Salaries: It's a $250,000 walk through the door for tech grads at these Australian companies

Ten years ago, $250,000 could buy a two-bedroom apartment in Sydney. Today it’s the cost to hire a graduate tech worker.

Canva software engineer graduates Mirette Saleh, Jack Caperon and Alexander Edwards at the software giant's Sydney office in Surry Hills. Picture: Supplied

Tech companies are paying in excess of a quarter of a million dollars to Australian graduate students in a bid to secure top talent in a booming sector.

Optiver, IMC and Jane Street are forking out salaries on par with the average chief executive and about double that of an engineering manager, data obtained by The Australian reveals.

“What we have in our industry is a trifecta, secure, well-paid, flexible jobs available to all people regardless of background or education,” a spokeswoman for the Tech Council said.

The Australian’s top ten table shows annual graduate salaries ranging from $147,000 to $350,000. The data was compiled by Envited co-founder Mihailo Bozic based on US tracker levels.fyi – which also monitors local graduate salary figures.

The company logos of Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft. Picture: AFP

Optiver, which has paid graduate salaries of around $250,000, is an Amsterdam-based tech-driven trading firm. The firm, which has 400 local staff at its APAC headquarters in Sydney, also pays interns a salary equivalent to an annual $175,000 over its 12 week program. Successful interns who go on to secure a graduate role receive a salary bump of $75,000 which includes a sign-on and end-of-year bonus.

John Rogan, Optiver’s head of recruitment, said the salaries were indicative not just of a competitive local market but international rates.

“We’re not just competing with tech and finance companies within the country, we’re also competing for the same talent internationally, as overseas firms are offering similar remuneration packages with additional benefits such as lower tax margins,” he said.

“To encourage Australian STEM talent to stay within the country, we’re offering attractive salaries that reflect the demands for their skills and expertise.”

The role at Optiver comes with “the chance to work alongside diverse and intelligent peers in a rewarding environment” and a gym membership, daily breakfast, lunch and coffee from the in-house barista, a work-from-home allowance, a relocation package “when necessary”, an annual trip and unlimited use of in-house chair massages. Training, mentorship and personal development opportunities are included too.

The median salary of an Australian worker is $62,400 and it’s not until a worker exceeds $91,000, or $1748.40 per week, that they’re considered an above-average earner, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Other high graduate salaries include Jane Street – which pays $350,000 – IMC, Akuna Capital, Atlassian, Google, Microsoft, Canva, Amazon and Kearnery. Some salaries include stock options and sign-on and end-of-year bonuses in their salary. JaneStreet, IMC and Kearney did not respond to requests for comment.

Amazon Australia human resources executive Laura Nemaz said the company was expanding the number of graduate roles by 50 per cent this year.

“We welcomed more than 100 graduates into roles across Amazon businesses in Australia last year, and have around 150 graduate opportunities this year,” Ms Nemaz said.

“We are proud to offer all graduates competitive salary packages along with great benefits including highly subsidised health insurance, paid parental leave, staff discounts on Amazon.com and an attractive commuter allowance.”

Canva also declined to provide a specific remuneration figure, although a spokesman said the company had received a record number of applications.

“We’re always searching for the best talent to join Canva and have been fortunate to receive more than 260,000 applications over the last year, which is a great validation of the tech industry’s overall growth and Australia’s standing as a global hub for innovation,” he said.

A Google spokesman said the company had long competed to offer “top of market compensation” across salary, equity, leave and benefits.

“Google employs almost 2,000 people across Australia and, as our employees have many choices about where they work, we work hard to ensure that they are very well compensated,” he said.

A Microsoft spokesman said the company “offers competitive, remuneration packages aligned with our industry in the Australian market”.

The Tech Council of Australia said the sector would continue to boom through to 2030 in Australia, a time when the sector could see as many as 1.2m jobs. Since 2005, the number of technology jobs has grown 66 per cent, with 65,000 tech roles created in 2020 alone, a spokeswoman said.

But the large salaries paid to graduates are causing some in-house concerns, with recruitment staff often hiring graduates with less or sometimes no experience at all on salaries that are more than twice their own wage.

Some industry bodies are less optimistic than the Tech Council and have raised concerns that these enormous salaries may not last or at least may not stay within Australian hands.

An Australian Information Industry Association member’s survey released in March found that while 75 per cent of companies are actively hiring, only 65 per cent are intending to hire locally, a figure down 20 per cent from 2021.

AIIA chief executive Ron Gauci said Australia risked losing crucial opportunities if training wasn’t rapidly improved.