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Companies / AMD / Levels
Updated 2026-08-21

AMD levels: MTS, SMTS, PMTS, Fellow.
The prefix is the level.

Why this matters

AMD runs a Member of Technical Staff ladder, and it does something almost no other employer does: it puts the level in the job title. An AMD posting reads MTS Silicon Design Engineer or PMTS Silicon Design Engineer, where the prefix is the band and the suffix is the discipline. Once you can read the prefix, every AMD req tells you its own level. The second thing to know is where the money moves: software out-earns silicon from Engineer II through SMTS, then silicon overtakes at PMTS and never gives it back. This page lays out the ladder band by band, with levels.fyi community pay accessed August 2026 and the scope each band signals.

Free to scanSilicon overtakes software at PMTSlevels.fyi cross-reference
By the numbers
Ladder
Engineer to Corporate Fellow
MTS, SMTS, PMTS, then Fellow
SWE comp range
~$153K to $432K
levels.fyi median, August 2026
Silicon apex
~$711K
Senior Fellow, levels.fyi
Corporate Fellows
15
AMD newsroom, July 2026

The quick answer

Which AMD level should I target?

Target the band your scope actually demonstrates, then read the job title, because AMD makes that unusually easy. AMD runs a Member of Technical Staff ladder: Engineer, Senior Engineer, MTS, SMTS (Senior MTS), PMTS (Principal MTS), Fellow, Senior Fellow, and Corporate Fellow. AMD job titles are literally the level plus the discipline, so a posting for an SMTS Silicon Design Engineer tells you its own band in the prefix, which almost no other employer does. Know one more thing before you negotiate: on commonly reported levels.fyi community data accessed August 2026, software out-earns silicon from Engineer II through SMTS, then silicon overtakes at PMTS and never gives it back, roughly $328K software against $405K silicon. Software runs about $153K at Engineer II to about $432K at Fellow. Every figure here is levels.fyi crowdsourced community data, not official AMD compensation, so cite it by name and date. .

Most large employers make you guess at leveling. AMD does not. Its job titles are built as level, then family: MTS Software Development Engineer, SMTS Silicon Design Engineer, PMTS Silicon Design Engineer. The prefix (MTS, SMTS, PMTS) is the band and the suffix (Silicon Design Engineer, Software Development Engineer, Hardware Development Engineer) is the discipline. Below the prefixes the ladder runs Engineer and Senior Engineer; above them it runs Fellow, Senior Fellow, and Corporate Fellow.

The titles are proven from AMD's own pages, not inferred. AMD's ROCm developer-blog contributor bios list 26 people titled Senior Member of Technical Staff, 7 titled Principal Member of Technical Staff, and one titled Fellow. AMD Investor Relations describes Kevin Lepak's prior title verbatim as Senior Fellow and Server SoC Architect, and AMD's newsroom announced Alan Smith as its newest Corporate Fellow on July 16, 2026.

What AMD does not publish is a numeric grade map. levels.fyi normalizes MTS to L7, SMTS to L8, PMTS to L9, and Fellow to L10, while other community sources number the same bands one step lower. The two conflict, which is exactly why this page uses names only. Treat any L-code you see for AMD as a third-party normalization, never as an AMD grade. The compensation source is levels.fyi, in both the software and the hardware and silicon families.

Every compensation figure on this page is levels.fyi crowdsourced community data accessed August 2026, reported as medians, and never official AMD compensation. AMD publishes its own numbers in a different form, a base-only, location-specific statutory range on postings in jurisdictions that require one, which is not comparable to a total-compensation median. Software Senior Fellow has no salaries reported and Corporate Fellow has no data at all, so nothing is asserted at either.

The ladder, band by band

Each band: scope, comp,
and the resume signal it expects.

For each band, the audit covers the AMD title, scope of ownership, and the resume signal the level expects, with levels.fyi-anchored pay in both the software and the silicon family folded into each signal. The titles are first-party AMD titles proven from AMD-owned pages and live postings; every figure is levels.fyi crowdsourced community data accessed August 2026, not official AMD compensation. Years of experience per band is not published anywhere credible, so none is given. For how an applicant tracking system reads these bullets before a recruiter does, see the ATS statistics. For the wider hiring picture, start with the AMD resume guide.

01
Rung 01 of 07

Engineer

Scope of ownership

The entry IC band. levels.fyi labels this band Software Engineer II in the software family and Hardware Engineer II in the silicon family. Executes well-scoped work under close guidance while learning AMD's design, verification, or software stack. The tell at this band is what the title does not say: there is no Member of Technical Staff prefix yet, because the MTS prefixes start higher up the ladder.

Resume signal & comp

Lead with internships, tapeout or bring-up exposure, and capstones, each paired with a measurable result rather than a tool list. As commonly reported on levels.fyi (crowdsourced medians, accessed August 2026, not official AMD compensation), software sits at a median around $153,216 total, roughly $127,663 base plus $17,043 in stock per year and an $8,510 bonus, on a reported range of $116K to $199K and above. Silicon sits lower at a median around $139K, roughly $119K base plus $12.5K stock and a $7.9K bonus, with no per-level range published for the hardware entry band.

02
Rung 02 of 07

Senior Engineer

Scope of ownership

Independent execution on defined blocks or components with lighter oversight, and a reliable reviewer for part of a design or codebase. The shift from Engineer is independence, not just throughput. Still no MTS prefix, which is exactly why the prefix is such a clean signal once it appears.

Resume signal & comp

Show end-to-end ownership of a component or block plus one quantified outcome. Per levels.fyi community data accessed August 2026 (medians, not official AMD figures), software reports a median around $188,197, roughly $143,800 base plus $34,505 in stock per year and a $9,892 bonus, on a range of $146K to $228K and above. Silicon reports a median around $176K, roughly $148K base plus $19.1K stock and an $8.3K bonus, again with no per-level range published.

03
Rung 03 of 07

MTS, Member of Technical Staff

Scope of ownership

The band where the job title itself changes shape. Live AMD postings read MTS Software Development Engineer and MTS Silicon Design Engineer: MTS is the level and the rest of the title is the discipline. Scope is a subsystem owned end to end, with technical direction for a slice of a product or an architecture, not just execution inside someone else's plan.

Resume signal & comp

Lead with a subsystem you owned end to end and the number that proves it: die area, power, throughput, kernel latency, schedule. On levels.fyi crowdsourced medians accessed August 2026 (community data, not official AMD compensation), software reports a median around $242,964, roughly $179,110 base plus $50,020 in stock per year and a $13,834 bonus, on a range of $215K to $288K and above. Silicon reports a median around $227,460, roughly $167,972 base plus $41,543 stock and a $17,945 bonus, on a range of $170K to $299K and above. Software leads silicon here by roughly $16K.

04
Rung 04 of 07

SMTS, Senior Member of Technical Staff

Scope of ownership

A first-party AMD title, not a community label: AMD's own ROCm developer-blog contributor bios list 26 people titled Senior Member of Technical Staff. Senior IC scope, meaning ambiguous multi-component problems, technical direction across teams, and mentoring the MTS band underneath. Live postings read SMTS Silicon Design Engineer.

Resume signal & comp

Lead with ambiguity you resolved and multi-team impact, quantified. Per levels.fyi community medians accessed August 2026 (not official AMD figures), software reports a median around $314,008, roughly $211,263 base plus $68,725 in stock per year and a $34,020 bonus, on a range of $245K to $375K and above. Silicon reports a median around $275,353, roughly $201,706 base plus $49,118 stock and a $24,529 bonus, on a range of $194K to $349K and above. This is the last band on the ladder where software leads silicon.

05
Rung 05 of 07

PMTS, Principal Member of Technical Staff

Scope of ownership

Another first-party AMD title: AMD's ROCm developer-blog bios list 7 people titled Principal Member of Technical Staff, and live postings read PMTS Silicon Design Engineer. Principal scope spans a product line or an architectural direction rather than a single subsystem. This is also the band where the two families invert on pay.

Resume signal & comp

Lead with architectural bets you owned and the business or silicon outcome they moved. On levels.fyi crowdsourced medians accessed August 2026 (community data, not official AMD compensation), silicon reports a median around $405,068, roughly $253,316 base plus $105,605 in stock per year and a $46,147 bonus, on a range of $250K to $627K and above. Software reports a median around $328,433, roughly $245,500 base plus $50,433 stock and a $32,500 bonus, on a range of $225K to $435K and above. Read the software figure carefully: at $328K it sits barely above software SMTS at $314K on a very wide $225K to $435K and above range, so software SMTS and software PMTS are not cleanly separated bands on this data.

06
Rung 06 of 07

Fellow

Scope of ownership

AMD's ROCm developer-blog contributor bios carry one person titled Fellow, so the band is first-party but visibly rare. Deep-expert technical authority whose scope spans an architecture or a multi-generation program rather than a product. AMD publishes no headcount for the Fellow band, so no count is asserted here.

Resume signal & comp

Lead with sustained, company-level technical authority: architectures you set direction for, and the hard problems that stayed solved. Per levels.fyi community medians accessed August 2026 (not official AMD figures), silicon reports a median around $535,620, roughly $275,156 base plus $177,250 in stock per year and an $83,214 bonus, on a range of $433K to $750K and above. Software reports a median around $432,000, roughly $273,000 base plus $105,000 stock and a $54,000 bonus, on a range of $225K to $610K and above. Both rest on small community samples, so treat them as directional.

07
Rung 07 of 07

Senior Fellow and Corporate Fellow

Scope of ownership

The apex, and the only pair AMD itself documents. AMD Investor Relations describes Kevin Lepak's prior title verbatim as Senior Fellow and Server SoC Architect, and AMD's newsroom announced Alan Smith as its newest Corporate Fellow on July 16, 2026. Corporate Fellow is the terminal band, and Senior Fellow is the band engineers are promoted from.

Resume signal & comp

Nobody writes a resume into these bands; they are earned inside AMD and, at the top, announced by press release. On compensation, only one figure exists: levels.fyi reports a silicon-family Senior Fellow median around $710,875, roughly $302,500 base plus $305,000 in stock per year and a $103,375 bonus, on a range of $472K to $950K and above, from a small community sample accessed August 2026. levels.fyi shows no salaries reported for a software-family Senior Fellow, and no reportable figure at all for Corporate Fellow in either family, so neither is asserted. AMD does publish the Corporate Fellow count: 15 engineers, as of its July 16, 2026 newsroom announcement.

Notes on the comp figures

All figures are levels.fyi crowdsourced median data accessed August 2026, reported by the community and not by AMD. AMD does publish a statutory pay range on postings in jurisdictions that require one, but those ranges are base-only and location-specific, so they are not comparable to a levels.fyi total-compensation number and are deliberately kept out of the table above. That mismatch is why an AMD posting range can look far below a levels.fyi figure for the same band: one is a base band in one city, the other is base plus stock plus bonus across a whole community sample.

Two bands need a flag. Software PMTS at about $328,433 sits barely above software SMTS at about $314,008, on a very wide reported range of $225K to $435K and above, so those two software bands are not cleanly separated on this data. And nothing is asserted at the very top of the software column: levels.fyi shows no salaries reported for a software-family Senior Fellow, and no data at all for Corporate Fellow in either family. Fellow-band and Senior Fellow-band headcounts are not published either; only the Corporate Fellow count is.

Aside, the management track. These sit off the IC ladder above and are listed only for reference: Manager around $255K, Senior Manager around $357K, Director around $487K, with no data for Senior Director, all on the same levels.fyi community basis. AMD does not publish where the IC and management tracks fork, so this page does not describe a fork point.

Salary reference

AMD pay by band, software
and silicon side by side.

Median total compensation and the reported range for each AMD band, in both job families, from the levels.fyi Software Engineer and Hardware Engineer uploads. The two families are shown together because that is the only way the crossover is visible: software leads through SMTS, then silicon takes over at PMTS. Every figure is community-sourced, not an official AMD number, and the upper bands rest on small samples.

RungBandSoftware median TCSilicon median TC
01Engineer$153,216 ($116K to $199K+)~$139K (no range published)
02Senior Engineer$188,197 ($146K to $228K+)~$176K (no range published)
03MTS, Member of Technical Staff$242,964 ($215K to $288K+)$227,460 ($170K to $299K+)
04SMTS, Senior Member of Technical Staff$314,008 ($245K to $375K+)$275,353 ($194K to $349K+)
05PMTS, Principal Member of Technical Staff$328,433 ($225K to $435K+), not cleanly split from SMTS$405,068 ($250K to $627K+)
06Fellow$432,000 ($225K to $610K+)$535,620 ($433K to $750K+)
07Senior Fellow and Corporate FellowSenior Fellow: no salaries reportedSenior Fellow: $710,875 ($472K to $950K+)

Source: levels.fyi crowdsourced median data, accessed August 2026, across the AMD Software Engineer and Hardware Engineer job families. Not official AMD compensation. levels.fyi labels the entry band Software Engineer II and Hardware Engineer II, and neither Hardware Engineer II nor Senior Hardware Engineer publishes a per-level range there, so none is shown. Software PMTS sits barely above software SMTS on a very wide range, so those two software bands are not cleanly separated. levels.fyi reports no salaries for a software-family Senior Fellow, and no data at all for Corporate Fellow in either family, so neither is asserted. AMD's statutory pay ranges, published on postings in jurisdictions that require one, are base-only and location-specific and are not comparable to these totals.

BandSoftwareSiliconWho leads
MTS~$243K~$227KSoftware leads by ~$16K
SMTS~$314K~$275KSoftware leads by ~$39K
PMTS~$328K~$405KSilicon takes the lead by ~$77K
Fellow~$432K~$536KSilicon leads by ~$104K
Senior FellowNo salaries reported~$711KOnly silicon reports a figure
Why it inverts

The mechanism is visible in the pay mix. At silicon PMTS, levels.fyi reports roughly $105,605 of stock per year against a $253,316 base; at software PMTS it is roughly $50,433 of stock on a $245,500 base. The base numbers are close. The equity is not, and equity is what separates the two families once you clear SMTS.

What it means in a negotiation

If you are a software candidate at SMTS or below, the software comparables are your friend. If you are pitching PMTS or above in silicon design, anchoring to a software total-compensation number leaves a large gap on the table. Cite levels.fyi by name and date, and say which job family the figure comes from.

The apex belongs to silicon

At Senior Fellow, the software column stops existing: levels.fyi shows no salaries reported. Silicon reports roughly $710,875 on a small community sample, with stock per year (about $305,000) finally exceeding base (about $302,500). Corporate Fellow has no reportable figure in either family, so none is asserted.

The caveat that keeps it honest

These are crowdsourced medians, not an AMD pay scale, and the samples thin out badly above PMTS. Treat the crossover as a directional structure to plan around, not a guaranteed offer. AMD's own posting ranges are base-only and location-specific and will not match these totals.

Below

Senior Fellow

Progression
The band engineers are promoted from. AMD Investor Relations describes Kevin Lepak's prior title verbatim as Senior Fellow and Server SoC Architect, before his promotion to Corporate Fellow was announced on October 28, 2021.
Recognition
No individual corporate announcement. AMD does not publish a press release when an engineer is appointed Fellow or Senior Fellow.
Headcount disclosure
No count is published for Fellow or Senior Fellow, so no number is asserted here. The band is documented by title, not by population.
Published criteria
AMD publishes no criteria for this band. What earns a Senior Fellow title is not documented in any AMD-owned source, so nothing is claimed beyond the title itself.
Compensation
levels.fyi reports a silicon-family median around $710,875 on a small community sample, accessed August 2026, on a range of $472K to $950K and above. There is no software-family figure. Community data, not official AMD compensation.
Terminal

Corporate Fellow

Progression
The terminal band. There is nothing above it on AMD's technical ladder, so a Corporate Fellow appointment is the end of the progression, not a step in it.
Recognition
Every appointment gets an individual corporate press release posted to AMD Investor Relations. That publicity difference is itself the clearest marker of where the two bands sit.
Headcount disclosure
AMD publishes a running count, and only for this band. Verbatim from the AMD newsroom, July 16, 2026: 'Currently, 15 engineers at AMD hold the title of Corporate Fellow.'
Published criteria
Criteria exist only here. Verbatim from AMD Investor Relations, October 28, 2021: 'Promotion to AMD Corporate Fellow is an honor bestowed to the most accomplished innovators. AMD Corporate Fellows are appointed after a rigorous review process that assesses not only specific technical contributions to the company, but also involvement in the industry, mentoring of others and improving the long-term strategic position of the company.'
Compensation
No reportable figure at all: the levels.fyi Corporate Fellow page returns nothing in either family, so no compensation is asserted for this band on this page.

Sources: AMD Investor Relations, October 28, 2021, and the AMD newsroom, July 16, 2026, both AMD-owned. Compensation is levels.fyi crowdsourced community data accessed August 2026 and is asserted only for the silicon-family Senior Fellow band. No compensation and no headcount is published for Fellow, and no compensation is published for Corporate Fellow.

  1. 01

    Read the title prefix to find the level

    An AMD job title is the level plus the discipline: MTS Software Development Engineer, SMTS Silicon Design Engineer, PMTS Silicon Design Engineer. The prefix (MTS, SMTS, PMTS) is the band and the suffix is the family. Almost no other employer states its own level in the posting title, so start every AMD application by reading the prefix and stop guessing at a grade code. Below MTS the ladder runs Engineer and Senior Engineer with no prefix at all, and above PMTS it runs Fellow, Senior Fellow, and Corporate Fellow.

  2. 02

    Map by scope, not by title inflation

    Do not translate your current title one-for-one. A senior engineer at a company where senior is the third rung is not automatically an AMD SMTS. Map by what you owned: a component maps to Engineer II or Senior Engineer, an end-to-end subsystem maps to MTS, ambiguous multi-component problems and cross-team direction map to SMTS, and a product line or architectural direction maps to PMTS. Write your bullets at the altitude of the band you are pitching, because a resume written one band low reads as the lower band before a human ever maps it.

  3. 03

    Know the family crossover before you negotiate

    On levels.fyi community medians accessed August 2026, software out-earns silicon from Engineer II through SMTS, then silicon overtakes at PMTS and never gives it back: PMTS is roughly $328K software against $405K silicon, Fellow is roughly $432K against $536K, and only silicon reports a Senior Fellow figure at roughly $711K. Both columns come from the same source on the same date, so the comparison is clean. Also remember that AMD publishes a statutory pay range on postings in jurisdictions that require one, and those ranges are base-only and location-specific, so they are not comparable to a levels.fyi total-compensation number and can look far below it.

  4. 04

    Scan and iterate on ResumeAdapter

    Upload to ResumeAdapter to see your ATS score against the AMD job description, the scope language missing for the band in the title prefix, and a rewrite plan that quantifies the level you are pitching.

FAQ

AMD engineering levels and salary FAQ

The questions most candidates surface when they cross-reference their experience against the AMD ladder. Answers are byte-identical to the FAQPage JSON-LD, because AI engines that extract HTML and AI engines that extract JSON-LD should not see different text.

What are the job levels at AMD?

AMD runs a Member of Technical Staff ladder: Engineer, Senior Engineer, MTS (Member of Technical Staff), SMTS (Senior MTS), PMTS (Principal MTS), Fellow, Senior Fellow, and Corporate Fellow. These are names, not numbers, and AMD does not publish a public grade map. The structural tell is that AMD job titles are built as the level plus the discipline, so a posting for an SMTS Silicon Design Engineer states its own band in the prefix. levels.fyi normalizes MTS to L7, SMTS to L8, PMTS to L9, and Fellow to L10, but that is its normalization rather than an AMD grade map, and other community sources number the same bands one step lower, so use the names.

What does MTS mean at AMD?

MTS stands for Member of Technical Staff, and at AMD it is a level, not a job description. It appears as a prefix on live job titles such as MTS Software Development Engineer and MTS Silicon Design Engineer, where MTS is the band and the rest of the title is the discipline. The MTS family runs MTS, then SMTS (Senior Member of Technical Staff), then PMTS (Principal Member of Technical Staff). AMD's own ROCm developer-blog contributor bios list 26 people titled Senior Member of Technical Staff and 7 titled Principal Member of Technical Staff, so these are first-party AMD titles rather than community labels.

What is the difference between SMTS and PMTS at AMD?

SMTS is Senior Member of Technical Staff and PMTS is Principal Member of Technical Staff, one band higher. SMTS scope is ambiguous multi-component problems, cross-team technical direction, and mentoring the MTS band; PMTS scope spans a product line or an architectural direction. On levels.fyi community medians accessed August 2026, the gap is dramatic in silicon and nearly invisible in software: silicon goes from about $275,353 at SMTS to about $405,068 at PMTS, while software goes from about $314,008 to about $328,433 on a very wide $225K to $435K and above range, so the two software bands are not cleanly separated on this data. These are crowdsourced community figures, not official AMD compensation.

How much does an AMD software engineer make?

As commonly reported on levels.fyi (crowdsourced medians, accessed August 2026, not official AMD compensation), the AMD software ladder runs about $153,216 at Engineer II, $188,197 at Senior Engineer, $242,964 at MTS, $314,008 at SMTS, $328,433 at PMTS, and $432,000 at Fellow. levels.fyi shows no salaries reported for a software-family Senior Fellow, and no data at all for Corporate Fellow, so no figure is asserted at either. Note that AMD publishes a statutory pay range on postings in jurisdictions that require one, and those ranges are base-only and location-specific, so they are not comparable to a levels.fyi total-compensation number and will usually look far lower.

Do silicon engineers make more than software engineers at AMD?

It depends entirely on the band, and the crossover is the most useful thing to know before a negotiation. On levels.fyi community medians accessed August 2026, software out-earns silicon from Engineer II through SMTS: about $242,964 against $227,460 at MTS, and about $314,008 against $275,353 at SMTS. Then it inverts at PMTS and never gives the lead back: about $328,433 software against $405,068 silicon, about $432,000 against $535,620 at Fellow, and at Senior Fellow only silicon reports a figure at all, around $710,875. Both columns come from the same source on the same date, so the comparison is clean, but both are community data rather than official AMD compensation.

What is the difference between a Senior Fellow and a Corporate Fellow at AMD?

Corporate Fellow is the terminal band and Senior Fellow is the band engineers are promoted from: AMD Investor Relations describes Kevin Lepak's prior title verbatim as Senior Fellow and Server SoC Architect before his promotion to Corporate Fellow. Three things separate them in AMD's own publishing. Corporate Fellow appointments get an individual corporate press release and Fellow and Senior Fellow appointments do not; AMD publishes a running headcount for Corporate Fellow only; and criteria exist only at Corporate Fellow, described by AMD as an honor bestowed to the most accomplished innovators, appointed after a rigorous review process. On compensation, levels.fyi reports a silicon-family Senior Fellow median around $710,875 on a small community sample, and no reportable figure for Corporate Fellow, so none is asserted.

How many Corporate Fellows does AMD have?

Fifteen. Verbatim from the AMD newsroom on July 16, 2026: 'Currently, 15 engineers at AMD hold the title of Corporate Fellow.' That count is for Corporate Fellows specifically; AMD publishes no headcount for the Fellow or Senior Fellow bands, so no number is asserted for either. The trajectory shows how slowly the band grows: 7 as of July 16, 2020, 8 as of October 28, 2021 (AMD's wording then was 'Currently, only eight engineers at AMD hold the title of Corporate Fellow'), and 15 as of July 16, 2026. Against roughly 31,000 employees per AMD's FY2025 10-K, 15 is the scale to keep in mind.

Are the levels.fyi numbers official AMD pay?

No. Every compensation figure on this page is levels.fyi crowdsourced community data, accessed August 2026, reported as medians and not as official AMD compensation. AMD does publish its own numbers in a different form: a statutory pay range on postings in jurisdictions that require one, and those ranges are base-only and location-specific, so they are not comparable to a levels.fyi total-compensation figure and will often look far below it. The upper bands rest on small community samples, software Senior Fellow has no salaries reported, and Corporate Fellow has no data at all, so nothing is asserted at either. Cite levels.fyi by name and date on any resume or in a negotiation.

Engineer your AMD resume

Read the prefix, then
write bullets that earn it.

Upload your resume and an AMD job description to see your ATS-style score, the scope language missing for the band in the title prefix, and a rewrite plan. Free to scan; no signup to see the score.