Base salary of $200K or more is definitely achievable for senior (level 5 or higher) engineers at big name companies in SF. I have friends who recently changed jobs so I know this for certain.
That said, the stock offers were excellent as well, sometimes more than salary.
Not including stock. Just thinking back to last time I solicited job offers I live in a US metro area with a cost of living about 1/3rd less than SF according to Wolfram Alpha's data and got offers that ranged between 120k and 220k. Anecdotally most of the senior level engineers I know in my area are making between 150 and 200k. Adjusted for cost of living an employer in SF would need to pay something like 200 - 300k to just match their current salaries. Maybe the stock portion of a salary would make up for that difference but I don't see how they are competitive in the wider market if they are paying 150k for senior engineers.
I take it you're not from the Bay Area. Base salaries over 175k are common for senior engineers (10+ years). I would say that's a common base salary for the bigger companies like Google, etc. Netflix pays $400k cash for senior engineers.
Salaries in the San Francisco Bay Area are very high compared to the rest of the world due to high housing costs and extreme demand for engineers. $155k is average for 5-10 years of experience at a non-startup. You can certainly go much higher or lower depending on the company, your experience and your negotiation skills.
No, it is not "easy" to get that. Most Bay Area jobs are not senior engineers at Google. Like I said before, a mid-level salary in SF is somewhere around $130k. The numbers are well-documented.
If you win the stock lottery, or stay in the industry for a while and become one of the top 10% of earners, you can do upwards of $200k. But that excludes the bottom 90% of jobs, which is what most people actually have.
As a PSA to all junior engineers: if you actually believe you can "easily" earn over $200k in the bay area, I strongly encourage you to take some phone screens before acting on your notions. Tell companies your salary expectations in advance.
SF startup cash comp for engineers is comfortably in the 150k-200k range, and often higher. This is series A, series B stage companies. If you have a few years of experience and are making less than this then I'm please to be able to inform you that you are underpaid.
If you have one of those incomes at the higher end, you can do these things in the bay area. If you have more than one then that stuff is not hard at all.
Berkeley has pleasant single family homes in a great school district around the $1MM mark. You can absolutely do that on $200k/year. IMO you should for sure be able to reach the mark where this is comfortable financially by the time you're around 30.
Furthermore, the higher you go, a greater proportion comes as RSUs, not cash - even if it was $400k TC, a good chunk of that is money you literally can't spend for a couple of years.
$200k base salary in the Bay Area is Engineering Manager level - VP at a well-funded startup, or Sr Director at a larger company. Not sure what your friend is doing.
$75-$100k represents 0-5 year engineer in the vast majority of cases. Most mid-career folks earn between $130-$160k.
n.b. There are definitely exceptions. Difficult and specific hires will generally command market rate + 50%.
From my experience, I'd say the cap is around $150k in the bay area or so for standard senior positions regardless of degree. The degree is absolutely irrelevant and in many cases if you have an advanced degree, (Masters, PHD) it can work against you (if you don't actually know how to build things).
For reference, with the cost of living being where it is, I'd say anything < $200k in the bay area is not enough to live on and save comfortably, but that's just my opinion. As far as I know, there aren't any startups offering $200k or above (or even close) for engineering jobs in the bay area.
I guess time passes faster than I want to admit but it seems like not too long ago 120k base salary was considered good compensation.
I've recently been looking for a software engineering job at early stage startups. It seems like many are willing to pay 180-200k base salary. Is this normal in the bay area now?
I think what he means is: Some SF companies pay very large compensation packages so that their engineers can afford to purchase homes.
I don't think this is true. There are only a handful of companies that pay $500k+ TC for senior+ engineers. The vast majority of companies top out at $250k, be it F500 or startups (not including their worthless "equity").
You can't afford a home, on your own, at $250k in the Bay Area. Realistically you need $500k+.
A good Engineer earning $140k as a base salary in SF shouldn't be a surprise (if it is, you're quite out of touch with the market) and then you have to add in the other costs companies have to budget for (benefits, stock, expenses, etc) plus it's clearly an average over the employees (so will include some that make much more and some that make less).
Honestly if it's surprise/shock it's _still_ a bit strange.
Are you in SF? I'm in Houston, and 100K is closer to the norm for engineers here, but of course, 100K wouldn't go as far in SF. Were I to take a job in SF, I'd probably need a $20K-30K premium.
Wow, these salaries seem to be pretty low. I mean a senior IOS engineer making $107K in SF? Id expect them to easily increase their salary by 30% by jumping ship.
Salespeople in the tech space in SF start on about $70k (first year) and can expect to get to $200 (all in) after 5-7 years. Top reps aren't going find it hard to get $250k+ by their early 30s.
I don't know a huge amount about engineering salaries, but my guess is they're actually pretty similar across the board (although engineers start a lot higher).
I've done sales recruiting for about a year. I've only ever talked to one guy who's made more than $1m in a year. He was on a base of $125 or $150k. Last year he made $750k, and the year before that $1m.
But if you're a rep who's truly making $1m+ a year, you probably aren't planning on jumping ship anytime soon.
That said, the stock offers were excellent as well, sometimes more than salary.
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