Morale is Terrible - System Integration Engineer Sierra Space Employee Review

1.0
Dec 20, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

We are in the space industry. We are very close to launching the Dream Chaser in April of 2024. We have a wide variety of products besides the Dream Chaser.

Cons

We used to have holiday parties. No more. We used to have an 80/9 schedule where employees worked extra hours so they could take every other Friday off. No more. The CEO Tom Vice said we will replace 80/9 with a more modern and flexible schedule. That never happened. Instead, we got mandatory overtime. Then, overtime pay was reclassified as surge or burst pay, and no longer authorized. Workers who were refused overtime pay for their extra hours stormed out. After the layoffs, we all are expected to work 3-4 jobs. Management expects each IT worker to Project Manage all work themselves, so you've got server dudes running contract negotiations. Everyone is a full stack developer, whether they are qualified or not. Hybrid schedules were very quietly banned with nothing in writing, which seems kind of illegal, given that many employees were hired before covid with the stipulation they would be allowed to work from home in their contracts. The recent layoffs didn't make much sense given our recent series B funding. Management makes goals that are based on aspirational wishes rather than any sort of resource planning. Management will say I want this thing done by April 15th, 2024, but no calculation is made about money or people. Actually, the wish will be put on the same person so now they get to work 80 hours a week, or 120, or something physically impossible.

Explore other reviews about Sierra Space

5.0
Jul 19, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Joined a few months ago, right as Dan Jablonsky (ex-Maxar, ex-Ursa Major) took over as CEO and the company closed a $550M Series C at an $8B valuation. That combination of new operational leadership plus fresh capital is rare to walk into, and you can feel the shift toward more disciplined execution already. The mission itself is the real draw: Dream Chaser, the LIFE habitat, Orbital Reef, national security space work. The company is pushing hard on modern AI tooling across engineering, from code assistance to workflow automation, so you’re not fighting decade-old tooling to get things done. And unlike the primes, the company is still small enough that an individual engineer can move a program forward, not just a ticket queue. If you want your work to be traceable to a launch, this is one of the few places left where that’s true.

Cons

This is a company mid-transition: post-spinoff, post-CEO-change, scaling fast, so process and communication are still catching up to ambition. Expect some rough edges: unclear ownership on cross-team work, evolving standards, and the pace that comes with a fast-growing R&D shop. If you need a fully mature org chart and buttoned-up process on day one, wait a year or two.

1.0
Jul 11, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Pay was decent and 401k match was great if you could last that long.

Cons

This was the biggest speed bump in my career to date. The company was dragged down by the dream chaser heritage and process. Nothing moves fast, I’m not sure how much work is actually happening here. Everyone seems busy with endless meeting yet nothing gets done. Their satellite production facility was nothing more than a couple empty buildings they had a lease on, no real work happened to develop these into workable spaces and they sat empty while we had more meetings to talk about what we should do. Little to no ability to progress in your career, rarely saw promotions other than senior leadership. PTO policy was subpar, two weeks per year that must be accrued is terrible for anyone mid career and above.

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