An anatomy of a level 6 Amazon Web Services Solution Architect Job Offer

Today I’d like to share with you a recent Amazon L6 Solution Architect job offer. Please note that I have adjusted the numbers slightly to protect confidentiality.

• Job title: AWS Solution Architect
• Level: 6
• Base: $160K
• Sign-on bonus: year 1 – $120K, year 2 – $90K
• Restricted Stock Units (RSUs): $260K worth of RSUs.
• RSU vesting schedule: 5% year 1, 15% year 2, 40% year 3, and 40% year 4
• Year 1 total compensation: $293,000
• Year 2 total compensation: $289,000
• Year 3 total compensation: $264,000
• Year 4 total compensation: $264,000

Observations:

• Amazon typically assumes 15% stock price appreciation each year. I did NOT include the 15% appreciation each year in my calculation of each year’s total compensation. Therefore, year 3 and 4 total compensation are less than the first two years.
• The total compensation for an AWS L6 Solution Architect is almost $300K. I’ve also seen numbers that in the low $300K+ range. Compared to compensations at typical big-4 consulting firms or large multi-national professional services firms such as Infosys or Wipro, AWS pays quite well.
• Amazon’s RSU vesting schedule is very unique. You get bulk of your stock in year 3 and year 4. For the first two years, your total compensation largely consists of base salary plus your sign-on bonus. For year 3 and year 4, RSUs become a lot more important in your total compensation calculation.