Great work, great engineering, terrible managers - Dynamics Engineer SpaceX Employee Review

3.0
Dec 8, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Engineers have the final say. This company has a great culture of finding/following the truth, taking accountability, and picking things because they are the best, The big picture is very exciting, and you are surrounded by others who are all excited to push the boundaries of rocket technology. You get to work with some of the leading experts in aerospace, on projects that have never been done before. Good pay fresh out of college. Employee stock awards provide incentives for individuals to improve the company.

Cons

Management does not care about you. They care about the work getting done at all costs. A team's best individual contributors are the ones promoted to managers. These are usually the people worst suited to managing others. Managers range from enthusiastic but inexperienced, to incompetent. It's not a sustainable workplace. Most people are here for under 2 years. To make it here longer than 5 years, you have to be a little crazy. Long hours (But I assume you already knew that) Your experience here will depend entirely on your manager. Some teams are very relaxed, have good management, and have fun. Often the teams working with the government are this way (Dragon, Starsheild, HLS). The teams driven entirely by internal pressure are the worst (Starship mainline, user terminal, etc.) They give performance bonuses in the form of stocks that vest over the next few years, and they WILL try to cheat you out of them. I was fired due to performance reasons when a brand new manager came in, and they let me go 2 weeks before the bonus I had earned a year ago vested. This is not unheard of, I know of several others who were treated the same way.

Explore other reviews about SpaceX

5.0
Jun 17, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

good place to work and earn money

Cons

Heavy workload and long time work

4.0
Apr 6, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You learn so much because the work is so freaking intense, its a lot of fun if you're the type of person who loves to get emerged in hard problems. The hours for me were not too bad but I was the exception, all the other interns I was with dealt with 60-70+ hour weeks, some interns came in at 10am and left at 12am, when I say its intense, I'm not joking. This is however very unique to the Starbase location. I've heard Hawthorne is a lot more chill. I honestly despite how challenging the role was always look back on it with a sense of pride in my work, and longing to be back there. It really does feel that you're doing world changing things.

Cons

Very un diverse upper management, I'd say the company is pretty diverse in the lower ranks, but once you start to look at the org chart and see who's in charge, you realize that its mainly just white people. Makes you wonder if as a person of color you too will be able to move up. Housing sucks: there was limited housing on campus for full time employees, you have to wait a year plus to get off the queue and once you're off you only really get tiny homes as the option that are in an inconvenient location. Interns don't even have the option to get on campus housing, they give you 3k in a housing stipend and expect you to find a place in Brownsville. I'd say its very hard to maintain a relationship while working here if you don't have an understanding partner, the work schedule is brutal and you really can't slack off.

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