sharing for the thread. offer i received in February for SWE L5 (their equivalent of senior) on a backend team in the Expedia brand side.
base: $192k annual bonus target: 15% (so $28.8k at 100% attainment, which is typical but not guaranteed) RSU grant: $280k over 4 years, standard cliff at year 1 signing bonus: $40k, repayable pro-rata if you leave before 2 years
total first-year target: ~$308k at 100% bonus attainment
needed 2 rounds of negotiation to get from the initial $175k base. the RSU pool moved more than the base did. they had some room.
Seattle cost of living context: this is reasonable but not top-of-market. Meta/Amazon pay meaningfully more at this level. Expedia's WLB reputation is the actual differentiator if you're choosing.
5 replies
contractor_kai
the RSU moving more than base is pretty common pattern. companies have more budget flexibility in equity because it doesn't hit payroll tax the same way. always negotiate the grant size, not just base.
veteran_vance
this is helpful to have in writing. i've been pattern-matching against Glassdoor numbers which feel outdated. the 15% bonus target is lower than i expected for an L5.
numbers_only
yeah the bonus target is on the lower side. a lot of travel companies run lower bonus targets vs pure tech. the 100% attainment assumption is also generous, orgs often land 80-90% of target in practice.
sam_recovering
the wlb comment is the part i actually care about. do you have a read on what that looks like in practice? on-call burden, expectations around nights/weekends?
numbers_only
declined the offer so i can't report from inside. but in loop conversations the HM said on-call rotation was every 6-8 weeks and escalations were rare outside major travel events (holiday weekends, spring break surge). grain of salt, that's recruiter-phase info.