Generous, Stable, Supportive Culture and Team
Pros
I write from the perspective of the San Francisco office. * The compensation (at least in product/engineering, don't know others) is generous with solid benefits/perks, like delicious lunches 4 days/week * The team and culture are very low-drama, low-BS. Titles are pretty flat, and manager/subordinate relationships all seem pretty healthy. * Almost every role is pretty much 9-to-5/6-ish, with little pressure to look busy or make bogus work * Occasional work-from-home and cutting out for a doctors appointment, etc., are pretty flexible as long as you're being reasonable * Though owned by Paypal, Braintree operates reasonably independently. Management does a good job of shielding the org from corporate pressures. * The company is growing, building new stuff, and being pretty successful, which helps keep morale high * The company invests solidly in employee happiness, with workshops, off-site events, and regular happy hours/fun events * The physical office space is masterfully designed to feel human and warm. No rows of 30 sterile standing desks here. * While broad industry demographics apply – engineers tend to be male, etc. – the culture is very welcoming to all, and the leadership team represents a broad spectrum of ethnicity/gender/orientation.
Cons
Honestly, there are not many cons: it's definitely a 5-star company. But there are certain things to be mindful of that may make it the wrong company for some people: * While everyone is pleasant and morale is high, there doesn't seem to be very much outside-of-work social activity between coworkers. (Your mileage may vary). * While Braintree operates pretty independently from Paypal, it is still an established 300-ish person org inside a 14,000-ish person public company. Certain things will involve bureaucracy/approval. The closest things I have to actual drawbacks compared to some competitors are: * Flat-ness makes career advancement paths within the company less obvious. Some people have had great advancement trajectories, so it's very possible, but it's not well-articulated how to get on that path. * Paypal's 401k provides a fine-but-not-amazing 4% match, has somewhat underwhelming fund choices, and doesn't allow super backdoor Roth's (though only a very few firms do allow that)
