Amgen - a magical place to work! - Principal Engineer Amgen Employee Review

Great culture and benefits (401k)

Not very nimble with regards to decision making.

Company itself is stable and financially strong. Average pay, and nice people to work with. Exposure to Global, Cross-Functional Work 2 automatic weeks of vacation (aka shutdowns).

1. Large-Scale Layoffs & Offshore Transition: Most of US IT was laid off AFTER transitioning work to India, what I saw: “Five India resources doing what one US resource was doing, if even 25% gets delivered post transition.” This creates: Knowledge gaps / Quality inconsistencies / Overloaded remaining US staff / Loss of institutional knowledge. 2. Long Hours & International Time Zone Burden: EST Employees frequently work: Early morning calls - starting sometimes 2-4am EST and then still required for Late-night calls in PST time (for headquarters) Even weekend and vacation hours required o support global teams — with no additional compensation. This leads to burnout and morale issues. 3. Severe Workload Imbalance Across Teams: This imbalance is a major cultural and leadership blind spot. Some teams: Have large staffing Very little work Operate comfortably - even can hit the gym during work day While others: Work 16+ hours a day Have no hope of additional staffing Are constantly escalated Carry the weight of global programs. 4. Slow Decision-Making & Heavy Bureaucracy Enterprise governance slows: Approvals / Architecture reviews / Intake processes / Cross-functional alignment Even with SOME light Agile adoption, legacy processes dominate. 5. Vendor Dependency Creates Inconsistency - Reliance on large consulting partners leads to: Reduced internal ownership (Funny that Employees do not want ownership, nor to be held accountable when efforts fail or take longer than expected) Competing priorities with inconsistent delivery quality. 6. Organizational Silos & Resistance to Change - Despite modernization: Teams remain siloed with a “This is how we’ve always done it” persists Agile maturity varies widely Process adoption is inconsistent 7. High Visibility = High Pressure Enterprise programs bring: Frequent escalations Constant stakeholder management Pressure to deliver quickly despite reduced resource constraints This environment is not sustainable without strong leadership support.