Image: Microsoft
Microsoft’s pay data includes salary bands, on-hire stock awards, signing bonuses, annual stock awards, and bonus percentages.
Microsoft offers its top engineers annual salaries exceeding $400,000, with on-hire stock packages valued nearly $2 million, according to leaked documents first reported by Business Insider. The figures underscore the fierce competition among tech giants to attract and retain elite engineering talent.
The company uses a level system to rank staff by seniority, and their compensation is linked to their level number and location.
The most senior “distinguished” employees are at Level 70 and, according to internal pay guidelines seen by Business Insider, each year, they could earn between $252,000 and $408,000 in salary, up to a 90% bonus, and a stock award worth up to $1,476,000. They could also receive an on-hire stock award of between $827,001 and $1.9 million. This means a Level 70 Microsoft employee’s theoretical maximum annual compensation could exceed $4 million, not including a signing bonus, which was not disclosed.
Entry-level engineers are typically classified as Level 57 to 59, with base salaries ranging from $83,000 and $163,600. Senior engineers begin at Level 63, principal engineers at Level 65, and partners start at Level 68 — though roles at these levels are increasingly rare.
Microsoft declined to comment on the leaked pay data, which includes “main” and “high” salary bands, on-hire stock awards, signing bonuses, annual stock awards, and bonus percentages, according to Business Insider. A source familiar with the hiring structure said that “main” ranges apply to employees in Redmond, Washington, while the “high” ranges aim to attract talent from costlier cities like San Francisco.
Meta uses a similar ranking mechanism, where staff who score well on their annual review are eligible for bigger bonuses and equity. Conversely, those viewed as under-delivering may see these perks cut.
In January, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he would fire and replace 5% of Meta’s “low-performers.” Microsoft also conducted performance-based layoffs that same month, suggesting that life inside big tech — despite the compensation — isn’t always comfortable.
The upper bounds of Microsoft’s salary ranges are likely offered in competitive recruiting scenarios, according to Business Insider, and competition is intense.
Zuckerberg reportedly dangled $100 million signing bonuses to persuade engineers to jump ship from rivals like OpenAI and Google DeepMind into Meta’s new AI research team. Rumours suggest that Meta secured Apple’s top AI executive, Ruoming Pang, with a compensation package worth over $200 million.
Microsoft also has been actively recruiting, reportedly poaching around two dozen staff from Google’s DeepMind AI arm to work on consumer-facing AI products like Copilot and Bing AI.
The tech giants have even been acquiring entire companies to bring talent in-house. Meta invested $14.3 billion for a 49% stake in data-labelling startup Scale AI, whose co-founder agreed to lead Meta’s AI lab as part of the deal. Google purchased Character.AI for $2.7 billion last year, and OpenAI acquired Jony Ive’s AI startup in a $6.4 billion all-equity deal, primarily to get the legendary Apple designer to work on its mystery AI hardware device.
These generous figures aren’t just rewards for skills but reflect the limited talent pool, which has allowed elite AI engineers to negotiate higher pay. When it came to Zuckerberg’s list of potential recruits for jobs in Meta’s AI division, they tended to be of similar ages, have worked for the same companies, live in the same cities, and research overlapping topics — making them part of a close-knit network.
And because many entered their fields without chasing wealth, they tend to remain loyal to peers rather than employers dangling eight- or nine-figure salaries, which helps make group negotiations possible. For example, Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai all left OpenAI for Meta together.
As there is a limit to how much the tech giants can offer to bring AI talent on board, they are also trying to lure them by showing the mettle of their models. Google DeepMind and OpenAI have both claimed that their latest AI systems have reached gold-medal level performance on the International Mathematical Olympiad.
All leading players are locked in an escalating race to dominate AI, as whoever controls the most powerful, widely adopted AI platforms stands to shape the technology’s future and reap both economic and geopolitical influence.
Microsoft’s hiring spree comes after it eliminated around 15,000 roles since May. CEO Satya Nadella recently said the layoffs are “weighing heavily” on him.
Fiona Jackson is a news writer who started her journalism career at SWNS press agency, later working at MailOnline, an advertising agency, and TechnologyAdvice. Her work spans human interest and consumer tech reporting, appearing in prominent media outlets such as TechHQ, The Independent, Daily Mail, and The Sun.
