Native Instruments Reviews

NI has the resources, attitude, and headcount of a start up but the structure and management style of a much larger company. The result is a lot of process, bloated management structures, wasted time in meetings, and fewer resources to do tangible work. There's a strange culture of positive confirmation and back-slapping that distracts from the actual challenges faced in the company. I am not sure this will change. Top-down strategy changes on an annual basis and has done for years. The market is changing, but senior leaders should be able to make 5-year calls with confidence. (This has improved with the current senior team in-post much longer than their predecessors) Career progression is almost non-existent, and pay is lagging. Initiatives to map this out are taking YEARS. Lots of residual resentment from previous years of instability. Slowly ebbing but remains. NI previously had a start-up culture paired with German job security. It has shifted (for better or worse) to a US-style company, backed by PE, and with the pressures that come with that. This is important to understand when working there.

The situation has been going from bad to worse over the last few years, a quick glance at other reviews should be self-explanatory. No vision, no transparency, not even an understanding of the products that made the company great in its heydays at the management level.