Toxic Culture - Anonymous employee HARVEY Employee Review

I’ve really enjoyed working on Infrastructure and Platform at Harvey. Building AI infrastructure is challenging, fast-moving, and incredibly exciting. The scope and complexity of problems are much larger than what I’ve experienced at other companies, and there is a real opportunity to make a meaningful impact. Pros High ownership and scope: The scope of engineering work is exceptionally high, often exceeding what you would find at many AI labs. Engineers have the opportunity to own critical systems and solve impactful problems. Strong upside: If Harvey continues to execute well, there is significant financial upside from being part of a company at this stage. Pioneer in Legal AI: Harvey is helping define the Legal AI space, which makes the work both exciting and meaningful. Interesting technical problems: The infrastructure challenges are genuinely unique — building reliable, scalable systems around AI workloads is some of the most interesting work I’ve done. Approachable technical leadership: The technical leadership team is one of Harvey’s biggest strengths. They are highly approachable, technically strong, and consistently make time to help engineers. They are actively involved in solving problems, providing guidance, and creating an environment where engineers can do their best work.

Cons Competition from foundation model companies: The AI landscape moves extremely quickly, and there is always pressure from foundation model companies to move up the stack. Continued differentiation will be important. Infrastructure maturity: The infra stack is still maturing. Some systems have grown quickly and accumulated technical debt, leading to reliability challenges. The good news is that technical leadership recognizes this and is actively working to improve the foundations.

- Great place for personal growth, especially if you’re interested in eventually moving into leadership or management. The engineering org is growing quickly, so you get to see a lot of that evolution up close, and there are plenty of chances to take ownership and prove yourself. - There are lots of opportunities to work on new product areas, some of which could end up being pretty important for the company and potentially the broader legal/AI space. - The company has real credibility in the legal industry, which gives the team access to enterprise customers and actual workflows. That makes the work feel more grounded in real problems, which is not always the case in AI application companies. - The culture is relatively relaxed compared to a lot of similar startups. It’s definitely not a 996-style environment, which can be a big plus depending on what you’re looking for. - There’s a good amount of autonomy, especially if you’re proactive and willing to figure things out.

- The relaxed culture can sometimes feel a little too relaxed. Given how fast the AI space is moving, I think there are areas where the company could benefit from more urgency. - Since the company is growing so quickly, some internal processes are still rough. That can be frustrating at times. - Some technical decisions can feel like they involve too many people, which occasionally leads to thrash or slower decision-making than necessary. - Leadership can feel a bit top-down and reactive at times. More proactive planning and clearer communication around priorities would go a long way.