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P1-P5 IC, M-track managers. Below-market base offset by TSLA equity; no annual cash bonus. Autopilot/AI roles carry a 15-20% premium.
Ranges aggregated from publicly-available sources. Treat the median (p50) as roughly representative; quartile bands reflect negotiation range. Have specific data points or corrections? Send them in.
Tesla uses P-levels (P1 entry through P5 senior staff) for ICs and an M-track for managers. Base salaries run meaningfully below big-tech peers and there is no annual cash bonus for engineers - the bet is TSLA equity, granted as RSUs (and sometimes options) with a fixed share count, so realized comp swings hard with the stock. Refreshers are performance-gated, not automatic. Autopilot / FSD / Dojo ML roles are the premium track and face direct frontier-lab competition; vehicle, energy, and factory software cluster at the medians shown. Expect significantly longer hours than the comp percentile alone would suggest.
| Component | p25 | p50 | p75 | p90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base salary | $115K | $125K | $135K | $148K |
| Equity (annualized) | $35K | $45K | $60K | $80K |
| Total comp | $150K | $170K | $195K | $228K |
Entry-level. Tesla pays below-market base offset by equity; there is no annual cash bonus program for ICs. New-grad offers can include stock options instead of RSUs - model options conservatively.
| Component | p25 | p50 | p75 | p90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base salary | $135K | $148K | $160K | $175K |
| Equity (annualized) | $50K | $70K | $95K | $130K |
| Total comp | $185K | $218K | $255K | $305K |
Mid-level. Expect intense hours relative to comp - candidates regularly trade 10-20% of big-tech pay for mission and scope. Refreshers are performance-gated and not guaranteed.
| Component | p25 | p50 | p75 | p90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base salary | $155K | $170K | $185K | $200K |
| Equity (annualized) | $80K | $115K | $160K | $220K |
| Total comp | $235K | $285K | $345K | $420K |
Senior IC. The most-common external hire level. Vehicle-software and energy-platform roles cluster at p50; Autopilot-adjacent infra pulls the upper band.
| Component | p25 | p50 | p75 | p90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base salary | $175K | $190K | $205K | $225K |
| Equity (annualized) | $120K | $170K | $240K | $330K |
| Total comp | $295K | $360K | $445K | $555K |
Staff IC. Equity dominates and realized comp swings hard with TSLA - grants are fixed-share-count, so stock movement cuts both ways.
| Component | p25 | p50 | p75 | p90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base salary | $195K | $210K | $230K | $250K |
| Equity (annualized) | $175K | $250K | $355K | $500K |
| Total comp | $370K | $460K | $585K | $750K |
Senior staff. Small population; offers are individually negotiated and often anchored to TSLA price at grant.
Cross-referenced against public reporting, state pay-transparency postings, and triangulated where source ranges disagreed. Last refresh: June 2026.
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