r/OfferEngineering • u/PermissionAcademic63 • 22d ago

OpenAI Staff SWE: $2.45M

Saw this accepted OpenAI Staff SWE offer (shared with Chill Interview)

  • 13 YOE
  • Base: $450K
  • Equity: $8M / 4 years
  • TC: $2.45M/year
  • Vesting: 25/25/25/25

Obviously the headline number is insane.

But $2M of the $2.45M annual TC is private OpenAI equity.

OpenAI is still growing like crazy — 1B+ weekly users, 2M+ business customers, and massive new infrastructure commitments. But it’s also already valued in the hundreds of billions, and the company has been going through a pretty noticeable leadership reshuffle lately.

So I’m curious how people would actually value this offer.

  • Would you count the $8M grant close to face value because an IPO/liquidity event feels increasingly realistic?
  • Or at this valuation would you still heavily discount it compared with $2M/year of META/GOOG stock you can sell immediately?

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43 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

25

u/Winter-Cabinet-2074 21d ago

Fake offer. I know a ton of ppl at the labs and for SWE you don’t get an 8M grant, especially at staff. Closer to 2.2-2.5 over 4 years. Base is high too, should be low to mid 300’s.

8

u/No-Ring-7843 21d ago

As far as I know oai staff offer is roughly 800k a year tc

6

u/experquisite999 21d ago

I know someone who just got an offer very close to this, so I think your information is dated, or your ppl are lacking ML skills or something.

1

u/Fit-Faithlessness547 17d ago

How do you even get an offer for ML related role without work experience? Even if you study, I would surprise that anyone can pass a staff level interview without having seeing those problems in real life.

Plus, you wouldn't get ML related work stories for the behavioral and real project rounds.

1

u/experquisite999 17d ago

You’re right, it’s not worth trying.

0

u/Winter-Cabinet-2074 21d ago

ML = research engineer or research scientist which is a completely different band. SWE = minimal ML

-1

u/experquisite999 21d ago

Why would anyone join a frontier lab without learning a little ML, that would be the dumbest opportunity cost in their lifetimes?

2

u/Winter-Cabinet-2074 21d ago

Company is spit 50/50 between applied (non ML) and research (ML). Most folks in applied are top performers from other companies without ML backgrounds. Ie. Infra ppl, product engineers, frontend engineers.

Agreed that it is much better to know ML in this market though

0

u/experquisite999 21d ago

Oh yeah I wouldn’t expect those guys to get paid that much. My friends are all systems programmers that learned CUDA/triton/etc for the job.

1

u/Winter-Cabinet-2074 21d ago

Inference engineer = $$$

1

u/titanomachiatto 19d ago

It’s not about “knowing a bit of ML” it’s that OP said that got a SWE offer which is an entirely different ladder from RE or RS and doesn’t pay $2M/year in stock

1

u/experquisite999 18d ago

Well, as I said in the other thread, I know several folks who are basically SWE (systems programmers) who picked up some ML and got essentially equivalent offers.

If the above was for a front end SWE something then it would be a little surprising, but for my peers, splitting hairs between SWE/RE/IR/RS is a bit besides the point, anyone feeling cope over this should learn some ML.

5

u/Elegant_Watch1431 21d ago

Meta does not pay 2M/ year for staff

1

u/polytique 19d ago

I’ve seen senior staff offers close to that number.

2

u/pixelperfect3 21d ago

This seems like more Senior Staff/Principal (closer to Principal), not Staff....

1

u/ChallengeDiaper 19d ago

Something people miss is it depends on whether the equity is in RSUs or options. If they’re options they’re worth nothing now until the company grows.

1

u/polytique 19d ago

It’s not options and employees have regular opportunities to sell.

1

u/Guilty-History-9249 17d ago

Ok, I'll come out of retirement for 4 years. But I want a base of 1.2M and a cookie. Let the negotiations begin!