Great benefits and good pay... but lots of work for good employees and scientists can do no wrong - Anonymous employee RTI International Employee Review

3.0
May 3, 2013
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great benefits, certainly flexible but if you are good you will work a ton of hours

Cons

Scientists are worshiped and egos fed leading to no "support" for support functions and a lack of respect... non-profit culture from "small-company" no longer fits in this mid-size growing company

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5.0
Jun 8, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

RTI has a good mission

Cons

Adaptation to sudden federal funding loss.

3.0
Jun 15, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Remote work and reasonable working hours

Cons

If you're a PhD who enjoys research and hopes to use empirical research skills at a research institute, you'll likely be disappointed as I was. Projects in my business unit were largely implementation projects that required very little creativity or data analysis. I was told by my manager that empirical-research projects are harder to come by and when those opportunities do arise, everyone wants them. Even then, project directors are very unwilling (in my experience) to let you branch out to other projects. Using any overhead time to work on your own research is also discouraged, so I ended up working on manuscripts in my personal time. And there's no funding to attend conferences either. On top of all of this, constant layoffs create an aura of uncertainty and the feeling that you're lucky to even be there even when compensation for similar roles in private sector is far better.

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