Estimate billable rates using job postings
One way to estimate what your company's billable rate is for you is to take your salary and divide by 1000.
If you make $100,000, divide by 1000 to get get $100/hour.
Then, to get a low and high range, add and subtract 20%. In this scenario, that would mean the range is between $80 and $120/hour.
But what if you wanted to find out the billable rate for other jobs at different companies?
A lot of states are now requiring that companies list a salary range in their job postings. Companies don't like doing this, so sometimes they will post a huge salary range e.g. minimum salary of $100,000 and maximum salary of $200,000.
However, you can use this information to get a rough estimate of the billable rates are for that position.
For example, here's what Peraton has listed for a "Testing Systems Engineer" with a TS/SCI w/Poly in Annapolis.
As you can see there is over $100,000 difference between the minimum and the maximum.
I'd just take the mid-point for now, and then apply the divide by 1000 method.
So $155,000/1000 = $155/hour.
+/- 20% gets you a range of $124/hr - $193.75/hr.
If you research, say, 5-10 of these job listings, you'll have a pretty good sense of what the estimated bill rate for a "Testing Systems Engineer."
Pick a job title that you are interested in and use this for market research. This will help you prepare when you negotiate rates with a program manager.
Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.