What is the Highest Technical Program Manager Salary?

Amazon Technical Program Manager Offer Components

Amazon base salary:
base salary at Amazon is fairly standard. The one unique element was that for almost all of 2021 there was a $160K/$185K base salary cap in Seattle/SF
Amazon equity (RSUs):
Amazon's equity vesting schedule is non-standard and heavily back weighted. You will vest equity (i.e. you receive shares) over a 4 year period but only 5% in year 1, 15% year 2, 40% in year 3 and 4. Amazon quotes a specific number of shares rather than dollar value, but you can calculate a decent approximation of the dollar value by looking at the average share price over the past month
Amazon signing bonus:
Amazon has a signing bonus in year 1 and year 2. These are typically much larger than at other companies to make up for the tiny portion of equity that is vesting in year 1 and 2
Amazon performance bonus:
Amazon does not have set targets for performance bonuses. You shouldn't factor this into your total comp at Amazon
Amazon stock refreshers:
Amazon stock refreshers are very hit or miss and depend on your manager/team in addition to your own performance. You will almost always receive additional stocks at the end of your initial 4-year grant, but the usual stacking of stock refreshers in year 2 and 3 doesn't typically happen at Amazon

Note: this post is focused on Technical Program Manager (TPM) roles. Program Manager (PgM) is an entirely different pay band. And of course, all 3 of Amazon's Product Manager roles (PM, PM-T, PMT-ES) have distinct comp bands. Lastly, levelling is critical to understanding compensation bands. If you aren't familiar with Amazon levels (which are quite unique), skip to the bottom to read this.

L5 Amazon Technical Program Manager Salary

2021 Top of Band Numbers (Seattle)

Base Salary

$155K

Equity (4 years)

$160K

Yr 1 Signing Bonus

$78K

Yr 2 Signing Bonus

$56K

These top of band numbers are Seattle - SF/NYC have higher comp bands. Amazon's level structure is unique and an L5 TPM at Amazon is equivalent to an IC4 TPM at Facebook or Google.

L6 Amazon Technical Program Manager Salary

2021 Top of Band Numbers (Seattle)

Base Salary

$160K

Equity (4 years)

$315K

Yr 1 Signing Bonus

$140K

Yr 2 Signing Bonus

$108K

In 2021, Amazon down-levelled many TPM candidates from L7 to L6. If you are in that position, you have a better shot at securing above band numbers, provided you have a strong negotiation.

L7 Amazon Technical Program Manager Salary

2021 Seattle Top of Band Numbers (Seattle)

Base Salary

$160K

Equity (4 years)

$700K

Yr 1 Signing Bonus

$295K

Yr 2 Signing Bonus

$225K

L7 is where we've seen the biggest change in 2022 TPM numbers. It was also possible to lock in 2022 bands for some offers in late November and December.

Amazon Technical Program Manager Negotiation

So now you've got the comp data, are you ready to negotiate? Not quite.

First off, comp data is constantly changing and Amazon made significant modifications to its compensation approach in 2022. Early 2022 numbers are already coming in higher than the 2021 numbers listed above, and it’s critical to know the full range for each component to optimize your negotiation. Amazon also fundamentally changed how they structure offers with the removal of their artificially low base salary caps. But even more than that, many people think knowing the compensation data is the most important part of a negotiation, but it’s not. You can go tell your Amazon recruiter that you read online the top of band is $X and you want that number, but in 90% of cases that won’t work. So what will?

Companies negotiate when they believe you won’t accept their offer. But, since you just finished a long and arduous interview process with them, they know you are likely to accept the job unless you have higher competing offers from other great companies.

This means you need to create leverage and make it believable that you are considering other options but would prefer Amazon if the compensation is comparable. This sounds easy but quickly becomes challenging if you don’t have other offers or if your other offers aren’t higher than the top of band comp numbers you are targeting.

Assuming you do have a higher competing offer (i.e. above your top of band target) from another good company, the negotiation can still be surprisingly difficult. Amazon has many unusual policies. For example, they by default assume 15% stock appreciation in their offers - though they don't openly disclose it. This means they will claim to have "matched" a competing offer when in fact their offer is much lower. There are multiple rules like this at Amazon, and the strategies that we've found work best to get around them are often not intuitive. In our experience, Amazon's comp team operates like a bureaucracy where through trial and error you can figure out how to reliably turn specific pieces of information (inputs) into your target output.

Amazon Technical Program Manager Levels

Amazon Levels

L6 (Senior TPM)

L8 (TPM Director)

Google Levels

Between L6 and L7

Amazon does not follow industry standards when it comes to leveling, though to be fair many companies take a unique approach. We'd recommend using Google levels as the benchmark. Other companies like Facebook, DoorDash, etc. use the Google system just with different names (e.g. IC5/L5/E5 are the same at those companies). Amazon inflates levels by +1 for more junior levels (e.g. Amazon L4 = Google L3, both are entry level positions). However, this trend breaks at Amazon L7, which is closer to Google L7 than Google L6 in terms of compensation and scope. The 3 other main leveling systems to be aware of are: 1) Microsoft where 65 = Amazon L6 2) Apple where ICT4 is in between Amazon L5 and L6 3) Stripe/Robinhood/etc. where L2/IC2 = Amazon L5.