IT at KP - Lead Project Manager IT Kaiser Permanente Employee Review

4.0
Mar 29, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Lots of interesting projects and growth, but KP moves slower than other organizations as it runs a bit more conservative and bureaucratic. This can be a benefit in shielding it from costly spending on a fad or trend that crashes, but sometimes means that the organization is slower in making some necessary shifts. Everyone is deeply invested in ensuring excellent patient care and in maximizing affordability to members and this does shape each decision made. Very 9.00 - 5.00 culture with the exception of the usual fire drills or heavy days leading up to a big project's debut or approval meeting. Strong compensation and benefits, and an East Bay vs. SF location.

Cons

If you're young, the pension isn't super attractive but is core to the total compensation package - you aren't eligible until 5 years, and most younger staff would prefer 401(k) matching. Sense that most feel they have to make upward moves across teams as many staff are very tenured (5 yrs +) in their role and it's difficult to move up within a team. Workforce is older (late 40s + 50s) and feels far more corporate than a tech company in the Bay Area. Working from home is possible but isn't encouraged. Very corporate structure makes onboarding and identifying the right office to help troubleshoot onerous - it took days to get a functional laptop and 3 hrs on the phone to get my mobile device working. Paperwork arrives from a variety of offices via mail, email and the online portal and it's confusing to identify what is and isn't necessary or complete. Tech is a bit out of date - mostly due to the necessary security precautions. Organization is finally phasing out Lotus/IBM Notes for email for Office 365/Outlook. Difficult or impossible to use some of the collaboration tools most younger workers are used to being able to leverage (Google docs/forms, Evernote, online project mgmt tools, etc).

Explore other reviews about Kaiser Permanente

5.0
Dec 3, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Awesome people to work with. Learned a ton in my IT career from a lot of people here. Work life balance was amazing. Work was interesting and always something new

Cons

Pay could have been a bit better, wish I'd been converted sooner.

4.0
Sep 9, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Kaiser is a great place to work and build a career over time. In my experience salaries are above market for most positions, and the benefits are so good that many people become "lifers". The health coverage is extremely generous, and time off starts off adequate and gets better over time (18 days when you start, moving up to 33 after 15+ years - this does not include sick time). Employees truly believe in the mission of KP (at least, I do) and it's clear that this is a place where employees' contributions are valued. Although my role is not part of any of the unions, the fact that our workforce is predominantly unionized also places a positive role in KP's reputation as a good place for workers (although having unionized staff also presents many challenges). Overall, I enjoy working at KP and would recommend it to others, but understand that you are entering a big bureaucracy. A friendly, mission-driven bureaucracy, but still.

Cons

Cons: having lots of "lifers" means that innovative ideas and workflows are not always adopted without a fight. People have their roles deeply embedded here, and any threat to the status quo is seen as negative, even though we need to make some pretty radical changes given the new health care environment post-ACA. There's a lot of "not my job" attitudes here. It's hard to navigate the layers of bureaucracy, both in terms of personnel/HR/benefits, and in getting work done (there are often 4-5 departments at the regional and national KP levels working on similar areas, and no guidance on who does what.) Be aware that KP is not immune to reorganizations and layoffs -- they do make a good attempt to ensure workers are hired elsewhere in the organization, but there are no guarantees, and there can be a lot of turnover in certain departments. Benefits are currently generous but are always subject to downgrades in the future, so just be aware of that. Some changes to the pension and retiree medical benefits are about to hit, and with them a wave of Baby Boomers will be taking retirement, which should hopefully open up many new management opportunities for Millennials. Oh, and the biggest con of all: we still - STILL - use Lotus Notes for email. Shocking, I know, but true.

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