Is Twitter's top engineer worth $10.3 million?

Twitter's senior vice president of engineering, Christopher Fry, raked in $10.3 million last year.

Twitter revealed its biggest earners in its first public financial statement as it prepares for its IPO. The company filed an S-1 form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Oct. 3, detailing its plans to raise $1 billion in its initial offering.

Fry's package included his $145,513 salary and $100,000 bonus. The bulk of his compensation came in the form of equity: Fry was granted restricted stock awards valued at $10 million.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo received stock and option awards valued at $11.3 million, which brought his total compensation to $11.5 million. Costolo's base salary was $200,000 (although that was reduced to $14,000, effective August 2013).

On the employment front, Twitter has added more than 1,800 employees since January 1, 2010, the company revealed in its S-1 filing. As of mid-2013, its headcount was roughly 2,000 employees.

Hiring will continue, Twitter said, and competitive pay is necessary to attract and retain skilled employees.

"We face significant competition for employees, particularly engineers, designers and product managers, from other Internet and high-growth companies, which include both publicly-traded and privately-held companies, and we may not be able to hire new employees quickly enough to meet our needs," the company stated. "To attract highly skilled personnel, we have had to offer, and believe we will need to continue to offer, highly competitive compensation packages."

Twitter's ability to attract the right talent is critical to its success. In its S-1 filing, the company detailed a number of business risks that it faces as it transitions to a public company, and it included hiring among those risks:

"We depend on highly skilled personnel to grow and operate our business, and if we are unable to hire, retain and motivate our personnel, we may not be able to grow effectively ... Competition for highly skilled personnel is intense, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area, where our headquarters is located..."

Fry, 43, joined Twitter in early 2012. Before that, he spent nearly seven years at Salesforce.com, where he held a number of roles including senior vice president of development. Fry earned a B.A. in cognitive science from Vassar College and a Ph.D. in cognitive science from the University of California, San Diego.

Twitter plans to trade under the symbol TWTR when it goes public.

Ann Bednarz covers IT careers, outsourcing and Internet culture for Network World. Follow Ann on Twitter at@annbednarzand reach her via email atabednarz@nww.com.

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