Engineers on $240k+ are no longer the hottest graduate roles in fintech
The appeal of joining fintech in the past was the opportunity to work on cutting edge technology and earning potentially lucrative stock while doing so. Today, things appear to have changed.
Rex Salisbury, a former fintech partner at VC firm Andreesen Horowitz, said on LinkedIn earlier this month that "the sexiest roles used to be engineering [and] product" for new graduates, but sales is now the marquee job. He said that junior salespeople "can get promoted and make more money a lot faster than an engineer or a product manager."
Salespeople are also more in-demand. Recruiters have told us that one of the most desired profiles in fintech is salespeople with innate technical knowledge of the product you're selling. Salisbury suggests that this is becoming increasingly common due to AI and vibe coding; "there are sales folks pushing code to production to automate key parts of the sales process."
As this happens, junior engineering salaries seem to be stagnating. On Levels.fyi, compensation reported by L1 engineers at Stripe in the US averaged over $240k in 2022; in each of the years since, pay has averaged between $204k and $209k.
Why the shift in focus from engineering to sales? Speaking at the Sifted Summit today, Mike Turner, a partner in the M&A practice of law firm Latham and Watkins, said that "there is a wealth of new money" flowing into startups but "the way in which that money is being applied" varies. A result of this change is that "financial metrics are being brought into focus a lot earlier now than they historically were." The days of securing funding for an exciting product alone are running out.
It's telling that, when speaking about AI, startup leaders see it as an opportunity to enhance its salespeople rather than replace them. Gautier Cloix, an ex-Palantir director at AI startup H Company, said on the Sifted panel that "salespeople spend 75% of their time in front of computers; if we reduce that by a couple of percents [with AI], they have more time to spend with customers." By contrast, the big conversation with engineers is around if (or how many) people will be cut as firms adopt AI coding tools.
Going into sales rather than engineering has its trade-offs, however. For one, as you're close to the money, the role can be high-pressure and susceptible to churn. A former salesperson at New York fintech Ramp told us earlier this year that he was working 40-hour weeks when he joined the firm (during a less sales intensive period for fintech), but was recently working upwards of 70-hour weeks before its $150m fundraise.
As you're earning commission based on your sales, it's also likely that your compensation package contains proportionally less stock than engineers. On Levels.fyi, for example, a Stripe salesperson in New York reported a total compensation of $540k, including $200k in commission, but just $80k in stock. A San Francisco based engineer earning $550k, meanwhile, said $300k of their compensation was in stock. You might see that as a good thing, however.
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