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I work at a lab associated with R1 university that has Nobel laureate output so I feel like I have some knowledge in this area:

1. They exist. However, writing a piece of software is not the same thing as supporting them, especially when it comes to dealing with core HR system. This is where SaaSs and similar platform offers lot of appeal.

2. Also difficult because everyone has different needs and at some point certain features get prioritized over others. I support a platform that was built in house before I was born. The guy who wrote it is no longer with us and it is cludgy. Any product decisions evolve years of committee meetings before any decision gets made (by which the it may be incorrect or not relevant.)

Every single time I worked for a company that said let’s hiring an engineering team to build a software that is already solved by a market offering, it has never gone well. The in house product never had the same capabilities or had the same sheen.

3. Can’t answer this one other than digitization efforts.

For transparency, a single software engineer budget is $670K+.



> For transparency, a single software engineer budget is $670K+.

Are you saying that the costs to employ a single software engineer is $670K+? If you mean something else then nvm.

Otherwise that's a ridiculous number to use unless you are specifically talking about places with the highest cost of living in the country where a mid-level dev starts at over $200K.


I am saying that. Salary + taxes + insurance + retirement + other benefits + support cost is around 670k. Salary eats up like 160k of that budget, though.


Please provide a breakdown.

I find this 4X of base salary implausibly high. 2X strikes me as closer to my reality at a large academic medical center.


I don't have a breakdown. It was a number cited to me from a manager. Downvotes are interesting.


Payroll taxes on $160k salary are $12,240. Employer contribution to health insurance is maybe $6k - $20k. Retirement maybe $5k. Still under $200k.

Heck of a lot of "support cost" to get to $670k


Your numbers make sense from what I've seen in private sector. And meet the common sense threshold as well.

Whether the numbers are either wrong or if that is truly what support costs look like at a university would be interesting to know.




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