We've negotiated many Uber offers in 2021. Don't leave $100K+ on the table.
Uber pays well but is very tough to negotiate with. They rarely increase base salaries, and recruiters are notorious for refusing to negotiate at all. Even when you have a lot of leverage for your Uber offer negotiation, recruiters will often push back on offer increases unless you play all your cards right.
- Base Salary
- Uber Equity Package (see Uber’s vesting schedule below)
- Performance Bonus (varies by levels)
- Signing Bonus (not included in all initial Uber offers and sometimes split over two years)
- Stock Refreshers (not specified in offer, ask your recruiter for targets)
Uber's performance bonuses are less consistent than companies like Facebook and Google. They are given as a $ value instead of a fixed % of base salary. Bonuses double with top performance ratings.
- Software Engineer II (4) = $23K
- Senior Software Engineer (5a) = $35K
- Senior Software Engineer (5b) = $43K
Uber’s remote salary varies for each component based on where you live. When a fully remote position is offered (which is subject to an approval process and is fairly uncommon), we do see a reduced total comp. On a related note, Uber is transitioning to a hybrid, team hub model. Most employees are allowed to work from home up to two days a week. Additional flexibility is contingent on the team.
Uber has a standard relocation package. It varies depending on seniority, distance traveled and the number of people relocating. For domestic relocation in the US, the package can go up to $15k. Certain circumstances may get you an extra $3-5k.
Uber’s sign on bonus is the most negotiable component. This is quite different from other companies where RSUs have the largest impact. For example, signing bonuses for a 5b Senior Software Engineer range from $0 to $100k split over two years. Signing bonus is followed by RSUs where there is still some room to negotiate. Base salary is very hard to change because Uber salary bands are extremely narrow.
For more information on how to negotiate, look at our articles on email negotiation strategies, how to prepare a script for salary negotiation, and negotiating start up equity and stock options.
Very rarely, however, they frequently request a detailed breakdown of the competing offer. Recruiters sometimes ask follow up questions about the offer (e.g. what level is the position, role title, etc.)
This is extremely unlikely for software engineers below L6. We've negotiated a few above band offers due to a combination of very strong leverage and a well executed negotiation. In most cases, you have a better chance of pushing for a higher level, particularly for Uber levels such as 5a -> 5b (although this may still require more interviews), rather than asking for above band Uber comp.
They have a software system that calculates the first Uber offer package based on a set of inputs. After that, the hiring manager can have some influence over your compensation. When it comes to negotiating a better Uber compensation package, having a good relationship with the hiring manager will help.
Uber's hiring process typically has 5 stages: phone interview, technical interview, assessment, “onsite” interview and offer stage.
The first interview will be conducted over a phone call where you will chat about your background and experience.
The second one will also be conducted over the phone and will assess your technical skills.
The third one is an optional stage, and it may happen or not depending on the role you have applied for. This includes presenting you with real life scenarios to understand how you act on your feet and handle different scenarios.
The last stage of interviewing is the “onsite” interview, though this is currently virtual. For software engineering roles, this will often include1-2 coding rounds, software architecture / system design questions, and a final interview determining your cultural fit.
Lastly, if you succeed and an Uber offer is extended, this is where your salary negotiation process will begin.
For more information on which interview resource is the best for you, check out LeetCode Premium vs AlgoExpert vs InterviewCake vs HackerRank, a comprehensive guide to the most popular prep resources.
Let's consider an Uber software engineer salary. The base pay is quite comparable to Doordash’s base salary. However, Uber’s equity package is higher compared to Doordash and hence on aggregate, Uber’s compensation package is on average higher.
While Uber’s signing bonus, base pay, and stock grants should be the focus of your negotiation. There are of course other perks that are offered by the company. They also provide health benefits, free lunches and dinners at the office, gym reimbursement and shuttle services (only in San Francisco though). In addition to that, they have a Roth 401k and mega backdoor Roth IRA in place. And of course, employee credits and employee discounts for Uber services are also available. There are other benefits available and you can read more about them here.
Software Engineer I (3)
Software Engineer II (4)
Senior Software Engineer (5a)
Senior Software Engineer (5b)
Staff Software Engineer (6)
Senior Staff Software Engineer (7)
Equivalent Level at Google
L3
L4
L5
In between L5 and L6
In between L6 and L7
L8
Our Clients Love Rora
Coming from a non-FAANG background, I was shocked to find out how much I could be earning. Before I signed up with Rora, I made the mistake of telling Amazon my current compensation. Thankfully, Rora knew exactly how to fix it and ended up getting me an offer that was 2.3X what I previously made and more than $600K higher than Amazon’s initial offer!
Through several weeks of interviews, Ganesh was always available to make sure I knew what to say for each conversation. I interviewed with start ups, Google, Facebook and Amazon and was really impressed that Rora knew the comp ranges and were able to give me tailored advice for each – even the start ups.
There ended up being two particularly complex moments in my negotiation. One of the start-ups I had a personal relationship with and I wasn’t sure how it would affect the negotiation. I like that there was a focus on my individual circumstances and that they were leveraged to get me a higher offer. The other situation is that Amazon made a mistake on my written offer and initially wouldn’t rectify it. Ganesh was able to guide me through a challenging conversation to get it resolved.
Thanks to Wilson and the team at Rora I got a ~$250K increase on my remote Facebook offer! I was initially worried I wouldn’t have much leverage because Facebook reached out to me, and I wasn’t interviewing anywhere else. Rora introduced me to an Amazon L7 recruiter and helped me get that process started. I didn’t even end up needing to finish the Amazon interviews, since we were able to use some early compensation conversations to justify our numbers to Facebook.
At one point I was also considering pushing for an E7 role, and they wrote up a great script for me to broach the subject with my recruiter. She ended up giving me the option to do an additional interview to be considered for the higher-level position.
The whole process was very smooth, and I wouldn’t hesitate to use the service for any future negotiations. I found the regular calls with Wilson where we walked through strategy and discussed the scripts to be extremely helpful. Not only did it help with this negotiation, but I also learned a lot of useful negotiation tactics that I’ve already started to use in other situations.
As an engineering leader with decades of experience and having now gone through the negotiation with the team at Rora, the only thing I can say is — get the help. Whether you realize you need it, or even if you think you don’t. Just because you have done well in engineering doesn't mean that you understand the tactics and limits of the recruiting process.
Rora helped me get a $200K increase on my original Facebook offer without any competing offers. It was clear that Rora was deeply familiar with Facebook's negotiation playbook. I’d honestly give the experience an 11/10.
In addition, Rora guided me on how to get the position switched to a revised remote role which was a huge deal at a personal level. They showed me how to redirect FB’s questions so that I could explore the possibility of not relocating, without ever having to say no to my original offer.
This is my first FAANG role and I'm so happy I worked with Rora (thanks again Annie!) for the negotiation. My goal was to increase my Google offer, but I was in a tricky situation where I only had 1 other interview (no offer yet) at a small startup. With their guidance, I managed to get a $240K increase on my Google offer, despite Google's policy of requiring cross offers in writing to justify an increase.
The mock negotiations were a big part of why I was able to get this increase. Going into the negotiation, I assumed the key factor was what to say but I quickly learned that how you say it is equally if not more important. This was clear when over the course of the call"no" turned into "I'll see what I can do" and eventually"I think we can make this work". A big part of this was also having someone with me on the calls to provide real time guidance. This took a lot of the stress out of the situation. I can't recommend this team highly enough!
After receiving several job offers, I needed to make a decision within a few days. I wanted to make sure I was getting the best offer possible, so I decided to use Rora. I was very pleased with their service. My coach, Sameer, was well prepared and had information about what compensation increases were likely possible. He provided detailed scripts covering a range of scenarios, and he did practice negotiations with me that helped me feel confident when I had the actual conversations.
With his help I was able to increase one offer by $45k per year plus get a $50k signing bonus and then use that to increase my offer from Square, which was my first choice. All throughout he was very responsive as I was dealing with some tight deadlines and looking to wrap things up quickly. Rora's fee was only a tiny fraction of the increase they helped me negotiate, and even though they would have made more money if I had taken the highest offer, Sameer always put my goals first and never pressured me to do so. I highly recommend Rora!
My friend introduced me to Rora and I’m so glad they did. I initially did some calculations to see if working with them would be worth it - my final increase ended up being ~3x higher than what I had estimated to be possible!
Their data is much more accurate than anything I found online. Without Sameer's guidance, I would have never known (and would have probably been too nervous) to ask for >$800K for anAmazon L7 offer. Of course, it's not just not enough to throw out a big number, you also need to be able to justify it. Sameer guided me through negotiating an up-level at another company, which I didn’t even know was possible at my level. With their scripts, I was able to leverage my competing offer to get exec approval for my Amazon offer. They also knew all the tricks Amazon would play (e.g., assuming 15% stock appreciation) and exactly how to counter them.
My total 4-year compensation increased by $570K. I don't think I've ever had a higher ROI – I’m very thankful that this service exists!
Uber
has a unique set of negotiation policies. If you don’t have experience negotiating with them, you risk losing out on large amounts of money because of very small mistakes.
There are many of these rules you need to know to get the highest
Uber
offer possible