Typical comp shape
Site reliability engineer (SRE)s usually earn rsu + refresh grants. Common employers include Google, Netflix, Cloudflare. On-call SREs often receive retention RSUs layered on base grants, producing four concurrent vest schedules by year three.
What California changes
In California, every RSU vest, NSO exercise, and ESPP purchase carries 13.3% state tax on top of federal. For a senior site reliability engineer (sre) with $300k+ of equity income, the state layer routinely adds $25-45k to the annual bill.
State AMT for ISO holders
If your site reliability engineer (sre) role grants ISOs (common at pre-IPO startups, uncommon at post-IPO mega-caps), be aware that California runs its own AMT calculation. An ISO exercise-and-hold here generates AMT at two layers, not one.
Planning cadence
For a site reliability engineer (sre) in California, the three planning windows are: after each RSU vest (withholding check and sell-vs-hold), before any ISO exercise (AMT model at both federal and state), and in Q4 (estimated tax top-up to clear the safe harbor).