i'm UK-based and landed a US-remote PM role at a Series C in Q1 2026. the negotiation was different enough from UK norms that i want to document it.
what's the same
countering is expected. in my UK job searches i was always nervous to push back, culturally it felt more fraught. US hiring culture at startups and mid-size tech companies is explicitly built around negotiation. they anchor low expecting you to counter. if you don't, they assume you either didn't know you could or didn't care about the money.
what's different
the comp structure has more moving parts. base + equity + sign-on + benefits. in the UK i was used to negotiating a salary number. here i had to figure out how to value RSUs at a private company, which is genuinely tricky.
i used three benchmarks: levels.fyi for public company equivalents at the same PM level, a range from a US-based PM in a slack community, and the company's last known 409A valuation (found in a crunchbase post). the equity i valued conservatively, which is the right call for a private co.
currency and tax
my offer was in USD. i asked whether they'd gross up for UK tax liability. they said no (small company, not set up for it). i negotiated a higher base partly to compensate, framing it as "my effective take-home after tax on this structure is lower than a US-based employee at the same band." they came up 8k.
what i wish i'd asked earlier
how the company handles ESOP/option grants for non-US employees. some companies use an EOR (employer of record) which can affect how equity vests and what happens on an exit. i should have asked before the offer stage, not after signing.
overall: negotiating a US remote offer as an international hire is doable, you just need to do more homework on the structure than a domestic hire would.