Not what it used to be - Anonymous employee Embark Veterinary Employee Review

Embark is an incredible place to work! You get to dive into a variety of projects, and the team is extremely tight-knit, fostering real opportunities for growth. Your voice is heard, and people genuinely value new ideas. Everyone is hardworking, open-minded, and excited to take on challenges—it truly feels like a family (or a dog pack!). The perks of working for a dog-focused company speak for themselves—who doesn’t love dogs? Plus, the benefits are excellent, with great healthcare, work-from-home flexibility, and an office in Boston for those who prefer in-person collaboration.

The office space is on the smaller side, but with the shift toward remote work, it’s been a smart and natural transition. The previous larger space wasn’t necessary for how the company operates now.

The employees (outside of the executive team) are fantastic. A genuinely dedicated, smart, and pet-loving group. Flexible hours and remote support, outside of management-level business meetings. Every other Friday off during the summer. Unlimited PTO that actually works as intended (not a trap). Supportive managers overall, with a strong track record of inclusivity for gender-nonconforming employees. A steady stream of dog photos brightens the workday. Within individual teams, culture can be strong. If you keep your head down and focus only on your group’s work, you can carve out a stable, comfortable role.

Past employees have captured the issues best: “You can earn an MBA in how not to run a business by working at Embark.” “If not business meeting, why business-meeting-shaped?” Key themes: Constant reorganizations with little to no clear long-term plan. Strategy churn: middle management is asked to build multi-year roadmaps that rarely survive more than a few months before being scrapped. Executive turnover is high, and leadership quality seems unrelated to tenure. Meeting overload — most of them low-value. Focus on protecting margins through layoffs instead of driving growth through market understanding. Know the WARN Act: layoffs are often timed to minimize notice and remain WARN compliant. Innovative revenue ideas are often deprioritized in favor of low-revenue-potential projects. Other quotes from current and former employees reflect the broader culture: "The executive team is drinking the AI Kool-Aid without even glancing at the ingredients list." “[The CEO] hires and fires leaders like he knows what he’s doing!” (CEO approval rating is below 25% at time of writing.) “We were a small company, became a big company, and then shrank back down... But somehow kept the worst traits of both??” Additional concerns: Lack of demographic diversity compared to the city it’s based in (Boston). Employees who publicly criticize executives risk being targeted in reductions-in-force. Strategy often follows fads (e.g., “we need AI”) without vision or practical understanding. Executive team lacks domain-specific expertise and regularly demonstrates this lack of understanding in the form of company strategy. The company consistently talks about a commitment to science while making decisions that undercut it. Compensation and power are concentrated at the top. Leadership appears more focused on optics and financial engineering than on sustainable growth. Finally, if you are interviewing for an AI or ML role, the individual contributors and managers you meet will generally understand the field and can speak thoughtfully about when and how to apply emerging techniques. Gaps will shows up at the executive level. If you’re applying for a leadership role, press the executives hard on their vision. Not just the what, but the how and why. Get clarity before you sign anything. Bottom line: If you want to learn about dog genetics while working with genuinely great colleagues and don’t mind executive dysfunction, you’ll thrive here. But if you’re seeking clear strategy, stable leadership, or meaningful influence on business direction, consider the warning signs shared by many who’ve left before you.