Just over a decade after it was founded, urban air mobility startup Joby has firmly established itself as the leader of a pack of startups working towards a similar goal: safe, sustainable, commonplace air taxis (aka flying cars).
Earlier this month, Joby acquired Uber Elevate, the ride-hail giant's initiative to develop its own electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle, or eVTOL. As part of the sale, Joby also secured a $75 million investment from Uber, bringing its total funding to over $820 million. (Uber is in focus mode — it also sold off its self-driving unit this month.)
As part of the sale, Joby will adopt Uber Elevate's technology and engineering staff, the New York Times reported, and will partner with the company for ride-hailing once it launches. Joby is aiming to begin its first service in 2023.
Despite the consolidation in the air taxi space, competition for talent is only heating up among aviation and mobility startups. With more than 220 firms working on different aspects of the broader "new aviation" space — including electric propulsion, hydrogen fuel, urban air mobility, autonomous flight, and drone-assisted delivery and freight — and cutting edge development and advances expected to continue over the coming decades, a battle for top talent seems all but inevitable.
The going rate for engineers on such projects is revealed in data that Joby shared with the US Office of Foreign Labor Certification. The agency requires companies to disclose compensation for employees from outside the US to ensure that they are not paying them less than American workers, effectively undercutting qualified US candidates.
Joby has about 500 employees, it says, and has only filed foreign worker salary data for 18 workers — mostly engineers, including 10 mechanical engineers.
Still, given the federal requirements, these salaries should be representative of what Joby pays employees throughout the company. The salary data represents either an average or a range among workers included in the disclosures.
In a statement provided to Business Insider, a spokesperson for Joby said that the company and its employees were working hard to bring the air taxi service to market:
"We are grateful for the great team of talent that we have and plan to hire across a wide range of categories from engineers, manufacturing specialists to software developers, flight planners and pilots. Our compensation packages are competitive and include cash and equity based on experience and location. We also offer an extensive package of progressive and inclusive health and wellness benefits, and we will expand our certified flight instruction program for anyone at Joby who is interested in deepening their passion for aviation."
Here's a look at what some Joby engineers are earning each year:
- Algorithms Engineer: $120,000 - $145,000
- Compliance Manager: $95,000
- Design for Reliability Engineer: $105,000
- Embedded Software Engineer: $98,779
- Flight Test Engineer: $90,000
- Guidance, Navigation and Control Engineer: $180,000
- Mechanical Design Engineer, Landing Gear Systems: $140,000
- Motor Control Software Engineer: $130,000
- Motor Engineer: $125,000
- Seat Design Engineer: $170,000
- Software FPGA Engineer: $81,000
- Software Verification Engineer: $99,715 - $140,000
- Stress Engineer: $140,000
- System Safety Engineer: $130,000
- Systems Engineer: $150,000
- Systems Engineer, Flight Control: $190,000
- Thermal Engineer: $100,000
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