Avoid if you're an engineer - Software Engineer II Remitly Employee Review

I spent five years at Remitly, starting as a level 1 engineer and leaving as a level 2 engineer. During my time there, I worked on three separate teams, and while I learned a lot, the experience was far more frustrating than rewarding. Despite the potential for growth, a range of systemic issues consistently undermined the company’s ability to support its engineers. One of the biggest issues I encountered was the constant understaffing, especially during on-call rotations. Senior engineers would often be reassigned to entirely different teams, taking all of their domain knowledge with them. This left the remaining engineers—many of whom were less experienced—with large gaps in critical knowledge. The lack of proper documentation made the situation even worse, as engineers were left to scramble to figure out solutions to problems without sufficient context or support. When it came to addressing staffing and quality issues, engineers regularly pushed for solutions. However, these concerns were largely ignored unless a major service-level event (LSE) was triggered. Even then, the focus was often on short-term fixes rather than addressing the root causes, leading to a continuous cycle of stress and burnout. Engineers were expected to juggle both on-call duties and quality-related tasks, but the company’s priorities rarely aligned with what was needed to make long-term improvements. Another significant frustration was the lack of clarity and consistency in project requirements. Project managers and managers often were not aligned on requirements despite signing off on both a design document and a PRD document. When designing new features or systems, engineers often didn’t have all the requirements upfront. Discovering requirements later in the project added significant scope and often resulted in wasted work. This not only resulted in a lot of wasted effort but also created tension with managers, who were upset when deadlines slipped. The added pressure of revising work and trying to meet shifting goals only contributed to the sense of being constantly behind and overwhelmed. Estimating tickets varied widely across teams. Some teams used Fibonacci pointing based on complexity, while my last team attempted to point based on the number of days they thought it would take. Unfortunately, usually only one developer would point, sometimes two, and it wasn't unusual for the tickets to not be fully scoped and to be larger than what they were pointed for. Oftentimes, the tickets just had a title. Over time, this led to frustrated managers putting pressure on the team to get the tickets done in the allotted time, despite feedback that the estimates were consistently wrong. We needed more structure around our ticket creation and more input regarding how long the tickets should take, but this was largely ignored. The work environment itself also posed challenges. The open-space office was quite loud, making it difficult to concentrate. Conference rooms were often double-booked and hard to obtain, which was particularly frustrating given the mandatory return to the office at least a few days a week. After five years of enduring this cycle of poor communication, understaffing, and unrealistic expectations, I left Remitly. I can honestly say that it was a relief. For the first time in a long time, I finally felt like I could breathe again. The stress of constantly being on edge and the unrealistic demands placed on engineers took a serious toll on my well-being. I wish I had left sooner. I would not recommend working at Remitly. While there are some talented individuals within the company, the overall culture and management practices made it an extremely frustrating and unsustainable place to work. If you value your mental health and work-life balance, I strongly suggest look