A Completely Mismanaged Disaster with Zero Work/Life Balance - Senior Software Engineer Federato Employee Review

1.0
Jan 2, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

As an engineer, there were very few hoops that I needed to jump through in order to build, test, and release features, and I had the freedom to change the company's architecture as I saw fit without needing any buy-in or approvals from other team members which allowed me to build products in the way that worked best for myself and my team. The company is building a product that's much-needed in its space, and I can see it being incredibly successful in the long run

Cons

As a senior engineer, I was additionally made a team lead and the owner of two clients. This involved me working 12-16 hour days daily, as well as most weekends, as there wasn't enough time in an 8 hour day to be an engineer, a manager, and a product manager. My days would often consist of 50% meetings, and my 10 day sprints would often consist of 20+ points (with one point being equivalent to one day of work). On top of the insane workload, I had to balance running 1:1s with my team, writing and refining tickets as I was the only senior engineer on my team, as well as gathering requirements from customers to write future tickets. Federato has no semblance of work/life balance whatsoever, and it is expected that every engineer is putting in overtime consistently to meet deadlines that are far too aggressive for the talent and size of the team. Additionally, engineers that were deemed "low performers" were immediately fired with no sort of performance improvement plan system in-place to help them recover, and high-performing engineers weren't promoted

Explore other reviews about Federato

5.0
Jun 4, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Opportunity to join fast-growing scale up disrupting massive industry riddled with outdated technology - Merit-based culture - Rewarding work and opportunity to take on complex high-impact projects regardless of level / title

Cons

- High-growth venture backed startups are not for everyone

1.0
May 17, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Fast-paced startup environment operating within the tech-heavy AI and insurance sectors. Standard cloud architecture setups that will feel very familiar to anyone used to managing boilerplate deployments.

Cons

There is absolutely nothing interesting or innovative about the engineering architecture at Federato. Despite heavy marketing around a specialized "AI Risk Operating System", the platform under the hood behaves like a basic, uninspired carbon copy of Azure App Services. This lack of structural creativity is unfortunately becoming the standard blueprint across modern insurtech startups. Operationally, bad hiring loops translate directly into fragile management styles. The culture is heavily gatekept by aggressive leadership teams who prioritize buzzwords over data reality. If you value architectural depth and a culture that prioritizes sound engineering over tech-bro hype, look elsewhere. This reality is in direct contrast to all the leadership-driven reviews posted here to artificially boost their perception.

5
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