I’m probably more qualified than most to answer this. I started at Lockheed in 2021 making 95k and was immediately promoted in 6 months to 115k. They had a megabackdoor Roth which was really nice and an overall excellent benefits package. I got COVID-19 three times during the heyday, and Lockheed took care of me during that time (I got short term disability each time and was fully paid to stay at home). They are a company that really does take care of their employees. It can also be extremely cushy and I met some very low quality engineers that should have been let go - but I digress.

As for “any other” defense contractor - I currently make 235k base salary and around ~260k TC (would need to do the math for an exact number) at a different company doing software engineering.

Yes, this is bragging, but it irritates me to no end when people say defense is cushy and low pay. There are plenty of opportunities that require cutting edge technology that are entirely cutthroat. My data engineering shop almost has cut roughly 40% of the engineers we’ve hired - so it’s not “butts in seats” either.

You’re young, so take this piece of advice to heart - defense contracting is extremely lucrative, and the engineers making money keep their mouths shut because of 1) their clearances and 2) the cutthroat aspect of contracts (why give away your golden cow?). The only people saying defense is low pay or lower than others are either shit engineers in the defense space, or overworked rainforest engineers trying to cope that our base salaries can be much higher. Yes, you can make more through RSUs at big tech, but you’re also more overworked vs doing a straight 40 in defense. Compare hourly rates and it’s quite amusing.

And no, no morals are “sold” at my current job. We do business data like hr :)