employer cover photo
employer logo

Decent pay, great work-life balance, poor scope of learning, stangnant career. - Senior Scientist PPD Employee Review

2.0
Sep 18, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The best part of this job is very balanced work-life. You get 1-2 days/week work from home days in average which is unthinkable in wet lab jobs. You get decent pay compared to the living expenses in the Madison/Middleton area. You get a lot of vacations (22 business days, 3 floating Holidays in addition to company holidays and volunteer time off). Management is very professional and friendly. Another big advantage is their extensive training program whoch is one of the best I think. No company will train you so much while paying you. Although this sometimes becomes boring and overwhelming. Also work hours are very flexible if you are in a good team. PPD was already a big company on its own, now being merged with a giant like Thermofisher Scientific allows that big company job security, stability and immigration benefits if you are an immigrant.

Cons

The biggest con is the extremely regulated environment and very limited say on what you will do. The whole company is about GMP testing. So you basically don't do any research. You just follow a set of methods blindly. This is bad for early career scientist who want to transition to big pharma R&D. Also scope of promotion is very limited. Pay is pretty much stagnant. No company shares offered. Bonus is ~5% which is very low.

Explore other reviews about PPD

5.0
Dec 10, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great company, awesome people, and line managers.

Cons

No complaints at this point.

2.0
Jun 16, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Provided health insurance. Good coworkers Good exposure to team at client site If you have a good technical lead, the job can be great!

Cons

You have 2 bosses (Technical lead from Client Site) and your PPD boss. PPD Boss does not know what is going on If you have a bad technical lead, your life can be miserable. Pay is low No protection from abusive technical lead (coworkers on same team can have a drastically different experience)

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All