Zero Genie

From Mark Zuckerberg to your local IT professional, it’s no secret that tech pays. But how well? And what jobs pay the most?

The career data website Comparably recently sought to answer these questions. They surveyed over 12,000 employees in top-level positions, and produced a list of 10 highest-paying ones, with salaries all over $150,000. 

While company vice presidents and directors make up the bulk of the richest jobs in tech, the story isn’t that simple.

In their survey, Comparably found that gender, ethnicity, and location factor into how well a given job pays. For instance, Comparably’s findings indicate that men make up to $16,000 more than women who share the same title. Women, however, were shown to make more than men in upper-level jobs in engineering departments, such as director and vice president. 

It also pays to be on the West Coast. Of the 10 jobs on Comparably’s list, seven of them reported the highest salaries in San Francisco and Seattle.

That said, Comparably accounted for the disparate cost of living in cities such as Austin, Texas and San Francisco, by providing figures for average cost of rent in 2019. According to Comparably, while San Francisco salaries are high, so is the rent, at an average of $3,609 a month, compared to Austin’s, which is only $1,364. 

The correlation to ethnicity is a little more unclear, as Comparably found that those who reported “other,” meaning those who did not identify with any of the options or who identify as more than one ethnicity, made the top salaries for six of the ten top jobs. However, Comparably found that African Americans and Hispanics were paid the least in nine of the 10 roles. 

“There are certainly still unfortunate gender and racial pay gaps, which is why women, African-Americans, and Hispanic/Latino employees often get paid less than their counterparts,” said Comparably CEO Jason Nazar. “We see that gap closer to closing in a lot of roles we’ve studied over the past few years. That’s largely due in part to more transparency in the workplace and tech leaders stepping up to make pay parity a goal in their organizations. Hopefully this will encourage other industries and organizations to do the same.”

Make moves:Looking for a high-paying job? Here are the top 25 in the US.

Who said you need a degree? Almost $100K per year: Highest-paying jobs you can get without a college degree

Here are Comparably’s full findings: 

10 tech jobs that pay over $150,000, annual

1. VP, Sales – $300,724;

2. VP, Marketing – $219,985;

3. VP, Engineering – $215,906;

4. VP, Business Development – $204,345;

5. VP, Operations –  $196,623;

6. Director, Engineering – $182,881;

7. Director, Product – $176,423;

8. Director, Finance – $159,600;

9. Director, Security – $158,905;

10. Principal Engineer – $157,036;

Compensation by gender, annual

VP, Sales – Women: $228,822; Men: $236,070;

VP, Marketing – Women: $186,518; Men: $196,157;

VP, Engineering – Women: $197,486;  Men: $194,924;

VP, Business Development – Women: $180,653; Men: $196,197;

VP, Operations – Women: $169,169; Men: $178,673;

Director, Engineering – Women: $184,500; Men: $183,986;

Director, Product – Women: $172,962; Men: $180,122;

Director, Finance – Women: $148,672; Men: $164,004;

Director, Security – Women: $151,709; Men: $160,747;

Principal Engineer – Women: $156,860; Men: $157,946;

Compensation by ethnicity, annual

VP, Sales – African Americans: $216,700; Hispanic/Latinos: $231,346; Asian-American/ Pacific Islanders: $240,066; Caucasians: $238,313; Other: $243,617;

VP, Marketing – African Americans: $161,529; Hispanic/Latinos: $173,512; Asian-American/ Pacific Islanders: $240,066; Caucasians: $193,228; Other: $199,796;

VP, Engineering – African Americans: $169,291; Hispanic/Latinos: $176,690; Asian-American/ Pacific Islanders: ​​$198,708; Caucasians: $194,599; Other: $201,283;

VP, Business Development – African Americans: $146,652; Hispanic/Latinos: $176,690; Asian-American/ Pacific Islanders ​​​​$197,289; Caucasians: $198,192; Other: $184,697;

VP, Operations – African Americans: $114,221; Hispanic/Latinos: $177,916; Asian-American/ Pacific Islanders: $186,193; Caucasians: $175,895; Other: $203,323;

Director, Engineering – African Americans: $164,392; Hispanic/Latinos: $177,095; Asian-American/ Pacific Islanders: $203,468; Caucasians: $180,265; Other: $192,099;

Director, Product – African Americans: $156,354; Hispanic/Latinos: $166,152; Asian-American/ Pacific Islanders: $194,049; Caucasians: $173,984; Other: $193,072;

Director, Finance – African Americans: $149,923; Hispanic/Latinos: $148,046; Asian-American/ Pacific Islanders: $169,967; Caucasians: $160,056; Other: $172,158;

Director,Security – AfricanAmericans: $137,312; Hispanic/Latinos: $190,930; Asian-American/Pacific Islanders:​​​​$166,200; Caucasians: $153,346; Other: $196,877;

Principal Engineer – African Americans: $152,856; Hispanic/ Latinos: $143,014; Asian-American/ Pacific Islanders:​​​​​​ $161,527; Caucasians: $157,299; Other: $163,723;

*The “Other” designation refers to those who either did not identify with any of the ethnicity options, or who identify as more than one ethnicity

Compensation by location, annual

VP, Sales – SF Bay Area/Silicon Valley: $336,947; Los Angeles: $286,919; New York: $294,613; Seattle: $309,077; Boston: $317,099; Austin: $250,001;

VP, Marketing – SF Bay Area/Silicon Valley: $239,753; Los Angeles: $200,821; New York: $193,287; Seattle: $214,584; Boston: $225,461; Austin: $186,342;

VP, Engineering – SF Bay Area/Silicon Valley: $238,197; Los Angeles: $204,678; New York: $198,367; Seattle: $229,360; Boston: $219,103; Austin: $185,879;

VP, Biz Development – SF Bay Area/Silicon Valley: $231,251; Los Angeles: $190,991; New York: $159,203; Seattle: $184,729; Boston: $236,133; Austin: $184,650;

VP, Operations – SF Bay Area/Silicon Valley: $213,868; Los Angeles: $185,558; New York: $190,992; Seattle: $214,026; Boston: $215,834; Austin: $141,888;

Director, Engineering – SF Bay Area/Silicon Valley: $207,577; Los Angeles: $173,066; New York: $180,565; Seattle: $206,420; Boston: $187,736; Austin: $169,704;

Director, Product – SF Bay Area/Silicon Valley: $195,257; Los Angeles: $162,892; New York: $171,369; Seattle: $203,960; Boston: $169,185; Austin: $164,048;

Director, Finance – SF Bay Area/Silicon Valley: $179,068; Los Angeles: $159,135; New York: $158,068; Seattle: $175,213; Boston: $149,884; Austin: $152,590;

Director, Security – SF Bay Area/Silicon Valley: $184,902; Los Angeles: $164,867; New York: $190,752; Seattle: $166,351; Boston: $163,177; Austin: $151,917;

Principal Engineer – SF Bay Area/Silicon Valley: $180,031; Los Angeles: $152,541; New York: $155,808; Seattle: $195,363; Boston: $148,514; Austin: $148,559;

Methodology

The top 10 roles are based on the average median salary records of 12,218 employees in those jobs, and do not include stocks or equity. Individual jobs needed a minimum of 500 records nationwide to be considered statistically significant for inclusion. Salaries shown are averages for workers of all education levels, genders, and ethnicities. Data was collected between October 2018 and October 2019. Comparably’s compensation database includes hundreds of thousands of self-submitted salary records from employees nationwide. Employees hail from small, mid-size, and large tech companies, including household brands such as Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google, and Uber.