Typical comp shape
Developer relationss usually earn rsu. Common employers include Stripe, Vercel, GitHub.
What New York changes
In New York, every RSU vest, NSO exercise, and ESPP purchase carries 10.9% state tax on top of federal. For a senior developer relations with $300k+ of equity income, the state layer routinely adds $25-45k to the annual bill.
Planning cadence
For a developer relations in New York, 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).