It honestly doesn't surprise me that there are many polarized reviews. I personally love my role at the company, but I can also see people getting burnt out, marginalized, etc. I will say that the 5 star reviews are likely not fake, people genuinely seem to love it at the company. However, the 1 star reviews are probably legitimate as well.
I will say this, DataRobot is very upfront about what they expect and what they give. As Jeff Bezos supposedly once said in a company meeting, "I don't believe in a work life balance." Our CEO, Jeremy, drives himself the same way and there' s a tendency for others to try to keep up. In fairness, he works harder than anyone else and never forces anyone to work crazy hours. The bottom line is that it's difficult to work less than 45-50 hours here. If you choose, you can easily work 60-70 hours (in fairness that's usually because you are assigned to a critical and very interesting project).
In return DataRobot, from the CEO on down, legitimately cares about its employees. Obviously we're not a Google, Facebook, or other tech monopoly that prints money and can shower largesse on its employees. But within the constraints of a VC backed startup, they provide a very supportive atmosphere.
2019 saw the company dramatically increase headcount and frankly the internal processes didn't keep up. There aren't any formal career paths, management is extremely light, and we're still learning how to message internally without abrupt announcements. I've also heard (but not personally experienced) that R&D / engineering is somewhat decentralized. On the plus side this has resulted in a number of unique & cutting edge features + provided leadership for more junior engineers / PMs. On the downside I'm sure there is technical debt and we often chase shiny features in lieu of resiliency / polish. That seems to be changing, so I'm hopeful that will improve.
Bottom line, DataRobot has a good shot at becoming the next Salesforce, ServiceNow, etc. in a massive market. If you have the ability to take the risk and don't mind working hard it's a good company to take a gamble on. If you're looking for a more stable option then the Big Tech firms are always hiring.
