Typical comp shape
Director of products usually earn large rsu + psu grants. Common employers include Airbnb, Salesforce, Atlassian. Director-level PSU vests often include relative TSR metrics that produce zero or 2x payouts, complicating forecasting.
What Washington changes
Washington has no wage income tax, which is structurally favorable for director of products with meaningful RSU comp. The savings vs a CA-resident colleague can be $30-60k per year at senior IC levels. That math is why Austin and Seattle are the two top relocation destinations for Bay Area tech workers.
Planning cadence
For a director of product in Washington, 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). A move-out question — if you're considering leaving Washington for a high-tax state, time it around vesting.