What is the Highest Apple Technical Program Manager Salary?

Apple Technical Program Manager Offer Components

Apple base salary:
Apple’s base salary bands are slightly lower than top-paying companies like Amazon and Meta. Their payment cycle and other base salary details are all standard.
Apple equity (RSUs):
Apple RSUs vest - meaning you receive shares evenly (25% a year) over a 4-year period. These shares will be distributed every 6 months (slower than the industry standard of 3 months). The actual number of shares you receive will be calculated by dividing the dollar value of RSUs you receive upon receiving your offer by a "share value." The share value is the closing price on the grant day (the 15th of the month after you join).
Apple signing bonus:
Apple can offer large signing bonuses. The standard is for the signing bonus to be paid for year 1 only, but there are some scenarios where it will be split over 2 years. Sign-on bonuses at Apple are paid within 30 days of your start date, although they reserve the right to clawback part of it if you leave within 12 months.
Apple performance bonus:
Apple performance bonus targets are smaller than most big tech companies and less "guaranteed." Recruiters will quote a wide range of numbers that aren't reliable and this is made worse because Apple doesn't actually list target numbers in the offer letter (unlike Google and Facebook). Each level has a different bonus target, which you will see listed below, and these are non-negotiable.
Apple stock refreshers:
Apple is known to have one of the best stock refresher packages in the industry. However, in typical Apple fashion, they often avoid sharing target numbers. That said, employees with good reviews should expect more than 25% of their initial grant as a refresher grant each year (though this does vary by team). Refreshers are typically given in October and also vest over 4 years. Note - you are only eligible for a full refresher in your first year of employment if you join Apple before April of that year, otherwise you’ll be granted one for the next year. Refreshers are non-negotiable at Apple.

Note: This post is focused on Technical Program Manager (TPM) roles - although, at Apple, there can be some overlap between TPM and EPM (Engineering Program Manager) roles.

In general, TPMs at Apple are very technical and work to design equipment to manufacture products whereas EPMs are more of a cross-functional role and communicate more with leadership. Engineering Program Manager is an entirely different pay band, although this may overlap with TPM for software or AI/ML teams.

Lastly, leveling is critical to understanding compensation bands. If you aren't familiar with Apple levels (which are quite unique), skip to the bottom to read this.

ICT3 Apple Technical Program Manager Salary

2022 Cupertino Top-of-Band Numbers

Base Salary

$170K

Equity (4 years)

$150K

Signing Bonus

$40K

Performance Bonus

10%

We've seen some 2022 and 2021 offers with signing bonuses going up to $50k but this is very hard to achieve especially outside of ML/AI teams.

ICT4 Apple Technical Program Manager Salary

2022 Cupertino Top-of-Band Numbers

Base Salary

$200K

Equity (4 years)

$400K

Signing Bonus

$50K

Performance Bonus

10%

Since Apple will frequently down-level candidates from ICT5, these comp bands are fairly wide. Above band offers with more than $400k equity and $50K signing can also happen in rare circumstances.

ICT5 Apple Technical Program Manager Salary

2022 Cupertino Top-of-Band Numbers

Base Salary

$225K

Equity (4 years)

$800K

Signing Bonus

$100K

Performance Bonus

15%

In some rare circumstances, equity may go up to $1M especially in ML/AI teams.

Apple 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. Apple’s numbers changed substantially from 2021 to 2022 (though we've seen some pullback with the recent market downturn), and it’s critical to know the full range for each component to optimize your negotiation.

However, counter to what many people think, having compensation data alone is not typically enough. You can go tell your Apple recruiter that $X is top-of-band and that 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.

This means you need to create leverage and make them believe that you are considering other options but would prefer Apple 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.

Even if you are in a perfect situation where you have a competing offer with compensation higher than the top-of-band numbers you are targeting, the negotiation can still get complicated. Apple will try to find any differences in the offers (location, level discrepancy, non-salary comp components) and use that to justify not matching the offer. Sometimes this is very illogical (e.g. not matching an offer from a lower cost of living area), so you have to be very careful how you share your information. Knowing exactly what to say and not say on a recruiter call is key to optimizing your Apple negotiation.

Apple Technical Program Manager Levels

Apple Levels

ICT2

ICT3

ICT4

ICT5

Google Levels

Junior L4

Junior L5

Google is a useful point of comparison as its levelling system has become the industry standard. Apple's levels unfortunately don't line up cleanly with Google (e.g. ICT3 is senior L3 or junior L4 at Google). This often presents challenges where incoming Apple candidates are down-levelled. However, it can also present opportunities where you can jump a level if you play your cards right.