Thelander PC Digest: June 2023

What are the Compensation Trends for Research & Development Positions? 

In June’s Thelander Digest, we examine the different trends impacting compensation for research & development (R&D) positions. 

To do this, we looked at our data on how the median total cash and non-founder shares (non-founder equity) has changed since 2019 for two positions: VP and Director of Research & Development (R&D). In order to keep things consistent, we looked at the compensation for companies that have raised between $15 to $89.9 million in total financing.

So, what does Thelander data tell us?

• The median total cash for Directors of R&D has stayed stable since 2019, ranging from $185,000 to $189,200.
• The percentage of non-founder equity has steadily increased from 0.30% to 0.34%.

In the graph below, we find that compensation for VP of R&D has not been as consistent. 

• The median total cash has fluctuated between $256,850 in 2019 (its highest point) to $240,825 in 2022 (its lowest point).
• The median total cash has leveled out at $250,000 in 2023.
• The non-founder equity has ranged from 0.83% in 2020 (its highest point) to 0.78% in 2023 (its lowest point).

Our Findings: After analyzing the data presented above, we can conclude that the director level compensation has stayed relatively stable since 2019; whereas, the VP level compensation has varied more over the years. The data is a guideline to help understand compensation trends. Ultimately, each company decides how important a role and the person in it is to their organization and uses the percentiles to find the right mix of cash and equity.

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