Venture Capital Compensation Trends: Roles Funds Are Betting On

When we asked Perplexity what was going on in Venture Capital this week, it said that venture was in its “value creation” era — and when we looked at the year-over-year venture capital compensation trends on the Thelander platform, we understood why. We pulled the roles with the biggest jumps in median total cash since 2024, and a clear pattern emerged: funds are paying up for people who move the needle for the fund and founders.

At VC firms with less than $500M in total AUM, Operating Partners and Directors/Principals are tied for the largest gains, each up around 17%. At $500 – $999M in AUM, VP Finance leads the pack with an increase of ~18%. 

What do those roles have in common? They sit at the intersection of portfolio support, capital efficiency and LP expectations. Operating partners drive hands-on value creation across multiple companies. Director / Principals are critical for keeping high-quality deal flow moving. VP Finance keeps the engine running when LPs are watching every dollar and the road to returns is longer. 

And with Q1 2026 setting an all-time record for venture funding – driven almost entirely by AI (PitchBook)- the pressure to deploy capital has never been higher. Fewer deals are getting done, but the ones that are need real operators behind them… and the compensation is reflecting that.

Thelander is only compensation intelligence firm that covers both the investment firms and their portfolio companies. More than 10,000 investment firms rely on the Thelander platform to get the full compensation picture — from fund to founder. To see why, and a sneak preview of what we have coming this month, request a demo today. 

Categorised in: Data Drops

This post was written by jthelander