As Tesla prepares to face competition from a new generation of electric-vehicle startups that are preparing to roll out a host of exciting new vehicles, data that Elon Musk's company has shared with the US government provides a few hints into how it works to recruit talent away from the likes of Rivian and Lucid Motors — and keep its employees from going elsewhere.
The US Office of Foreign Labor Certification requires companies to disclose compensation for permanent and temporary employees from outside the US to ensure the firms aren't paying them less than the average wage earned by their peers. Tesla's filings give a sense of how much the electric-car maker pays for some positions.
The salary data Business Insider analyzed is from 2020 and represents either an average or range among employees included in Tesla's disclosures.
Here's what some Tesla employees make each year:
- Controls engineer: $125,724
- Data scientist: $107,000
- Equipment engineer: $99,188
- Global supply manager: $122,244
- Industrial engineer: $103,667
- Integration engineer: $121,641
- Lead senior-controls engineer: $124,500
- Manufacturing engineer: $111,863
- Manufacturing-engineering manager: $166,425
- Mechanical-design engineer: $107,125
- Process engineer: $93,989
- Product manager: $121,500
- Quality engineer: $93,978
- Senior applications engineer: $131,076
- Senior compliance engineer: $126,000
- Senior data engineer: $147,500
- Senior electronic-design engineer: $133,651
- Senior manufacturing engineer: $121,346
- Senior mechanical-design engineer: $116,390
- Senior process engineer: $121,895
- Senior product manager: $118,949
- Senior site-reliability engineer: $145,000
- Senior software engineer: $148,001 - $165,000
- Senior supplier-industrialization engineer: $119,645
- Senior technical program manager: $125,487
- Software engineer: $150,190 - $169,375
- Senior application-support engineer: $130,000
- Senior reliability engineer: $139,000
- Staff test engineer: $149,344
- Supplier industrialization engineer: $107,500
- Technical program manager: $115,750
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.