Corp Dev / Strategic Finance All-In Comp (Dec-25)
Want to start a thread to see what numbers people are seeing.
2 Years EB, 1 year UMM PE, all in ~280k NYC with ~55-60 hours.
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Strategic Finance after 2 years EB. $340k but only 50% (170k) cash
What kind of company do you work at? I’m an Assoc. at an F500 after 2 years MM IB and make way less, nothing I see on LinkedIn or through recruiters was nearly this high.
pre ipo startup in sf. The advertised range was $130k - $250k range, so I’m assuming they only listed the cash comp range
Bump
Corp dev associate after 2 years UMM PE. $180k base, $30k annually vesting equity.
Above seems a little light on comp. Did you do 2 years an analyst?
I did two years at the UMM out of undergrad, so had only that experience coming into the job.
I’m in a similar spot. Out of curiosity, looking back, was it the right choice for you?
3 years MM IB. 300k all in (200 base, 100 bonus) plus incentive units
What type of company?
PE-backed, services company in NYC
Can we normalize putting what type of companies these are (e.g., Series B, growing 100% YoY)? Helpful for people who want to recruit for these and know the pay range can be wide depending how sweaty and fast growing the company is
Left IB after 2nd year bonus without a job lined up. Landed a 155k base + minimum bonus plus 45k equity so 200k TC but can flex up to 225k depending on how firm does, which it’s doing well. Series A, fully remote/hybrid option and presence/ops around the world in Tier 1 cities so had the chance to move from a US city to Asia and Europe (and other US cities) which was a big deal for me.
Title is Growth Finance & Operations and they said we can have bi annual comp increase conversations which I think they will hold their word to.
Can I pm you?
Do you think $290k all in for 2 years out of IB (no PE at all) is an anomaly offer and should be signed right away? Its $290k cash. Hours 55-60.
yeah for sure, that's more than a lot of MM PE shops for first years
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Bump
I’ll add a more modest datapoint since the comp numbers above are higher than what I or any of my friends in corp dev make.
135k Base, ~10% bonus. F500 Corp Dev in a LCOL city. 2 years MM IB prior. Definitely need to brush off my resume and hit LinkedIn come January if the numbers above are true.
This is definitely normal. I’m also surprised by a couple numbers above.
Yeah as someone who went PE -> CD I think there's some selection bias at play here. 200k or below is pretty standard if you're coming from under VP level. You could make more at a high flying startup but 50% of that is going to be illiquid startup equity but I'm not personally too excited about that given where we are in the venture cycle. A lot of people find out too late that a "good" but not "great" exit often means $0 for employees after VCs hit their 2x liquidity pref. In that sense the power law aspect of startup outcomes is even more severe as an employee vs. investor.
Are you happy with your choice?
100%. I was in a toxic group and got fucked on my last bonus so I’ll come out pretty close to where I was my last year in banking. I could have taken an offer I had at a BB or tried to jump into PE but I was too fed up with the late nights spent on pointless work for my asshole seniors to justify the extra $. My new boss is awesome and I get to work on way cooler deals than I ever would have in my old group so it’s been a solid move. Only downside is being in a city I don’t love and could have used a better name on my resume before I made the jump into corporate.
Hey, look at my comment below. I'm in the same boat as you F500. I think a lot of the salaries here given are tech startups. With your experience and the COL the comp you're getting is actually right in-market if not slightly above. Then again, I had 4 YOE, so I do think about my decision a lot and sometimes get pretty depressed about how far I've fallen in a way
I have some thoughts on this but non-tech F500s seem to pay less across the board than startups and quality sponsor portcos (I like to think the name on my resume and the job security are both a lot better though). I can’t relate to the comp decrease you probably took but $150k is still solid for a second tier city, especially with how shitty the job market is for white collar workers. Why did you leave IB and do you have plans to stick around? I want to stay at my company but the path to making more money would probably involve jumping into ops / sales and I have to think I could get better pay & promotion at a different company in a year or two.
I did 2 years of MM PE and got pretty burned out so I decided to leave instead of staying to do Sr. Assco. Nw I make 200k in corp dev at a public tech company you've heard of. I work 30-40 hours per week and I'm fully remote - my coworkers that choose to live LCOL live pretty large for their age / area. Good pivot ops exist to more lucrative AI labs / higher deal velocity co's if I wanted to move but I'm pretty content now. Comp trajectory looks like high 200s in a couple years and high 300s a couple years after. That's about as much money as I'll "need" to have the lifestyle I want, but I wonder if I'll get bored and want something higher intensity again. Also since I'm remote with low hours I have capacity to spin up something on the side or buy a small business but I haven't taken that step yet.
How do you mentally deal with taking over a 50% comp cut? After a few years your taking close to a million bucks
Candidly I deal with it because my parents are very well off and I value my free time and flexibility more than salary.
Do you think $290k all in for 2 years out of IB (no PE at all) is an anomaly offer and should be signed right away? Its $290k cash. Hours 55-60.
You would be a complete idiot to not sign that on the spot
Curious how much of a difference 1-2 years of PE make in terms of comp/opportunities. Can great opportunities be found after two years of banking?
If you have the opportunity to do PE - do PE. It is a brutal job but it does give you a completely new skillset from IB. It's like the "finishing school" of early finance careers. Even 1 year makes a difference.
I don't get these figures. Are they all tech, startup or PE-backed roles? I'm at a public F500. 4 YOE in IB (no PE) and am getting only $150K all-in currently...albeit at a LCOL/MCOL area. Feel super underpaid compared to banking but I am also working less than 1/2 the hours. I haven't seen public F500 give the kind of salaries written here
My $290k all in corp dev is from a very aggressive sponsor backed company, we just roll up constantly and do M&A just for M&A it seems lol
EBITDA Multiple Arbitrage. The model works so they pay for it. That being said, if your offer 290k all in cash comp then you have received the greatest offer of all time for a junior level employee.
Our Corp Dev leader: $250K base, $100K bonus, 0.25% of the business at typical 50-50 time/performance split at 5x, 7x, 10x on performance. He stepped into the business when our mark was a 2.8x very early in the hold, so his hurdles were normalized. We've hit 2 of 3 hurdles.
Strategy is M&A heavy though not in a straightforward roll-up strategy. We buy 5-7 strong strategic fits a year depending upon size.
He did 2 years at a top bank and PE fund, and ~5 years at 2 other PE PortCos. Hired for a similar background to myself but someone that stayed the deal route. He has a team of 4. We keep integration separate.
Hours are likely 60-70 a week with half the year on the road. He's remote in a low cost location.
so 9 years of experience for ~350k all in with 70 hours and constant travel? Isn't this dogshit?
I mean 350k in a LCOL is like 600k in NYC no? Think that’s really damn good for those hours and not being in IB/PE..would honestly be a pretty ideal scenario at 32 years old…are you still in school?
Equity worth $3-4M post-tax at exit. You pay the bills with the cash. Work for the equity.
Depends on what the hours actually are. My head of growth at a PubCo claims he works 70-80 hours a week but he goes out to lunch every day, we do happy hour at least once a week, he works from home 3 days week and many times is "away" for half the day with no meetings. If i do an email at 8:00am and an email at 8pm did i really work 12 hours?
IRO
$275k base
+40% target bonus
+ 80-90% LTIP with 3 year cliff vest
Finally someone in IR. Would you mind if I DM with some questions? Could also message me I’ve left myself public. Thanks.
Another public co IRO here. Is director your actual title? what COL area are you in? For me:
$175k base +25% target bonus (part of this is equity, part is cash) +30% LTIP (vests over 3 years)
Low to medium COL
My comp seems low based on the studies I've seen, but 1) I'm young and 2) leadership at my company seems to genuinely want to develop me, so I've been ok with it. But you're over double my comp... 50% haircut is a steep price for any promises of development, however sincere.
Yes director is my title although going to push for VP title. I’m the only one on my team so am the entire function.
In a low COL major city.
Adding a European benchmark.
Did A2A at an EB in London, 1 year in PE and now at a software company. Fully remote role, €90k base + 20/30% bonus depending on year and performance. Working around 50/55hrs a week
Corp Dev Manager, MCOL city at 10B PubCo. ~7 YOE
140k Base 20% bonus, 20% in RSUs
Associate pay was 120K base, 10% Bonus no RSUs
Was 2 years in back office/business analysis, 2 years as an analyst level at a PortCo, 2.5 years At PubCo as Associate prior to promotion. Never worked in IB but thought i'd offer some datapoints
Redacted
What’s the typical background of someone on your team? Currently an associate in M&A/Strategy at a digital infra pubco but want to make the jump into a more traditional tech co or startup.
Historically, almost exclusively management consulting or internal transfers from business teams.
Today, given the heightened focus on AI, we're open to non-consultants with a specialization at the AI infra, platform, or app-layer. Still needs a consulting "toolkit" but you'd have a lower bar. Your $/hr is terrible but I think the scope is unparalleled and have been treating it like a paid MBA
$250 + 25% bonus + mid-single-digits % of management options. M&A for PE-backed firm in tier 1 city. 7 years IB/PE experience.
any CAD / UK datapoints?
Corp dev manager at sponsor backed (mm PE owned), just myself on team, 3 yrs BB IB, 4 yrs mm PE, remote role but live in NYC
$325 cash, can go higher if exceed M&A targets but low probability
Incentive equity plan isn’t much
What’s the base? 200-225?
You guys hiring?
Strategic finance at portco - 4 years in asset management + 3 years IB - $165k / remote (LCOL)
Not great but not terrible for ~20-40 hours per week. Kinda feel like I left prematurely and "settled" which was/is hard to stomach but also don't miss working 80+ hours a week with difficult people. Investments have done well and on pace to hit $1M invested by 30ish which makes the decision to try breaking back into "high-finance" even harder.
Did you just start the portco role after 4 years AM and 3 years IB? What was the AM role like?
AM -> IB -> Portco
Manager research at an OCIO/endowment/FoF mostly investing into primaries across a few asset classes. Wouldn't mind getting back into that but after being a few years removed idk if that is realistic
bump for cad/eu
$420k at a “hot” AI company $250k cash, 5 YoE MBB & UMM PE, EU based
200 base, 60 bonus, 50 equity (annually)
Is this a solid offer in HCOL city?
How many YoE and expected hours?
I left a UMM as a Sr. Assoc. after three years as Director of Corporate Strategy, but sharing as my role shifted to a mix of that and Strategic Finance/Corp Dev.
Yr. 1 (Dir. Corp. Strat.): $225k base + 40% bonus = $315k cash + some low level of equity (think $20k per year from single issuance)
Yr. 2 (Dir. FP&A & Corp. Dev.): $235k base + 40% bonus = ~$330k cash + $20k equity (no new equity)
Yr. 3 (VP, mix of Corp. Dev. and Corp. Strat.): $250k base + 50% bonus = $375k cash + $20k equity (no new equity)
Also remote, which is nice. Hours are less nice but overall stress level is lower because leadership is less intense / capable than my prior roles.
What kind of company are you at? Stage / industry?
Going to be a little vague but pharma services/healthcare services, megafund PE-backed, ~$150-300mm ARR
Senior Director M&A at a f500 company. Left as a VP IB.
$280 base + ~30% cash bonus + ~15% stock (3 years vesting)
Feels a bit low compared to my peers at competitors. Pay is basically stagnant but hours are light 30-40 hours.
What size company and are you in a HCOL area?
F100 company. NYC
That is above market pay...
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