Does Ultragenyx pay their employees well?

According to anonymously submitted Glassdoor reviews, Ultragenyx employees rate their compensation and benefits as 4.1 out of 5. Find out more about salaries and benefits at Ultragenyx. This rating has decreased by 4% over the last 12 months.

How satisfied are employees working at Ultragenyx?

45% of Ultragenyx employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews . Employees also rated Ultragenyx 3.3 out of 5 for work life balance, 3.4 for culture and values and 3.1 for career opportunities.

What are the top reviewed jobs at Ultragenyx?

Director (23) , Associate Director (14) , Senior Research Associate (9) , Research Associate (8) , Manager (7) , Sr. Director (6) , Contractor (4) , Intern (4) , Scientist (4) , Scientist II (4) , Vice President (4) , Clinical Operations (3) , Patient Diagnosis Liaison (3) , Research Associate II (3) , Senior Scientist (3)

What are the pros of working at Ultragenyx according to real employee reviews?

"Great location and great benefit." ((in 34 reviews)); "Great people to work with" ((in 27 reviews)); "Also very diverse and great culture." ((in 19 reviews)); "great work life balance" ((in 18 reviews)); "Great leadership and team environment" ((in 11 reviews))

What are the cons of working at Ultragenyx according to real employee reviews?

"They leave bad managers." ((in 11 reviews)); "Company has yet to fully integrate so communication is poor and there is a lot of duplication of efforts due to the many siloes." ((in 6 reviews)); "Upper management is a meme and like a helicopter parent." ((in 5 reviews))

What are employees saying about Ultragenyx layoffs in 2026?

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

What are the top reviewed Ultragenyx locations?

Novato , Woburn , Brisbane , San Francisco , Cambridge , Boston , Bedford , South San Francisco , San Rafael , Jersey City , Boise , Salt Lake City , Chicago , Rockford , Canada , Biloxi , San Diego , Mill Valley , Santa Rosa , Seattle , California , Orlando , Somerville , Coconut Creek

Ultragenyx reviews

3.4

45% would recommend to a friend

(245 total reviews)

Emil Kakkis

67% approve of CEO

44% positive business outlook

Ratings by demographic groups

Race / Ethnicity

Gender

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Ultragenyx has an employee rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 245 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Ultragenyx employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

245 reviews

1.0

Nov 3, 2015

Politics and below average experience

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Thursday lunches are good, CEO is Passionate about getting treatments to rare disease patients. A few good individuals, good compensation.

Cons

Extremely political with employees constantly backstabbing each other which is encouraged by managers. Unreasonable demands and feels more like a sweatshop with no work life balance. Upper management pretends to care about employees but no one is buying it. Weak leadership in key functions with obviously unqualified but well connected people getting hired. A lot of unhappy employees at this company, high turnover.

1.0

Apr 21, 2017

It all depends on where you land

Individual contributor

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

- It is a job that when delegated well, could give room for work-life balance -Room to find your role interesting and entertaining, despite of poor high-level organization & heavy politics -Free drinks and coffee -Thursday's lunch on the house (good catered food) -If you you look for, you could find good quality/smart coworkers with great values that are willing to mentor you (BIG PLUS)

Cons

-Many. - Politics and lack of culture makes it hard and unpleasant -Smooth talkers get promoted rapidly, while to others the bar is quite high -No career development or management support (politics) -Lack of transparency -Poor quality issues -High turn over (politics?) -Long commutes to the North Bay. Can be expensive if you don't live locally.

2.0

Mar 7, 2020

Patient focused but toxic culture and awful work life balance

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Doing the right thing for patients, inspiring leader, patient focused

Cons

management continues to keep weak performers forcing high performers to leave, unaccountable leadership, top level heavy hiring with no one hired to do the work, culture is toxic, expected to work 24/7, team wants to perform but decisions are overturned by LT/XLT, management keeps promoting non-performers/people who don't know what they are doing, employee morale is so low and nothing is actually done about it

Viewing 10 - 12 of 245 Reviews

Jobs at Ultragenyx

Director, Patient Access & Reimbursement

QC Microbiology, Senior Analyst II

Director, Biostatistics

UltraCare Liaison, Rare Disease Field Sales (Pittsburgh)

Ultragenyx

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Politics and below average experience

It all depends on where you land

Patient focused but toxic culture and awful work life balance

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