Ask HN: Who's making $300k to $1m as a cloud engineer?

#1

Post by sgustard » Mon, Mar 07, 2016, 2:45 PM UTC

This article touts a pay range of $300k and up for "cloud computing engineers." Are you making this much consistently (not just from one-time stock pops), and doing what?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/07/technology/tech-companies-new-and-old-clamor-to-entice-cloud-computing-experts.html

"Many of them are the kind of jobs that now pay $300,000 to $1 million a year."

"With five years of experience, $300,000 along with a range of stock or job opportunities..."

"LinkedIn or Facebook can offer an engineer with a few years’ experience a package close to $1 million"

Re: Ask HN: Who's making $300k to $1m as a cloud engineer?

#2

Post by erikcw » Mon, Mar 07, 2016, 4:00 PM UTC

Could the reporter be extrapolating from a couple of aquihires?

Re: Ask HN: Who's making $300k to $1m as a cloud engineer?

#3

Post by thrway127627 » Mon, Mar 07, 2016, 4:01 PM UTC

The article seems to be using "cloud engineering" to mean what I would call "data engineering" or "distributed systems engineering". If so then the numbers they're throwing around seem high but attainable. I would call myself a "data engineer" (I build ad servers, recommendation engines, etc for clients) and have been getting offers in the low 300s for full time work with about five years of experience.

Re: Ask HN: Who's making $300k to $1m as a cloud engineer?

#4

Post by mavelikara » Mon, Mar 07, 2016, 4:08 PM UTC

thrway127627 wrote: post #3

The article seems to be using "cloud engineering" to mean what I would call "data engineering" or "distributed systems engineering". If so then the numbers they're throwing around seem high but attainable. I would call myself a "data engineer" (I build ad servers, recommendation engines, etc for clients) and have been getting offers in the low 300s for full time work with about five years of experience.

Does the low 300s number include the value of offered equity, benefits etc? Or it is just the base salary?

Re: Ask HN: Who's making $300k to $1m as a cloud engineer?

#5

Post by karterk » Mon, Mar 07, 2016, 4:08 PM UTC

thrway127627 wrote: post #3

The article seems to be using "cloud engineering" to mean what I would call "data engineering" or "distributed systems engineering". If so then the numbers they're throwing around seem high but attainable. I would call myself a "data engineer" (I build ad servers, recommendation engines, etc for clients) and have been getting offers in the low 300s for full time work with about five years of experience.

Interesting. What does your typical day look like? Does it involve a fair bit of ML/algorithms and making them scale horizontally?

Re: Ask HN: Who's making $300k to $1m as a cloud engineer?

#6

Post by abofh » Mon, Mar 07, 2016, 4:09 PM UTC

It's definitely possible, but typically that sort of package will be long-term employees at IPO/buy-out with an incentive-to-stay package (You just got 4MM$ from your options, but we'd like you to stick around for a couple of years, so we'll give you another 4MM package that vests over 5 years).

You won't get that sort of offer at an illiquid startup (except as un-valuable options) - but it's certainly within the ballpark of reason for people hiring experienced engineers at highly profitable companies.

Re: Ask HN: Who's making $300k to $1m as a cloud engineer?

#7

Post by eranation » Mon, Mar 07, 2016, 4:11 PM UTC

I have a friend who is a cloud architect at a big-4, he is making a little more than $300k in total comp in NY (base is lower, a lot of RSUs etc), but he is more than just an engineer.

He has a friend at another big-4 in NY, also a cloud architect, he is making $400k

I think that the $1 million package is incorrectly calculated. This is perhaps the total package for 2-3 years, including signing bonus (vested over a couple of years) and RSUs (vested over a couple of years)

Annual total compensation for any big-4 Sr software engineer with a lot of experience in SF I assume is around $300k and can get up to $500k if you are really good.

I don't know of anyone who is making $1 million a year, even senior directors at big-4s. Perhaps if you are a Phd who worked at Google cloud / AWS / Azure for 5 years, wrote their software, talk at cloud conferences, wrote "Cloud computing for experts" type of books and published a seminal paper on distributed computing, then perhaps you will get a total compensation nearing that.

If you are just a cloud architect at a big-4 I think the lower part makes sense in total comp, the upper bound sounds completely ridiculous. I have friends who got offers from Amazon and Google for very, very senior cloud positions, way more than "just a cloud engineer", and the total comp is around $300-$400. If the stock goes up though, then the RSUs might be worth much more.

If LinkedIn / Facebook are offering engineers an annual $1 million I'll be very surprised.

Re: Ask HN: Who's making $300k to $1m as a cloud engineer?

#8

Post by stormqloud » Mon, Mar 07, 2016, 4:11 PM UTC

A few people that get interviewed by a reporter do not make a trend.

I've heard of SALES ENGINEERS making that kind of money, but not technicians.

The moment a programmer is working at home remote making $300K per year, the employer will find some offshore person to do it at 10% of that price.

Reference Disney and the H1B debacle etc.

The only way somebody as a technician is making that much money is the company they work for hasn;t found a way to get rid of them yet and replace them with cheaper options.

They can find themselves out of a job very fast at that price range.

Once you do the initial setup and things are stable(documented), they will kick you to the curb and replace with $50K worker.

Re: Ask HN: Who's making $300k to $1m as a cloud engineer?

#9

Post by patio11 » Mon, Mar 07, 2016, 4:16 PM UTC

mavelikara wrote: post #4

thrway127627 wrote: post #3

The article seems to be using "cloud engineering" to mean what I would call "data engineering" or "distributed systems engineering". If so then the numbers they're throwing around seem high but attainable. I would call myself a "data engineer" (I build ad servers, recommendation engines, etc for clients) and have been getting offers in the low 300s for full time work with about five years of experience.

Does the low 300s number include the value of offered equity, benefits etc? Or it is just the base salary?

I don't know what a particular recruiter told a particular reporter, but in general, benefits (including benefits with fairly calculable cash value) are generally not included in numbers in the US but base salary, anticipated bonus, and present value of restricted stock grants in public companies are generally fair things to quote at people.

Does $300k sound reasonably achievable for an infrastructure engineer with a few years experience? Well... yeah, yeah, it does. Literally tens of thousands of engineers at AppAmaGooFaceSoft have that package.

Re: Ask HN: Who's making $300k to $1m as a cloud engineer?

#10

Post by montbonnot » Mon, Mar 07, 2016, 4:18 PM UTC

Include about 100K worth of stock in that 300K package, which will vest over 4 years. So your annual salary goes down to 200K + 25K (assuming the value of the stock doesn't move at all). 225K per year is slightly above what a 5y standard SWE makes here in the Bay Area working for a big guy. Really nothing exceptional here... By the way, 225K/y after income tax would be about 140-150K net income per year. Where are these $300K? :)

Also, any key hire like a scientist/data analyst/PhD working in a big company would easily get $1 million offers from other big companies.