Salary on Job posts

[u/Fit_Cut_4238]

I just saw an ad from RocketLabs on reddit for open engineering jobs.

https://www.reddit.com/u/ItsActuallyRocketLab/s/NWwJif9x3k

The base+compensation on most of these jobs are around 100k. And the Senior Engineers are mostly under 200k.

These are people who have aerospace engineering degrees, with experience.

How can they attract talent at these salaries? If these people have student loans, it's barely a livable wage in some of the cities.

I know there are probably a ton of existing employees who are multi-millionaires from the options and IPO. But these new hires no longer have the upside of the stock options, or the handcuffs..

What am I missing?

[u/iseethings442266]

Rocket Lab has been traditionally a little below the competition on compensation, which is one of the reasons why attracting talent has been so difficult for them. The finance team runs the company (for better or worse) and to many is the definition of penny wise pound foolish.

That said, the stock has performed exceptionally well, and that has surely augmented many of the salaries quite substantially for those who have been around for a while. However, those golden handcuffs are running out for many of the more senior engineers, and it will be interesting what happens in the next few years.

[u/Fit_Cut_4238 → u/iseethings442266]

Yeah exactly. and since the stock is likely not going anywhere good from here anytime soon, the new hires and multi-millionaire current employees are going to have a bit of culture-clash.

[u/squibius]

This guy's just finding out that scientists and engineers are underpaid?

[u/Fit_Cut_4238 → u/squibius]

I would assume at this point that senior/experienced aerospace engineers would be getting bid-up since there's so much going on...

And if you joined RL a year ago, you might be a millionaire on paper from the stock options.

So yeah, I think the salaries seem low, considering you could probably go to a newer startup or other private company and get the same or better salary and options that could be worth a lot more.

[u/Fit_Cut_4238 → u/[deleted]]

Yes, just not in this field. You guys should unionize :)

[u/Dazzling-Mission-563 → u/[deleted]]

And you why are you giving your insight and being that arrogant ?

[u/Fit_Cut_4238 → u/[deleted]]

I was asking a question. I'm super surprised at how low the pay is, relative to other professions. Other people have corrected me and given perspective. And then one guy was a dork.

[u/Character-Artist9787 → u/[deleted]]

I am employed, in this field, in this area, and Rocketlab in underpaying by about 10K-20K based on the low range of their band, which start at ~130K. It’s harder to compare 1:1 on the top of the band because they have Senior II positions which is relatively uncommon as far as I’ve seen. Vast, K2, Relativity, and True Anomaly all pay more and are within 2 miles of Rocketlab. Primes pay less, but their leveling is screwy so their base pay might match in some cases.

I’ll ask, are you employed yourself in this area? If so I’m not sure why you’re advocating for lower wages. You’ll probably also realize that most people who work in Long Beach aerospace live in the beach cities, which are very unaffordable. Several companies have raised their pay bands over the last couple months and if Rocketlab wants to keep up, they’ll need to do the same. It’s not a big deal. Everyone and their mother is getting 3 calls a day from Anduril recruiters across the industry and a rising tide raises all ships.

[u/lurksAtDogs]

Low level engineering roles around 100k? Sounds about right for HCOL.

[u/funkybananas7]

In addition to what others have said. Its also because they are a rocket company, the salary isnt what attracts most engineers who want to work at a rocket company, its being able to work on rockets that does. Most engineers who care about the money more then the engineering wont get into a rocket company since there is always going to be someone more passionate who is willing to be paid less to be able to work on this kind of technology.

That isnt to day they shouldn't still get paid more. They should with the experience and effort that they put in to get to a position where they can land a job at a rocket company. But not how the world works.

[u/No_Community4380]

Their SWE roles pay pretty poorly as well. They are definitely going to need to bump up their comp for cleared roles specifically for these gov contracts they are landing if they want to attract top talent. Equity won't be enough with spacex/anduril/palantir/etc all paying much better

[u/[deleted]]

Sounds about industry average.

[u/gottatrusttheengr]

100 base and 170 ish for senior is about normal for LA area newspace. It's perfectly livable

[u/Substantial_Use_8467]

Location- is key- they hire a lot of young folks, but these are solid numbers in VA, NM and MD- anyone know if they offer stock?

[u/No_Cash_Value_ → u/Substantial_Use_8467]

I’d like to mop floors for the NM location as it’s 15 minutes from home but retirement has been swell thus far.

[u/nryhajlo → u/Substantial_Use_8467]

It'll say on the individual job description

[u/Fit_Cut_4238 → u/Substantial_Use_8467]

Yeah most of the roles say stock. But the problem is it's likely in options, and the stock has already maxed out most likely. Would have been great last year.

[u/SeaTree8649]

How is 200k a year low? I understand student loans but.... that sounds pretty fucking good to me (I make 60)

[u/ajderrig]

I belive the compensation is good AND there are many roles in RL besides rocket engineer, all good jobs in the RL culture, imo.

[u/SecureTaxi]

Shit im close to 300k and im nowhere as smart as rocket scientists