Pros
Most of the people at RTI are very respectful, open-minded, and supportive of one another. A lot of people stay for decades because the work is dynamic and interesting for most staff. I was lucky enough to have a very supportive and work/life balance-aware manager, but this seems to vary widely among departments. Medical benefits are very good for the cost to employees. Annual percentage-based raises seem consistently given from year to year. Many projects have a positive impact on society. RTP headquarters has some nice facilities.
Cons
Many salaries are lower than for-profit equivalents, even though RTI is a large corporate-style environment. Some of the staff who have stayed for decades are not challenged to fully engage in innovative technical work or leadership (to be fair, many do a great job of this). Untrained staff in upper-mid career stages are pushed into project management with paltry training, much less than they need to avoid stressful situations and manage client expectations properly. Inconsistent culture across the institute leads to poor communication and collaboration between departments. Time accounting policy hamstrings staff into the daily grind and inhibits spontaneity, especially among younger staff who are pressured to spend as much time as possible on sold projects. This makes the culture dominated by older staff, who are worn out by the demands of juggling staff management, project management, technical leadership, hiring and trying to stand out. The executive staff do not make enough effort to meet and listen to junior or mid level staff, making those on the front lines feel disconnected from the corporate core. Very little diversity among senior leadership and the RTI board of governors. Efforts to improve communication and collaboration across the institute feel awkward and inconclusive, but this is likely due to their infancy. More efforts should be made to fuel passion among technical staff for positively affecting the world through RTI's contracts, and encourage deep business-level knowledge at all levels. Some clients are extremely demanding yet waste immense amounts of resources, but are lucrative to RTI for this very reason...RTI sells labor, so difficult clients with deep pockets cause a lot of stress for years.