By case-prep.comPublished August 21, 2026Updated August 21, 202610 min read
AlixPartners pays like the restructuring firm it is rather than like a strategy firm, and the numbers are unusually high in the middle of the ladder. Levels.fyi reports a $250,000 median across the US management consultant track, higher than the median at any MBB firm, because the population skews senior and the bonuses are large. The title ladder is the trap: AlixPartners uses Vice President and Director for levels other firms call Manager and Principal, so a title comparison across firms will mislead you.
Starting pay, US
$132K
Consultant, undergraduate entry
Post-MBA entry
$245K
Vice President, year one
Director
$437K
Levels.fyi reported median
Managing Director
$850K
Base plus profit share, estimated
Pick a level, pick an office
AlixPartners is a restructuring and performance improvement firm of roughly 3,000 people, far smaller than the Big 4 and more specialised than MBB. The US is by far the best documented market and every figure here is anchored to it.
Office
Consultant
Undergraduate entry, years 1 to 2
Reported
$132,000USD total, year one
Typical range $122,000 to $150,000 in United States
If you stay: total compensation by year
Six levels to Managing Director, typically 15 years or more. AlixPartners promotes on demonstrated economics rather than a fixed clock. Tap any point for the detail.
What actually moves your number
AlixPartners is a restructuring and performance improvement firm, not a strategy firm, and its pay data is the most frequently misread of any firm on this site. Four things decide what an offer here is actually worth.
The titles do not mean what they mean anywhere else
AlixPartners runs Consultant, Senior Consultant, Vice President, Senior Vice President, Director, then Managing Director. Vice President is roughly a Manager or Engagement Manager elsewhere. Director is roughly a Principal. Neither is a banking VP and neither is a C-suite role. Candidates report seeing positions advertised as Associate on the website whose job description then calls the role VP, which is exactly the kind of confusion this ladder generates. If you are comparing an AlixPartners offer against one from MBB or the Big 4, map the level by responsibility and reporting line, never by the word in the title.
A high median does not mean high entry pay
Levels.fyi reports a $250,000 median across the AlixPartners US management consultant track, which is higher than the median at any MBB firm. That figure gets quoted a lot and it is misleading if you read it as a typical salary. The median is high because the population is senior, weighted toward Vice President and above, and because the bonuses at those levels are large. Entry pay is $122,000 to $150,000, which is strong but nothing like $250,000. Two other public figures pull the opposite way: Salary.com's $86,135 average and Comparably's $118,398 both fold in support functions and are not consultant numbers at all.
Practice area produces a wider spread than promotion does
Wall Street Oasis data shows the Consumer Retail group averaging $310,000 and Management Consulting $279,000, against $171,000 for the Generalist group. That is a $139,000 spread inside one firm, larger than most single promotions deliver. Turnaround and restructuring, performance improvement, digital and the specialist industry groups all carry different economics, and the group you join shapes your number more than the year you joined. Every public dataset pools them, which is the main reason reported ranges on AlixPartners look so wide.
The bonus is large, variable and increasingly formalised
Wall Street Oasis puts the firm-wide average base at $145,000 with an average bonus of $50,000, so roughly a quarter of typical pay is variable, and that share climbs steeply with seniority: bonus reaches about 37 percent of total at Director. Candidates also report a performance letter accompanying Director-level offers, setting out the specific targets attached to the first-year bonus. That is unusually explicit, and it is a useful thing to ask for in writing at any level, because it converts a discretionary number into a measurable one.
AlixPartners pay across eight offices
Total compensation at undergraduate entry, post-MBA entry and Director, in local currency. Confidence reflects how directly each figure is evidenced.
Office
Consultant
Vice President
Director
Evidence
United States
$132,000
$245,000
$437,000
Reported
Switzerland
CHF112,000
CHF208,000
CHF371,000
Indexed
Australia
A$119,000
A$220,000
A$393,000
Indexed
Singapore
S$112,000
S$208,000
S$371,000
Indexed
Canada
C$108,000
C$201,000
C$358,000
Indexed
UAE
$106,000
$196,000
$350,000
Indexed
Germany
€79,000
€147,000
€262,000
Indexed
United Kingdom
£73,000
£135,000
£240,000
Partly reported
Only the US row rests on real submission volume. London is marked partly reported because it is the largest non-US office and a major European restructuring centre, but we have no direct sample for it. Everything else is indexed from the US ladder against local restructuring and advisory rates, and should be used for relative comparison only.
AlixPartners against the restructuring and strategy field
US total compensation, with levels mapped by responsibility rather than by title. This is the only way the comparison makes sense given the title differences.
Firm
Undergraduate entry
Post-MBA entry
First leadership level
Type of work
Alvarez & Marsal
$164,000
$245,000
$260,000
Turnaround
AlixPartners
$132,000
$245,000
$290,000
Turnaround
BCG
$146,000
$267,000
$306,000
Corporate strategy
McKinsey
$135,000
$262,000
$309,000
Corporate strategy
Kearney
$111,000
$233,000
$278,000
Strategy and operations
The interesting comparison is not against MBB, it is against Alvarez & Marsal. The two firms compete for the same people and land in almost the same place, with A&M paying a larger premium at undergraduate entry and AlixPartners catching up by the first leadership level. Against MBB, AlixPartners is competitive at entry, behind post-MBA, and then diverges upward at Director, where reported medians of $437,000 exceed what an MBB Associate Partner typically reports. The honest caveat throughout is that AlixPartners figures carry wider error bars than MBB ones, because six practice groups with very different economics are pooled into every public dataset. See the Alvarez & Marsal, McKinsey and Kearney pages for those ladders.
Prep for the AlixPartners process
Expect a case with a turnaround or performance improvement angle rather than a generic market entry case, and expect the financial layer to carry real weight. Cash flow, working capital and cost structure come up in a way they do not at strategy firms.
AlixPartners publishes no salary bands, and the public data on it disagrees more than for almost any other firm we cover. The disagreement is not noise; it is different sources measuring different populations.
Sources, most to least direct
Levels.fyi. US management consultant packages from $122,000 at Consultant to $439,636 at the top, with a $250,000 median and a Director median of $436,750 across a $395,000 to $494,000 band. Source of the Consultant and Director figures on this page.
Glassdoor. 1,322 US submissions as of August 2026, spanning $57,937 to $449,847 for Managing Director. Note that the Managing Director figure is base salary rather than total compensation.
Wall Street Oasis. 52 entries giving a firm-wide average base of $145,000 and an average bonus of $50,000, plus the practice-group spread: Consumer Retail at $310,000, Management Consulting at $279,000 and Generalist at $171,000.
Candidate reporting. Source of the title mapping and of the performance letter attached to Director-level offers, which sets out first-year bonus targets explicitly.
Indexed estimates. Every non-US row is modelled from the US ladder against local restructuring and advisory rates. These rows are labelled Indicative and should not be used to evaluate a live offer.
Two figures we have deliberately excluded. Salary.com reports an average of $86,135 and Comparably reports $118,398. Both are firm-wide averages that fold in administrative, IT and support roles, and neither describes the consulting track this page covers. Quoting either as an AlixPartners consultant salary is a category error, and it is common enough online that it is worth naming.
Common questions
A US Consultant earns roughly $105,000 base plus a bonus near $17,000 and a signing bonus around $10,000, for total first-year compensation near $132,000. Levels.fyi places the floor of its reported US management consultant range at $122,000, which is this level. That is well above the Big 4 and roughly level with MBB, because restructuring firms recruit against banking at the junior end.
Consultant, Senior Consultant, Vice President, Senior Vice President, Director, then Managing Director. The titles are the single most confusing thing about this firm: Vice President is roughly a Manager or Engagement Manager elsewhere and Director is roughly a Principal. Neither is a banking VP. Map any offer by responsibility and reporting line rather than by the word in the title.
Because the reported population is senior. Levels.fyi's $250,000 US median across the management consultant track is higher than the median at any MBB firm, but it reflects a sample weighted toward Vice President and above where bonuses are large. Entry pay is $122,000 to $150,000. Reading the median as a typical salary is the most common mistake made with this firm's data.
Wall Street Oasis data shows Consumer Retail averaging $310,000 and Management Consulting $279,000, against $171,000 for the Generalist group. That $139,000 spread inside one firm is larger than most single promotions deliver. Turnaround and restructuring, performance improvement and the specialist industry groups all carry different economics, and every public dataset pools them together.
They compete for the same people and land close together. A&M pays a larger premium at undergraduate entry, at roughly $164,000 against $132,000, driven by its $129,000 industry-leading base. AlixPartners catches up by the first leadership level and pulls ahead at Director, where reported medians reach $437,000. Both are turnaround firms rather than strategy firms, and both pay well above the Big 4.
Because different sites measure different populations. Salary.com reports $86,135 and Comparably $118,398, both firm-wide averages including administrative, IT and support staff. Levels.fyi reports a $250,000 median for the consulting track specifically. Wall Street Oasis reports a $145,000 average base plus a $50,000 bonus. None is wrong, but only the consulting-track figures are relevant to an offer.
Large and increasingly formalised with seniority. Roughly a quarter of typical pay is variable at the firm-wide average, rising to about 37 percent of total at Director. Candidates report a performance letter accompanying Director-level offers that sets out the specific targets attached to the first-year bonus, which is unusually explicit and worth asking for in writing at any level.
