Does Virgin Galactic pay their employees well?

According to anonymously submitted Glassdoor reviews, Virgin Galactic employees rate their compensation and benefits as 3.0 out of 5. Find out more about salaries and benefits at Virgin Galactic. This rating has decreased by 8% over the last 12 months.

How satisfied are employees working at Virgin Galactic?

29% of Virgin Galactic employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews . Employees also rated Virgin Galactic 2.8 out of 5 for work life balance, 2.6 for culture and values and 2.5 for career opportunities.

What are the top reviewed jobs at Virgin Galactic?

Engineer (26) , Senior Engineer (10) , Technician (10) , Business Support Specialist (7) , Mechanical Engineer (6) , Manager (5) , Stress Engineer (5) , Test Engineer (5) , Avionics Engineer (4) , Intern (4) , Space Wrench (4) , Engineering Intern (3) , Flight Test Engineer (3) , Intern - Hourly (3) , Aerospace Engineer (2)

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

"Great people and a job that inspires" ((in 31 reviews)); "Benefits are good" ((in 26 reviews)); "Pay and location were great" ((in 20 reviews)); "Great work life balance" ((in 13 reviews)); "Good culture" ((in 12 reviews))

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

"• Tone deaf upper management." ((in 12 reviews)); "Layoffs are common." ((in 8 reviews)); "Group Managers do not understand that " contract engineers " are trying to produce proper engineering documents for future Revisions in case there is some errors with the least amount of Re" ((in 7 reviews)); "Bad communication, especially between departments." ((in 6 reviews)); "This is attributed to how horrible old and new management has been slowly turning once was a great company prior to becoming public into one of the worse places to work." ((in 4 reviews))

What are employees saying about Virgin Galactic layoffs in 2026?

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

What are the top reviewed Virgin Galactic locations?

Mojave , Tustin , Las Cruces , Long Beach , Irvine , Spaceport City , Los Angeles , Mesa , Lancaster , Truth or Consequences , Albuquerque , Leander , Schertz , Tehachapi , Pasadena , Mountain View , Truth Consq

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Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic reviews

2.6

29% would recommend to a friend

(294 total reviews)

Michael Colglazier

21% approve of CEO

16% positive business outlook

Ratings by category

3.2

Diversity & inclusion

3.0

Compensation and benefits

2.8

Work/Life balance

2.6

Culture & values

2.5

Career opportunities

2.0

Senior management

Virgin Galactic has an employee rating of 2.6 out of 5 stars, based on 294 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Virgin Galactic employee rating is 28% below 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

294 reviews

1.0

Nov 15, 2023

Sold

Maintenance mechanic

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Lunch was good and it was free. Also, the hourly wage was damn near double the average in the area.

Cons

Not sure how to start... lack of direction, supervision, leadership, procedures. I suppose that's enough of a good start. If you do the minimum you're good if you do more than that you have now set an expectation for yourself and you will suffer the consequences of not maintaining this. If you are in tight with supervision you might be safe but the group of "cool kids" shifts rapidly so who knows. If you work here it's best to not trust anyone, keep your head down, and do only what's asked of you but always have an escape lined up because unless you have have the title of supervisor your are expendable, I've send people's with 2 to 16 years get bounced, loyalty means nothing. Lastly, don't buy into the whole "vg is a family" crap... people you barely know will through you under the bus if they even think it could benefit them.

2.0

Sep 7, 2021

Best experience turned nightmare

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

At it's height, Virgin had an amazing culture. It was family oriented, the people were amazing, and egos were (mostly) in check. They applauded creativity, let you carve your own path in the company, and offered some amazing benefits (snacks, free professional development, company clubs, etc.). I was able to increase my knowledge base and stretch my abilities simply for the fact that upper management was of the believe of just "going for it" which was EXCELLENT for so many people. We were able to be creative, think of new solutions, and even made things that nobody else in the world was doing! The benefits at the company (health, 401K, etc.) were great at the time but they are now starting to become outdated as other start up companies are offering things like tuition assistance, professional development, etc. VG used to be a fun place to work, which breed happy employees who turned out quality stuff. Everyone in management (CEO, president, directors, etc) HAD open door policies where anyone and everyone could address their concerns. People there genuinely believe in the mission to bring people to space, which fosters comradery.

Cons

This is not a Virgin company. If you go to ANY OTHER Virgin company, you would know what I mean. There is no bottom-up accountability with management, only top down punishment... which it used to never be that way. There is ZERO consistency with policy as some individuals get hand slaps for things that others get fired for. Ya'll fired a guy for "racism" yet did nothing about another employee who openly sexually harassed another. This kind of inconsistency IS SO RAMPANT AT THE COMPANY that it's become laughable. They used to say "check your ego at the door" which used to be enforced and now it's just accepted. People went from one big family to a pack of wolves, who will eat their own... very cult-like. Middle management blows company money on dumb things like dinners and pointless swag... there is zero accountability for them. Upper management is out of touch with the little guys, so busy chasing stakeholders needs than realizing their company is built upon the little guy. They push so hard for deadlines that they're going to have more errors occur and it will delay the project further. It's no longer about creating a quality product, but about making time lines and focusing on appearance of the brand. It's ALLLLL about the brand now... the brand is more important than safety. This place was amazing to work for at one point in time, but then it quickly became an absolute nightmare with zero work life balance and everyone turning on each other because of that fact. There is not enough free artesian coffee in the WORLD that VG could spoon feed me that would make me put up with that level of toxicity ever again. I cannot express this enough... This... place... is... TOXIC... and the sad truth is that it never used to be that way. So sad to watch what used to be a dream to work for become a nightmare.

Virgin Galactic Response

Thank you for taking the time to write this. We take your concerns very seriously. Harassment is not tolerated at Virgin Galactic and is a violation of the Company’s code of conduct as well as state and federal law. We are committed to investigating claims of harassment and taking appropriate action. And we want to be clear that maintaining a robust and meaningful safety culture is essential to our success. It’s our North Star. These are two areas where we will not compromise on our values. We’re committed to making Virgin Galactic a great place to work, and we agree that everything starts with how you treat your employees. We’ll continue striving to create an open door culture at Virgin Galactic, and we’d love to hear from you on this. If you’re open to discussing the concerns you raised further, please email people@virgingalactic.com.

1.0

Jan 27, 2017

Why is everyone leaving!

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

good work life balance; good benefits

Cons

Clueless management especially executives (or what is left of them). Wasteful spend. No product. Glitz with no substance. People leaving a sinking ship

Viewing 19 - 21 of 294 Reviews

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Jobs at Virgin Galactic

Internal Communications Specialist