Hello I have an offer for a non-SWE (but still very infrastructure-like technical) role with AWS and I am wondering if this offer is a competitive and fair offer. It is an offer for a L4 role. The role requires competency and daily use for the majority of the workday in a foreign language for businesses of a country which I am sure pays AWS rather well. The role is remote from my residence in a region of central California situated a few hours of freeway driving away from Bay Area cities (San Jose, Sunnyvale, San Francisco, etc.). Salary Base: 112,200 Salary Sign-On Bonus (Year 0 ["1"]): 20,100 [paid in first or second pay period] Sign-On Bonus (Year 1 ["2"]): 15,100 RSU Grant: 405 shares, on the standard 5-15-40-40 schedule in 4 years Other: $100/year in Amazon Employee Discount (I imagine I will use this) $600/year in Cell Phone Allowance Doing some of the maths (and assuming that AMZN stock today is around 117), this is how I would view my year-by-year breakdown with this TC when I stay with Amazon for 4 years**: Y1: 112,000+20,100+(0.05*[405*117])+100+600 = ~135170 Y2: 112,000+15,100+(0.15*[405*117])+100+600 = ~134900 Y3: 112,000+(0.4*[405*117])+100+600 = ~131650 Y4: 112,000+(0.4*[405*117])+100+600 = ~131650 ** What I am not including is that I usually do max out my 401(k) and it appears they have a 50% match for the whole thing? So ... that comes out rather nicely, but I don't want to count on that since I'm not seeing that money for another few decades anyway. In a rather different role (not as technical) with a different type of Series C or so startup company I was making 140,000 [base - without any offered bonus or RSU (not a public company anyway)] annually, so I have to admit that this offer feels close to what I think is competitive - I just want to bump up my salary by maybe 5,000 or a bit more [i.e. I would take this offer in a heartbeat if my base was 120k instead of 112.2k]. Unfortunately, I am not sure where to begin my negotiation with - I just received my initial offer in the last few business hours, so what I do have is time to ask for help! That said, I appreciate any advice! Thank you. P.S. A family friend suggested that since I already have one AWS cert, when I go for future certs or when there is training for work (outside of the initial ramp-up period), perhaps I could ask for in-person training as something that will help both me and the company (something about increased likelihood of passing exams and learning material as opposed to training at home?) #cloud #engineering #salary #negotiation #amazon #aws
It’s hard to say how good the offer is without knowing job family and level. There is a pay band, generally external offers by default are given the higher end of the band since external candidates are expected to “raise the bar”.
Hi, thanks for the insight. The recruiter did say something about the hiring manager asking her to aim for the upper end of the band as well. I have a strong suspicion I am being placed in L4, but I will update when I get a response from the recruiter. As for the job family, I think describing it as the "Cloud Engineering" team with a part of the job dedicated to supporting foreign customers ... gives a decent description of the job family.
For L4 in cloud supporting engineering, 150k is the band max I believe. Also due to cost saving measures, now external offers are capped at 80% of band. Anymore requires VP approvals
Fairly standard L4 offer. Low for 5.
I appreciate your input. This was indeed an L4 offer.
For future reference to if I received promotion to an L5 role (e.g. the senior role for the offered role), what would you look for in your total compensation package? Further, do you know if a promotion or internal transfer allows you to keep your previous benefits (e.g. year 3 and 4 stock)?
The 401k matching at Amazon is a minimal-- they'll match up to 4% of your base salary contributions at 50%. So, assuming you withhold 4%, they'll match 2% of your base, and no more. And note that they're looking at your base for the limit, not total compensation.
Also the vesting period is 3 years
Aha, thanks for letting me know this. So I guess 2200 is not as impressive as the full 10,000 match I was quite excited to see, but it is actually an improvement to most places I have worked at in the past (it still works out to be about a 10% match overall). Any thoughts on the other TC numbers?