Pros
There are many opportunities for technical growth. Paid tuition. Ability to interact with government sponsors, get a clearance, and work on important projects. The new Director (CEO) will improve the company's policies, but needs to fight USG to get it done. Your technical skills will advance at a rapid pace here. GTRI is a fantastic stepping stone for early career folk, and a great place for late career folk to retire. Flex hours is great (can move hours around in the month). Fantastic work/life balance.
Cons
Any promotion requires an advanced degree, no exceptions. Raises are rare, if it happens- 2% a year, and 6% fixed for rank promotion (there are 4 ranks total). They used to have guaranteed 6-8% for masters, 10-15% for PhD, but they recently cancelled that policy. Any significant raise requires going into management. It's common for new hires to get paid more than long-time employees (really bad salary compression). They perform market adjustments every once in a while, but it's still pretty low for industry standards. If you work in midtown, you need to but an $800 parking pass, but not at the Smyrna office. Project management for my team was terrible. PMs being disconnected from the actual capabilities, overpromising to sponsors. No sense or awareness of technical debt for hacking projects together. They do whatever the sponsor wants- no attempt at a happy medium to create a timeline that's reasonable. Lots of talent are leaving because USG is hamstringing GTRI. They don't have full control over salary/bonuses or their policies. A talented individual can be killing it, but get the same low raise as everyone else.