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AWS Elemental

Part of Amazon

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AWS Elemental Software Developer reviews

3.9

56% would recommend to a friend

(23 total reviews)
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Alex Dunlap

50% approve of CEO

40% positive business outlook

Software Developer employees have rated AWS Elemental with 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 23 company reviews on Glassdoor. This indicates that most Software Developer professionals have a good working experience there. AWS Elemental is rated in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) by Software Developer professionals compared to other employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

23 reviews
1.0
Mar 22, 2018

Sinking Ship

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Prior to 2015 (or before Amazon) and especially prior to 2017 (or before Sam Blackman's untimely passing), this was the best place to work in Portland. Challenging work, stimulating colleagues, a leader with a passion for not only the work, but the community, an awesome culture. It had it all. Sure, we didn't get paid as much and the benefits weren't as good, but I loved coming to work everyday.

Cons

After 2015, company was sold to Amazon. Gradually, Amazon took things over. Pay and benefits increased, but perks slowly started disappearing. Many managers are now miserable and just counting down the days for RSUs to fully vest so they can cash out and do something else. A toxic environment where everyone is under intense pressure and people will throw each other under the bus to get ahead. The new office building did little to improve morale. Amazon is consolidating jobs and sending other functions up to Seattle HQ. The Elemental part of AWS Elemental will be extinct soon. If you like being lied to your face daily, backstabbed, belittled, bullied, working insane hours, managers with no clue who's in charge and who's doing what, having the ALPs shoved down your throat all the time, the looming threat of your job being consolidated or eliminated and Seattle HQ overruling all decisions, come work here. Sam's sad passing has only accelerated the sinking ship.

5.0
Mar 2, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-Extremely smart & enthusiastic coworkers -Not sure why others feel as they do about management, but I have never had a bad experience here. My managers have always been highly competent & fair. -Extremely competitive pay now that we are part of Amazon. I seriously doubt anywhere else in Portland pays as highly as they do -Cohesive company culture, with tons of perks & benefits. -My PTO actually increased as a result of the Amazon acquisition

Cons

-As others have said it's not a come here & take it easy company. Most people work 8 hr days, but everyone works hard, and you need to be willing to put in effort as needed.

4.0
Feb 18, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I've been with Elemental as a software engineer for a while now (long before the acquisition). I'm mainly writing this review because I read the anti-Amazon reviews and was shocked. The company has well more than doubled in size since I started, and I was becoming really concerned about how process and structure were adapting (or not) to the company growing as quickly as it was. I have seen concrete improvements in process and team structure since the acquisition. I believe we would have gotten their eventually, but I think Amazon's experience as a large company helped us to adapt more quickly than we would have been able to on our own. There are a couple of things that are a little worse than they were before benefits wise (see cons), but overall, I feel better about the company now than I have in quite a while, and I think a large part of that has to do with the acquisition and other recent changes / process improvements. Pros: * interesting technology * smart, hard working coworkers * business development / sales side is really strong. It's nice that people actually buy the stuff we produce. * great career growth potential * REALLY good maternity / parental leave benefit * 401K matching * solid health / vision / dental plans * company provided short term / long term disability insurance, as well as life insurance * really fun company culture. Things like Friday lunch talks, employer funded meetup groups (for game nights, movies out, etc), frequent happy hours and parties for releases, a CEO who knows your name, education and conference reimbursement, engineering offsite trips * the typical tech benefits: free massages, stocked kitchen, Stumptown cold brew on tap, beer, coffee tabs at two different shops, lots of (surprisingly nice) SWAG, etc

Cons

* sabbatical is no longer a "thing" now that we are Amazon (we did get paid out for accrued sabbatical time, which was nice) * it would be nice to have a little more PTO * you will work really hard here, and managers will have high expectations for your work. Not a work / life balance company so much (it has been this way as long as I've worked here)

Viewing 19 - 21 of 23 Reviews

Glassdoor has 236 AWS Elemental reviews submitted anonymously by AWS Elemental employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if AWS Elemental is right for you.