bit of a weird situation. i work in marketing and the company i work for just kind of discovered i have my 107 and now they want to create an actual staff position for internal aerial content. which is cool i guess but they asked me to come back with a salary expectation and i genuinely have no clue what to say.

it would be flying maybe 2-3 days a week, rest of the time doing editing and some general content stuff. mid size company, not media or construction, more like a regional outdoor brand. they'd provide the equipment which takes some pressure off. im in the midwest if that matters for cost of living context.

ive been searching around and the numbers i find online are all over the place, anywhere from 40k to like 90k which is not helpful. does anyone have a feel for what a dedicated in house drone role actually pays or how i should even think about negotiating this

honestly that range you found online is accurate because it really does vary that much depending on industry and company size. for an outdoor brand doing mostly content work in the midwest id probably be thinking somewhere around 55-65k as a reasonable anchor, maybe higher if you have strong editing skills because thats genuinely where a lot of the value is. the fact that they're providing gear is worth factoring in too since youre not dealing with wear and depreciation on your own stuff.

one thing i'd think about is whether the role has any growth path or if its going to be kind of a dead end once they have their content pipeline set up. some companies create these positions and then slowly just... stop using them as the novelty wears off. worth asking some questions about their long term content plans before you commit to a number

dont undersell the editing side of it, thats a real skill that a lot of pilots dont have. if you can fly AND deliver polished final cuts youre way more valuable than someone who just hands over raw footage. use that in the negotiation