Lack of Focus and Excellence - Aerospace Systems Engineer III Blue Origin Employee Review

1.0
Dec 26, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Get to work on some cool hardware going to space Some excitement to see humans launching on NS

Cons

Bad middle management throughout company, they are focused on only their team and metrics, so they push bad decisions that make them look good but hurt the programs overall. This also means that they try to push off harder tasks onto other groups, so you end up with lack of ownership and a hot potato effect that hurts overall productivity. Way too many projects in flight (pardon the pun) and not enough people to do all the work, and now they are getting rid of contractors so a ton of tasks are going to be left incomplete. Matrix org set up means nobody owns work start to finish. The teams are divided by disciplinary function, so individual contributors are lent out to projects and programs as needed. In theory this sounds great. However in practice this kills productivity as people have to get up to speed on a project, then when they transition off there is a ramp down and hand off. To make matters worse, this often leads to brain drain as decisions arent always documented very well and people who have transitioned off the project are needed to fill in knowledge gaps but the typical response is "sorry I dont work on that project anymore, ask someone else" to be honest its very unprofessional and shameful how pervasive this attitude has become. There really is a lack of accountability bottom to top. Office politics are starting to really ramp up, we have meetings to tag up on items and decisions are made, but later on when work is needing to be done the decision makers go back on the compromises reached in the meeting. I cant count anymore how many times my boss and director have been CCd on emails when I refuse to do work that was supposed to be done by another group or when they want me to shift focus on a task that wasnt even planned for in this sprint. Excuses everywhere for lack of performance, people are just not doing a good job, its blamed on schedule, the tools, the PLM, the CAD, everything else is bad, but really its lack of training, hiring the wrong people for jobs and back to the lack of accountability. People arent really following the processes and policy laid out in the QMS and then they wonder why stuff is so broken down the line. There are lots of reactive decisions that are only serving as bandaids to problems, so it ends up really hurting the project because later on when the MEs try to actually build this stuff, it blows up in our face and we have to end up doing a bunch of design changes. Yearly Layoffs have really hurt morale, people are working for the wrong reason, instead of doing the right thing for the right reasons, they do whatever work makes it look like they are doing a big impact and performing at a high level so they are not laid off at the end of the year. So problems fester and are passed around group to group and only the projects suffer

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5.0
Jun 23, 2026
Anonymous intern
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Pros

nice people to work with

Cons

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2.0
Jun 19, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

4 weeks of PTO, good benefits, free drinks and snacks available at all locations.

Cons

Leadership is inconsistent and often incompetent, company is very segmentalized and each group operates to different goals and schedules, poor communication with other parts of the company and with leadership. There is an overarching Yes-men mentality amongst leadership, and they often are just aiming to not be the group to be to blame for delays or failures. Personal growth is limited and widely ranges between different groups, there are areas where people see regular raises and promotions, while the majority seems to be told there are freezes or that they will be put in for next cycle. Pay has fallen behind, in the past they used to pay well and above the industry standard, but have not kept pace. Hours can be very long, again dependent on your group, some people may enjoy things like work from home or flexible schedules, but the majority are asked to work long hours and even support roles that could be remote are forced to be on site, despite a lack of space for the number of employees. I moved desks locations and buildings 6 times in 3 years. Re-orgs happen every 6 months, and create significant instability within the company, but rarely bring positive improvements. Good talent is not rewarded, and leaving quickly.

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