Data Engineer — Fly.io Salary Negotiation Guide

Negotiation DNA: Data Engineers at Fly.io build the telemetry, metrics, and analytics infrastructure that monitors the global edge application platform, powering observability for both the platform team and Fly.io's developer customers.

Compensation Benchmarks (2026)

Level	Chicago (USD)	Remote US (USD)
Mid (IC2)	$165,000–$233,000	$150,000–$215,000
Senior (IC3)	$230,000–$308,000	$213,000–$290,000
Staff+ (IC4+)	$303,000–$395,000	$285,000–$375,000

Total compensation includes base salary, startup equity (options), and potential bonus.

Lever 1: Platform Observability — "Monitoring a global microVM platform requires real-time telemetry pipelines across 30+ regions."

Lever 2: Customer Metrics — "Fly.io customers need platform metrics and logs. I build the observability products."

Lever 3: Startup Impact — "At a small team, data infrastructure decisions have outsized impact."

Lever 4: Equity Upside — "I expect meaningful options reflecting my data infrastructure contributions."

Negotiate Up Strategy: Open at $180,000 base with equity valued at $60K-$90K/year. Accept-at floor: $245,000 total comp.

Evidence & Sources

• Fly.io company information — private startup, Chicago, 2025–2026
• Levels.fyi Fly.io 2025–2026 compensation data
• Glassdoor Fly.io salary data 2025–2026