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Companies / RTX / Levels
Updated 2026-07-20

RTX and Raytheon levels, P1 to P6.
Base plus a bonus, and almost no equity.

Why this matters

levels.fyi normalizes RTX and Raytheon engineering to P1 through P6, and that shorthand is now how candidates talk about it. But those P-codes are levels.fyi's own normalization, not an official RTX grade map, and the pay is the defense inversion of big tech: base salary plus a modest bonus, with essentially zero equity. This page lays out the ladder as commonly reported, with levels.fyi pay (accessed July 2026), the scope each band signals, and the resume language that matches it.

Free to scanBase plus bonus, ~$0 equitylevels.fyi cross-reference
By the numbers
Ladder (levels.fyi)
P1 to P6
Normalized, not official grades
SWE comp range
~$94K to $239K+
levels.fyi, July 2026
Equity
~$0
Base plus a modest bonus
Comp source
levels.fyi
Crowdsourced, not official

The quick answer

Which RTX level should I target?

Target the level your scope actually demonstrates, then cross-reference pay on levels.fyi, and know two things first. One: RTX and Raytheon comp is base salary plus a modest bonus with essentially zero equity, the structural opposite of a big-tech offer, so a total-compensation number from Google or Meta is the wrong yardstick. Two: the P1 to P6 codes everyone uses are levels.fyi's own normalization, not an official RTX grade map, and RTX publishes no public grade-to-title map. The verified title ladder runs Engineer I and II, Senior Engineer, Principal Engineer, and Senior Principal Engineer, then a Fellow tier. As commonly reported on levels.fyi (accessed July 2026), a Senior Software Engineer, normalized P3, sits around a $134K median and a Principal Software Engineer, P4, around $170K, base-heavy and crowdsourced, not official RTX figures. Cross-reference levels.fyi by name and date, then match your resume scope to the band you want. .

levels.fyi normalizes RTX and Raytheon engineering to P1 through P6, and candidates have adopted that shorthand (for example, “what is a P3 at Raytheon”). But P1 to P6 are levels.fyi's own normalization, not an official RTX grade map. RTX does not publish a public grade-to-title map, and the internal E-grade or G-grade codes that circulate on forums are unverified, so this page does not present them as official. The crowdsourced source is levels.fyi.

The defining structural difference from big tech is the pay shape: RTX and Raytheon engineering comp is base salary plus a modest bonus with essentially zero equity. levels.fyi shows $0 stock at nearly every level. Lead with that, because a total-compensation figure borrowed from a big-tech ladder will badly misprice a defense offer.

One practical note on sourcing: only one levels.fyi company page exists for the merged company, the /companies/raytheon entry. The /rtx and /raytheon-technologies paths return 404, so every figure here routes through the Raytheon entry.

Every comp figure on this page is levels.fyi crowdsourced data accessed July 2026, not an official RTX number. Treat each one as a community estimate that varies by segment, location, and clearance, and cite levels.fyi by name and date on any resume or in a negotiation.

The ladder, band by band

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

For each band, the audit covers the verified title, scope of ownership, and the resume signal the level expects, with levels.fyi-anchored pay folded into each signal. The P-codes are levels.fyi's normalization used as community shorthand, not official RTX grades, and every figure is levels.fyi crowdsourced data accessed July 2026, base-heavy with essentially no equity, not official RTX comp. For the wider hiring picture, start with the RTX and Raytheon resume guide.

P1
Level P1

Software Engineer 1 (entry)

Scope of ownership

Entry level, typically fresh from a bachelor's or master's program. Executes well-scoped engineering tasks under close guidance while learning the program, the tooling, and the compliance-heavy defense workflow.

Resume signal & comp

Lead with internships, capstones, and projects, each paired with a measurable result rather than a tool list. levels.fyi puts Software Engineer 1 at a median around $94K (range roughly $88K to $98K), crowdsourced and accessed July 2026, base plus a modest bonus with essentially no equity, not official RTX numbers.

P2
Level P2

Software Engineer 2

Scope of ownership

Roughly 2 to 4 years. Owns defined features and components with lighter oversight and becomes a reliable reviewer for a part of the codebase. The shift from P1 is independence, not just output.

Resume signal & comp

Show end-to-end ownership of a component plus one quantified outcome. levels.fyi reports a median around $109K (range roughly $90K to $120K), crowdsourced July 2026, base plus a modest bonus with near-zero equity, not official RTX figures.

P3
Level P3

Senior Software Engineer

Scope of ownership

Roughly 5 to 9 years. Owns systems and drives cross-team work within a program. P3 is where a large share of the defense engineering population sits.

Resume signal & comp

Pair domain depth with cross-team drive and a number at each bullet. levels.fyi reports a median around $134K (range roughly $116K to $155K), crowdsourced July 2026, base-heavy with essentially no equity, not official RTX comp.

P4
Level P4

Principal Software Engineer

Scope of ownership

Senior IC. Sets technical direction within a program or discipline and owns ambiguous, program-level problems. One caveat: levels.fyi's "Principal Software Engineer" label here uses "Principal" in the big-tech IC sense and does not map one-to-one to RTX's internal Principal Engineer grade.

Resume signal & comp

Lead with program scope and ambiguity: an initiative you defined, multi-team impact, a measurable technical bet. levels.fyi reports a median around $170K (range roughly $141K to $197K), crowdsourced July 2026, base plus bonus with near-zero equity, not official RTX numbers.

P5
Level P5

Senior IC (levels.fyi P5)

Scope of ownership

Late-IC scope mapping toward Senior Principal Engineer: broad technical leadership across a program or discipline. The levels.fyi P5 sample is thin, so treat this band as indicative only.

Resume signal & comp

Broad technical authority within a discipline, quantified at the program boundary. levels.fyi shows a median around $192K (range roughly $170K to $218K) on a thin sample, crowdsourced July 2026 and indicative only, base-heavy with essentially no equity, not official RTX figures.

P6
Level P6

Top of the normalized ladder (levels.fyi P6)

Scope of ownership

The top of the normalized levels.fyi ladder, mapping toward the most senior IC scope below the Fellow tier. The sample here is sparse.

Resume signal & comp

Company- or segment-level technical scope. levels.fyi shows figures around a $239K median, but on a sparse sample, so treat this as no reliable band figure rather than a dependable median, crowdsourced July 2026, base-heavy with essentially no equity, not official RTX comp.

Notes on the comp figures

Compensation at RTX and Raytheon is base salary plus a modest bonus with essentially zero equity at nearly every level, the defense inversion of big-tech pay. Figures vary by segment (Collins Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, and Raytheon defense), by location, and by clearance. The levels.fyi P5 sample is thin and the P6 sample sparse, so treat both as indicative and P6 as no reliable band figure. All figures are levels.fyi crowdsourced data accessed July 2026, not official RTX comp.

Salary reference

RTX software pay by band,
P1 to P6 at a glance.

Median total compensation and the typical reported range for each normalized band, from the levels.fyi Raytheon Software Engineer uploads. At RTX, total compensation is base salary plus a modest bonus with essentially no equity, which is why the bands stay well below a big-tech ladder. Every figure is community-sourced, not an official RTX number, and the P5 and P6 samples are thin to sparse.

Bandlevels.fyi labelMedian total compTypical range
P1Software Engineer 1 (entry)~$94K~$88K to $98K
P2Software Engineer 2~$109K~$90K to $120K
P3Senior Software Engineer~$134K~$116K to $155K
P4Principal Software Engineer~$170K~$141K to $197K
P5Senior IC (levels.fyi P5)~$192K (thin sample)~$170K to $218K
P6Top of ladder (levels.fyi P6)~$239K (sparse)No reliable band figure (sparse)

Source: levels.fyi crowdsourced data, accessed July 2026. Not official RTX compensation: it is base salary plus a modest bonus with essentially no equity, and it varies by segment, location, and clearance. The "Principal Software Engineer" label at P4 uses "Principal" in the big-tech IC sense and does not map one-to-one to RTX's internal Principal Engineer grade. P5 rests on a thin sample and P6 on a sparse one, so treat both as indicative and P6 as no reliable band figure.

Disciplinelevels.fyi median total comp
Systems Engineer~$110K
Hardware Engineer~$103K
Mechanical Engineer~$102K
Aerospace Engineer~$114K
Company-wide, all roles~$128K

Source: levels.fyi crowdsourced medians, accessed July 2026, base salary plus a modest bonus with essentially no equity. Not official RTX compensation, and figures vary by segment, location, and clearance.

Senior

Senior Principal Engineer

Scope
Expert IC and technical lead within a single program or discipline. Deep authority over a bounded technical domain.
Population
Small. A senior IC band most engineers never reach.
What earns it
Deep, sustained program expertise and technical leadership within a discipline.
Compensation
No reliable levels.fyi figure. Crowdsourced numbers at this band are thin and contradictory, so no dependable median is stated (accessed July 2026).
Fellow

Engineering Fellow / Principal Engineering Fellow

Scope
Enterprise or segment-level technical authority and the prime technical spokesperson to senior leadership, typically a very senior individual contributor.
Population
Rare. A recognition tier, not a band engineers rotate through.
What earns it
Enterprise-level technical impact plus external recognition, awarded through a rigorous nomination and review.
Compensation
No reliable levels.fyi figure either. The Fellow tier is too sparse in crowdsourced data to state a dependable median (accessed July 2026).
  1. 01

    Start from scope, and treat P1 to P6 as shorthand

    RTX publishes no official public grade-to-title map. levels.fyi normalizes the ladder to P1 through P6, which has become community shorthand, but it is not an official RTX grade. Place yourself by the scope you own and the verified title ladder: Engineer I and II, Senior, Principal, and Senior Principal Engineer, then the Fellow tier.

  2. 02

    Write bullets at the band's altitude

    Execution for Engineer I and II, owned systems and cross-team drive for Senior, and program-level direction and ambiguity for Principal and Senior Principal. A resume written one band too low reads as the lower band before a human maps it to the ladder.

  3. 03

    Quantify every claim, and expect a base-heavy offer

    Attach a numeral and a denominator to every claim. When you cross-reference pay, use levels.fyi accessed July 2026 and remember defense comp is base salary plus a modest bonus with essentially no equity, so a big-tech total-comp number is the wrong yardstick.

  4. 04

    Scan and iterate on ResumeAdapter

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

FAQ

RTX and Raytheon levels FAQ

The questions most candidates surface when they cross-reference their experience against the RTX 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 is a P3 or P4 at Raytheon?

Those are levels.fyi's normalized bands, not official RTX grades. On levels.fyi (July 2026), P3 maps to Senior Software Engineer at about $134K and P4 to Principal Software Engineer at about $170K total, community-sourced.

Does RTX give equity or RSUs?

Mostly no. levels.fyi shows RTX engineering comp as base plus a modest bonus with essentially zero equity at nearly every level, unlike big tech.

How much does a Raytheon software engineer make?

Community data (levels.fyi, July 2026) shows roughly $94K at entry to about $239K at the senior bands, with the common bands in the $110K to $170K range. Not official RTX figures.

What are RTX's engineer levels?

A title ladder of Engineer I and II, Senior, Principal, and Senior Principal Engineer, then a Fellow tier, which levels.fyi normalizes as P1 to P6. RTX publishes no official public grade map.

How many Fellows or Engineering Fellows are there at RTX?

No reliable public total exists. RTX publicizes individual Fellow appointments, not a headcount. The one concrete figure is Pratt & Whitney's separate Fellows Program (established 1995), which inducted 23 new Fellows in its 2022 class, a class size and Pratt-specific, not a company-wide total. Job-board "Fellow jobs" counts are listing noise, not people.

What is the difference between a Senior Principal Engineer and a Fellow?

The Fellow tier sits above Senior Principal Engineer. Senior Principal is a deep expert IC within a program; the Fellow tier carries enterprise-level technical authority, external recognition, and a rigorous nomination. No dependable comp figure is public for either band.

Are levels.fyi P-codes RTX's real grades?

No. P1 to P6 are levels.fyi's normalization used as community shorthand. RTX does not publish an official grade-to-title map, and the internal E-grade or G-grade codes seen on forums are unverified.

Continue

Go deeper on the rest
of the RTX stack.

01 / Pillar

RTX and Raytheon resume guide

The pillar covers how RTX hiring works end to end: the Workday application behind the Phenom career site, the six RTX values, the clearance gate, and the level summary. Start here if you have not already.

Read
02 / Spoke

The six RTX values

Safety, Trust, Respect, Accountability, Collaboration, and Innovation: what each one means in practice, and how to evidence them on a resume without resorting to values statements.

Read
03 / Spoke

The RTX interview process

The stages from recruiter screen through the technical and behavioral loop, how clearance and export-control eligibility get screened first, and how leveling is decided.

Read
04 / Resume example

Software engineer resume example

A worked software engineer resume with scope quantified at each bullet, the format that survives an ATS, and annotations on what moved the score.

Read
Related cornerstone

Clearance and the defense engineering resume: the gate before the ladder.

Before any RTX level matters, Raytheon defense roles screen for US citizenship and the ability to hold a security clearance. The cornerstone covers how a cleared or clearable defense engineer should frame eligibility, program work under ITAR and export control, and quantified scope so the resume clears the first gate and then pitches the right band.

Read the cleared defense engineer guide
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