RSUs grants at Amazon/AWS
I'm told ongoing comp growth at AWS is primarily in the form of RSUs. For a L7, what can be expected in terms of annual # additional RSUs?
IC/PE?
Wow L7, so that’s going to be a principal engineer right?
Nope, non-tech
Surprised no one has pointed out that if you’re already at the top of your position/levels target total comp (either due to such a high initial offer or more commonly stock appreciation in years 3+), you will most likely either get no additional RSUs or only grants that vest 2-4 years out.
I thought about that - how is that addressed?
Most often it’s addressed by organic stock appreciation of your existing RSUs - this is factored in to the growth of your TC even if those RSUs have already been granted. Which means last year very few got incremental rsu grants unless promoted bc the stock went up so much.
Non tech L7 is paid at a totally different level than tech L7. At Amazon, level isn’t about a comp range, it’s about scope. This means the same level will be paid differently across job roles. An L7 HR person may make only a fraction of a principal engineer.
Most tech companies state your yearly compensation as salary + bonus + new RSU grants. Amazon looks at salary + RSU vests. Amazon RSU grants are issued with the intent to smooth out your W-2 income to it a target amount, but also means you're insulated from much of the stock growth until your shares fully vest.
Amazon uses a “total compensation” model. They set a target compensation, subtract your salary and give you enough stock to hit the target. The number of RSUs is the value divided by future value of the shares.
Got it - thanks. So once in - folks are granted additional RSUs to hit that target comp. Are there additional RSU grants for 1/4ly performance, promotions, retirement savings, etc.?
Didn’t you mean that the RSUs depends on the weighted current stock price (not the future value). There’s no way to know future value while distributing grants.