Does Zymergen pay their employees well?

According to anonymously submitted Glassdoor reviews, Zymergen employees rate their compensation and benefits as 3.7 out of 5. Find out more about salaries and benefits at Zymergen. This rating has been stable over the past 12 months.

How satisfied are employees working at Zymergen?

41% of Zymergen employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews . Employees also rated Zymergen 3.6 out of 5 for work life balance, 3.6 for culture and values and 3.1 for career opportunities.

What are the top reviewed jobs at Zymergen?

Research Associate (29) , Scientist (19) , Research Associate II (13) , Scientist II (8) , Research Scientist (7) , Research Associate III (6) , Director (5) , Research Associate I (5) , Software Engineer (5) , Senior Software Engineer (4) , Business Associate (3) , Senior Research Associate (3) , Business Development (2) , Chemist (2) , Engineer (2)

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

"The free food is a great benefit." ((in 18 reviews)); "Free food (I have breakfast and lunch there)" ((in 16 reviews)); "Amazing Coworkers, smart, motivated, fun" ((in 10 reviews)); "Competitive pay" ((in 7 reviews)); "Company culture was awesome for the most part." ((in 6 reviews))

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

"No leadership at the President and VP level." ((in 15 reviews)); "Bad managers ." ((in 13 reviews)); "Upper management is always busy putting out fires so no time to pursue employee growth, promotion or useful ideas." ((in 11 reviews)); "Burgeoning middle management is largely hired from outside rather than promoting from within." ((in 4 reviews)); "Layoffs, Management was not as transparent as I would prefer" ((in 4 reviews))

What are employees saying about Zymergen layoffs in 2026?

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

What are the top reviewed Zymergen locations?

Emeryville , San Francisco , New York , Oakland , Boston , Cambridge

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Zymergen

Zymergen reviews

3.0

41% would recommend to a friend

(241 total reviews)

Joshua Hoffman

24% approve of CEO

16% positive business outlook

Ratings by category

4.0

Diversity & inclusion

3.7

Compensation and benefits

3.6

Culture & values

3.6

Work/Life balance

3.1

Career opportunities

2.5

Senior management

Zymergen has an employee rating of 3.0 out of 5 stars, based on 241 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Zymergen 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

241 reviews

3.0

Jan 2, 2016

Rapidly growing!

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Great benefits (minus 401K with no match), unlimited time-off, retreats, regular technical presentations for everyone to come and learn, etc. Brilliant people. Science is always interesting. All employees' opinions count. 360 performance reviews.

Cons

While upper management is doing its best to keep up with an extremely rapid growing business, growing pains exist. Hours can be long and erratic. Sometimes poor communication between and within departments/teams.

4.0

Dec 14, 2015

Scientist I

Scientist

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Great collaborative atmosphere. Really smart, motivated coworkers. Feels like science on the cutting edge.

Cons

Work can be obsessive. No 401k match currently.

5.0

Jun 16, 2015

The best place to be to do science that matters

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Everyone at Zymergen truly cares about doing good work, which is sadly not true most places. We're able to get an amazing amount of work done while building an incredible infrastructure for high-throughput, host-agnostic organism engineering. I think this is mostly because of the amazing people that work here.

Cons

Only downside is that that folks' passion for the work makes them work long hours sometimes... but we're having fun while doing really impactful science.

Viewing 238 - 240 of 241 Reviews

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