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Best paid engineering job?

I'm considering a career in some type of engineering in the future and out of interest I just wanted to know the types of engineering in which you would expect the greatest salary.

Original post by Samii123

I'm considering a career in some type of engineering in the future and out of interest I just wanted to know the types of engineering in which you would expect the greatest salary.

Hi, I've moved this into the Engineering and Science sub-forum to hopefully get some answers.

Reply 2

SalazarSlytherin

19

http://bfy.tw/6OHD here, this should help

Reply 3

Samii123

OP

15

Original post by SalazarSlytherin

http://bfy.tw/6OHD here, this should help

Don't you think I would have done that before asking it on here? I was expecting this anyway. The sites I have went on have all had great variations in how much each type of engineer is paid so I was hoping there could be engineers on here who could give me a straight answer.

Reply 4

username738914

21

Original post by Samii123

I'm considering a career in some type of engineering in the future and out of interest I just wanted to know the types of engineering in which you would expect the greatest salary.

- Software Engineer at a top tech company (Google, FB, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Uber etc) or a quant hedge fund/high freq trading firm (Citadel, Jane Street, DE Shaw, TwoSigma)

- Process/Drilling/Production Engineer at a supermajor (Shell, BP, ConocoPhilips, Total) or services co (Schlumberger, Wood Group, Halliburton).

- Any other engineer working in some capacity at an oil and gas co or hardware tech company

- Engineering Consulting (mostly Civil, Structural etc but could also include Electrical, Mechanical too) at a design firm (IDEO) or engineering consulting firm (Arup, Mott McDonald, AECOM etc..)

Not sure about the others, but out with these most salaries seem more averaged out

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 5

welshiee

1

Original post by Princepieman

- Software Engineer at a top tech company (Google, FB, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Uber etc) or a quant hedge fund/high freq trading firm (Citadel, Jane Street, DE Shaw, TwoSigma)

With all due respect, you'll only command a really high salary if you're in a senior position. Sales Engineers and Research Engineers earn more than the average Software Engineer at Google, for example. Most of the money these days is in other positions surrounding big data, the cloud, security, architecture and technical implementation. Other than that you'll have to be in another role such as a Project Manager or further up the management chain.

Reply 6

username738914

21

Original post by welshiee

With all due respect, you'll only command a really high salary if you're in a senior position. Sales Engineers and Research Engineers earn more than the average Software Engineer at Google, for example. Most of the money these days is in other positions surrounding big data, the cloud, security, architecture and technical implementation. Other than that you'll have to be in another role such as a Project Manager or further up the management chain.

Not true.

If you work for any of the top tech companies in silicon valley, your total comp (base+bonus+annualised stock) will be trending towards $250-300k after a few years post-uni. In London, and Europe there's a haircut of ~20-40% on those numbers but, by all means they are still very much high.

Top tech companies have individual contributor ladders and on the whole, a good IC will out earn a good manager at every single level within the organisation.

I've spoken with a fair few Google engineers to get a feel for this and have also looked at some studies, this is what the rough structure is for their head office in MV:

Google:
Level : Job Title : Total Comp Range
L3 : Soft Eng II ($150-250k) (BSc/MSc grads enter here)
L4 : Soft Eng III ($200-350k)
L5 : Senior Soft Eng ($280-400k) (most people plateau here)
L6 : Staff Soft Eng ($350-500k)
L7 : Senior Staff Soft Eng ($500-800k)
L8 : Principal Eng ($800k-1.5mil)
L9 : Distinguished Eng ($1-2mil)
L10 : VP/Google Fellow (>$2mil)
L11 : Senior Google Fellow (aka Jeff Dean Level)

Some other data:
https://blog.step.com/2016/04/08/an-open-source-project-for-tech-salaries/
https://blog.step.com/2016/06/16/more-salaries-twitter-linkedin/

Posted from TSR Mobile

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 7

welshiee

1

Original post by Princepieman

If you work for any of the top tech companies in silicon valley, your total comp (base+bonus+annualised stock) will be trending towards $250-300k after a few years post-uni. In London, and Europe there's a haircut of ~20-40% on those numbers but, by all means they are still very much high.

As someone who actually works within the industry itself, I am more than happy to tell you that you are misrepresenting the truth. The vast majority of people within the industry do not receive the luxuries of stock options, annual equity, and a small proportion in percentage terms receive a bonus, which will depend entirely upon their KPI's.

Furthermore, those top salaries are not given to just anyone, and less than 10% of Google employees earn them in the USA alone. The average salary for a software engineer in the US is around $95,000, with the base at Google being around $140k. Performance based compensation kicks in after a few years and yes that can exceed the base salary itself. However, you are only going to earn a top job at a company like Google if you've already achieved senior status elsewhere.

I've spoken with a fair few Google engineers to get a feel for this and have also looked at some studies this is what the rough structure is for their head office in MV:

Google:
Level : Job Title : Total Comp Range
L3 : Soft Eng II ($150-250k) (BSc/MSc grads enter here)
L4 : Soft Eng III ($200-350k)

Again, misrepresentation of the truth. A software engineer with 4 years experience gets an average base salary of around $140,000 in the MV area. Moving on, everything below is a senior position, or would be regarded as senior to a software engineer. The final two, for example, are management positions which when compared to their hierarchal equivalents would command a high salary in any industry.

L5 : Senior Soft Eng ($280-400k) (most people plateau here)
L6 : Staff Soft Eng ($350-500k)
L7 : Senior Staff Soft Eng ($500-800k)
L8 : Principal Eng ($800k-1.5mil)
L9 : Distinguished Eng ($1-2mil)
L10 : VP/Google Fellow (>$2mil)
L11 : Senior Google Fellow (aka Jeff Dean Level)

Reply 8

username738914

21

Original post by welshiee

As someone who actually works within the industry itself, I am more than happy to tell you that you are misrepresenting the truth. The vast majority of people within the industry do not receive the luxuries of stock options, annual equity, and a small proportion in percentage terms receive a bonus, which will depend entirely upon their KPI's.

Furthermore, those top salaries are not given to just anyone, and less than 10% of Google employees earn them in the USA alone. The average salary for a software engineer in the US is around $95,000, with the base at Google being around $140k. Performance based compensation kicks in after a few years and yes that can exceed the base salary itself. However, you are only going to earn a top job at a company like Google if you've already achieved senior status elsewhere.

You clearly do not work for Google... Base salary for a fresh grad in MV is ~$105-110k. Total package is 15% bonus + 250 GOOG stock vesting over 4 years. I have seen the offers as my friends at Stanford have converted their internships into offers.

Yes, the question asked for the highest paid engineers - they are found at the highest paying companies, it did not ask for the average across all of the software industry.

Performance based comp kicks in when you get an offer, it ramps up every year if you perform and get stock refreshers.

Look, the numbers are high - yes. But there is nothing wrong with these numbers and it has been confirmed by several contacts within these companies to be correct - there is no need to debunk anything here.

Again, misrepresentation of the truth. A software engineer with 4 years experience gets an average base salary of around $140,000 in the MV area. Moving on, everything below is a senior position, or would be regarded as senior to a software engineer. The final two, for example, are management positions which when compared to their hierarchal equivalents would command a high salary in any industry.

Yes BASE. I'm not talking about base, I'm talking about all-in compensation. You know the value that appears on your tax form every year?

No, all of these are engineers and individual contributors none of them are management positions - if they were they would be denoted as such: Engineering Manager, Director of [insert team], VP of [insert team].

Posted from TSR Mobile

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 9

welshiee

1

Original post by Princepieman

You clearly do not work for Google... Base salary for a fresh grad in MV is ~$105-110k. Total package is 15% bonus + 250 GOOG stock vesting over 4 years. I have seen the offers as my friends at Stanford have converted their internships into offers.
I said I work in the industry, which I do. I did not say I work for Google. It would really help if you actually read the message put across before putting together your response.

Yes, the question asked for the highest paid engineers - they are found at the highest paying companies, it did not ask for the average across all of the software industry.

I concede on this, but the base salary really is not that much, and it is completely false to suggest that the majority are reaping the other forms of compensation. There are many who are not even eligible for such options.

Performance based comp kicks in when you get an offer, it ramps up every year if you perform and get stock refreshers.

Not for everyone it doesn't. There is a large variance in the salaries Google offers.

Look, the numbers are high - yes. But there is nothing wrong with these numbers and it has been confirmed by several contacts within these companies to be correct - there is no need to debunk anything here.

The numbers are a combination of base + other comp. It is completely mythical to suggest all employees obtain this additional compensation.

Yes BASE. I'm not talking about base, I'm talking about all-in compensation. You know the value that appears on your tax form every year?

Yes, I do. It's the base unless otherwise negotiated. There are plenty of employees at Google who are not even eligible to receive stock options.

Reply 10

username738914

21

Original post by welshiee

I said I work in the industry, which I do. I did not say I work for Google. It would really help if you actually read the message put across before putting together your response.

I did, but you stated that Google only hire experienced devs and only experienced devs get stock which to me immediately set off alarm bells that you don't work for the company as those are both false.

I concede on this, but the base salary really is not that much, and it is completely false to suggest that the majority are reaping the other forms of compensation. There are many who are not even eligible for such options.

Of course, like the catering staff or bus drivers. But all software engineers, designers, finance guys, marketing etc, basically any position central to the organization gets these stock grants. Product people (engineers, designers, product managers) get more grants than others.

It's a stock grant (RSUs to be precise) btw, not an option plan. The stock is yours with no need to purchase it or exercise options and you pay tax on it as if it were normal income. Google and I'm sure other companies have auto-sell options which means the stock is effectively cash.

Not for everyone it doesn't. There is a large variance in the salaries Google offers.

Salaries are set by position (engineer, manager, product manager, designer, marketing etc) and level. You are correct that there is variation within each level but not between levels.

The numbers are a combination of base + other comp. It is completely mythical to suggest all employees obtain this additional compensation.

See above

Yes, I do. It's the base unless otherwise negotiated. There are plenty of employees at Google who are not even eligible to receive stock options.

Most people at Google get stock grants, by saying 'it's simply false or it's delirious that you think most employees get stock' is just lip service. Speak to anyone who works at Google and they'll confirm

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 11

Helloworld_95

19

Original post by Princepieman

I did, but you stated that Google only hire experienced devs and only experienced devs get stock which to me immediately set off alarm bells that you don't work for the company as those are both false.

I think he was referring to the poaching situation which is rather well known amongst these kind of companies, i.e. microsoft, google, apple and tesla all have a reputation of hiring people who have worked for a few years at one of the other companies and offering them substantial increases on the packages they were getting at their original company.

Reply 12

username738914

21

Original post by Helloworld_95

I think he was referring to the poaching situation which is rather well known amongst these kind of companies, i.e. microsoft, google, apple and tesla all have a reputation of hiring people who have worked for a few years at one of the other companies and offering them substantial increases on the packages they were getting at their original company.

Ah. That makes more sense! It's interesting how high compensation has grown now that the wage collusion between these firms has stopped - it's like a who can pay more war now.
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