Growing pains are real, but that's just because we're getting better! - Senior Software Engineer Health Catalyst Employee Review

5.0
4 Nov 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

A stated (and practiced) commitment to transparency and open communication from the top makes this a very different job than any I've ever had. Even if corporate decisions aren't the ones I might make in the same position, I never feel like I don't understand why our leadership chose one option over another. In this job I feel valued, not just for my output but for my opinions, I feel like part of the team and not just someone assembling widgets that could be done by anyone else. Even when acting as part of a larger team, I don't feel insignificant or imminently replaceable -- everyone is valued and it shows. Health Catalyst is also big on trusting you to understand how best to do your job -- if something needs to be changed, we're free to experiment with new and better ways to do things, and even to re-try something that didn't work in a previous experiment to see if time and experience make things different. While there is a great deal of alignment required to make sure we're all helping push the flywheel the same direction, our teams are all allowed autonomy to find out how we can contribute best. Promotions from within and new hires feel very well balanced. I've been privileged to be a part of the interview process within my department and seeing how open positions consider both internal and external candidates is heartening. I tell all my friends who are looking for work to look here too, I can't recommend this job enough! Remote work is embraced and supported at all levels, pay and benefits are better than anywhere I've ever worked, and Health Catalyst just makes it easy to give my best to them, because they give their best to me.

Cons

No company is perfect. I know growing pains are often cited in these reviews but it's true -- the company "feels" different than it did when I started five years ago and the dedication to transparency and open communication feels like it gets missed in the middle levels sometimes. Occasionally a job-altering decision that probably makes perfect sense gets made without any of the justification making it down to the individual contributors, and it can take a lot of asking "Why?" before the perfectly reasonable answer is found. Even striving to assume positive intent can have its limits when communication breaks down. While these instances are relatively few and far between, they are coming up more recently and my best guess is middle managers are used to having a small team around them who are directly affected by decisions, and haven't quite mastered communication of those decisions to larger teams when the effects of their choices are felt by a hundred or more team members. One other little thing is it can be surprisingly hard to find information on company policy -- we have a few sources of information, and searching them can be hard. While individuals who know are always willing to help you find what you're looking for, it would be great if things like HR policy documents, team guidelines, internal documentation and company-wide updates were all stored in one place, easy to search and organized well enough to understand. We may just have outgrown Box!

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Health Catalyst Response
6y
Thank you for this thoughtful, detailed review, I really appreciate it! And thank you for your contributions to our software engineering work these past 3+ years! We've made such major progress in our software development capabilities during your tenure -- thank you for contributing to this major progress! I'm very glad you feel valued, respected and that you are given autonomy to experiment and work to continuously improve. That is exactly how we hope every team member feels. I also appreciate hearing that leadership communication is helpful and transparent. And I agree that we have more work to do regarding communication within the middle-management portion of the company. We will continue to emphasize with our Extended Leadership Team members how critical it is to hold regular 1:1s, as well as to hold group discussions and to share information frequently and transparently. This is something we are emphasizing in the questions included in our annual 360-degree feedback survey which is underway right now. Gathering this feedback will give us as leaders an opportunity to provide encouragement around frequent and consistent communication. I also appreciate that we can keep working to improve the ease of finding information. This has been an area of focus within people operations for some time, and we'll keep working on it! Thank you again for your feedback and for your many contributions to our company's success. Best, Dan

Explore other reviews about Health Catalyst

5.0
11 Nov 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Good work-life balance - Motivates to grow

Cons

- Benefits are slimming down

2
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Health Catalyst Response
3mo
Thank you for taking the time to share this feedback. We’re happy to hear you’re experiencing a healthy work-life balance. We hear your concern about benefits. These are critical areas, and we continue to review our compensation and benefits strategies to ensure competitiveness. We are committed to being data-informed in these decisions, and your input helps us do so. Thank you for your continued commitment during this transformational time.
3.0
5 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great Talent & Culture: The people here are highly capable, collaborative, and committed to helping each other succeed. The partnership between onshore and offshore teams works well and is a real strength. There’s a culture of grit and stability that has helped the company navigate multiple major transitions over the years. Mission-Critical Engineering: The work involves complex data infrastructure that requires deep technical expertise. It can be demanding, but seeing these systems run successfully and support real-world operations is consistently rewarding.

Cons

Wage Compression and Retention Risk: Compensation for tenured and high-performing staff has not kept pace with the market for specialized data engineering and support leadership. In practice, tenure can feel undervalued or even penalized. This creates risk around losing institutional knowledge and operational continuity. Stagnant Career Progression: Contrary to stated expectations, strong performance ratings do not consistently translate into meaningful, market-aligned compensation growth. The process of how compensation is benchmarked lacks clarity in practice, obscuring how compensation decisions are made and what is required to advance.

5
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