Staff and principal engineers at pre-IPO companies (Series C through Late Stage) earned an average p90 compensation ceiling of $432K in 2026, based on data from 14 pre-IPO companies tracked by Recruiting from Scratch. The pre-IPO stage is where engineering compensation reaches its highest complexity: base salary bands are competitive with public tech companies, equity vesting may be partially cliff-vested, and secondary liquidity is sometimes available.
| Company | Stage | Median | p90 Ceiling | Roles Tracked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Veeam Software | Venture-backed | $340K | $516K | 17 |
| Mercor | Series C | $315K | $500K | 40 |
| Tenstorrent | Series D | $300K | $500K | 20 |
| OpenAI | Late Stage | $308K | $490K | 225 |
| Thinking Machines Lab | Late Stage | $413K | $475K | 16 |
| xAI | Series E | $310K | $440K | 19 |
| Brex | Series D | $216K | $425K | 29 |
| Perplexity | Series E | $313K | $405K | 26 |
| Decagon | Series D | $300K | $400K | 47 |
| High Touch | Series D | $290K | $400K | 19 |
| Sierra AI | Series E | $310K | $390K | 22 |
| Wayve | Series D | $348K | $382K | 11 |
| SandboxAQ | Series E | $219K | $368K | 10 |
| Baseten | Series E | $248K | $357K | 32 |
At the pre-IPO stage, staff engineer offers have three components that earlier-stage offers don't:
Here's a worked example with real numbers for a pre-IPO staff engineer offer:
Key caveats: liquidation preferences can reduce the common-share pool if the company raised at aggressive preferred terms. If investors have a 1× liquidation preference on $4.5B in investment, your 0.05% of common applies to what's left after they're made whole. Always ask for the cap table and the fully diluted share count with the conversion price.
> Hiring staff engineers? Recruiting from Scratch has filled staff engineer roles at Palantir, Mercor, and other late-stage clients. We typically present qualified candidates within 5 business days. Work with us →
Pre-IPO companies hiring staff engineers are competing against two groups: other late-stage startups and public tech companies. The primary lever is usually the IPO narrative — if you have a credible, near-term path to liquidity, that's the differentiation. If the IPO timeline is uncertain, the equity story is harder to tell and base salary needs to be more competitive.
Evaluating a pre-IPO staff engineer offer requires more due diligence than evaluating a public company offer. Key questions: What is the current 409A valuation vs. last preferred round? Is there a secondary market or tender offer history? What is the vesting schedule for the grant? How does the company's revenue growth compare to valuation? These answers determine whether the equity is worth taking a base salary discount.
Staff engineers at Series C through Late Stage companies earned an average p90 compensation ceiling of $432K, based on H1B LCA filings and ATS postings tracked by Recruiting from Scratch. Top payers in our dataset include Veeam Software ($516K), Mercor ($500K), Tenstorrent ($500K).
Key factors: preferred share count and structure (liquidation preferences that could dilute common shares at exit), current 409A vs. preferred valuation spread, revenue growth trajectory, secondary liquidity options, and IPO timeline credibility. The shorter the time to liquidity, the more the equity is worth in expected value terms.
This depends primarily on your assessment of IPO probability and timeline, your financial cushion to ride out vesting periods, and how meaningful the mission and technical challenge are. For a credible late-stage company 1–2 years from IPO, the economics often favor the pre-IPO offer.
Options require you to pay a strike price (the 409A fair market value) to own the shares. RSUs vest directly as shares with no purchase required. Most late-stage startups (Series D+) have shifted to RSUs to match public company norms. Options at earlier-stage companies are typically cheaper to exercise but can trigger AMT if exercised early; RSUs at late-stage companies are simpler but taxed as ordinary income on vest.
A 409A valuation is an independent appraisal of a private company's common share fair market value. It sets the strike price for new option grants. At late-stage startups, there is often a large spread between the 409A common price and the last preferred round price — sometimes 10:1. This spread means your options are priced cheaply relative to what investors paid, which is good for you if the company succeeds.
Recruiting from Scratch places staff and principal engineers at late-stage startups, including companies preparing for IPO. Get in touch to discuss your search.
Data from 14 late-stage companies tracked by Recruiting from Scratch using H1B LCA filings and ATS job postings. Filtered to Series C and later stages with p90 ceiling ≥ $300K. Updated June 2026.
RFS places staff and principal engineers exclusively at VC-backed companies and pre-IPO startups. If you're evaluating an offer or exploring what's out there, we can help. Connect with a recruiter →
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