Toxic work culture, incompetent exec team - Senior Software Engineer Lightning AI Employee Review

1.0
Nov 20, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

If you are on the open source team, you contributions are visible to the public and their open source library does have a following in the community

Cons

They recently rebranded from Grid AI, so read the reviews on the previous company page on glassdoor as well. - The exec team/upper management seems to have no idea about product direction or how to monetize it and they keep firing people. - What I heard from the people who have been with the company long enough, they have fired like 40-50 people in the past 2 years. - If you join, consider this more as an internship rather than a full-time position, because your employment with the company will probably be less than a year. - The exec team/upper management micromanages and you can't disagree with them on anything. - Deadlines set by the managers are ridiculous and they don't seem to have realistic ideas/time-lines/standards about product development. - Saying things move at a fast-pace in a startup and its not for everyone is just a cover up for super toxic work culture. - Lots of burned out employees at the company. - People who are let go seem to be relieved and happy. - Also, people who are let go are made to sign some ridiculous non-compete where they can't work at literally any other company that does machine learning or ML-ops.

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Lightning AI Response
2y
We would not be where we are today without the contributions of all of the team members who have worked at Lightning AI. You gave your time, expertise, and passion to help build our company, and we thank you for that. Late last year, we decided to centralize our teams around our NYC, Palo Alto, and London hubs to address and improve many of the issues you mentioned, especially regarding folks burning out from having to work around the clock just to collaborate with their teammates. While it was a tough decision to make, it’s one that has positively impacted every aspect of our company, from work-life balance and collaboration to product development and project management. We continue to grow and evolve with your feedback in mind. We thank you for sharing and wish you all the best in your journey.

Explore other reviews about Lightning AI

5.0
Nov 3, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The team is smart, collaborative, and deeply invested in design and AI-first thinking. The platform, built for PyTorch workloads with multi-cloud support, is genuinely unique. Fast-paced, challenging, and rewarding if you love shaping the future of AI. - Clear mission and strong product focus - Talented, diverse, collaborative team - Cutting-edge AI platform with multi-cloud support (neoclouds and hyperscalers) - Emphasis on thoughtful design and developer experience - Exec team likes to promote from within so an excellent place to grow your career - Work hard, play hard; truly a fun place to work if you are passionate about the mission

Cons

- Fast-paced environment typical of a scaling startup - Some internal processes are still evolving

2.0
Jun 15, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

If you are a software engineer this is probably a great place to work. There is a lot of room for individual creativity, minimal oversight, and project ownership. Everyone else has a very different experience. One more pro: if you are able to stay for more than a year you will almost certainly be promoted, but mainly due to exceedingly high turnover, not growth.

Cons

The company leadership and interdepartmental relationships are appallingly toxic. Leadership has introduced the workplace philosophy of “radical candor” which so far just seems to be a method for us to publicly criticize each other. Company wide surveys are embarrassingly biased, and there is blatant favoritism. All of this combined leads to an environment that is increasingly contentious, demoralizing, and punitive.

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