So, we sat down and had a more formal discussion on how my pay will work at the Big. Co.  I informed them that offering me more money in bonus and incentives structures would likely be to their benefit.  We settled on the following, which is a bit complex… bear with me.

1. Salary – This is pretty straight-forward.  $200,000 per year.
2. Benefits – Their pretty standard offering.  5% 401K matching, great insurance packages, etc.
3. Normal Bonus pool – The top 10% of employees are in this bonus structure, it’s largely based on company-wide stuff so I have little control over this… worth up to $50,000
4. Special Bonus pool – The top 2% of employees are in this bonus structure.  So just a few dozen.  This is dependent on how I personally do.  My boss and the CEO will talk about specific goals and metrics, and then evaluate my performance.  The total available here is $100,000.
5. Long-term Incentive – I will have a pool of money (not clear yet how much, I think $20,000/year) that will accumulate and be available if I am still there on an anniversary date.  This is intended to be another hook that will make it harder for me to quit later.  So, for example, in year 4 I would have $80,000 sitting there to be sent to me if I am still employed on the 4th anniversary.  Anniversary 1,2 and 3 will not be a problem for them because the I get my payouts from the exit on those dates, so this is intended to be a bit more at the end.

All in I have a total possible of $370,000/year, but a lot of that at risk of performance.