Typical comp shape
Director of engineerings usually earn large rsu + psu grants. Common employers include Meta, Stripe, Salesforce. Director-level equity refreshes can exceed $1M annually, so 10b5-1 plans and QSBS stacking become primary planning tools.
What Arizona changes
In Arizona, every RSU vest, NSO exercise, and ESPP purchase carries 2.5% state tax on top of federal. For a senior director of engineering with $300k+ of equity income, the state layer routinely adds $25-45k to the annual bill.
Planning cadence
For a director of engineering in Arizona, 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).