Top 10 Companies Hiring AI Engineers in Viet Nam in 2026

At MB Bank, AI engineers operate within the “Digital Transformation” division, where traditional data scientists collaborate with modern ML engineers on a hybrid cloud stack that blends on-premise infrastructure with Azure or GCP. The tech choices - PyTorch for deep learning, SAS for statistical modeling - reflect the dual nature of the work: building production-grade models while navigating strict data privacy regulations. Projects hit everyday Vietnamese life directly: intelligent banking apps, facial recognition for e-KYC, and real-time credit scoring models that approve loans in seconds. According to the JT1 Vietnam IT Salary Guide 2026, fintech roles like these are among the fastest-growing in Hà Nội and Hồ Chí Minh City, driven by aggressive state-backed digitalisation.

Salary bands are competitive for Viet Nam’s banking sector: 25M-40M VND/month for junior engineers, ramping to 45M-75M VND/month at mid-level, and 80M-120M VND/month for senior roles. The interview process leans heavily on financial domain knowledge alongside ML modelling and data privacy regulations - a reflection of the sensitive nature of banking data. Second Talent’s AI engineer rate card confirms that specialist banking AI skills command a premium in Viet Nam’s current market, especially for roles requiring compliance expertise.

The unique advantage here is the rare hybrid of government-backed stability and aggressive digital growth - you get the security of a state-owned enterprise with the pace of a fintech startup. This makes MB Bank especially appealing for engineers who want to build AI that directly impacts Viet Nam’s financial inclusion story, without the volatility of a pure startup. For those weighing job security against innovation speed, this bowl offers both - simmered together in the same broth.

Tiki applies AI to the messy, high-density logistics of HCMC and Hà Nội through a centralized Data/AI team supporting three product pods: Logistics, Marketing, and Marketplace. The tech stack runs on AWS with SageMaker, Python, Kafka, and Redis - tools built for the real-time demands of dynamic pricing, delivery route optimization, and demand forecasting. What makes Tiki unique is the complexity of its dataset. Unlike e-commerce in sprawling suburban markets, Tiki’s delivery network navigates narrow alleyways and unpredictable traffic in Viet Nam’s two megacities. That means your models aren’t just predicting demand - they’re optimizing routes around 10,000 xe máy deliveries per hour. According to SmartOSC DX’s analysis of Viet Nam’s AI landscape, Tiki is recognized as a leader in using AI for recommendation engines and logistics, serving over 25 million buyers across the country.

Salary bands sit at 25M-40M VND/month for junior roles, 45M-80M VND/month for mid-level, and 85M-130M VND/month for senior engineers. The interview process includes a take-home assignment focused on predictive modeling, testing practical ML fundamentals and SQL skills - a reflection of the product-oriented engineering culture. For context, Second Talent’s overview of top Viet Nam AI companies highlights Tiki alongside other e-commerce giants, noting that its data-intensive logistics AI is among the most sophisticated in Southeast Asia for urban delivery optimization.

The unique topping here is the richest logistical dataset in Southeast Asia for urban delivery - your models directly affect how products travel the last mile through HCMC’s District 1 or Hà Nội’s Old Quarter. This makes Tiki ideal for ML engineers who love operations research, optimization problems, and seeing their algorithms change real-world traffic patterns. If you want to build AI that helps a xe máy driver find the fastest route through a maze of alleyways, this is your bowl.

NAB Innovation Centre Vietnam operates as a full engineering hub for National Australia Bank, applying AI to financial crime detection, voice analytics, and customer churn prediction. The tech stack emphasizes AWS serverless architecture, SageMaker, Python, and Terraform for infrastructure-as-code - a modern, cloud-native environment rare in traditional banking. Engineers here work within international regulatory frameworks for model explainability and fairness, building responsible AI systems that serve millions of Australian customers. According to Vietnam Investment Review’s analysis of the 2026 job market, foreign banking R&D centres are driving demand for experienced AI engineers who understand global compliance standards, making this a strategic destination for senior talent.

The focus on governance means projects include real-time transaction monitoring for fraud and anti-money laundering, voice analytics for customer service centres, and churn prediction models processed at scale. Salary is concentrated at the senior level, with rates between 90M-140M VND/month, reflecting the high standards and compliance expertise required. The interview process emphasizes behavioral interviews, cloud architecture discussions, and secure ML system design - a deliberate filter for engineers comfortable with enterprise-grade rigor. As noted in Glassdoor’s salary data for senior AI engineers in HCMC, the banking sector consistently offers higher compensation for roles demanding governance knowledge.

The unique topping is exposure to global financial regulations and MLOps practices that align with Australian and European banking standards. This makes the NAB Innovation Centre best for experienced AI engineers who want to build production systems under rigorous governance frameworks - a rare combination in Viet Nam where most ML roles prioritise speed over compliance. If you value structure, regulatory depth, and a team that treats model fairness as seriously as model accuracy, this is your bowl.

Shopee’s Vietnam team operates as a regional R&D centre collaborating closely with headquarters in Singapore, giving engineers access to datasets spanning seven Southeast Asian countries. The tech stack runs on Python, Go, Spark, and proprietary internal ML platforms built for the scale of millions of daily transactions. This isn’t small-scale experimentation - Shopee processes more transactions per capita in Vietnam than many Western platforms, making every model you build subject to the pressures of hyper-growth e-commerce. According to VnExpress International’s coverage of 2026 hiring trends, AI roles in e-commerce giants like Shopee are seeing salary increases of 15-25%, reflecting the intense competition for talent that can handle regional-scale systems.

The engineering teams work across three primary domains:

• Search ranking - optimizing product discovery across language and cultural variations in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and beyond
• Recommendation engines - processing cross-border user behaviour to surface the right items in real time
• Supply chain optimization - coordinating logistics across a region of 700 million people with vastly different infrastructure

Salary is among the most competitive in Vietnam’s e-commerce sector: 35M-55M VND/month for junior, 60M-100M VND/month for mid-level, and 110M-160M+ VND/month for senior engineers. The interview process focuses on data structures, algorithms, and distributed systems knowledge - a reflection of the high-volume, low-latency environment engineers enter. As Second Talent’s analysis of software development trends in Vietnam highlights, regional e-commerce hubs like Shopee offer exposure to production systems that few local companies can match in complexity.

The unique topping is the combination of regional Southeast Asian datasets and high-velocity product deployment cycles - you’re shipping models that affect user experiences across multiple countries, languages, and regulatory environments. This makes Shopee best for engineers who want to work at regional scale and absorb the fast-moving engineering culture of a multinational unicorn, without leaving Hồ Chí Minh City.

MoMo’s AI team is product-led, organized around three fintech verticals: Lending, Payments, and Rewards. The infrastructure runs on Google Cloud Platform with Vertex AI for model management, Apache Airflow for orchestration, Spark for distributed processing, and BigQuery for petabyte-scale analytics. According to SmartOSC DX’s ranking of Viet Nam’s top AI companies, MoMo is recognized as a dominant fintech super-app, applying AI to credit scoring and hyper-personalization for over 30 million users across the country.

The unique advantage here is the data itself. MoMo’s transaction data - real-time payment flows, lending histories, and reward behaviour - enables sophisticated time-series forecasting and credit risk modelling that few Vietnamese companies can match. Engineers build ML systems that must operate at low latency, processing millions of daily transactions with sub-second response times for fraud detection. The interview process emphasizes statistics, ML system design for low-latency financial transactions, and business impact analysis - a deliberate filter for engineers who understand both the model and the money.

Salary ranges from 30M-45M VND/month for junior roles to 90M-140M+ VND/month for senior engineers. For context, Glassdoor’s senior AI engineer salary data for Ho Chi Minh City shows that fintech companies consistently pay above market rates for engineers who can build models that directly affect financial inclusion and payment behaviour for tens of millions of Vietnamese.

The unique topping is the richest fintech transaction dataset in Viet Nam, enabling advanced credit scoring and fraud detection models that few local companies can replicate. This makes MoMo best for ML engineers who want to build models with immediate financial impact, working at the intersection of machine learning and money in a fast-moving fintech environment.

Samsung R&D Vietnam’s AI engineers operate at the intersection of hardware and software, pushing the boundaries of on-device intelligence for mobile, camera, and smart factory applications. Unlike software-first companies, Samsung’s AI work is deeply embedded in hardware. Engineers use C++, Python, Android internals, and edge ML tools like TensorFlow Lite and Qualcomm’s SNPE to deploy models directly onto devices. According to Sphinxjsc’s overview of big tech in Vietnam, Samsung R&D is one of the country’s largest foreign research centres, with specialized teams working on AI for its massive manufacturing plants in Bắc Ninh and Thái Nguyên. Projects include computer vision for Galaxy phone cameras that process images locally, voice AI for Bixby that runs without cloud latency, and smart factory optimization coordinating production across thousands of workers.

The team structure splits into three specializations:

• Software - building AI models and training pipelines
• HW-SW Integration - optimizing models for specific chipsets and memory constraints
• AI specializations - deep research in computer vision, NLP, and edge deployment

This creates a rare environment where software engineers work alongside hardware engineers, sharing code reviews and benchmarking sessions. Interview focus is on low-level coding efficiency, C++ proficiency, and optimization under hardware constraints. Salary ranges from 25M-40M VND/month for junior roles, 45M-75M VND/month for mid-level, and 80M-120M VND/month for senior engineers. As highlighted in Samsung Semiconductor’s current AI/ML engineering openings, the company continues to seek talent with deep proficiency in edge deployment and low-latency inference.

The unique topping is that Samsung is the only major employer in Vietnam offering deep Edge ML and hardware-constrained AI deployment - skills that translate directly into robotics and IoT. This makes it ideal for engineers who love optimization, low-level code, and the challenge of making AI run on devices with limited compute, rather than relying on unlimited cloud resources.

FPT AI Center operates as Vietnam’s largest IT services firm building AI for Fortune 500 clients across banking, manufacturing, and healthcare. The tech stack spans AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Docker, Jenkins, and FPT’s proprietary platform, FPT.AI - Vietnam’s first homegrown AI platform, as announced in FPT Software’s official release. Engineers are embedded into product squads within the company’s broader software ecosystem: FPT Cloud, FPT.AI for model deployment and monitoring, and client-facing teams serving global enterprises. FPT Software has publicly committed to targeting 6,000 AI engineers by 2028 with a $200M “AI Factory” investment, signalling massive future hiring for roles in Hà Nội and Hồ Chí Minh City.

The projects cover three main domains:

• OCR and computer vision systems for banking document processing across multiple languages
• Conversational AI (Virtual Agent) for customer service automation
• Predictive maintenance for global industrial clients with real-time sensor data

Salary sits at 20M-35M VND/month for junior engineers, 40M-65M VND/month for mid-level, and 70M-110M VND/month for senior roles. According to Indeed’s salary data for FPT Software AI developers in Vietnam, these figures align with the company’s structured career progression where practical deployment skills are valued over pure research output. The interview process emphasizes practical coding, system design, and the ability to deploy models into production - a pragmatic, product-oriented approach.

The unique topping is global reach with diverse datasets across multiple languages and industries, offering engineers exposure to problems that few local companies can match. This makes FPT best for engineers early in their careers who want broad exposure to different industries and the stability of Vietnam’s largest tech employer, without needing a PhD or publication record to advance.

Viettel AI operates one of Vietnam’s largest R&D centres, with over 200 members divided into Research, Product Engineering, and Data Platform teams. The tech stack is built for scale: PyTorch, TensorFlow, Kubernetes, internal High-Performance Computing (HPC) clusters, and NVIDIA GPU farms that few other Vietnamese companies can match. According to Second Talent’s guide to top Vietnam AI companies, Viettel is recognized for its foundational work on Vietnamese-centric LLMs and smart city systems, leveraging government-backed infrastructure that gives it a unique competitive advantage in national-scale AI development.

Projects span three critical areas: NLP work on Vietnamese-centric LLMs like ViGPT, computer vision for smart city surveillance and traffic management, and conversational AI for telecom and government bots. The unique advantage is data access - Viettel processes the majority of Vietnam’s mobile and fixed-line traffic, giving its AI team unparalleled visibility into national communication patterns. Salary ranges from 25M-40M VND/month for junior engineers, 45M-75M VND/month for mid-level, and 80M-130M+ VND/month for senior engineers. The interview process emphasizes ML theory and deep dives into previous research or project architectures - a reflection of the research-driven environment. As noted in SalaryExpert’s machine learning engineer compensation data for Vietnam, senior roles at telecom-scale AI operations command a premium for engineers who can handle large-scale data pipelines and government-grade security requirements.

The unique topping here is unparalleled access to national-scale telecom data and involvement in Vietnam’s “National AI Strategy” - you’re not just building AI, you’re building Vietnam’s digital sovereignty. This makes Viettel best for researchers and engineers who want to work at national scale with government backing and access to datasets that no other company has, from mobile traffic patterns to smart city surveillance feeds covering millions of citizens.

VNG Corporation operates as Vietnam’s first unicorn, applying AI across its ecosystem of Zalo messaging, Zing music, games, and ZaloPay. The AI team sits within the Zalo product organization and the Big Data division, creating a highly engineering-heavy environment where ownership is pushed down to individual contributors. The tech stack includes Apache Spark, Kafka, PyTorch, Go, and Python, running on VNG’s proprietary cloud infrastructure. According to SmartOSC DX’s analysis of Vietnam’s AI leaders, VNG employs over 300 AI engineers dedicated to the Zalo AI Platform, making it one of the largest concentrated AI teams in the country.

Projects span three critical domains:

• Recommendation systems for games and music, processing behaviour from tens of millions of users
• Zalo AI Assistant, a conversational AI embedded into Vietnam’s dominant messaging app
• Fraud detection for ZaloPay, requiring real-time analysis of transaction patterns

The consumer behaviour data is the richest in Vietnam - Zalo alone captures messaging patterns, social connections, and transaction data across 75 million users, making it the closest thing Vietnam has to a WeChat-level dataset. Salary is among the highest in Vietnam: 30M-50M VND/month for junior, 55M-90M VND/month for mid-level, and 95M-150M+ VND/month for senior engineers. As covered by VnExpress International’s 2026 hiring report, AI specialist roles at companies like VNG are seeing salary increases of 15-25%, reflecting the premium placed on engineers who can handle consumer-scale data and high-concurrency systems. The interview process emphasizes high-concurrency system design and live coding sessions - a filter for engineers who thrive under pressure.

The unique topping is the largest consumer behaviour dataset in Vietnam, enabling engineers to build recommendation and personalization systems at unprecedented local scale. This makes VNG best for engineers who want high ownership of their work, building consumer-facing AI that reaches tens of millions of Vietnamese daily.

VinAI Research operates as Vietnam’s premiere AI research lab, pushing fundamental research in autonomous driving, smart homes, and foundational AI while benchmarking against top labs in Singapore and Beijing. The infrastructure is world-class: large-scale NVIDIA A100 and H100 GPU clusters, PyTorch for deep learning, C++ for edge deployment, and specialized proprietary tools for automotive systems. The team splits between Research Scientists - PhD-level researchers publishing at top venues - and the AI Resident fellowship program, which trains the next generation of Vietnamese AI talent. According to a Forbes profile on VinAI’s mission to democratize AI in Vietnam, the lab was established with the explicit goal of putting Vietnam on the global AI research map.

Projects span three high-impact areas:

• Autonomous driving for VinFast, now exported to North America and Europe, requiring end-to-end perception and decision-making systems
• Smart home AI integrated into Vingroup’s real estate ecosystem, from voice control to energy optimization
• Fundamental research in computer vision, NLP, and reinforcement learning, with papers appearing at NeurIPS, ICML, CVPR, and other top-tier venues

Salary is the highest in Vietnam for AI roles: 100M-180M+ VND/month for senior engineers, with heavily performance-based compensation including significant R&D bonuses. The interview process is demanding - requiring high-tier academic background (PhD or Masters from top schools like HUST or VNU), paper publications, and advanced ML theory. As noted on Glassdoor’s VinAI Research reviews, employees consistently rate the lab at 4.2 out of 5, highlighting the research freedom and cutting-edge infrastructure as major draws, while noting the intensity of expectations mirrors top international labs. The unique topping is that this is Vietnam’s only destination for fundamental AI research, with resources and expectations on par with leading labs in Singapore and Beijing - making it ideal for researchers and engineers who want to publish papers, work on cutting-edge problems like autonomous driving, and push Vietnam’s AI capabilities onto the global stage.

The beauty of Vietnam’s AI ecosystem in 2026 is that you don’t have to leave the country to find world-class opportunities. Hà Nội offers Viettel AI and VinAI Research, with access to national-scale telecom data and cutting-edge autonomous driving projects. Hồ Chí Minh City delivers VNG Corporation, MoMo, and Shopee Vietnam, where you can build consumer AI for tens of millions of users or optimize fintech transactions in real time. Both cities offer a cost of living that makes even the junior salary of 25M VND/month stretch further than 3,000 SGD in Singapore, as highlighted by VnExpress International’s 2026 coverage of Vietnam’s booming AI job market.

The decision comes down to understanding what you actually want. Do you crave the research adrenaline of publishing at NeurIPS alongside VinAI’s PhD researchers? That bowl offers 100M-180M+ VND/month for senior roles. Do you want to build consumer AI at scale with the richest local dataset? VNG’s Zalo platform processes data from 75 million users. Do you prefer national impact and resources unmatched by any other company? Viettel AI operates over 200 researchers with access to Vietnam’s entire mobile traffic. As Vietnam Investment Review’s 2026 job market analysis confirms, the race for AI talent has pushed specialist salaries up 15-25% this year alone.

So stop looking for the “top” company. The bác at the lunch stall doesn’t ask you which bowl is best - she asks what you’re hungry for. Learn the toppings - data access, team structure, deployment versus research - and choose the bowl that fits your hunger. The vendor’s hands are still waiting. So what’ll it be?