Is MIT Lincoln Laboratory a good company to work for?

MIT Lincoln Laboratory has an overall rating of 4.4 out of 5, based on over 764 reviews left anonymously by employees. This rating has decreased by 4% over the last 12 months. 96% of employees would recommend working at MIT Lincoln Laboratory to a friend and 86% have a positive outlook for the business. The best reviews about MIT Lincoln Laboratory have been left by employees working as Summer Research Intern , Research Intern and Summer Intern .

Does MIT Lincoln Laboratory pay their employees well?

According to anonymously submitted Glassdoor reviews, MIT Lincoln Laboratory employees rate their compensation and benefits as 3.9 out of 5. Find out more about salaries and benefits at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. This rating has decreased by 5% over the last 12 months.

How satisfied are employees working at MIT Lincoln Laboratory?

96% of MIT Lincoln Laboratory employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews . Employees also rated MIT Lincoln Laboratory 4.4 out of 5 for work life balance, 4.1 for culture and values and 4.0 for career opportunities.

What are the top reviewed jobs at MIT Lincoln Laboratory?

Member Of Technical Staff (36) , Technical Staff (35) , Assistant Staff (32) , Intern (31) , Associate Staff (26) , Summer Research Intern (25) , Software Engineer (23) , Summer Intern (19) , Associate Technical Staff (18) , Research Intern (14) , Assistant Technical Staff (11) , Engineer (11) , Subcontractor (9) , Administrative Assistant (8) , Information Systems Security Officer (ISSO) (8)

What are the pros of working at MIT Lincoln Laboratory according to real employee reviews?

"People that I worked with were great except for some individual from my own team." ((in 112 reviews)); "Great benefits and overall great time as an intern!" ((in 81 reviews)); "Good work life balance for specialists" ((in 48 reviews)); "Excellent opportunities to learn on impactful projects." ((in 16 reviews)); "My experience there was phenomenal, I got to work with so many great students along with my great colleagues." ((in 15 reviews))

What are the cons of working at MIT Lincoln Laboratory according to real employee reviews?

"i.e. pay was low." ((in 28 reviews)); "Salaries are not competitive with industry and raise structure does not provide monetary incentives for performance." ((in 21 reviews)); "Possibilities of managers who aren't great at running projects leading to alot of frustrating days" ((in 8 reviews)); "Flat management structure so promotions are few and far in between" ((in 6 reviews)); "Compensation is highly dependent upon academic credentials (degree)" ((in 5 reviews))

What are employees saying about MIT Lincoln Laboratory layoffs in 2026?

Explore Glassdoor’s employee reviews to understand what current and former employees are saying about MIT Lincoln Laboratory layoffs and their outlook for job security at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in 2026.

What are the top reviewed MIT Lincoln Laboratory locations?

Lexington , Boston , Cambridge , Bedford , Hanscom AFB , Lincoln , Westford , Huntsville , Chicago , Rochester , La Porte , Minneapolis , West Hollywood , Mont Vernon , Colorado Springs , Beverly , Burlington , Lowell , Medford , Tewksbury , Waltham

MIT Lincoln Laboratory reviews

4.4

96% would recommend to a friend

(510 total reviews)

Eric Evans

98% approve of CEO

86% positive business outlook

Ratings by category

4.4

Work/Life balance

4.3

Diversity & inclusion

4.1

Culture & values

4.0

Career opportunities

3.9

Compensation and benefits

3.6

Senior management

MIT Lincoln Laboratory has an employee rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars, based on 510 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The MIT Lincoln Laboratory employee rating is 21% above average for employers within the Aerospace & Defense industry (3.6 stars).

Ratings by demographic groups

Race / Ethnicity

Gender

Sexual orientation

Disability

Parent or family caregiver

Veteran status

Reviews by job title

510 reviews

5.0

Mar 24, 2014

Great projects and very smart people.

Technical staff

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

You can find an expert in nearly every area, and they all are easy to talk to. Good mix of research/academia and industry. Opportunities to publish for those willing to put in the extra effort. Great benefits and vacation policy.

Cons

Flat organizational structure is great in many ways, but it could take a while for employees to get used to the fact that management cannot track all the moving parts all the time.

MIT Lincoln Laboratory Response

12y

Your comments are nicely though out and capture key points of the Lincoln experience. We are working to continue improvement in employee feedback hope that you will see progress.

4.0

Feb 9, 2014

A pleasure to work for and be a part of

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Good pay, friendly people, challenging work

Cons

none to be of much concern

MIT Lincoln Laboratory Response

12y

We appreciate your comments and are pleased that you had a good experience. The challenging work that we do is one of our employee's biggest motivations.

3.0

Jan 28, 2014

Government job: slow-moving, great benefits, reasonable hours, hard to get fired

Associate technical staff

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

People are intelligent; well-funded place to do research; some flexibility at the staff level to pursue your own projects. Good place to retire or raise a family.

Cons

The lab doesn't focus much on management, and as a consequence, the management quality is pretty patchy. There are so many possible pitfalls when doing research--one can attack uninteresting questions, or fail to have a clear question to answer, or fail to design the experiment in a way that will answer the question. Further, research is slow, and requires patience at the right moments and tenacity at others. I've never been on a project at Lincoln that was successful, and it was always a management problem. I don't want to knock Lincoln too hard, as these are common problems with research: without clear market feedback, it's really easy to end up in the weeds. But for whatever reason, we spent a lot of time in the weeds. Note that the lab is a BIG place, and this was just my experience in division 8. I would say that it is likely to be completely irrelevant to your experience in other divisions. Also, there is no such thing as job mobility for assistant or associate staff, at least in division 8. This is a place run by PhDs for PhDs. If you don't have one, you just do what you're told. That's not the worst thing in the world, but it might not be ideal for someone young and ambitious.

MIT Lincoln Laboratory Response

12y

It is clear that you have given some thought to your insights and that is appreciated. It is an accurate observation that the Laboratory is not market driven. With no profit motive or shareholders to satisfy, we can pursue technical depth that is often not feasible in industry. I am sure that at times that can feel like "being in the weeds" but it also the case that sometimes it is necessary to be very detailed when the outcome of the research can have major impact. As you have noted, this is a big place so we are able to offer both depth and breadth that is unique. A PhD is often desirable but is not required to succeed here. Annually, we hire about evenly at BS, MS and PhD levels. There is a lot of support to help people progress but it is also intentionally a flat organization. The benefit to this is that there are fewer tiers to deal with. As you have noted, intelligent people and well funded work can provide good opportunities.

Viewing 457 - 459 of 510 Reviews

Jobs at MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Group Administrative Assistant

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