Invitae Software Engineer reviews

3.5

69% would recommend to a friend

(30 total reviews)
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Ken Knight

100% approve of CEO

14% positive business outlook

Software Engineer employees have rated Invitae with 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 30 company reviews on Glassdoor. This indicates that most Software Engineer professionals have a good working experience there. Invitae is rated in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) by Software Engineer professionals compared to other employers within the Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

30 reviews
1.0
Jun 6, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-Company culture and benefits look great on paper -Some ind contributors and lower level managers are pretty talented have gone on to get awesome jobs in FAANG or exciting startups, company actually well perceived by those who don't work there -Opportunities to coast and have a very easy job if that's your thing

Cons

-Your tech skills can pretty quickly become obsolete if not careful, possible to have a lead who is just a 25 year old with no managerial experience -The actual tech here isn't shared across groups, seems some of the analysis is really basic, hard to believe that data curation and insights for precision medicine will be possible in current environment, if it is happening why not share? -Leadership really clueless about strategy, veteran experience in C level is lacking, surprisingly few ppl from big pharma that really understand regulatory landscape or difficulty curve with oncology, everything seemed easy during years of stock growth, now reality setting in -One of the billion $ acquisitions was a slow moving trainwreck, Invitae did not understand what it was buying and the company it bought lacked real experience, many with talent left or were let go without any attention to talent because company does not really care about ICs, just wants to put a good story together for the street, so it can survive -The biggest con by far is the current market which demands quality of revenue and operational efficiency. Because Invitae spent the last several years growing at all costs, which btw isn't their fault, it didnt mind its expenses and made suboptimal debt arrangements (this is all public). Current cash and debt arrangements are huge concerns despite what leadership might say. Really the best case scenario for shareholders is buyout, though as an IC there is really no safety against layoff

3.0
Jun 3, 2022

Growth is stable

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Remote work Better perk Multiple locations for onsite

Cons

Less opportunity for growth and learning Multiple reorgs every quarter or half of year

3.0
Apr 22, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Direct superiors and colleagues are very supportive and pleasant to work with. Senior engineers provided mentorship and career development, and there are opportunities to provide mentorship to others. Meaningful mission. Parts of the culture are great - ERGs (employee resource groups) and an attempt is made (though no always successfully) to make remote working fun. People often join the company because they care about the mission, which contributes to the culture.

Cons

Bad upper level leadership. Lots of reorgs, acquisitions, and tech debt leading to high turnover. Reorgs included large layoffs along with removal of some benefits for all employees. Leadership lied multiple times about each layoff (there were several) and defended with the reason that they "didn't want people to worry". This created anxiety even before the layoffs both due to employees not trusting management and not being able to trust in the mission. Layoffs were not planned well and created unnecessary chaos. Large numbers of people were voluntarily leaving as well during this time and continue to do so. Company values are not supported by leadership. For example, leadership spent months trying to push for transparency then revoked their promise to share information about pay rates and levels. Career development is stunted due to a lack of career ladders or inside promotions. Peer reviews are required on a regular basis. These reviews apparently directly relate to your salary / bonus/etc. However, peers of varying technical aptitudes must be compared directly to each other. How can you correctly compare a software engineer to a manager on their technical aptitude? I also feel that this might be unfairly biased against individuals who are soft spoken. I would consider referring a friend here, but only to a team that I know is stable with good mid-management.

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Invitae Response
4y
For those reading this review, note that we are putting clearer career paths in place to help employees find new opportunities internally here at Invitae. With any change, it is an adjustment for many employees. We are committed to helping people thrive in their role.
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