Rarible Protocol Compensation guidelines

Proposals Parent DAO Proposals
#1

In order to stay competitive and become the world class network we believe we can be, it is of top priority that we be able to recruit the top talent in the world. Competitive compensation packages in line with world class organizations are as part of this equation and below are proposed compensation guidelines for Rarible DAO.

Note: many of these guidelines were inspired and borrowed from Sushi and Yearn (link 1 and 2).

Salary ranges

Senior Dev : 180K - 250K USD

Junior Dev : 80K - 150K USD

Senior Ops/Business Dev : 120K - 150K USD

Junior Ops/Business Dev: 85K USD

Senior Designer/Comms : 120K USD

Junior Designer/Comms : 80K USD

Community Manager: 80K USD

Pay ranges are a guideline and outstanding candidates can request an increased salary pending approval of the core team

Vesting token

A committee will be formed to determine the value and amount of vesting tokens. These tokens will vest over the following timeline:

  • 3 years linear vesting
  • 6 month cliff backdated to start date
  • With clawback (all unvested RARI returns to the DAO if someone leaves or is terminated)

Amount of tokens will range from 10,000 to 150,000 tokens based on seniority and responsibility levels, as well as current price of RARI. These tokens will unfortunately only apply to full time contributors.

2 month trial period

Will be implemented for all new full time members

During the trial period, every new hire will receive 100% of their due salary, in the form of a monthly grant, paid on a monthly basis, for the time they work.

If the trial period is successful, the new hire is made official. They are now protected by a severance package (in the case of a standard firing procedure).

If the hire isn’t confirmed at the end of the two-month period, the severance package is null.

Payment currency

Payment for all members will be made in RARI tokens.

Part time hires

Rarible DAO thrives thanks to its contributors. Unfortunately, some of them are in a place that doesn’t allow them to commit full-time to the project.

They are more than welcome to contribute but they would be compensated with a monthly or hourly grant, based on their involvement in and time commitment to the project. The amount of the grant will be set up on a month-to-month basis, and will be adjusted to the part-time contributor’s degree of involvement.

Termination Policy

Letting someone go is a painful, stressful experience that can put a strain on a project’s morale. That’s why we’d like to introduce transparent termination procedures so there are no surprises in the event of poor or malicious performance.

  • Any termination decision will be discussed and voted on by the Core Team.
  • Gross misconduct and dishonest behavior will result in immediate termination without any form of severance.
  • Standard terminations will be subject to a severance package based on the individual’s fixed salary. The standard severance package is one month’s salary.
  • Severance packages will be approved by Core Team and Multisig before being sent.
  • In the event of a high-profile termination, a post-mortem could be shared with the community, shedding light on the context and justification for the decision.

Vacation time

  • 4 weeks per year for everyone (or more, if you need, unpaid)
8 Likes
Marketing WG: Proposal to become a full-time contributor to the Marketing WG
Dev Rel WG: FT Contributor G2
#2

Good to see this draft more fleshed out. Good job @Rarible

For part time hires/contributors, would the salary guidelines apply such that it is in line with full-time role? For example: If you are doing part time work (20/hrs per week) as a community manager your monthly base pay would look like this: 3,333K USD (80,000/12= 6,666/mo/2 = 3,333/mo)

Would love clarification on that :slight_smile:

#3

I think this would make sense up to a certain point. Someone doing 5 or 10 hours per week is not going to be as productive as someone working full time, so it could make sense to decrease the rate slightly as the role gets more ad-hoc (?)

#4

While I understand the need to remain competitive in the job market, From experience - for any community manager to be effective at their job they would need to be working full-time hours.

EDIT: For the sake of clarity, by full time I mean 35-40 hours a week.

On the note of salary compensation for CMs 80k is well above the average for a full-time CM position in the US (Source)

Of course with the understanding that the DAO would not be able to provide benefits like a standard company, I’d recommend bringing the base pay down to $60-65k a year & implementing a quarterly review of their performance, and raising their salary based on the outcome of that review.

Common metrics used for those types of reviews are:

  • Community Sentiment (Does the community feel looked after by the CM?)
  • Engagement Metrics across managed platforms (CMs should always be near the very top of engagement metrics)
  • Responsiveness & Effectiveness (Is the CM slow to deal with Queries/Questions/Fights? Are they ensuring the engagement channels have relevant content for newcomers easily accessible? Are they well integrated with processes and operations performed within the DAO?)
2 Likes
#5

  • Agreed on clear metrics and reviews. I kindly disagree on starting lower. This narrows down potential high value candidates with experience.

  • In addition, I think the range needs to also account for experience and past performance. For example, if a seasoned CM can perform the same duties in less hours that has to reflect in the base pay too (ie close to the base pay or higher). I think this can incentivize efficiency.

  • That being said, from the POV of a DAO contributor, I’m very curious with the idea of “full effort vs full time”.

  • Lastly, I want to propose to include in the language that internal community members should be prioritized first for full-time role offerings. In the event that the need is not fulfilled internally, we can try pursuing outside hires.

#6

One more comment from Alex (via a DM convo w me):
"Why only senior/junior distinction? I expect the most of people to be middle. And rarely senior, with a structure like that there is a risk that people won’t like to call themselves junior and will ask to all be seniors
"

2 Likes
#7

@EthanVB note that a community role for a DAO is not the same as a community manager for a web2 company, I think it does require a more specific skillset, hence the higher rate.

1 Like
Biz Dev: Working (Contributor) Proposal
#8

In order to stay competitive and become the world class network we believe we can be, it is of top priority that we be able to recruit the top talent in the world. Competitive compensation packages in line with world class organizations are as part of this equation and below are proposed compensation guidelines for Rarible DAO.

Note: many of these guidelines were inspired and borrowed from Sushi 1 and Yearn (link 1 1 and 2).

Salary ranges

Senior Dev : 180K - 250K USD

Middle Dev : 120K - 180K USD

Junior Dev : 80K - 120K USD

Senior Ops/Business Dev : 120K - 150K USD

Middle Ops/Business Dev : 90K - 120K USD

Junior Ops/Business Dev: 85K USD

Senior Marketing/Comms : 120K - 150K USD

Middle Marketing/Comms : 85K - 120K USD

Junior Marketing/Comms : 80K USD

Community Manager: 65-85K USD

Pay ranges are a guideline and outstanding candidates can request an increased salary pending approval of the core team.

Vesting token

A committee will be formed to determine the value and amount of vesting tokens. These tokens will vest over the following timeline:

  • 3 years linear vesting
  • 6 month cliff backdated to start date
  • With clawback (all unvested RARI returns to the DAO if someone leaves or is terminated)

Amount of tokens will range from 10,000 to 150,000 tokens based on seniority and responsibility levels, as well as current price of RARI. These tokens will unfortunately only apply to full time contributors.

2 month trial period

Will be implemented for all new full time members

During the trial period, every new hire will receive 100% of their due salary, in the form of a monthly grant, paid on a monthly basis, for the time they work.

If the trial period is successful, the new hire is made official. They are now protected by a severance package (in the case of a standard firing procedure).

If the hire isn’t confirmed at the end of the two-month period, the severance package is null.

Payment currency

Payment for all members will be made in RARI tokens.

Part time hires

Rarible DAO thrives thanks to its contributors. Unfortunately, some of them are in a place that doesn’t allow them to commit full-time to the project.

They are more than welcome to contribute but they would be compensated with a monthly or hourly grant, based on their involvement in and time commitment to the project. The amount of the grant will be set up on a month-to-month basis, and will be adjusted to the part-time contributor’s degree of involvement.

Supporting Community Members

Where possible, Rarible DAO will look to hire community members who have been contributing actively, as opposed to hiring and finding talent externally.

Termination Policy

Letting someone go is a painful, stressful experience that can put a strain on a project’s morale. That’s why we’d like to introduce transparent termination procedures so there are no surprises in the event of poor or malicious performance.

  • Any termination decision will be discussed and voted on by the Core Team.
  • Gross misconduct and dishonest behavior will result in immediate termination without any form of severance.
  • Standard terminations will be subject to a severance package based on the individual’s fixed salary. The standard severance package is one month’s salary.
  • Severance packages will be approved by Core Team and Multisig before being sent.
  • In the event of a high-profile termination, a post-mortem could be shared with the community, shedding light on the context and justification for the decision.

Vacation time

  • 4 weeks per year for everyone (or more, if you need, unpaid)
#9

I still think this is a low starting point and may make it unattractive to high value employee. As comparison you can refer to Index Coop Compensation Guidelines (see non-technical)

Can you clarify what this means? Will current part-time DAO contributors be affected by this?

1 Like
#10

In terms of Community Manager: you are right, we probably need a range. I think 65K starting is fine for someone who is a pure community manager (no DAO ops or anything). Most people I think are more on the DAO ops side, but some might be pure community managers. changing to 65-85 range.

I will remove the bit about the 15%.

#11

Popping in to leave this tweet, which I think might be the best way to think about this topic that I’ve seen:

So compensation might combine:

  1. Base pay
    • aim: fair, livable wage,
    • needed because we don’t want to be exploiting anyone
  2. Market-based portion
    • aim: compete for in-demand people,
    • needed because labor is a market and ignoring it will probably lead to brain-drain
  3. Expertise-based portion
    • aim: compensate people for expertise they’ve developed, a kind of seniority,
    • needed because we want to encourage people to learn / become more skilled
    • could maybe be covered by “market-based portion,” but also maybe not
  4. Voting power reward
    • aim: ensure builder perspective is represented in governance,
    • needed because builders have valuable information about how to improve things and long-term builders are invested in the community’s success
3 Likes
#12

Another useful resource: https://twitter.com/rafathebuilder/status/1443269178404786186?s=20

1 Like
#13

Have we talked about how we’ll handle the compensation issuance and token vesting as well? I think something like Coinshift V2 handles payroll streaming and token vesting.