Guide · 6 minutes
Sales compensation benchmarks for hiring managers: posted pay by seat, the usual splits and how long roles stay open
Written by Yuma Heymans, Founder & CEO of SalesJobs.Now.
Yuma runs SalesJobs.Now out of San Francisco. Recruiting is familiar ground: Yuma also co-founded HeroHunt.ai, a platform that uses AI to find and reach candidates.
For a hiring manager setting the pay for a sales seat, the market is the open postings your candidates are reading this week. This page gives the posted pay of every kind of US sales seat on this board, the usual split between base and variable, how pay moves with segment, product and city, and how long sales roles stay posted, so an offer can be set against what competing employers actually advertise.
On 1 November 2026 this board had more than 20,000 open sales roles that US candidates could take, read from 1,480 companies' own careers systems, and 71% of them stated their pay. Every figure below is the midpoint of each posting's own range on a full year's scale (base or on-target earnings, as the posting states it), and the median across the postings in each group. The sales pay report shows today's figures, which change as roles open and close.
Contents
- Posted pay by seat
- Base and variable: the usual split
- What moves the number
- How long sales roles stay posted
- Pay transparency: what candidates see
- Setting an offer
- How these figures were counted
- Quick answers
1. Posted pay by seat
| Seat | US roles posting pay | Lower quartile | Median | Upper quartile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sales development (SDR, BDR) | 773 | $59,800 | $76,100 | $97,000 |
| Account executive | 6,155 | $80,000 | $125,000 | $180,000 |
| Account management | 1,431 | $100,000 | $135,200 | $175,000 |
| Customer success | 762 | $115,000 | $142,500 | $177,500 |
| Revenue operations | 783 | $122,500 | $160,000 | $198,500 |
| Partner and channel sales | 821 | $135,000 | $171,000 | $223,000 |
| Sales engineering | 1,454 | $145,700 | $187,500 | $233,600 |
| Sales leadership | 1,393 | $145,000 | $189,400 | $250,000 |
Within sales leadership, the median posted pay climbs by level: sales managers $165,000, directors $201,550, vice presidents $239,000 and heads of sales $280,000. Each seat has its own guide with the breakdown by product, city and company: SDR, account executive, account manager, customer success manager, sales engineer, sales manager, revenue operations and partner and channel sales.
2. Base and variable: the usual split
| Seat | Typical split (base : variable) | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Sales development | 68 : 32 (median) | The Bridge Group 2025 |
| Account executive | 53 : 47 (median) | The Bridge Group 2024 |
| Sales engineer | 80 : 20 (most common) | PreSales Collective |
| Account manager | about 80 : 20 | CaptivateIQ |
The Bridge Group's 2025 study also found 60% of sales development reps reaching quota, and an average tenure in the seat of 1.9 years - The Bridge Group. A plan far from these splits is not wrong, but candidates will compare it with them; the guide What is OTE explains how to set quota against OTE and how payout curves work.
3. What moves the number
- The product. US account executive postings at AI and data companies post a median of $204,750, at cloud companies $200,000, cybersecurity $176,500, business software $167,750, fintech $147,500, medical devices $92,000 (mostly base) and consumer goods $69,450. Across every seat, technology companies post $170,000 at the median against $105,000 elsewhere (Tech sales salary).
- The segment. Enterprise account executive titles post $185,600, mid-market $147,750, SMB $129,800.
- The city. Account executive postings in the San Francisco Bay Area post $190,000, Washington DC $175,000, New York $160,000, Chicago $145,900, Denver $106,700 and Phoenix $93,250; each of the board's city pages states its own current figures.
- Remote. Remote US sales roles post a median of $155,000 against $140,000 for office and territory roles, largely because remote seats are concentrated at software companies (Remote sales jobs).
4. How long sales roles stay posted
Half of the open US sales roles on 1 November 2026 had been posted more than 37 days earlier; 35% had been posted more than 60 days earlier and 23% more than 90 days. By seat, the median time since posting:
| Seat | Median days since posting | Share posted over 60 days ago |
|---|---|---|
| Sales development | 45 | 43% |
| Partner and channel sales | 44 | 37% |
| Customer success | 41 | 40% |
| Sales engineering | 41 | 39% |
| Account executive | 38 | 36% |
| Sales leadership | 33 | 32% |
| Revenue operations | 31 | 28% |
| Account management | 26 | 24% |
These are ages of the roles still open that day, not times to fill: a role filled quickly leaves the list, and some postings stay open all year to hire several people. Still, a seat that has been posted for two months competes with many others posted just as long, and candidates see both. The guide How long does it take to hire a salesperson? turns these figures into a hiring timeline.
5. Pay transparency: what candidates see
71% of US sales postings on this board stated pay that day, and 84% of those in the fifteen jurisdictions with a pay range law. A seat without a range competes against seats with one, and candidates use the posted ranges to judge offers. The guide Which sales jobs show their pay has the figures by state and seat.
6. Setting an offer
- Benchmark against the right group. Use the seat, the product and the segment together: an SMB SaaS account executive and an enterprise AI account executive are both "AEs" but post more than $70,000 apart at the median.
- State the range and the split. Candidates compare base, variable and quota; a posting that states all three answers the first question of every interview.
- Check attainability. A high OTE with a quota few reach loses candidates in the second interview, when they ask how many reps hit plan.
- Watch the clock. If a seat has been open past two months, compare its posted range with the upper quartile of its group before widening the search.
7. How these figures were counted
- The roles: every open sales role on this board on 1 November 2026 that a US candidate could take, read from each company's own careers system and checked every hour. The board sorts each role by what the job does, by what its employer sells, by the segment and level its title names, and by the place it is posted for.
- The pay: the midpoint of each posting's own range on a full year's scale (an hourly rate times 2,080 hours), and the quartiles and median across the roles in each group. Postings whose stated period the board misread are left out.
- The days since posting: from the posting date each careers system states, to 1 November 2026.
8. Quick answers
What should I pay an SDR? US sales development postings state a median of $76,100 on-target, with the middle half between $59,800 and $97,000; the usual split is about 68:32 base to variable.
What is a competitive OTE for an account executive? $125,000 is the US median across all account executive postings; $185,600 for enterprise titles and $204,750 at AI companies.
How long does it take to hire a salesperson? The board measures how long open roles have been posted rather than time to fill: half of open US sales roles had been posted more than 37 days, and 35% more than 60 days.
Should I post the salary range? In fifteen US jurisdictions the law requires it; elsewhere, 53% of sales postings state one, and candidates compare offers with the ranges they can see.
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