Typical comp shape
Customer success managers usually earn rsu + espp. Common employers include Gainsight, Salesforce, HubSpot. CSM grants trail AE comp, so ESPP stacking and diversification of vested RSUs drive most of the equity planning work.
What Maryland changes
In Maryland, every RSU vest, NSO exercise, and ESPP purchase carries 5.75% state tax on top of federal. For a senior customer success manager with $300k+ of equity income, the state layer routinely adds $25-45k to the annual bill.
Planning cadence
For a customer success manager in Maryland, the three planning windows are: after each RSU vest (withholding check and sell-vs-hold), before any ISO exercise (AMT model at federal only), and in Q4 (estimated tax top-up to clear the safe harbor).