No idea what a senior scientist does but I am thinking something equivalent of what we expect from a senior dev. Try to see the comp comparison assuming that nasa is the pinnacle of scientist employment like MAANG is for tech
Isn't NASA being left behind by SpaceX and Jeff's BO?
Glassdoor says 92k for computer scientist and 124k for physical scientist. I guess those guys are in it just for the passion
Not much
As a government employee, it’s all here: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/ A high level scientist would be GS-14 or 15 Here’s the direct link to pay tables. https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/2019/general-schedule/
$130k-$170k in the Bay Area.
A senior scientist at NASA would be GS-15, see above and be sad. People don't work for the government for big (short term) money. They do it for passion, power, or connections to move into the private sector and make bank down the road as a consultant. (I'm a former GS-12 that got out as soon as the opportunity presented itself, now I make significantly more money than the director of my building that was over ~500 people)
Two things: 1) since your being so light on it, just Oracle in to make it at least sound pleasant. 2) FANG-ish companies also have research scientist, applied scientist, and bullshit scientist positions. Why do you need to go to compare it to a mundane dev position?
So. You don’t know
I don’t know, but comparing devs with scientists is like comparing janitors with teachers in a school