Home Team agency ramps up hiring despite global 'techlash'

It aims to build a 500-person AI workforce, maintain flexi-work to woo and retain talent

- David Sun

Multiple rounds of layoffs, cuts in benefits and strict return-to-office directives have shaken up the technology industry in 2024.

The great "techlash" has seen over 100,000 workers around the world lose their jobs in 2024, with more cuts expected due to restructuring, rising employment cost and slow growth forecast.

But the Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX), which celebrates its fifth-year anniversary on Dec 1, is bucking the trend and has been aggressively hiring and sticking to flexi-work.

The statutory board was formed with a headcount of 1,000 in 2019, growing to 1,700 in 2023. Because of the growing demands in homeland security, in 2023, HTX said it was looking to recruit another 500 people in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) field.

It now has some 2,000 people and is looking to hire and groom a 500-person artificial intelligence (AI) workforce in the next three to five years.

The agency is responsible for providing innovative solutions for the Home Team departments. It has been involved in projects including the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority's new clearance concept that taps biometrics, an automated drug-testing toilet for the Singapore Prison Service, and development of cyborg cockroaches for rescue missions.