Salary at VP / Sr Director in AI Startup
What could be the expected compensation range in a well-funded company worth approximately $1 billion with lots of cash, at the VP or Senior Director level? My current compensation is approximately $650K. Also, what could be a reasonable breakdown of cash and options? Sorry, I've been in big tech for a while and don’t have much experience in this area.
Millions per year or nothing. Depends on whether you can be poor long enough to get to the payday.
With a few hundred million in funding I was hoping they could match the big tech salary and add in options. Obviously could be a stretch but I’d love to know the range and delta of leadership positions at these companies.
They probably match your salary and they give you lottery tickets. At VP level you should ask for a percentage of the company
Yes, I heard about 1% in options which I assume is vested over 4 years?
$250-$300 cash and worthless options. you’d be taking a massive pay cut
Buts the upper band? I’m seeing some different things online
obviously every company is different. but yes generally tops out at $300k
I was making a bit more ib Meta in 2022 (I think 720k). Hired in 2022 and then fired in 2024 to a startup valued ~3B. My cash was 280k; my lottery tickets were paper money, $2.1M/4y based on the last round-409a. The lottery didn't work, and I converted $10K for fun.
Startups usually don’t pay as well as big tech