TerraPower Reviews

2.7

40% would recommend to a friend

(42 total reviews)

Chris Levesque

63% approve of CEO

31% positive business outlook

TerraPower has an employee rating of 2.7 out of 5 stars, based on 42 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The TerraPower employee rating is 26% below average for employers within the Energy, mining, utilities industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

42 reviews
1.0
13 Dec 2017

Unhealthy, Dysfunctional Company

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

TerraPower compensates very well, the mission of the company is interesting, and the office has a relatively collegial, casual atmosphere.

Cons

The "engineer" review already posted here hits the nail on the head. Management at this company is really horrible. They are making bad decisions for the company, behave unethically, and are not at all focused on taking care of employees. Politics in the office are incredibly unhealthy - gossip, backstabbing between projects and groups, support staff being treated with disrespect, etc. A few individuals in management are allowed to do whatever they want at the expense of the best interests of the company and others. There are almost no women in technical disciplines, and those who are hired quickly leave because conscious and unconscious bias from several key decision-makers eliminates any chances they would otherwise have of a healthy, successful career. The company is not prioritizing work well, and this creates a feeling of constant chaos at the working level. They are building incredibly complex schedules for their projects that have far more detail in them than what's warranted for where they are in their R&D design cycle; and those schedules end up being really wrong, so they re-do them repeatedly. It's incredibly taxing on the engineers and a waste of time. The CEO is completely absent from the company, and the President is not at all trusted by employees. Employee morale is incredibly low, and in most cases the only reason more employees have not left yet is they either really want to be a nuclear engineer in Seattle (and this is the only game in town) or they are paid well enough that they really struggle to give up the big paycheck.

2.0
5 Mar 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Decent pay. High priority on safety. Majority of co-workers are brilliant and fantastic people to work with. Work is rewarding and purposeful. Lots of opportunity to gain new skills and experience. Decent benefits with good 401K match and HSA contribution from the company. Company provided safety shoes, prescription safety glasses, and other benefits. Very difficult to get fired.

Cons

Management likes to setup an absurd amount of mandatory meetings that are usually lacking of agenda/content and take up very large chunks of your day, which makes it very difficult to perform any work if you are in a technical position or in the lab. Management is lacking, especially if you work in the lab (managers rarely make an appearance) . Egotistical battles fought in almost every meeting. Multiple levels of management willing to slow roll if they do not get their way. No clear direction or communication of expectations or changes. Large fraction of management is disconnected from the projects which causes major confusion. Miscommunication is rampant based on poor understanding of the processes they oversee. Technical/lab staff forced to follow arbitrary rules with no logical backing. Takes ungodly amount of time to change policy even with industry guidance and empirical evidence. Pay and title are not merit based. Will delay your career just to hit arbitrary requirements that are outdated. Management and HR constantly weaponize “guiding principles” against employees, this will effect your bottom line. Poor performers are “failed up” which inflates their perceived authority. Majority of company works from home but the company does not offer incentive for technical based roles that are forced to be in office. Corrective action program is primarily used to document people’s mistakes and rarely used to correct or improve processes. Professional opinion and empirical data is ignored or pushed under the rug in favor of “good looking” engineering drawings and documents. This causes multiple months of delays for re-work after obvious signs of failure. If you make a suggestion and do not hold a PhD, you will be ignored. Anyone with less than a PhD is steamrolled in meetings or excluded from decision making process. There are no repercussions for poor performance, wasting money, or repeated mistakes. Many people are not willing to admit mistakes or take responsibility.

2.0
28 Aug 2016

engineer

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

great long term company vision, cool stuff to work on, more bold and innovation than most engineering firm, casual office feel, very smart people

Cons

extremely negative politics among employees with oversized ego, ego battles, tearing down coworker instead of building them up, vast unequal pay not based on merit, lots of gossip even for small company, schedule and design decision chaos, no diversity (almost zero female engineer), poor management of talent

Viewing 1 - 3 of 42 Reviews

Glassdoor has 60 TerraPower reviews submitted anonymously by TerraPower employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if TerraPower is right for you.