Engineering culture is primarily defined by a lack of leadership and vision from the executive level on down. This is driven by the CEO who actively thinks engineering is a waste of money and openly resents engineering in meetings. There is a strong new guard/old guard dynamic with communication mostly back channels to the CEO that doesn't fall along standard reporting lines. Culture and communication can feel gossipy, passive aggressive, and if you are not in the trusted group, you are cut out of communications.
Some members of the team go out of their way to advocate that other teams fail and openly wish they could fire members of other teams they disagree with. Within the leadership team, there is an accepted assumption that there are only “5 good engineers” out of a team of 20. Not surprisingly, this has made for a very toxic environment and has driven poor execution in all phases of the product.
If you are an engineer looking for an up and coming startup where you can grow, this is not the place for you. You'll mostly be thrown into a mix of hackery, confusing process, undercut, and have little to no mentorship. If you are an engineering leader who is looking for an opportunity to lead teams, expect to have little to no leadership support and no support from peers. My recommendation is to avoid this place, it’s collapsing under the weight of its own dysfunction.
