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IC ladder SDE I through Senior Principal; manager ladder SDM I through Director. Compensation is famously back-loaded due to a 5/15/40/40 vesting schedule and a $185K base salary cap.
Salary is one half of a Amazon offer; the interview is the other. No signup needed.
Which statement about type aliases and interface declarations in TypeScript is correct?
Ranges aggregated from publicly-available sources. Treat the median (p50) as roughly representative; quartile bands reflect negotiation range. Have specific data points or corrections? Send them in.
Amazon caps base salary at ~$185K (US) regardless of level. Above-cap compensation comes via RSUs and a sign-on bonus structured to backfill the back-loaded 5/15/40/40 vesting schedule. Year 1 sign-on is typical $50K-$120K; Year 2 sign-on is typical $40K-$100K. After Year 2, comp drops sharply unless refresh grants are issued. The 'cliff effect' between Year 2 and Year 3 is a known phenomenon at Amazon.
| Component | p25 | p50 | p75 | p90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base salary | $110K | $125K | $140K | $155K |
| Equity (annualized) | $15K | $25K | $35K | $50K |
| Bonus / sign-on amortized | $20K | $25K | $30K | $35K |
| Total comp | $145K | $170K | $195K | $220K |
Entry-level. Bonus column reflects sign-on amortized over Year 1+2. Year 3 'cliff' applies.
| Component | p25 | p50 | p75 | p90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base salary | $145K | $165K | $180K | $185K |
| Equity (annualized) | $35K | $60K | $90K | $130K |
| Bonus / sign-on amortized | $25K | $35K | $45K | $55K |
| Total comp | $200K | $245K | $295K | $360K |
Mid-level. Most-common Amazon SDE level for external hires. Sign-on amortized over Year 1+2.
| Component | p25 | p50 | p75 | p90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base salary | $175K | $185K | $185K | $185K |
| Equity (annualized) | $80K | $130K | $200K | $290K |
| Bonus / sign-on amortized | $30K | $45K | $60K | $80K |
| Total comp | $290K | $360K | $450K | $560K |
Senior IC. Base hits the cap; equity is the differentiator. Refresh grants critical at this level.
| Component | p25 | p50 | p75 | p90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base salary | $185K | $185K | $185K | $185K |
| Equity (annualized) | $200K | $320K | $470K | $660K |
| Bonus / sign-on amortized | $65K | $80K | $95K | $110K |
| Total comp | $450K | $580K | $750K | $950K |
Principal IC. The level where Amazon comp closes the gap with Google L6+. Very few candidates hire at this level externally.
| Component | p25 | p50 | p75 | p90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base salary | $185K | $185K | $185K | $185K |
| Equity (annualized) | $380K | $540K | $760K | $1.12M |
| Bonus / sign-on amortized | $90K | $110K | $130K | $160K |
| Total comp | $650K | $850K | $1.1M | $1.5M |
Senior Principal. Company-wide visibility. External hires extremely rare; mostly internal promotion.
Cross-referenced against public reporting, state pay-transparency postings, and triangulated where source ranges disagreed. Last refresh: May 2026.
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