Top technology and engineering culture - Senior Software Engineer Tapad Employee Review

4.0
29 Jun 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- It is the place to be for working with data engineering and state of the art technology related to it, especially in Oslo. Colleagues who really know their game, especially Scala, functional programming, BigQuery and cutting edge GCP offerings, have high technical competence, are super open to share knowledge and grow together, and value high quality and tested code. Learning, learning, all the time! - Lots of focus time for engineers, few meetings. Engineering culture is valued and the engineers' opinions are respected and sought after. The sales and product teams are also highly competent and independent, so engineers can dedicate time to what they're good at. - Most folks are patient and understand that a complex tech stack has a steep learning curve, and are super helpful and not judgemental of new hires as they take time to learn all of it. It is also very international and inclusive, I feel everybody is accepted without questions or buts. - Really good salary + bonus - Hybrid work and no pressure to be in the office - Our engineering managers in Oslo are awesome and truly care about the people that report to them. All engineering managers are technical people and understand what you are working on. - It is agile in the real manifesto sense, not just on paper, including being open to accept some processes are flawed and iterate on replacing and improving them. There is no fear of accepting failure and throwing out something that didn't work. And it is a small company, which gives a startup feeling. - At the same time, having the back of Experian gives it the safety and stability of a large company, which is especially important in times of recession. Experian is also very welcoming, and there are several communities and diverse groups to participate in.

Cons

- Adtech is not the most purposeful mission, so it's hard to deeply care about what we build. On top of that, the market for it is unstable at the moment with a lot of changes in the landscape. - Lacks a bit of engagement and fun. Slack is a bit dead sometimes, people don't use public channels much. The downside of engineers being so laser-focused on technology and independent of sales and product is that they don't get a good understanding of business. I feel they are in love with the technology, but not full of energy into projects, perhaps due to the adtech issue. I would love to see more excitement. - The Experian acquisition caused a big culture clash (nimble high tech company vs huge corporation full of processes and legacy tech) which is still being worked out by both, sometimes not in the best way. Many small issues with equipment, VPNs, and processes. Some people are reacting quite poorly to the changes, causing an uncomfortable atmosphere. - Many talented people have left recently, including the CTO. I guess in great part due to the acquisition issues. But this can be positive, I feel the company has a chance to review and reinvent some of its pillars with that. - Working between NYC and Oslo is sometimes a challenge, but can be overcome with good will - Executive leadership is a bit detached. I expected them to be more present given it's a small company. This possibly contributes to the lack of engagement issue.

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Tapad Response
3y
Thank you for this detailed feedback, I think this is very helpful information in terms of what does make Tapad great, some of the value that Experian adds, and challenges we are still overcoming. Rest assured we are working with our Experian counterparts to resolve some of these issues you mentioned with the transition/acquisition, and will continue to focus on our engagement and culture, especially for remote teammates. We are proud to say that we improved our ranking from 14th (2021) to 8th Best Place to Work in NYC this year, even with some growing pains and improvements still to be made!

Explore other reviews about Tapad

5.0
7 Oct 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The culture was progressive and healthy

Cons

none i can remember so far

3.0
11 Apr 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Good WLB - Cool people - Fully remote - Decent benefits

Cons

- No longer tech forward - Much increased bureaucracy as of recently

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