I just started a job as a data scientist at a FAANG company. PhD + 2 years of experience for $200k total compensation (plus another $50k in one time bonuses/relo). It’s almost double what my previous (non-tech) employer paid. Although I’m starting to wonder if I should have gone the software engineering route instead. SWEs get double the RSUs as data scientists for the same experience level (so ~250k for my level) and they also didn’t spend 4 years working on a PhD to get there. Oh well... I can’t complain. Very happy with my current situation.

I'm in a somewhat similar boat and have seen DS positions at FAANG not pay as well as SWE. Why is that?

I’m not sure. At average companies, I think SWEs and data scientists make about the same. But the top companies have a much larger software engineering population to choose from, so they can afford to be picky, and the pay correspondingly reflects that. There’s about 20x as many software engineers as there are data scientists in the world.

I think this is changing though, and I think “data scientist” will soon be split into sub-roles. Some companies like Lyft have already changed their title scheme. Business analysts are now data scientists, and those who were data scientists are now research scientists.

The company I work for has an internal job role that isn’t public and an external title that is. So a “data scientist” may have an internal role of “business analyst” or an internal role of “applied scientist”, and there’s a big difference in pay despite the same outward-facing title.

I think the pay scale goes:

Data scientist (business analyst) < data scientist (non-CS PhD) < software engineer = core data scientist (CS PhD) < AI researcher (ML PhD + great publications)

I have a non-CS PhD so I think that’s why I don’t make as much as a software engineer or a core data scientist.

Base salary and bonus is generally the same for all roles for a given experience level; the difference in comp. comes from the RSUs granted.

Or you negotiated poorly for your first and second jobs. Do better next time. There is a wide variance both within and across companies.

On the other hand, top PhDs in machine learning are earning 2 million a year: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/19/technology/artificial-int...

If you have a PhD in CS and are being paid less than someone with an undergrad, something is wrong.

Facebook's median compensation across all employees is $240k. Median of engineer compensation would be significantly higher. Also note that Facebook's median age is 29.

If you are in FAANG, and in bay area, then your numbers look too low. I know mid-level engineers in bay area, can make ~300k. All this assuming a good engineer who has been performing consistently, and is among the top 10% in his/her team.

Mid-level and in the top 10%?

I can only speak for the bay area, but the compensation numbers your parent quotes is not too wild.

Your number, IMO, seems low if you're in the bay area.

It won't be anything like that for a mid level.

The friends I'm talking about are deeply experienced and knowledgeable (10 years minimum, mostly more), phenomenally talented, and incredibly effective at delivering results.

The pay spread between startup and big-co exists at all tiers, but it's particularly huge once you start hitting the top talent.

That is mid level engineer in Atlanta where housing is significantly cheaper.