It really varies.

Amazon has a job leveling system that determines your salary and seniority within the organization. With each level comes certain expectations. L stands for "level," with L1 being the lowest and L12 being the highest, currently occupied by the CEO, Jeff Bezos.

I provided a general guideline for the expectations and salaries of each level. However, keep in mind these numbers are not set in stone. Each department will have different budgets, and I have seen the numbers vary widely. For example an L7 could be making an L8 salary, depending on their expertise and the department budget.

At a first glance, the titles attributed to these levels can be misleading. Many people who have CEO and VP titles in their previous jobs end up joining as directors at Amazon. Many directors and VPs end up joining as senior managers. Why? Simply because Amazon is a global beast and the size of each business unit is enormous. Perhaps someone had a big title in their previous company, but it is unlikely that they were managing the same size of business amounting to billions of dollars.

Do not get too tied up about the title and certainly do not let that prevent you from applying for a job. It is best to leave your ego at the door, at least until you have a deeper understanding of the job. Instead, take an opportunity to talk to Amazon HR and hiring managers to fully understand the scope of the job. Then decide if it is something worth applying for.

Here is a breakdown of the levels, titles, and links to example job descriptions:

L1 - L3: The first three levels are contractors, hourly workers, and part timers. Here’s an example of a job at L2-L3 level.

L4 - Associate/Consultant level. Most college graduates are at this level. In engineering terms, you would be a SDE. This is a full time salaried position, as are all levels from this point upward. Typically$50k-70k salary. Here’s an example at this level.

L5 - Manager level. You could be managing a small team or act as an individual contributor. $70-140k salary. Here is an example L5 job.

L6 - Senior Manager level. You will likely going to be managing a team, but there are some individual contributors at this level. This is quite a high level and requires you to work on complex projects and interact with directors, VPs and senior stakeholders. Anywhere from $120–200k salary. Here is an example.

L7 - Sr. Manager/Principal/Director level. This is a big step up from L6 and usually involves managing a large organization. 160–300k. Here is one example and one more.

L8 - Director/GM level. A director could be managing a multi-million/billion dollar business unit and leading a cross functional or 50+ person team. Or they could be starting up a new business, with the expectation of scaling it significantly. Anywhere from $300k-600k salary. Example here.

L9 - Interestingly, this level doesn’t exist. Amazon purposefully left it out…the mystery remains.

L10 - VPs. They will be managing several directors in one country and/or globally. Most have been CEOs or GMs in their previous jobs. Anywhere from $600k upwards (this level of hire is not listed online as they usually directly source people).

L11 - SVPs. The "S" team or “SVP” title. Senior VPs that are overseeing global businesses. Salary ranges from $1 million upwards. (Again, this level of hire is not listed online as they usually directly source people)

L12 - Jeff Bezos - $100 billion (net worth) upwards.

Also depending on the country, the mix of RSU’s and base salary is going to be different. For example, in Japan people prefer to have higher bases, where as you’ll see in the US people tend to value shares more.

While Amazon does not disclose the leveling of positions on their websites, you can take the examples above to give you a rough idea of the ranges. Once you get an actual interview, you can directly ask the hiring manager or HR which level the job relates to.

You can check out more in my book Cracking the Amazon Interview.