Comp and Equity Across Mobility Verticals: What to Actually Expect

A candidate I was working with had two offers on the table. One from a public EV company: strong base, standard RSUs, 4-year vest. One from an eVTOL startup at Series C: lower base, options at the current strike price, same 4-year vest. She asked me which one was better. I told her that question had no answer until she asked four questions she had not asked yet.

Mobility compensation is not one market. It is five or six overlapping markets with different comp architectures, different equity risk profiles, and different time horizons for any of it to matter. A recruiter who says "you can benchmark this on Glassdoor" is telling you they have never actually worked inside this sector. The public data is incomplete. The startup data is nearly nonexistent. And the equity math, which is often the most consequential number in the package, is never published anywhere.

This is what I have learned closing 1,000+ offers across EV, AV, eVTOL, electric marine, and autonomous delivery.

Why Mobility Comp Is Harder to Benchmark Than It Looks

Public comp databases work reasonably well for Big Tech: thousands of employees, required disclosure for public companies, communities like Levels.fyi where engineers share offers. Mobility does not have that. Rivian has disclosed some compensation data through its public filings, but Joby, Archer, Wisk, Saronic, and most of the names doing the most interesting work are private. The data simply does not exist in any database you can search.

The second problem is role fragmentation. An "Autonomy Systems Engineer" at Aurora is a software-heavy, ML-adjacent role competing with Google and Meta for talent. An "Autonomy Systems Engineer" at a 60-person eVTOL startup is a hardware-embedded role competing with Boeing and Lockheed. Same title. Different comp architecture entirely. Benchmarking them against the same number is a category error.

The third problem is that base salary is only one of four dimensions that determine what a package is actually worth. Treating a job offer as a base salary comparison is how candidates end up on the wrong side of an equity event five years later.

The Vertical Comp Structure

These are generalizations based on patterns I have observed across hundreds of placements. Individual companies vary, and comp changes as companies raise capital and scale. Use this as a starting framework, not a guarantee.

EV Manufacturers (Rivian, Lucid, Scout Motors)

The closest analog to traditional automotive OEM comp, with a software premium built in. Base salaries for engineering roles tend to track OEM ranges at the lower end but stretch toward tech company ranges for software-heavy functions like embedded systems, autonomy, and data. RSUs at public companies (Rivian, Lucid) are straightforward to value: you can look up the stock price. The volatility is the risk. Scout Motors is private and pre-revenue, which means equity valuation is a best estimate, not a market price.

For operations, manufacturing, and supply chain roles at EV manufacturers, comp aligns closely with automotive OEM rates. The equity component varies widely depending on level and function.

AV Companies (Waymo, Aurora, Motional, Zoox)

Software-company comp architecture. These companies compete directly with Google, Amazon, and Microsoft for perception engineers, ML researchers, and systems architects. Base salaries at the senior and staff levels reflect that competition. Equity structures vary: Waymo is a Google subsidiary with its own equity program; Aurora and Motional are structured differently as independent companies.

If AV is your target, understand who owns the company before evaluating the equity. A subsidiary's equity is not the same instrument as a standalone startup's options.

eVTOL (Joby, Archer, Wisk, Lilium successors)

Hardware startup comp architecture: lower base relative to AV or Big Tech for equivalent level, meaningful equity component, and a strong mission premium that factors into candidate decisions more than most recruiters acknowledge. Companies like Joby and Archer have FAA certification timelines that create real milestones for equity events. The certification process is expensive, capital-intensive, and public, which means you can follow it.

The equity math here is where careful evaluation pays off. Strike price, current 409A valuation, preference stack, and exercise window all matter. A grant at a Series A strike price with a 10-year exercise window and a clean cap table is a materially different instrument than a grant at a Series D strike price with a 90-day exercise window and three layers of liquidation preferences above it.

Autonomous Delivery (Zipline, Nuro)

Two distinct comp architectures within the same vertical. Zipline, which operates commercial delivery at scale in multiple countries, pays like a growth-stage tech company with real revenue. Nuro, in a rebuild phase, offers the risk/reward profile of an early-stage startup. For software and data roles, both compete with tech company ranges. For operations roles, pay reflects the operational nature of the work.

Electric Marine and Defense-Adjacent (Saronic, Arc Boats)

The highest mission premium in mobility. Saronic in particular is building autonomous naval vessels with defense contracts, which creates a different comp dynamic than commercial mobility: lower base variability, strong equity component, and a customer base (the U.S. Navy) that does not go away. The talent pool is thin, which means candidates with relevant backgrounds have negotiating leverage most do not realize.

Equity Stage Math: The Part Nobody Explains

Equity in a private company is not money. It is an option on money, contingent on a liquidity event, subject to dilution, and shaped by the preference stack sitting above common stockholders. Most candidates evaluate equity grants as a number without a context. Here is the context.

Strike Price and 409A Valuation

When a company grants you options, the strike price is set by the 409A valuation, an independent appraisal of the company's common stock value. The lower the 409A relative to the preferred share price, the more upside potential is built into the grant. At Series A, the 409A is often a fraction of the preferred price. At Series D, the 409A and preferred price may be much closer. Ask the company: what is the current 409A valuation and what was the price per share in the last preferred round? Those two numbers tell you the spread you are starting with.

Preference Stack

When a company is acquired or goes public, liquidation preferences determine who gets paid first. Standard 1x non-participating preferred means investors get their money back first, then common shareholders split the rest. Participating preferred means investors take their 1x return AND participate in the remaining proceeds. Multiple preference stacks can significantly reduce what common stockholders receive in any outcome below a certain valuation threshold.

You are almost certainly a common stockholder. Ask to see a summary of the cap table structure, specifically whether any preferred shares carry participating preferences. Not all companies will share this, but how they respond to the question tells you something.

Exercise Window

Standard options expire 90 days after you leave the company. That means if you leave before a liquidity event, you either exercise (which costs money and triggers a tax event) or you forfeit. Early exercise provisions, extended exercise windows of two to ten years, or NSOs versus ISOs all affect this. The best equity packages in mobility right now include extended exercise windows. It is worth asking every time.

The Four Dimensions That Actually Determine Package Value

Evaluating an offer as a base salary comparison is how candidates lose. Here is the complete framework.

1. Base Salary: Benchmark Carefully

For software and ML roles, Levels.fyi has reasonable data for companies that have disclosed. For hardware, systems, and operations roles, Bureau of Labor Statistics data and Radford/Mercer survey ranges are your best reference. Function and level matter more than title. A "Senior Engineer" at a 40-person startup and a "Senior Engineer" at Rivian are being paid against different comp bands.

2. Equity: Value the Instrument, Not the Grant Size

Ten thousand options at a $2.00 strike with a $40.00 preferred price and a clean cap table is a different package than 50,000 options at a $18.00 strike with a $20.00 preferred price and three layers of participating preferred. The grant size is the least important number. The spread between strike and current valuation, the preference structure, and the time to liquidity are what matter.

3. Timeline: When Is the Liquidity Event?

For eVTOL companies, FAA certification timelines are public and create real milestones. Joby has published its certification roadmap. Archer has done the same. These are not guarantees, but they are anchors for thinking about when equity could convert to real value. For delivery companies with existing revenue, the IPO path is more conventional. For defense-adjacent companies, the timeline often depends on contract scale and follow-on funding, not public markets.

4. Reporting Line and Scope

This sounds like a soft factor. It is not. The person you report to determines whether you have the authority, resources, and organizational support to deliver results worth keeping. At a startup, the difference between reporting to a VP of Engineering who controls headcount and reporting to a Director with no budget authority can mean the difference between building something real and being stuck in a function that cannot move. Evaluate the reporting line the same way you evaluate the comp.

The Comp Conversation: When to Have It

Most candidates have the comp conversation at the offer stage. By then, the company has invested weeks in the process and so have you. Having the comp conversation at the first recruiter screen is not aggressive. It is efficient. It saves both sides from a process that ends in a gap neither party can close.

On the first call, state your range clearly and ask the recruiter to confirm the role is budgeted within that range before going further. A good recruiter will tell you. If they cannot confirm and redirect to "let's see how the process goes," that is information too.

The equity conversation belongs on the second or third call, before the technical loop. You do not need a signed term sheet to ask about the equity structure. You need to understand it well enough to decide whether to invest your time in the process. Most candidates wait until the offer to ask these questions. The candidates who close well ask earlier.