{"id":295848,"date":"2026-06-18T12:51:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T19:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jthelander.com\/?p=295848"},"modified":"2026-06-18T12:51:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T19:51:28","slug":"operations-manager-compensation-is-up-31-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/?p=295848","title":{"rendered":"Operations Managers Pay is Up 31% &#8211; Here&#8217;s Why"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As venture rounds get bigger and the sub-$5M round disappears (<a href=\"https:\/\/pitchbook.com\/news\/articles\/the-disappearing-sub-5-million-round\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">PitchBook<\/a>), it&#8217;s changed the way that companies recruit and retain talent &#8211; and the YoY compensation data is changing as a result. Take Operations Managers at companies that have raised less than $15 Million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/jthelander.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2026-06-17-at-2.29.36-PM-700x426.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-295855\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Median total cash compensation has increased from $87,500 in 2022 to $115,000 in 2026 &#8211; a 31% increase. At the 75th percentile, total cash has grown from $120,000 to $140,554 over the same period.<br><br>Non-founder equity has steadily trended up from 0.050% in 2022 to a peak of 0.175% in 2025 and holding there into 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/jthelander.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2026-06-17-at-2.29.42-PM-700x401.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-295856\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As you can see, both compensation figures have increased at lower financing levels, even as those rounds become less common. This is most likely a result of increasing competition for talent, as newer companies enter the market with more capital to spend on payroll.<br><br>The private markets have seen major shifts over the last few years &#8211; and compensation isn&#8217;t immune. Companies are continuing to be competitive and strategic, and one of the foundational pillars continues to be the mix of cash and equity.<br><br>You can trial the <a href=\"http:\/\/platform.jthelander.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Thelander platform<\/a> at no cost by submitting your current compensation data in the Thelander Private Company Compensation Survey. You&#8217;ll be able to access real-time compensation data tables for all the job titles you input data for.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--1\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"http:\/\/survey.jthelander.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Access the Survey Here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As venture rounds get bigger and the sub-$5M round disappears (PitchBook), it&#8217;s changed the way that companies recruit and retain talent &#8211; and the YoY compensation data is changing as a result. Take Operations Managers at companies that have raised less than $15 Million. Median total cash compensation has increased from $87,500 in 2022 to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4],"class_list":["post-295848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-data-drops","tag-private-company"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=295848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=295848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=295848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=295848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}