Typical comp shape
ML engineers usually earn rsu or ppus at pre-ipo ai labs. Common employers include OpenAI, Anthropic, Alphabet, Meta. PPUs at OpenAI have unusual tax treatment.
What Kentucky changes
In Kentucky, every RSU vest, NSO exercise, and ESPP purchase carries 4% state tax on top of federal. For a senior ml engineer with $300k+ of equity income, the state layer routinely adds $25-45k to the annual bill.
Planning cadence
For a ml engineer in Kentucky, 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).