My software engineer salary progression.

If you’re curious about how I managed to earn an over $820K salary while working for some of the biggest names in tech, you’re in the right place. Let’s dive into my journey from my start at Amazon to my latest role at Meta.

Starting at Amazon

In 2019, just after graduation, I began my career as a software engineer at Amazon, based in Seattle. My starting package included:

• $108K base salary
• $24K sign-on bonus for the first year, and $20K for the second year
• My stock (RSUs) at Amazon were worth $70K, spread over four years. The vesting schedule meant I only earned $3,500 in stock the first year.

Total year one earnings: $135,500.

I did switch teams as I was working at Amazon to join a machine learning team and that proved to be really useful in a future job, which I’ll mention very soon. I was pretty happy with this as my first full time offer, but ideally I would want to live in New York City.

It was pretty difficult to transfer teams again, especially into a completely different state and city. So I applied to more jobs and I was able to land IBM in 2021 located in New York City

IBM in NYC

By 2021, I joined IBM in New York City. Here’s the breakdown for IBM:

• $140K base salary
• $10K sign-on bonus (I had to negotiate to get this. They didn’t offer one initially.)
• $60K performance bonus

Total year one earnings: $210,000.

This was pretty good. I finally got to live in New York City and I was making more money. But as you can see, this is not anywhere near my $820k income that I eventually made. And also I wanted to work for a more modern tech company. So what happened next? In 2022, I joined Tinder.

Joining Tinder

This is actually for a machine learning role that they didn’t have listed. The recruiter thought I would be a good fit based on my ML experience at Amazon. I got to be a ML engineer working on the recommendations team. Basically, I got to work on the Tinder algorithm for a little bit.

My compensation included:

• $165K base salary
• $25K sign-on bonus
• 10% performance bonus, totaling $16.5K
• Tinder’s RSUs were more generous, giving me $70K in the first year alone

Total year one earnings: $276,500.

Tinder is based in the West Coast, but they let me work remotely in New York. And then, in the same year, Meta reached out to me for a solutions engineer role

Joining Meta

Meta recruited me for a solutions engineer role, a mix of business and engineering. I earned:

• $178K base salary
• $40K sign-on bonus
• 15% performance bonus, $26,700
• stock was $93,750 for the first year

Total year one earnings: $338,450.

I remember reading that solutions engineers didn’t make as much money as your standard software engineer (software engineers might get more stock). How was I able to achieve my $820k income?

Reaching $820K

You might be wondering how I achieved $820k.

If you notice, I started both Tinder and Meta at the same time in 2022. And on top of that, I kept my IBM job that I started in 2021. Added all up, you get over $820k.

And if you want to learn more about how I worked all three jobs, read my story on being overemployed.

Prefer video? Watch my youtube video on my salary progression.

Need help landing software jobs? Learn how I landed jobs at Meta, Tinder, and Amazon using 17 algorithm patterns.

Send me a DM. I’ll respond to you: https://www.instagram.com/brybread/