is why GoAsia Talent's Western management, with 20+ years operating in Asia, focuses on delivering to US and European expectations in markets where local norms differ.

Hiring without a Vietnamese entity

Without a local entity, companies typically use an EOR. The EOR is the legal employer: it issues the labour contract, runs payroll and handles contributions, while your team directs the day-to-day work. Some companies later set up their own entity once the team justifies it.

Most buyers sort out the employment vehicle first and then realise that finding and judging the actual engineers is the harder problem. GoAsia Talent does not provide EOR, incorporation, payroll or background checks. It acts as the APAC hiring arm for several of the major global EOR platforms, stays neutral across those partnerships, advises on the best fit for each client and makes the introductions.

How to assess technical skill from abroad

Agree a written scoring rubric before the first interview. Without one, every interviewer ends up grading something different.

Software roles

A sequence that works well from overseas:

• A short take-home task that mirrors real work in your codebase.
• A live pairing session in which the candidate extends or debugs that task.
• A code review discussion that covers their choices and the trade-offs behind them.
• A system design conversation for senior and lead roles.

Manufacturing and hardware roles

Ask candidates to walk through a real defect investigation: how they identified the root cause, what corrective action they took and how they checked that it worked. Where relevant, ask about their experience with 8D problem-solving and FMEA risk analysis. Ask which quality standards and customer audits they have worked under.

For IC verification and other semiconductor roles, probe their verification methodology, tool flows and coverage closure on past projects. References from former supervisors carry real weight here, because shop-floor and lab performance is hard to judge on video.

Judging English and communication fairly

National rankings describe averages, not your candidate. Separate working-level English, meaning the ability to explain a decision, raise a blocker and follow a spec, from polished fluency.

Decide what the role needs. An engineer pairing daily with a product team in California needs more spoken English than a QC engineer reporting to a local plant manager.

Use the same structured questions on every video screen and add a short written exercise, such as a bug report or an incident summary. Treat accent and hesitation as separate from engineering ability.

What a good shortlist looks like

A good shortlist is small and fully screened. For each candidate, expect:

• Notes on technical depth against your rubric.
• An assessment of working English.
• Salary expectations and availability.
• Motivation for the move.
• Any concerns the recruiter spotted.

Judge a partner by the share of shortlisted candidates you actually want to interview, not by the number of CVs it sends. GoAsia Talent tracks exactly that figure, because clients care about quality of shortlist over volume of CVs.

Costs to plan for

Salary is the main number. Get a benchmark for the specific city, discipline and seniority before the search starts. GoAsia Talent advises on salary benchmarks at that stage.

On top of salary, budget for the employer contributions listed above and, if you use one, the EOR's service fee.

Common mistakes

• Choosing an employment vehicle and assuming the hiring will take care of itself.
• Going to offer without a salary benchmark, then losing the preferred candidate.
• Using a generic coding test for a manufacturing or verification role.
• Mistaking fluent English for engineering strength, or the reverse.
• Running a slow interview loop in a market where good engineers have options.

Questions to ask a recruitment partner

• Who screens the candidates, and are they on the ground in Vietnam?
• Have you hired this discipline before: software, manufacturing or semiconductor?
• What does a shortlist contain, and how quickly does the first one arrive as standard?
• What share of your shortlisted candidates do clients interview?
• Can you benchmark salaries before we start?
• How do you work alongside our EOR or our own entity?

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a US company hire an engineer in Vietnam without setting up a company there?

Yes. Companies in that position typically employ through an EOR, which acts as the legal employer while the company manages the work. A recruitment partner finds the engineer, and the EOR handles employment.

Is it better to use a recruitment agency or an EOR to hire in Vietnam?

They do different jobs, so most companies use both. The EOR provides the employment vehicle, and a recruitment partner finds and screens the people. Many EOR platforms bring in a specialist recruiter for exactly this reason.

How long does it take to hire a software engineer in Vietnam?

The search is rarely the slowest part. Interview rounds on your side, offer negotiation and the candidate's notice to their current employer usually take longer. Keeping your own process to a few rounds, with quick decisions, is the biggest lever you control.

How good is English among Vietnamese engineers?

It varies widely between individuals, and national averages tell you little about a single candidate. Test working English directly with a structured video screen and a short written task matched to how the role will actually communicate.

Can we hire semiconductor or IC verification engineers in Vietnam?

Yes, but treat it as a targeted search rather than an advertising campaign. The pool is growing under a national training programme, and experienced verification engineers are usually found through direct approach.

Should we hire a local engineering manager first or individual engineers?

For a first team, a senior lead who can help hire and set technical standards often pays off. If your existing engineering leadership will manage the team directly from abroad, starting with individual senior engineers can work well.

Does GoAsia Talent employ the engineers for us?

No. GoAsia Talent is a specialist recruitment and executive search partner across Asia. It finds and screens candidates, then advises on EOR and other partners and makes the introductions.

Does GoAsia Talent recruit outside Vietnam?

Yes. It covers 12 Asian markets across every sector and seniority, from a first country manager to a full capability centre build. GoAsia Talent has delivery teams on the ground in eight locations across Asia and the Middle East, namely Dubai, India, Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and Taiwan. It also supports clients hiring into China.

Planning your first engineering hires in Vietnam? Speak to GoAsia Talent about the skills you need, your hiring timeline and how the team will work with your existing operation here.

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