As an increasing number of optical communication enterprises establish factories in Southeast Asia, particularly in Thailand, the demand for local industry engineers has surged. The majority of engineers come from university graduates with higher engineering education, while a small proportion of engineers develop through non-academic pathways (such as skill enhancement and corporate training)—though this share is extremely small. As one of the emerging optical communication manufacturing bases, Thailand has already set up optical communication-related majors in some universities (e.g., Bangkok University). However, compared with China, the United States, and other countries, the overall coverage and training scale remain relatively small, leaving a huge gap in industry talents. Enterprises thus need to recruit mature talents from outside the region.
Recently, FiberOnLine conducted a survey on the demand for engineers among optical communication enterprises in Thailand, at the invitation of relevant Thai government departments. The survey aimed to understand the current demand volume, talent sources, job types, professional backgrounds, and language requirements for engineers in local optical communication enterprises, while also forecasting the industry’s human resource needs over the next 3–5 years. This serves as a reference for Thai universities to establish relevant majors and disciplines, helping enterprises solve recruitment challenges at the source and from a long-term perspective.
According to FiberOnLine’s statistics, nearly 150 optical communication enterprises have set up factories or branch offices in Southeast Asia, with over 40 of them located in Thailand. Among these enterprises, 70% have been established for less than 3 years and have not yet achieved large-scale development, with the total number of employees ranging from a handful to over 10,000. Currently, these companies focus primarily on production, while R&D activities are mostly conducted in China. The required engineers are mainly part of the operation teams, focusing on engineering processes, including process engineers, NPI (New Product Introduction) engineers, quality engineers, testing engineers, optical engineers, mechanical equipment engineers, automation engineers, injection molding engineers, and industrial engineers. The related majors include optoelectronic technology, electronics, communications, optics, mechatronics, automation, industrial engineering, materials science, computer science, physics, as well as logistics and import-export, human resources, Chinese language, and other similar fields.
Based on FiberOnLine’s incomplete statistics and estimates, the total number of engineers currently employed by these Thai optical communication companies stands at approximately 6,000. Among them, engineers account for 8%–10% of the workforce in active component enterprises, and 3%–5% in passive component enterprises. In contrast, in China, engineers make up about 15%–20% of the workforce in active optical communication enterprises and around 10% in passive ones. This indicates that the number of engineers in Thai optical communication enterprises is currently only half of the conventional level in China.
At present, the engineers required by these enterprises are mainly dispatched from China. This is especially true for most enterprises that have recently settled in Thailand and are small in scale—since their demand for engineers is relatively low, dispatching personnel from China is a simple and effective solution. However, foreign companies like Lumentum, which established factories in Thailand as early as 2015 and have a large demand for engineers, mainly recruit locally. Currently, the localization rate of optical communication engineers in Thailand is less than 20%.
During the survey of enterprises, it was learned that dispatching engineers from China to Thailand first requires these engineers to have good oral English skills. The salary offered is approximately 30%–50% higher than that for the same position in China (many companies provide a daily allowance of 200–400 RMB), and home leave is also arranged for these engineers. Overall, the total cost borne by enterprises for dispatching engineers to Thailand is relatively high. In fact, enterprises are willing to recruit local engineers in Thailand, and many have even appointed local recruitment specialists. The key challenge, however, is that enterprises generally report difficulty in finding suitable local engineers. The most pressing issue is the language barrier—few local people can speak Chinese or English. Even if language proficiency is not a problem, there are very few candidates with an engineering background. Due to the small number of optical communication enterprises in Thailand in the past, the local hires currently recruited by enterprises mostly have no industry experience and require training and guidance from engineers dispatched from China. When considering the training cycle and costs, local engineers are generally not easy to put into practical use. According to a Taiwanese enterprise that has been in Thailand for a long time, despite its long presence, its core engineers are still dispatched from China, while entry-level engineers are trained gradually from local people with basic Chinese proficiency.
Today, benefiting from the rapid development of AI, the global optical communication industry has witnessed explosive market demand. Meanwhile, in response to the continuous escalation of U.S. tariff policies, Chinese optical communication enterprises are accelerating the restructuring of their global supply chain layouts. Southeast Asia, especially Thailand, is regarded as a key region for the future development of the optical communication industry. It is estimated that over the next 5 years, the scale of these Thai optical communication enterprises will expand by an average of 3–5 times. According to an October report on Mgronline, Lumentum will upgrade its Thai factory to a global flagship factory to meet the global demand for photonic components used in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and high-speed communication systems. Lumentum’s workforce in Thailand has grown from 3,000 to over 6,000 in the past 9 months and may increase to 11,000 in the near future. Additionally, a human resources representative from a leading domestic optical module company told FiberOnLine that the company’s strategy remains firmly focused on expanding overseas, with its Thai branch being a key priority for the future—its scale is expected to expand by at least 5–10 times based on the current size.
As the scale of these Thai-based enterprises continues to expand, R&D activities will gradually shift to Thailand in the later stage, and the allocation of engineers will move toward the level in China. It is estimated that by 2030, excluding a small number of enterprises that have already achieved large-scale operations (such as Fibrinet), the demand for optical communication engineers from other enterprises will increase by at least 6 times compared with the current level, with the total local demand for engineers reaching approximately 21,000, and an average annual demand of around 3,000.
Furthermore, by 2030, the localization rate of these engineers is expected to reach 50%–70%. Similar to enterprises that established factories in Thailand early, such as Tianfu and Lumentum, after their teams and production lines stabilize, core engineers will be gradually recalled, and trained local engineers will formally take on technical roles.
The expansion of the local engineering team in Thailand is the fundamental way to alleviate the talent pressure on enterprises. In the long term, universities can address this by establishing communication-related majors to produce a large number of graduates with an engineering background. In the short term, some social workers can gain industry experience by working in other communication companies or quickly enter the industry through professional process training—such as the training business currently provided by Hexin Optoelectronics, a subsidiary of FiberOnLine. However, regardless of the approach, the top priority is to eliminate language barriers. All HR representatives stated that companies will give priority to training employees who understand both Chinese and English. To summarize in the words of one HR professional: "Engineering graduates working overseas must make efforts to learn more languages."