Senior/Assistant Director

Ministry of Trade and Industry

Permanent/Contract

Closing on 30 Sep 2025

What the role is

The Foreign Manpower team pulls together public sector, private sector and international stakeholders to shape foreign workforce and talent policies, and support MTI's mission of promoting economic growth and creating good jobs for Singaporeans. We draw on rigorous data analysis and extensive industry/stakeholder engagements to understand economic and labour market trends, to continually sharpen our foreign workforce and talent policy tools. Our work ensures that Singapore remains open to global talent and our overall workforce remains competitive, so as to support our businesses to grow, transform and pursue exciting opportunities, particularly in new growth areas. In doing so, we can continue to create a pipeline of good jobs and skills opportunities for Singaporeans.

What you will be working on

You will formulate and support the implementation of policies and projects relating to manpower, talent and productivity that enable Singapore's long-term economic growth. This includes:
• Working with Government agencies and Businesses to develop and review Singapore's foreign workforce policies and programmes, to ensure sustainable economic growth underpinned by strong labour productivity. These include:
• Ensuring that our foreign workforce policies remain effective in bringing in complementary talent with valuable skills and expertise, whilst supporting us in ensuring good employment outcomes for Singaporeans.
• Enhancing the resilience and vibrancy of our foreign workforce.
• Developing competitive talent schemes to enhance Singapore's attractiveness as a global talent and business hub, and attract global game-changers to contribute to Singapore; and
• Work with the MTI-Trade desks, economic agencies, and international stakeholders to develop new modalities to promote talent exchange between Singapore and other jurisdictions (e.g., ASEAN).
• Working with stakeholders (e.g. trade associations and chambers) to monitor, understand, and assess industry feedback on local and foreign manpower policies.
• Analysing global and domestic labour market and productivity trends with economists, and benchmarking Singapore against global best practices.
• Shaping the narrative of our foreign workforce strategy and considerations in public communications.

What we are looking for

You should:
• be a quick learner, with a "can-do" attitude – able to operate in a fluid environment, pick up a wide spectrum of manpower issues, and never be shy of pushing the limits;
• be able to appreciate and synthesise multiple perspectives from a myriad of stakeholders, across Government, international stakeholders, industry, unions and the public.
• be a self-starter and team player, with excellent communication, negotiation and project management skills;
• dare to dream but with feet on the ground;
• have prior or related experience in formulating public policies and running inter-agency projects; and
• be comfortable with numbers and basic econ-speak.

About Ministry of Trade and Industry

The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) seeks to transform Singapore into a leading global city of talent, enterprise and innovation. Our mission is to promote economic growth and create good jobs to enable Singaporeans to improve their lives. In MTI, you can expect an exciting, challenging and rewarding career

About your application process

This job is closing on 30 Sep 2025.

If you do not hear from us within 4 weeks of the job ad closing date, we seek your understanding that it is likely that we are not moving forward with your application for this role. We thank you for your interest and would like to assure you that this does not affect your other job applications with the Public Service. We encourage you to explore and for other roles within Ministry of Trade and Industry or the wider Public Service.