Wasted 6 years at this place, the TDP program is a lie, and, they actively want you to quit so you can be offshored - Lead Software Engineer Optum Employee Review

1.0
Dec 18, 2024
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

If you're a high grade, you'll get decent PTO, but good luck ever getting to use it -- oh, and they only pay out remaining PTO if you're laid off or live in California. You won't get a cent otherwise.

Cons

This job is the worst one I've ever had. The following are regular occurrences that I saw as a lead: * Upper management (above your director) will literally never listen to anything a technical person says * This results in them coming with arbitrary, impossible deadlines and they just force you to work absurd hours until it's done, at which point they've moved on to the next shiny thing * They are actively offshoring to India, with a goal of being 70% offshore ASAP. They hire cheap, even for India, so the quality of that work is extra dubious. * The Indian team actually has a better WLB than the on-shore US team, in that they're only expected to be available during the Indian working hours -- the US team has to be available the rest of those hours. * You, as an engineer, will have about 4 layers of contact between the design and UX people. You will have to go through your severely overworked and underpaid PMs/PJMs because the designers just ignore you. * Those same designers often give unfinished work weeks late -- but you still have the same deadline. And yes, you will work hard hours to meet it, and if you don't complete it, you take the blame. * There is no longer QA -- they offshored them but they straight up do not work. I don't mean that with any ounce of hyperbole -- you and your team will be your own QA. * The execs just sit in "Q&A"s talking about how they jet around the world for literally half the meeting * The company policy is explicitly to stack-rank and lay off everyone who scores 2/5 or below; if there aren't enough of those, they start digging into the 3s. * The company also heavily down pressures the reviews so that a 5 becomes a 3. You have to fight very, very hard to get that overturned. Most people end up barely above water when they're excellent engineers. * There's been a promotion freeze since like, 2021 -- this goes above your director. Even the director of your department can't get you promoted. * They no longer give stock refreshers, and the bonus/raise pool is anemic * This is all the while we are being constantly told in Town Halls that we are "extremely profitable" * The company actively pushes GitHub Copilot as it's solution to problems that are entirely caused by the lack of organization * The aforementioned offshore teams also, by the admission of one engineer in a meeting, "proudly" do "80%" of their work through Copilot. As in, they only write 20% themselves. That same engineer struggled mightily in his demonstration to get Copilot to work for him. * The TDP program is a lie -- they will keep you at that grade and pay until you quit, even if it takes years. Again, this decision goes above your director.

Explore other reviews about Optum

5.0
Jun 15, 2026
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

great management, work life balance, atmosphere

Cons

no cons, very satisfied with my employment.

3.0
Jun 4, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Some very talented people give so much of themselves to the company, the clients and their co-workers. I work with (and have worked with) some excellent, smart, supportive people.

Cons

Too many layoffs. Upper management is clueless about how the day to day work gets done, what it takes to make certain changes to processes, and how to treat employees. Some are great. Mostly, they just look at numbers. So many of us have been doing our jobs long enough to know what is needed for certain requests. But we don't get a voice. We just have to do it and suck it up. They are firing ('reduction in force') all of the seasoned staff and let the rest deal with the fall-out. So many teams are losing good people but those people are training their off-shore replacements before they are told about being cut. So how is that a reduction in force? It's just a reduction in payroll numbers. Everyone is on edge just waiting for the next axe to fall. And we have to try and learn or teach another role with less experienced people and more work. It's crazy. On milestone anniversaries, they send an email recognition but once the milestone gets to over 15 years, you are a target. Pay and benefits are fine by me. Raises are practically non-existent, even after layoffs and asking employees to take on more responsibility. that's messed up. They talk about work/life balance but that doesn't trickle down to the actual workers who are so stressed they fear for their jobs if they don't do the extra mile. Many of us are just hanging on instead of quitting so we can at least get some severance. Others are actively looking.

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