Founding engineer salary and equity
Updated
Founding engineers have a median base salary of about $195,000 in Recruiting from Scratch's 2026 review of job postings, with the middle half between $170,000 and $218,000. For equity, Carta puts the median first engineer at a tech startup at 1.54% of the company over the past two years, and Pave's January 2023 data puts a senior first engineer at 0.33%.[1][2][6]
Seed vs Series A
| Seed | Series A | |
|---|---|---|
| Software engineer, posted base (median midpoint) | $200K | $200K |
| Senior software engineer, posted base (median midpoint) | $200K | $200K |
| Equity for a founding engineer (one recruiter's stated range, no data sample given; its seed figure covers pre-seed too) | 0.5% to 2% | 0.2% to 0.6% |
| Equity for a strong senior hire (the same recruiter's stated range, no data sample given) | 0.3% to 0.8% | 0.15% to 0.5% |
The cash rows come from Recruiting from Scratch, a recruiting firm, which read US postings with disclosed pay at venture-backed startups in the 12 months to 23 October 2026: 99 at seed for software engineers and 50 for senior ones. These are posted ranges, not signed offers. It found too few founding engineer postings at seed alone to set a band; across seed to Series B, it puts the midpoint at $205K, in a band of $160K to $250K, from 35 postings.[3]
We found no public 2025 or 2026 dataset that splits founding engineer equity by seed and Series A, so the equity rows are the same firm's stated ranges, and it gives no data behind them. The closest hard number is Carta's: over the past two years, the median first engineer at a tech startup on Carta got 1.54% of company equity. Across first hires in every role, the median was 1.75% and the 75th percentile 4.26%. Neither splits by stage.[4][2][5]
Pave, January 2023
| Percentile | Cash | Equity |
|---|---|---|
| 50th | $187,000 | 0.33% |
| 75th | $215,000 | 0.62% |
| 90th | $235,000 | 1.24% |
Sources:[6]
Pave presents these as market offers for a startup's first engineer after its first pre-seed or seed round. The data are senior engineers (Pave levels P4 and P5) in San Francisco, New York and Seattle, from 569 employees at 354 companies. Pave published them in January 2023 and last updated the page in February 2025, and pay has risen since: Carta's H2 2025 report finds that over the two years to early 2026, median initial equity grants for individual contributors rose nearly 11% and their median salary 6.4%.[6][7]
How the city changes the cash
| Area | Median pay for software developers |
|---|---|
| United States | $135,980 |
| San Francisco area | $186,640 |
| New York area | $166,830 |
| Boston area | $166,090 |
| London | £75,296 |
These are all software developers, not founding engineers, so treat them as what a typical candidate already earns, and expect a strong one to ask for more. The US figures are BLS 2025 wage data; London's is the ONS median for full-time programmers and software development professionals in 2025.[8][11]
Equity in context
Carta's 2026 founder ownership report puts the median employee pool at 12.1% of equity at the seed stage.[12]
- A grant of 1% to your first engineer uses about a twelfth of a 12% pool, and Pave's 90th percentile is 1.24%. Decide how many early hires the pool has to cover before you offer.
- Show the grant as a number of shares and as a percent of fully diluted shares, so the candidate can check it.
- Say how it vests and how long they have to exercise after they leave. Both change what the grant is worth.
Cash or equity
Some candidates will take less cash for more equity, and some cannot. Offer two or three versions of the same total, for example more cash with a smaller grant and less cash with a larger one, and let them choose.
How Vouch helps
Vouch finds and vets founding engineers and first go-to-market hires for seed and Series A startups. You meet a short list and pay only when you hire. Every candidate Vouch sends you has been interviewed by us and scored against your must-haves before you meet them. Start a search.
Questions founders ask
How much equity should a founding engineer get at seed?
Public numbers give a wide range, because they measure different hires. Carta's median first engineer at a tech startup gets 1.54%, while Pave's January 2023 data puts a senior first engineer at 0.33% at the median and 1.24% at the 90th percentile. One recruiter quotes 0.5% to 2% or more for one of the first five engineers, and 0.3% to 0.8% at seed for a strong senior hire, with no data behind either. How early they join, how senior they are and how much cash they give up move them within that range.[2][6][1][4]
Founding engineer vs first engineer: how is pay different?
Often it is the same hire under another title: Pave's guide to paying the first engineer treats Founding Engineer as one title to give them. Recruiting from Scratch uses the title for roughly the first one to five engineers, so the gap shows up inside that group, and mostly in equity. Pave's CEO sees a steep drop in equity from engineer 1 to engineer 2, and Carta's 2024 grants fall from a median of 1.5% for the first hire in any role to about 0.3% by the sixth.[6][1][13]
What vesting schedule do founding engineers get?
Usually four years with a one-year cliff, the norm Carta describes for founders and early employees: a quarter vests after the first year, and the rest vests monthly. We found no public data showing founding engineers get a different schedule. Ask about the exercise window too: Carta says 90 days after leaving has been common, though many companies now offer longer.[14][15]
Should a founding engineer take less salary for more equity?
Only if they can live on the lower cash and accept that the equity may end up worth nothing. Pave's CEO describes founders trading cash for equity on a sliding scale, and calls $1 of cash for $2 of equity value the anecdotal median. Recruiting from Scratch notes that a 1% grant in a company that does not exit is worth zero. Offer two or three mixes and let the candidate choose.[6][1]
Is a founding engineer paid less than a senior engineer at a big company?
Often in cash, and more in equity. Compare the total over four years, and be honest about the risk in the equity.
Do I have to post a salary range?
In some states, yes. California (15 or more employees), New York State (4 or more) and Massachusetts (25 or more) are among the states that require a pay range in a job posting, and New York City has its own rule. See the city guides.
Sources
- Recruiting from Scratch, Founding Engineer Compensation: Salary and Equity in 2026, 25 June 2026. Read 4 November 2026.
- Carta, The Median First Engineer Equity Grant Is 1.54 Percent, December 2025. Read 4 November 2026.
- Recruiting from Scratch, Seed-Stage Engineer Salary 2026: What Seed Startups Pay, 23 October 2026. Read 4 November 2026.
- Recruiting from Scratch, What Equity Should You Offer a Founding Engineer at Series A? (2026 Guide), 25 June 2026. Read 4 November 2026.
- Carta, State of Startup Compensation: H1 2026. Read 4 November 2026.
- Pave, Founding Software Engineer Salary & Equity: How Much Should They Get?, 24 January 2023, page updated 18 February 2025. Read 4 November 2026.
- Carta, State of Startup Compensation: H2 2025, 4 May 2026. Read 25 October 2026.
- O*NET OnLine (US Department of Labor), BLS wage data, Software Developers: local wages, San Francisco area, BLS 2025 wage data. Read 25 October 2026.
- O*NET OnLine (US Department of Labor), BLS wage data, Software Developers: local wages, New York area, BLS 2025 wage data. Read 25 October 2026.
- O*NET OnLine (US Department of Labor), BLS wage data, Software Developers: local wages, Boston area, BLS 2025 wage data. Read 25 October 2026.
- Office for National Statistics, ASHE Table 15: region by occupation (SOC 2020), annual pay, full-time, 2025 provisional, 23 October 2025. Read 25 October 2026.
- Carta, Founder Ownership Report 2026, 12 March 2026. Read 25 October 2026.
- Carta, Peter Walker, Equity for your first 8 hires, 31 January 2025. Read 4 November 2026.
- Carta, Vesting Explained: Schedules, Cliffs, Acceleration, and Types. Read 4 November 2026.
- Carta, What Happens to Vested Stock & Equity When You Leave. Read 4 November 2026.