[recursive]

> You really think fully qualified high level AI engineers anywhere in this US, let alone in a major metro, are pulling in $150k with no stock or bonus?

No. You're completely missing the point.

If they paid competitively then candidates would be competing against qualified engineers.

Regardless of qualification, it's a valuable position, because of the responsibility and capability of setting policy. You don't need any qualification for that. It probably helps not to have it. And that's value that can be turned into other forms of compensation, perhaps using fancy accounting.

[mapontosevenths]

I think we agree here. Something is rotten with this role.

Thats why I said "unless they're on the grift". "Grift" is slang that means something like scam or confidence game (the origin of the term 'con').