OpenAI Pay Packages Revealed: $900K Median Pay for Software Engineers

[Anonymous]

Despite OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s frequent public appearances, the firm’s internal structure and operations have remained notoriously opaque.

But the startup Levels.fyi has raised the curtain on a key aspect of OpenAI's strategy: the compensation packages it's offering to lure engineers to come aboard.

According to the startup's data—which is taken from real, submitted offer letters mainly over the past year—the median compensation package OpenAI is offering to software engineers is valued at around $925,000.

That's split up over a $300,000 base salary and $625,000 in OpenAI's equivalent of stock compensation, a novel financial incentive called Profit Participation Units (PPU), which is meant to provide employees with benefits from the company's potential financial upside.

In the offer letters provided to Levels.fyi, the PPU grants are given a nominal value and generally vest evenly over four years. The total compensation data provided to Levels.fyi for OpenAI engineers ranged from $325,000 to $1.37 million.

Levels.fyi was founded in 2017 to provide information on benefits, compensation and other job perks. It sells the data to users and employers, as well as services like resume review and consulting around compensation negotiation.

https://sfstandard.com/business/openai-pay-packages-revealed-900k-for-software-engineers/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Despite OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s frequent public appearances, the firm’s internal structure and operations have remained notoriously opaque.

But the startup Levels.fyi has raised the curtain on a key aspect of OpenAI's strategy: the compensation packages it's offering to lure engineers to come aboard.

According to the startup's data—which is taken from real, submitted offer letters mainly over the past year—the median compensation package OpenAI is offering to software engineers is valued at around $925,000.

That's split up over a $300,000 base salary and $625,000 in OpenAI's equivalent of stock compensation, a novel financial incentive called Profit Participation Units (PPU), which is meant to provide employees with benefits from the company's potential financial upside.

In the offer letters provided to Levels.fyi, the PPU grants are given a nominal value and generally vest evenly over four years. The total compensation data provided to Levels.fyi for OpenAI engineers ranged from $325,000 to $1.37 million.

Levels.fyi was founded in 2017 to provide information on benefits, compensation and other job perks. It sells the data to users and employers, as well as services like resume review and consulting around compensation negotiation.

https://sfstandard.com/business/openai-pay-packages-revealed-900k-for-software-engineers/

Unless I missed it, doesn’t say if this is for recent undergrads or for people with advanced degrees…my suspicion is the latter.

[Anonymous]

That makes sense. Their employees are the best of the best, usually with over a decade of experience in a field which blew up less than ten years ago.

Still chump change compared to what the quants at Jane Street and Co. make

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That makes sense. Their employees are the best of the best, usually with over a decade of experience in a field which blew up less than ten years ago.

Still chump change compared to what the quants at Jane Street and Co. make

Quants at Jane Street make about the same amounts not vastly more although $900k would be mostly for SWE in their 20s.

[Anonymous]

So they're paid 300K a year.

[Anonymous]

Wow! That's high.

[Anonymous]

It's not unusual for Google's senior SWEs, a few years out of college, to be paid (TC) around $500,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That makes sense. Their employees are the best of the best, usually with over a decade of experience in a field which blew up less than ten years ago.

Still chump change compared to what the quants at Jane Street and Co. make

Quants at Jane Street make about the same amounts not vastly more although $900k would be mostly for SWE in their 20s.

The OpenAI salaries are for the world-class AI experts in their late twenties and usually thirties

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That makes sense. Their employees are the best of the best, usually with over a decade of experience in a field which blew up less than ten years ago.

Still chump change compared to what the quants at Jane Street and Co. make

Quants at Jane Street make about the same amounts not vastly more although $900k would be mostly for SWE in their 20s.

The OpenAI salaries are for the world-class AI experts in their late twenties and usually thirties

Then, Jane Street pays more in general and to younger and less educated (BS) employees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That makes sense. Their employees are the best of the best, usually with over a decade of experience in a field which blew up less than ten years ago.

Still chump change compared to what the quants at Jane Street and Co. make

Quants at Jane Street make about the same amounts not vastly more although $900k would be mostly for SWE in their 20s.

Hedge funds barely hire any people in the grand scheme of things...if you use hedge fund quants as the standard, then I guess literally every other job (except maybe rock star, famous actor, pro athlete) sucks?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That makes sense. Their employees are the best of the best, usually with over a decade of experience in a field which blew up less than ten years ago.

Still chump change compared to what the quants at Jane Street and Co. make

Quants at Jane Street make about the same amounts not vastly more although $900k would be mostly for SWE in their 20s.

The OpenAI salaries are for the world-class AI experts in their late twenties and usually thirties

Then, Jane Street pays more in general and to younger and less educated (BS) employees.

It's not a requirement to have a PhD or even a Master's degree to work at OpenAI. Heck, look at the leadership team.

Greg Brockman (President and Chairman): Dropped out of Harvard undergrad after 1 year
Sam Altman (CEO): Dropped out of Stanford undergrad after 1 year
Brad Lightcap (COO): Graduated from Duke undergrad

None of them have advanced degrees and they're steering the ship. It's probably no coincidence that they attended cream-of-the-crop undergrad programs though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That makes sense. Their employees are the best of the best, usually with over a decade of experience in a field which blew up less than ten years ago.

Still chump change compared to what the quants at Jane Street and Co. make

Quants at Jane Street make about the same amounts not vastly more although $900k would be mostly for SWE in their 20s.

The OpenAI salaries are for the world-class AI experts in their late twenties and usually thirties

Then, Jane Street pays more in general and to younger and less educated (BS) employees.

It's not a requirement to have a PhD or even a Master's degree to work at OpenAI. Heck, look at the leadership team.

Greg Brockman (President and Chairman): Dropped out of Harvard undergrad after 1 year
Sam Altman (CEO): Dropped out of Stanford undergrad after 1 year
Brad Lightcap (COO): Graduated from Duke undergrad

None of them have advanced degrees and they're steering the ship. It's probably no coincidence that they attended cream-of-the-crop undergrad programs though.

+1

[Anonymous]

but you have no life, they own you and you work al the time.

[Anonymous]

Most represented schools among employees in the U.S. (LinkedIn)

Big four (Berkeley, CMU, MIT, Stanford)
* drop off *
Harvard
* drop off *
Cambridge/Oxford, UCLA/USC, Cornell/NYU/Columbia, Washington, Waterloo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:but you have no life, they own you and you work al the time.

what a sour grape! pathetic!