Bob Smith, are you really listening? - Software Engineer Blue Origin Employee Review

5.0
Jun 25, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

This remains one of the tiny handful of places in the world where you can be at the forefront of getting humanity to the stars. In objective terms, this place is awesome. New Shepard is almost out the door. New Glenn is real, is happening, is getting built. Smart, helpful, humble, visionary co-workers. Familiar Amazon perks like dogs in the office, free snacks and drinks, an endless firehose to learn new skills and hone current ones.

Cons

When Bob Smith gave his first all-hands address to all of Blue in his new role as CEO, he started with two words that sent chills down my spine: "We're listening". tl;dr: You can guess by the fact I'm here writing a review on Glassdoor, joined by countless others, what I have concluded about that. This is something Rob Meyerson would have never, ever said. He would have never acknowledged that there was a distinct "we" (i.e. upper management) separate from the "we" that was all of Blue. He would have never bothered to say it at all -- he would have assumed it would have shown from his actions, and that it was his very first, basic responsibility as the leader of his company. All of my pertinent complaints about the state of the company stem from this one phrase.

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5.0
Jun 3, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good team to work with. No complaints.

Cons

No cons at this point.

1.0
Jun 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Cool work, brilliant engineers, exciting long term vision, well funded (Bezos), endless learning. I have an amazing team that solves challenges few people in the world can solve, on a frequent basis.

Cons

Sr leadership is incompetent to the point that I’m not sure the company can succeed with them at the wheel. Seeing how the sausage gets made reveals far too much. Talent is now getting harder to source because of the well-known issues along with burn out. We’re expected to lower the bar, do more with less, and cut corners. The C-suite can’t even recognize the erosion of the engineering pool because they don’t understand technical engineering principles. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more frequent failures and testing anomalies soon, it all stems from the top. Sadly if this continues I will be the next out the door.

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