M&A salary: $198K median
The median advertised M&A salary is $198K a year, and the middle half of postings offer $154K to $244K: counted from 565 open roles that publish a yearly US-dollar range: about $95 an hour or $16,458 a month. A tenth of the postings offer $295K or more. Advertised ranges, not verified pay.
Check an offer against these figuresAll M&A jobs
$198Kmedian advertised salary
$154K – $244Kmiddle half of roles
$204Kaverage advertised salary
565roles counted
M&A salary by level
Lead roles advertise a median of $234K, 38% more than senior roles ($170K). The level comes from the job title; titles without a level word are counted separately.
| Level | Median salary | Middle half | Roles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior | $170K | $145K–$200K | 115 |
| Lead and above | $234K | $204K–$277K | 215 |
| No level in the title | $170K | $136K–$225K | 223 |
M&A salary by location
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸Seattle, WA | $240K | 35 |
| 🇺🇸San Francisco Bay Area | $235K | 170 |
| 🇺🇸California | $220K | 217 |
| 🇺🇸Chicago, IL | $212K | 17 |
| 🇺🇸Denver, CO | $210K | 18 |
| 🇺🇸United States | $195K | 531 |
| 🇺🇸Washington, DC | $189K | 24 |
| 🇺🇸Los Angeles, CA | $182K | 20 |
| 🇺🇸New York, NY | $175K | 193 |
| 🇺🇸Texas | $162K | 24 |
Skills that pay more for M&A roles
| Skill | Median with it | Above the median | Postings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Law degree | $238K | +$40K | 58 |
| Financial modeling | $204K | +$7K | 130 |
Top-paying companies
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| Brex | $302K | 3 |
| Anthropic | $300K | 17 |
| Perplexity | $280K | 3 |
| Cloudflare | $262K | 9 |
| Plaid | $259K | 4 |
| Emergence | $256K | 4 |
| OpenAI | $253K | 11 |
| Long Lake | $250K | 3 |
| Harvey | $245K | 10 |
| Airwallex | $241K | 4 |
| Metropolis | $240K | 7 |
| Elastic | $238K | 4 |
| Lambda | $232K | 5 |
| Paxos | $231K | 4 |
| Pure Storage | $230K | 6 |
| GitLab | $227K | 3 |
| Fivetran | $226K | 5 |
| Baseten | $223K | 4 |
| Offdeal | $222K | 3 |
| Invenergy | $222K | 3 |
| Abridge | $222K | 3 |
| Kraken | $220K | 3 |
| Databricks | $215K | 10 |
| Okta | $203K | 13 |
| iCapital | $202K | 5 |
Highest-paying open M&A roles
All M&A jobs- Named Sales Director, East (Northern VA/DC Metro)Cloudflare · Hybrid$415K - $571KHybridLead and aboveDNSCloud securityPipeline management
- Named Sales Director, PacNW (Seattle)Cloudflare · Hybrid$415K - $571KHybridLead and aboveDNSCloud securityPipeline management
- VP of Strategy and Corporate DevelopmentDuolingo · 🇺🇸New York, NY; Pittsburgh, PA$330K - $550KLead and aboveM&A
- Product Manager, Financial ServicesOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$401K - $530KOpenAI APIData qualityM&A
- Staff+ Application Security Engineer - M&AAnthropic · 🇺🇸Remote-Friendly (Travel-Required) | San Francisco, CA | S…$320K - $485KRemoteLead and aboveRustGoPython
- Head of Global Total RewardsAmplitude · 🇺🇸San Francisco$285K - $476KRemoteLead and aboveSQLExcelWorkday
- Corporate Development, Deal LeadAnthropic · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA$325K - $425KLead and aboveDeep learningFinancial modelingM&A
- Vice President, Business Development & Strategic PartnershipsFlex · 🇺🇸New York, NY; San Francisco, CA$336K - $420KLead and abovePipeline managementContract negotiationFinancial modeling
- VP, Market AccessTarsus Pharmaceuticals · 🇺🇸Irvine, California, United States$300K - $420KLead and aboveEvent marketingM&AClinical trials
- Vice President, FinanceChowNow · Remote$320K - $415KRemoteLead and aboveExcelNetSuiteCPA
- Associate - Investment Funds RegulatoryNormlaw · 🇺🇸New York City$270K - $410KJuniorM&ARegulatory complianceLaw degree
- Associate - Technology TransactionsNormlaw · 🇺🇸New York City$270K - $410KHybridJuniorM&ALaw degreeContract drafting
- Deal Lead, Special SituationsOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$333K - $401KHybridLead and aboveFinancial modelingM&A
- CFO/VP of FinanceModern Treasury · 🇺🇸San Francisco$250K - $400KLead and aboveM&AWorkforce planning
- Principal Software Engineer, SecurityMongoDB · 🇺🇸New York City; Seattle; United States$203K - $399KLead and aboveGCPAzureAWS
- Director Corporate Strategy, AdsPinterest · 🇺🇸New York, NY, US; Remote, US$193K - $397KRemoteLead and aboveProduct marketingM&A
- Head of Supply Chain, AD&SAnduril Industries · 🇺🇸Costa Mesa, California, United States$292K - $386KLead and aboveComputer VisionSecurity clearanceM&A
- Vice President, Product Management, Managed AICrusoe · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA - US$345K - $385KLead and aboveAgileAIReinforcement learning
- Legal Engineering Manager, In-House (Corporate)Harvey · 🇺🇸Chicago$315K - $385KHybridM&ALaw degreeCorporate governance
- Head of Enterprise and Strategic PartnershipsMercury · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA, New York, NY, Portland, OR, or Remote…$274K - $380KRemoteLead and aboveM&A
Questions about M&A pay
- What is the average M&A salary?
- $204K a year on average and $198K at the median, across 565 open M&A postings at companies that state pay (November 2026). The median is the better guide: a few very high offers pull the average up.
- What is the typical range?
- The middle half of the postings offer $154K to $244K a year. A quarter offer less and a quarter offer more.
- Which companies advertise the highest M&A pay?
- Brex ($302K), Anthropic ($300K), Perplexity ($280K), by the median of their open postings that state pay (three postings or more).
- Is a m&a a high-paying job?
- The median M&A posting advertises $198K a year, more than the median of all 55,899 job postings with pay on Jobs Every Hour ($174K). That is 14% above the middle of the market.
- How much can you earn as a m&a?
- A tenth of the postings offer $295K a year or more; the highest open M&A role advertises up to $571K. Pay rises with level: see the table by level.
- What is the M&A salary per hour and per month?
- The median of $198K a year is about $95 an hour (2,080 working hours) and $16,458 a month before tax. The middle half of postings: $74 to $118 an hour.
- Which skills pay more for M&A roles?
- Postings that ask for Law degree (+$40K, 58 postings), Financial modeling (+$7K, 130 postings) advertise more than the $198K median of all M&A postings with pay.
- What does an entry-level m&a make?
- 12 junior and intern M&A postings state pay, with a median of $128K a year ($62 an hour).
- Where do these figures come from?
- From the pay ranges employers print in their own job postings, read from their careers pages every hour. The midpoint of each range is counted. These are advertised ranges for open roles, mostly in the United States and in US dollars, not what people are actually paid.
Writing about this? A sentence you can quote
The median advertised salary for M&A roles at companies is $198K a year, and the middle half of postings offer $154K to $244K. Counted from 565 open job postings that state pay, November 2026. Source: Jobs Every Hour, https://jobseveryhour.com/salaries/mergers-and-acquisitions/
Free to use with the link.