sharing my offer from earlier this year. role: senior ML engineer (L4 equivalent), San Francisco in-office hybrid.
base: $205k annual bonus target: 15% (not guaranteed, discretionary) equity: $400k RSU grant over 4 years with 1-year cliff total year-1 TC: roughly $260k including estimated bonus at target, less equity until post-cliff
this was negotiated up from initial offer which had a $190k base. pushed back once citing a competing offer (which was real) and they moved. didn't try for more than one round of negotiation given the market.
equity is in shares, not options. company is still private so the RSU value is theoretical until a liquidity event. factor that in if you're comparing to public-company RSUs.
if you're at L5 or staff level i'd expect base to be higher but i can't speak to that range from first-hand data.
4 replies
contractor_kai
the private-company RSU point is worth flagging hard. 400k notional in private shares is a very different thing than 400k in GOOG or MSFT stock. what's the most recent 409A valuation relative to last funding round? that gap tells you a lot about whether the RSU number is real.
remote_swe_42
base seems slightly below market for SF senior ML in 2026, though not badly. i'd expect $210-220k at that level at most places. did they push back much when you cited the competing offer or did they move fairly quickly?
numbers_only
moved in about 48 hours. recruiter didn't push back or ask for proof of the other offer. just said she'd check with the team and came back with the revised base. one round was enough, didn't push further.
director_dee
the 15% bonus being discretionary is worth probing. ask what payout has actually looked like over the past 2 years and whether it's tied to individual performance or company performance. at some companies 'discretionary' means roughly target, at others it means 0-5% in a bad quarter. not a dealbreaker but you should know what you're assuming.