Great place to be a developer - Software Development Lead CARVANA Employee Review

5.0
Jan 14, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You get to work with new technology like azure, typescript, less, css3, html5, canvas, knockout and really smart people as well. Most of the work is done on a public website and is very easy to show off to friends and family which is a plus. Carvana is situated at DriveTime's corporate offices and shares the open floor area with Go Financial and DriveTime. All of the developers and other staff from the 3 companies intermingle as if they were one big company. This is great because there are a ton of extremely brilliant developers employed between those 3 companies. A great deal of attention is paid to the hiring of developers so every developer they employ is very smart, helpful and easy to work with. Another interesting aspect of this mix is that they interface with the other businesses via WCF so its the feel of a startup company but with some of the established systems of a mature one. This leads to a really interesting mix of work. All 3 companies are very much agile and 100% bought into using KanBan, digital boards and regular stand ups and retros and have been doing so for years.

Cons

Work can be fast paced at times which can lead to a bad work/life balance, but that is up to you, its definitely not forced. It tends to be easy to slip into that pattern with the combination of the fast pace and the fact that you're working on fun projects. This is only a con for people who have a tendency to allow a poor work life balance though. Not everyone has an issue with that, especially since its not forced.

Explore other reviews about CARVANA

5.0
Jun 17, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Pay is good, consistent up in pay

Cons

Driving, careless and unsafe drivers while you’re doing your job

2.0
Jun 19, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

* Corporate roles offer flexibility, and no one micromanages how you structure your 8-hour day. * Good holiday schedule and work-life balance if you’re in the right role.

Cons

No clear vision or long-term strategy for the Safe & Secure department. * Constant reorganizations and changing priorities. * Positions eliminated, reinstated, and eliminated again. * No stability or clear career path. * Lack of structure and accountability. * “Blind leading the blind” culture. * Chronic understaffing. * Employees expected to do the work of two or three people. * No additional compensation for increased workload. * Leadership’s answer to resource constraints is to “be scrappy.” * High levels of burnout. * Extremely low morale. * Significant loss of talent and leadership. * Employees quitting without another job lined up due to poor working conditions. * Operations Center dismantled, relocated, and then effectively rebuilt again with no clear strategic reason. * Experienced employees terminated, only to recreate similar functions later. * Loss of institutional knowledge. * Frequent reactive decisions instead of proactive planning. * Constant uncertainty creates stress and uneasiness. * Lack of confidence in leadership direction. * Heavy workload with limited support. * Minimal investment in retaining top performers. * Environment not conducive to building a long-term career.

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