Excellent Company - Staff Engineer Joby Aviation Employee Review

Amazingly talented team. Good leadership led by a true engineer CEO. Base salaries are not the highest in this space, but equity packages and associated liquidity make up for it. Decent benefits overall. Free meals are delicious and healthy.

Some growing pains evident as they transform from a small startup building prototypes to a large aerospace company building certified products at scale. Some dysfunction in the organization; some teams are not well-managed and/or understaffed. Occasional tension between cadres from different backgrounds, e.g. silicon valley, electric vehicles, and legacy aerospace. Leadership priorities sometimes shift unexpectedly, leading to churn and overly-aggressive schedules. Work-life balance can be a challenge at times.

Fun place to be as an engineer. The company philosophy is to be highly vertically integrated across the full stack of technologies necessary to build and operate electric aircraft. This results in an environment where you are surrounded by the tools and technical expertise to build pretty much anything. The company mission is motivating. There is a steady stream of highly interesting projects to work on. The company culture is very open and friendly. 3 free meals per day, with most people eating together at communal tables.

Management frequently sets highly unrealistic schedules and goals, to the point that no front-line worker has any faith in the timelines. No one is motivated to reach and achieve a deadline that is impossible with the resources given. Space is at a premium in San Carlos. Everyone is crammed into the building like sardines. Few windows.