Been doing some research for my own exploration (currently staff at a non-AI company, seeing what's out there). Pulled together what I've found on staff+ comp at Anthropic. This is harder to find than senior data, so sharing.
Staff SWE (2 data points, early 2026): Data point 1: $280k base, $2.5M equity over 4 years. This person came from a staff role at a big tech company and said they had a competing offer they used in negotiation. Final-stage recruiter told them the equity was at "the top of the band" for staff. Data point 2: $265k base, $2.2M equity. Joined from a mid-size AI lab. They described this as a starting offer that moved slightly after negotiation.
Principal / Distinguished (1 data point, secondhand):
Someone I know knows someone. $320k+ base, $4M+ equity. Grain-of-salt caveat on this one, I can't verify it. But it's plausible for a true principal hire.
How the equity structure actually works:
All equity is RSUs in the pre-IPO private company. The grants vest over 4 years with a 1-year cliff. The key thing people miss: these are RSUs in a private company, which means you don't pay taxes at vest, you pay taxes at liquidity (IPO or tender offer). That's different from ISOs and different from public company RSUs. It's actually favorable from a cash-flow standpoint because you're not suddenly writing a big check to the IRS at vest.
Refresh cadence: informal signals suggest annual refreshes start around year 2 and are sized based on performance. Nobody published a formula on this.
What the staff interview loop actually covers:
I've only heard secondhand on this. Apparently at staff and above there's a significant component around technical leadership and system design at scale, plus a round on what I'd call research direction: they want to know you have opinions about what matters to work on. There's also a culture/mission alignment component that's more intensive than typical big-tech staff loops.
One person mentioned a "research taste" conversation that she said felt more like a PhD interview than a standard engineering one. She made it through but said it was the hardest round.
Summary:
For staff, total comp year 1 can be in the $800k-$1M+ range if you include equity at current valuations. But you're holding pre-IPO paper. That's the calculation everyone has to make themselves.