Semiconductor manufacturer Soitec is hiring for 100 new positions in Singapore, expanding its team in the city-state by over 60%. The new roles cover engineering, technology, operations, and management, and will be located at its headquarters and production facilities in Singapore.

The recruitment drive, which started earlier this year and will run until all roles are filled, is an extension of an earlier expansion that started at Soitec's headquarters and production facilities in Bernin, France. During that first phase, the company hired much the same number of people for similar roles.

According to Bernard Aspar, Chief Operating Officer of Soitec, the move to hire in both of Soitec's main locations is meant to help drive the company's growth strategy from now to the fiscal year 2025-2026. Earlier this year, Soitec had announced a five-year-plan that projects growth of 250% in the company's markets and set an ambitious target of tripling its revenue by 2026.

Promoting internal mobility, attracting diverse talent

Hiring in today's market isn't easy, however. There is a worldwide shortage of tech talent, and also a global shortage of semiconductors that is already causing closures and work stoppages in downstream industries such as automobile and consumer electronics. The two problems are feeding into each other and making some positions particularly hard to hire for.

“The most challenging roles to be filled in the wafer fabrication sector are the technically rigorous ones and some strategic marketing and business roles,” Aspar told People Matters. 

Soitec, he said, came up with an accelerated employment programme to make its five-year-plan more viable. Dubbed ELEVATE, the programme's objectives are to promote internal mobility and attract diverse talent who can “pave the way for the company to ramp up its manufacturing capacity”. Under the programme, internal transfer opportunities are open to all Soitec staff.

The company is also stepping up its talent attraction and retention strategy, including heavy emphasis on its diversity and inclusion policies, offering an employee share ownership scheme, and an accelerated progression scheme for high potential hires.

According to Aspar, the recruitment drive is on track, and the job listings on the Soitec website suggest that a considerable number of permanent roles are still open – all of them technical or engineering roles, and some fairly specialised.