Base Rates + Progression Principles
We'll pay you fairly based on your level of expertise, impact, and responsibilities. Everyone has clear rate cards and understands how pay decisions are made. Our approach is simple, transparent, and designed to grow with us.
Purpose
🎣 attract and keep great people - offer competitive rates to attract talented engineers and keep them engaged in our mission
🥅 support our goals - ensure our approach helps us deliver exceptional open source solutions while maintaining sustainable growth
🫱🏼 recognise individual contribution - through progression within technical domain and beyond
Why this matters
We are an established, independent business that has grown organically since we started. Being able to pay our team (and our overheads), not just now, but in the long term, is hugely important to us. Therefore we intentionally grow in a way that is sustainable.
Our approach combines
- Competitive rate cards that reflect your technical expertise
- Profit sharing that recognises our collective success
- Sustainable financial planning to support long term stability and growth
This means that your expertise is rewarded through your rate card. Your contributions to Ideas on Board is recognised through profit sharing. We maintain the stability to support long term growth, and everyone benefits from our collective success.
Our Guiding Principles
💎 Keep it clear
- Your rate card matches your expertise level
- We review rates in June for eligible team members
- There is a clear process for everyone
🤝 Keep it fair
- Same level, same rate card
- Progression is based on expertise and impact, not negotiation abilities
- Balance local market realities with team fairness
🌍 Keep it sustainable
- Build for the long term
- Target competitive market rates for technical experts
- Balance team rewards with company investment
How this works
🔵 Structure
- 5 levels (L1 - L5)
- 3 stages per level: Learning → Progressing → Mastery
- Market-based rate cards
📅 Review Cycles
- One review cycle per year in June
- You’re eligible for rate review once per year
- Rate cards reviewed annually against market data
Our Framework and Pay
Our rate structure directly aligns with expertise and impact levels. Each level has specific expectations across:
📌 Delivery: consistently achieving individual, team and organisational goals
📌 Team impact: supporting the growth and success of teammates and colleagues
📌 Initiative: driving new opportunities and innovations
Level Overview + Rate Ranges
We use a five-level structure (L1-L5), with three progression stages within each level:
| Level | Scope | At a high level, what does each level mean | Learning | Progressing | Mastery |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| L1 | Individual Contributor | Given why, what, and how: DO | €45,000 | €54,280 | €61,950 |
| L2 | Specialist | Given why, and what: figure out HOW then DO | €59,200 | €67,850 | €76,700 |
| L3 | Technical Leadership | Given why, figure out WHAT, HOW, then DO | €76,700 | €88,205 | €99,710 |
| L4 | Strategic Direction | With increasing scope (usually at the level of critical & complex infrastructure / projects), given white space, figure out WHY, WHAT, HOW, then DO | €100,300 | €115,345 | €130,390 |
| L5 | Executive Vision | Make Ideas On Board successful both in terms of own scope and company ops as a whole | €129,800 | €149,270 | €168,740 |
Role Expectations by Level
Responsibilities build over time and reflect increasing impact, complexity, and leadership.
⚙️ Level 1 (L1)
💬 These are entry levels and individuals often progress through these more quickly. It's uncommon for people to stay within these job levels throughout their careers.
| Impact Area | Expectations |
|---|---|
| Delivery | - Consistently delivers high-quality code and documentation |
| - Follows best practices and standards in their work | |
| - Contributes to team projects and open source initiatives | |
| Team Impact | - Collaborates effectively within immediate team |
| - Participates actively in code reviews and technical discussions | |
| - Seeks guidance and feedback from more experienced developers | |
| Initiative | - Takes on additional responsibilities outside core role |
| - Identifies opportunities for process or tool improvements | |
| - Actively learns and contributes to relevant open source projects |
⚙️ Level 2 (L2)
💬 Responsibilities of L1 plus...
| Impact Area | Expectations |
|---|---|
| Delivery | - Designs and implements major components or features |
| - Breaks down complex projects into manageable tasks | |
| - Delivers complete solutions that meet requirements | |
| - Contributes to strategic open source projects | |
| Team Impact | - Mentors and supports junior developers |
| - Provides constructive feedback and code reviews | |
| - Represents the team in cross-functional initiatives | |
| - Collaborates with open source communities | |
| Initiative | - Leads improvements to team practices and processes |
| - Proactively identifies and solves challenges | |
| - Contributes to non-technical projects and initiatives | |
| - Advocates for open source best practices |
⚙️ Level 3 (L3)
💬 It's common for a successful career-level professional to reach this job level + the next and remain here for the entirety of their career. This is not considered stagnating as a majority of critical work is accomplished within this level.
| Impact Area | Expectations |
|---|---|
| Delivery | - Defines the technical strategy and roadmap for their area |
| - Leads the delivery of critical projects and initiatives | |
| - Ensures the quality and sustainability of key systems | |
| - Maintains and contributes to key open source projects | |
| Team Impact | - Provides expert guidance and support to others on the team |
| - Builds alignment and collaboration across the company | |
| - Represents the company at technical conferences and events | |
| - Recognised leader in open source communities | |
| Initiative | - Drives the adoption of innovative open source tools and methodologies |
| - Contributes to strategic planning and goal-setting | |
| - Leads key open source initiatives within and outside the company |
⚙️ Level 4 (L4)
💬 Responsibilities of IC3, plus...
| Impact Area | Expectations |
|---|---|
| Delivery | - Sets the long-term technical vision and direction |
| - Develops and executes on company roadmaps | |
| - Aligns technical strategy with business goals | |
| - Sponsors critical open source projects and initiatives | |
| Team Impact | - Coaches and mentors colleagues |
| - Builds and maintains strategic partnerships and alliances | |
| - Drives organisation-wide process and culture change | |
| - Advocates for open source at an industry level | |
| Initiative | - Defines the future direction for the company |
| - Contributes to new business models and revenue streams | |
| - Leads major cross-company initiatives | |
| - Influences the direction of key open source technologies and communities |
⚙️ Level 5 (L5)
💬 Responsibilities of IC4, plus...These are positions that are commonly reached after deep functional and/or professional experience. Moving into and between these job levels is often slower as the roles increase significantly in complexity and seniority.
| Impact Area | Expectations |
|---|---|
| Delivery | - Delivers on strategic commitments and outcomes |
| - Makes major decisions with far-reaching implications | |
| - Accountable for overall company performance and growth | |
| - Sets the overall open source strategy and engagement | |
| Team Impact | - Builds and empowers a world-class team |
| - Shapes and evolves the company culture and values | |
| - Represents the company on panels and advisory groups | |
| - Recognised as an open source expert and thought leader | |
| Initiative | - Sets the overall strategic vision and direction |
| - Identifies and pursues new market opportunities | |
| - Recognised as an industry leader and innovator |
🌐 Currency Conversion Approach
We publish bands in EUR first, then convert to other currencies :
| Target currency | Source for the rate | April-2025 rate we use |
|---|---|---|
| GBP | HMRC currency exchange average rates | 1 GBP → 1.1880 EUR |
| 1 EUR → 0.8418 EUR |
HMRC Average rates are published on 31st March and 31st December every year. We update the table every June review cycle (or sooner if ±10 % swings).
Progression stages:
Each level has three growth stages:
- Learning: developing capability in core responsibilities. Gaining familiarity with systems, tools, and expectations. May require direction or support to deliver consistently.
- Progressing: delivering reliably and independently across core responsibilities. Taking ownership of work within defined scope and starting to influence how things are done.
- Mastery: demonstrating deep expertise and consistent, high-quality contribution. Shaping direction within an area, solving complex problems, and elevating the work of others.
📅 Annual review cycle:
- Salaries are reviewed in June each year for eligible team members.
- Adjustments are based on market benchmarking and role progression.
Location-based compensation
We balance two priorities:
- Reward expertise fairly
- Keep the business sustainable
Base market & multipliers
- Helsinki is the base market (1.0x multiplier).
- A 0.7x multiplier applies to lower-cost regions where cost-of-living and salaries are significantly lower.
- This currently applies to Hungary, India, and other similarly indexed markets, reviewed annually.
Why this approach?
In plain terms: the multiplier reflects local market reality, not a discount on individual value.
Wherever you’re based, your band should land you slightly ahead of an equivalent engineer at a similar size, similar sector local company.
Rates are reviewed each June. If future data shows 0.7 × is no longer “above local median”, we’ll move it.
Where do we get our data?
We take data seriously because it drives fair compensation. Here’s where we get our information:
📊 Industry specific sources
- Pave market benchmarking
- Engineering job boards
- Data gathered from network
📊 Startup focused data
- PAVE benchmarking tool
- tech specific salary surveys
- try to ensure data gathered is from similar companies, so tech-led and headcount
- apply logic when using data from agencies removing anomalies where salaries are much higher or lower than the rest of the data
📊 General market data
- We look at live job adverts from linkedIn, indeed, and glassdoor, direct and via agencies
- Industry salary surveys
🗳️ The process
we compile and analyse this data annually, typically in April, to ensure our rates stay competitive and fair. When looking at data, we:
- focus on companies similar to our stage and size
- remove outliers that might skew the data
- look for patterns across multiple sources
want to help? 🤝
our benchmarking process is open to all. if you have access to robust compensation data or market insights that could help inform our rates, please reach out to Kieran. The more data points we have, the better.
Growth at Ideas on Board
there are two main ways to grow
🟰 within your current role
- progress through learning → progressing → mastery
- increase your impact and expertise
- earn rate increases as you develop
🔼 level promotion
- move to a new level when ready and role available
- start at “learning” in new band
- may reach new band in steps based on budget
as a small company, new roles aren’t always available but you can still grow and earn more in your current role. level changes will always be based on business needs and your readiness.
This is our first compensation philosophy and, like our company, it will evolve as we grow. While our core principles will remain consistent, we may refine specific elements based on feedback and business needs.