Poor engineering leadership will eventually take this down - Anonymous employee Cloudera Employee Review

1.0
Apr 12, 2019
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Catered food (if you care) - Flexible work hours - CEO seems like a nice person

Cons

- The new engineering leadership (installed post merger) is poor and not seasoned. As a result, they make rookie mistakes and the after effects flow down to all levels. Being inexperienced is fine, but being cocky and arrogant as opposed to humble and curious is a recipe for disaster. - Another effect of amateur leadership is that they *ONLY* care about their progress, growth and deliverables that directly affect their compensation milestones. It is a completely one way flow of expectations top down. They want you to do things that will affect their next promotion. This is 2019, not a 1960s labor factory. - There is negative career growth and as a result all smart people are leaving or have already left. To the management, this doesn't seem like a problem, as they believe that the only way to motivate people is to make them forget about their careers, and emphasize on deadlines and deliverables. That my friend, is a stroke of genius! - The products are all a result of a giant duct taped patch work. The ones which were built ground up are being de prioritized in favor of poor quality ones which currently seem feature rich, but are actually bloatwares. They have fallen way behind on engineering innovation (poor tech leadership/vision/arrogance/no value for academic experts), and as a result, the whole company needs to play catch up, and catch up fast that is. Lack of deep knowledge, combined with the need to catch up fast means building solutions like --> integrating A with B via C on D to run on top of E. Good luck!

Explore other reviews about Cloudera

5.0
Jun 10, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Everyone is willing to help and wants to see you succeed Lots of opportunities to grow within the company/organization Flexible work/life balance Strong Technology

Cons

Multiple platforms - troubling at first to balance between them all, but after some time it is a breeze.

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Cloudera Response
2d
Thank you for the 5-star review. We are delighted to hear that you find Cloudera to be a supportive environment with strong growth opportunities and great work-life balance. We also appreciate your feedback regarding our multiple platforms. We are glad to hear that navigation becomes smoother over time, and we are proud to have you on the team in Austin.
5.0
Jun 10, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

* Amazing and supportive community with highly talented and approachable colleagues. * Welcoming, inclusive, and friendly culture that makes it easy to feel part of the team. * Excellent technology stack built around Apache Software Foundation projects and modern engineering practices. * Strong open-source-first mindset that promotes innovation, transparency, and collaboration. * Flexible work arrangements with the option to work from home, while office attendance is encouraged to foster collaboration and maintain a strong sense of community. * Gorgeous offices worldwide that provide an inspiring and comfortable work environment. * Plenty of opportunities to learn, grow, and work on impactful projects alongside exceptional engineers.

Cons

* The highly flexible work-from-home culture, while appreciated by many, can sometimes lead to sparsely populated offices. Employees who value face-to-face interactions and spontaneous collaboration may find it harder to build connections and discover new opportunities. * Processes and organizational structures are intentionally lightweight, but this can occasionally result in unclear ownership, shifting priorities, and coordination challenges when deadlines approach. * The strong emphasis on autonomy means teams may operate differently, which can make cross-team coordination and planning less predictable. * Communication and collaboration often require a proactive approach, especially in a distributed environment.

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Cloudera Response
2d
Thank you for your 5-star review and your eight years of dedication to Cloudera. We are glad you value our inclusive culture, open-source mindset, and talented team. We appreciate your constructive feedback on cross-team coordination and distributed collaboration. Your insights are incredibly valuable as we continue to improve our planning processes while maintaining the workplace flexibility our employees enjoy.
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