SILICON VALLEY VS. AUSTIN SALARIES- what's the scoop? (Howe: how much, house)

[amsmith825]

My husband works in tech in Silicon Valley and we are considering relocating to Austin for a better quality of life. We are worried about huge pay differentials if he somehow lost his job that is currently based in Silicon Valley (so he will be taking his SF salary with him to Austin) and had to transfer to an Austin based company down the road.

How much lower are Austin salaries compared to Silicon Valley salaries in the tech sector? My husband is a Senior Director for a Fortune 100 tech company- are there many other companies with Senior Director and VP roles in tech around and what would the pay difference be vs. the Bay Area?

Thanks for any insight you can provide! We really want this move to work!

[mama_lisa]

I will be curious to see the responses. My husband was formerly a Sr Director also, in IT, and is now a Solution Architect for a Texas based company, but here in the bay area. We are also considering Austin.

[txgolfer130]

About 8-11% less. However, those positions are harder and harder to come by. Director level positions in Austin range from the low $160's to the high $190's base.

[centralaustinite]

Originally Posted by txgolfer130

About 8-11% less. However, those positions are harder and harder to come by. Director level positions in Austin range from the low $160's to the high $190's base.

This is about right. The salaries for such positions will be less, how much less will depend on specifics, the bigger issue is that there are just not as many positions -- senior director and VP -- in Austin as there are in the Valley/SF.

My spouse has a SF based job but we live in Austin -- it is definitely the best combo! But we do worry about how we would manage the transition if that job went away.

[EC70]

You can check salary.com. It seemed pretty accurate for my current area (Boston), and when I plugged in Austin the median salary was about 10% less.

As long as the cost of living is at least 10% less, then it works out.

I'm guessing Austin would be 15% less than SF.


I too wonder about the numbers of senior management positions versus senior engineering positions. I'm at the age where some of the people I worked with after college are moving into those type of management positions, and getting away from the engineering/coding aspect of the job. While I would enjoy the salary, I just don't think I would enjoy being a "layer". I like staring at code even if it keeps me from the top of the salary ladder.

[paul6835]

I took my IT job with me when I moved and definitely had issues finding similar pay down here when I wanted to transition. There are a lot of developer roles here, but fortune 100 sr dir roles are few and far in between unless you want to work for dell

[love roses]

I seriously doubt you would suffer on 160k in Austin. That's a higher salary than a lot of people around here see. The cost of living is lower as well.

[kiacook]

It might be an issue if they spend $800k on a house here and keep spending like they live in Silicon Valley. There are not nearly as many large tech companies here as there are in SV so it's much more competitive for the higher level positions. If he lost his job it is very likely he would have to look elsewhere for something competitive.

[paul6835]

Originally Posted by paul6835

I took my IT job with me when I moved and definitely had issues finding similar pay down here when I wanted to transition. There are a lot of developer roles here, but fortune 100 sr dir roles are few and far in between unless you want to work for dell

To add to that, "Sr Director" is a loose term. Heck, everyone who works at a bank in a "VP". In terms of actual responsibilities, lets say you manage 50 headcount or > $10M budget. There's a lot of smaller tech companies with no more than 100 employees and probably only 1 or 2 people with that breadth of responsibility. Dell is restructuing, AMD is laying off. Thats a lot senior managment you're competing with for few positions. That being said, I know Visa is building a giant tech center here as is GM. Apple is expanding thier presence. Google has set up shop here. My employer, a large tech company, is expanding thier presence as well. Employment options are growing every year here.

[amsmith825]

Thanks everyone for the responses... very helpful although it certainly doesn't make the decision easier! My husband has a head count in the mid-twenties now but it is continuing to expand and will probably be in the 40-50 person range within the next few years. Bummer that opportunities like that are hard to come by in Austin. I want to be an Austinite so badly! Enjoy it for those of you who are there and thanks again for your candor.