Schizophrenic Culture - Senior Software Engineer Invitae Employee Review

2.0
Oct 2, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Very smart people coming from very diverse backgrounds. The company culture that Invitae was founded with (similar to Valve) helped produce a lot of innovation and fostered cross-functional teams that encouraged people to learn and grow, and in some places in the company that culture still thrives. There is still lots of time flexibility, unlimited PTO, some catered lunches and snacks.

Cons

The injection of a hierarchy that "doesn't really matter" has resulted in a lot of confusing doublespeak at meetings. Leadership seems to be in conflict with middle management, and middle managers seem to be in conflict with each other. Squabbling over resources seems to take precedence over interest in solving the real business problems; this petty territorialism trickles down in the form of questionable additional meetings and superficial tracking behaviors to "justify" why a group has a certain headcount. Worst of all, neither leadership nor middle management currently take any interest in helping employees learn and grow; as a result, some middle management feels totally justified in claiming a premium on everyone's time while offering nothing in terms of career development.

Explore other reviews about Invitae

5.0
Feb 12, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Collaborative culture Transparent, radically honest communication Innovative ethos Brilliant team members Flat org structure Distributed workforce

Cons

Flat org structure Distributed workforce

3.0
Jun 2, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Encourages ownership and collaboration across teams / jurisdictions.

Cons

Growth at any cost without the infrastructure to support it led to burnout in a lot of places.

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