Amazon salary negotiation is unique because they use a one-of-a-kind structure for their compensation packages, and they are very focused on both attracting and retaining top talent for a long time.
The key question to ask about an Amazon job offer is “How much can this offer be improved through negotiation?” In my experience coaching software developers through Amazon salary negotiations, the answer varies from “somewhat” to “a whole lot”.
The trick is that you have to be willing to consider non-salary options and think deeply about how long you actually want to work at Amazon because their job offers are structured to increase in value over time, specifically after your second year as an employee.
The bottom line is that if you have a job offer from Amazon in a technical role, you likely have room to negotiate, and may have significant opportunities to increase your pay over the next several years if you’re willing to be a little creative.
What a typical Amazon job offer package looks like
Once you actually get through the Amazon interview gauntlet, you may receive a job offer. Let’s look at an example to see what you can expect.
Amazon’s offers are unique, but have three standard components:
- Base salary
- Sign-on bonus
- Equity (RSUs)
They will often roll all these numbers together to describe the offer in terms of “Total Compensation” by year, but that can be tricky to understand thanks to some quirks I’ll describe below.
Here’s an example taken from a modified version of a real Amazon job offer from one of my clients:
| Component | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base Salary | $145k | $145k | $145k | $145k | $580k | |
| Sign-on | $30k | $20k | $50k | |||
| Total Cash | $175k | $165k | $145k | $145k | $630k | |
| Equity (RSUs) Vesting | 5% | 15% | 40% | 40% | 100% | |
| Equity (RSUs) | 2.5 | 7.5 | 20 | 20 | 50 | |
| Equity (RSUs) Value* | $5k | $15k | $40k | $40k | $100k | |
| Total | $180k | $180k | $185k | $185k | $730k |
* Equity (RSUs) Value is computed using a round number of $2,000 per share to make things easy
Notice that the Total is pretty consistent through the first four years, but the sign-on bonus and equity components vary pretty dramatically from year to year.
This is what I was referring to above when I mentioned they incentivize you to stay for a few years. The vast majority of the equity is paid out in years three and four, so there’s a pretty big incentive to stick around.
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