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 32 reviews)); "Great people to work with" ((in 22 reviews)); "Also very diverse and great culture." ((in 21 reviews)); "Good work/life balance." ((in 20 reviews)); "Great pay for beginning in the industry and took the time to train me." ((in 11 reviews))

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

"They leave bad managers." ((in 12 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 category

4.1

Compensation and benefits

3.9

Diversity & inclusion

3.4

Culture & values

3.3

Work/Life balance

3.1

Career opportunities

2.9

Senior management

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).

Ratings by demographic groups

Race / Ethnicity

Gender

Sexual orientation

Disability

Parent or family caregiver

Veteran status

Reviews by job title

245 reviews

1.0

Dec 9, 2013

Experience of working at Ultragenyx

Director level clinical team member

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

The science is very exciting. The clinical team members are great to work with

Cons

The CEO has cultivated a culture of domination and fear. He is openly critical of others' work to the point of humiliation. He seems to feel that his superior intelligence will enable him to coerce the regulatory authorities to accept clinical research that doesn't meet normal standards. He expects tacit support for his questionable strategies from all his employees. He expects employees to respond to his emails that he sends all weekend at all hours. Most employees are working in fear of him.

1.0

Sep 28, 2023

Inexperienced people, poor management, unethical treatment

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Pay, benefits, community resource groups, some good people

Cons

Unfortunately, there are so many inexperienced, overpaid people here. They have had multiple layoffs over the past year and prior to that were just handing out promotions to people who have no idea what they are doing. There were some retaliation issues I became aware of with no accountability and no apologies. Some of leadership literally sit in meetings and do no work and furthermore do not know how to conduct clinical research. It is a shame because they have lost some good people by not recognizing the issues or listening to the people that spoke up.

Ultragenyx Response

2y

We appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts on your time at Ultragenyx. We are happy to hear that our pay, benefits and employee resource groups were positive for you. We work hard to be sure to not only provide robust benefits to our employees but want them to feel connected to one another as well. To that end, we are sorry to hear about your not so positive experiences at Ultragenyx. Again, we care deeply about our employees and recognizing their hard work accordingly. We also do not tolerate any forms of retaliation and, if you feel comfortable sharing more information, please reach out to our Employee Relations team at EmployeeRelations@ultragenyx.com. It is important to us that we not only build the best teams to most effectively help those with rare disease, but that we also conduct all aspects of our business with integrity. We wish you luck in your future endeavors!

2.0

Aug 12, 2021

Culture needs to change

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

The work my team did was hard but my coworkers made it worth coming in to work everyday.

Cons

When I was there, there were 80 active cases of employees being out on leave of absence. Many of these employees were experiencing exhaustion and needed to focus on their mental health. I believe we only had 500 employees at the time so you can see how 80 cases is a lot. The grind culture here needs to change and the idea of "that's just the way it has always been done" needs to stop - especially when employees are completely burned out.

Viewing 13 - 15 of 245 Reviews

Jobs at Ultragenyx

Director, Patient Access & Reimbursement

Manager, QA Product Disposition

Senior Revenue Accountant

Senior Manager, CMC QA

South San Francisco, CA

Ultragenyx

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Experience of working at Ultragenyx

Inexperienced people, poor management, unethical treatment

Culture needs to change

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