What is the salary like at Protolabs?

I think this is a great place to work. Good people to work with. I am lucky to have a great leader and have had for a few years. Flexible work environment. We work together well. I think salary is good, but if you combine it with the flexible work environment, the leadership, and the other benefits, this place is hard to beat.

We have old systems that don't talk to each other. It's known and it will take time to fix/improve. Not terrible, and can be worked around.

Hybrid work / flexible time off

Pay is terrible, culture is nonexistent, unrealistic goals/ targets

- Flexible schedule if you’re fully remote - My direct manager is great - So many coworkers are wonderful to work with

TL;DR - the main issues come down to poor pay and the eroding culture. - I came from Hubs where the culture was the healthiest out of all the companies I’ve ever worked for. Since we’ve integrated with Protolabs the culture has completely eroded. This is mainly due to a lack of trust. The PL Executive Leadership Team (ELT) thinks that scheduling pizza parties will fix the culture, but they seemingly don’t understand that trust must be established again before the culture can improve. - Speaking of trust, I no longer trust anyone on the ELT, nor HR. We have given feedback countless times, through the proper channels, and yet the ELT and HR refuse to actually acknowledge our concerns. They want us to keep bringing our honest feedback and yet they have fired some people in retaliation when speaking up. ELT also refuses to address the elephant in the room regarding commission/pay and how unfair it is. If they truly cared, they would respond to these reviews by admitting there are legitimate issues and how they are working to address them instead of providing the boilerplate response to each one, which I’m sure they’ll do even for this review. - Commission / pay structure is unfair. Even at Hubs the base pay wasn’t the greatest but the commission structure was very generous and you could earn a lot if you hit / exceeded your targets. In other words, it actually rewarded top performers. But that is no longer the case. You are no longer rewarded for consistently hitting targets, but rather taken advantage of by them demanding more from you and paying you less. For example, I was one of the top salespeople last year and was paid well for it through commission and bonuses. But this year, my target was increased by well over 200%. I now have one of the highest quotas in the entire company, but was I offered the chance to be promoted to Strategic Account Manager (SAM)? No. Was my base pay adjusted accordingly despite now having a higher target than most of the SAMs? No. More importantly, aside from base, the commission plan doesn’t help you make up for it. Another example: in Q1 of this year I not only hit target but it was my best quarter ever by hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, Protolabs paid me literally over $20k less in Q1 under the new commission structure when compared to our previous structure, all else being equal. Even if I hit my target this year, PL will literally pay me $75k less for the year than if I had the exact same target and sales under our previous commission structure. This is how PL treats their best salespeople. There is no winning here. - For Employee Appreciation Day they gave us Maruchan ramen noodles. I wish I was kidding. - We used to have quarterly trips to Chicago for training and team building. Those are some of my favorite work memories of my entire career. Not only was it a great way for the remote people to feel connected, but the training was always effective and helpful. But the ELT no longer sees those as worthwhile, so those trips don’t happen anymore. I now feel more disconnected from my teammates and the company than I ever have. - The sales data is a mess. This is critical because this is how the sales people are paid out on commission and bonuses. Even ELT does not fully know how bad the issue is. The overall sales numbers are accurate, which is all that matters to them. However, even a miscalculation being $1 off can literally underpay a salesperson thousands of dollars. We don’t have a way of knowing if our sales numbers are correct or not. It is now mid-June and it still is not fixed. - At the beginning of the year our sales targets were increased four times. The fourth time was accidentally discovered by one of our salespeople. When brought up to the ELT they basically said, “oops, sorry.” Was our base pay adjusted accordingly even though some salespeople had their annual target increased by hundreds of thousands of dollars without any formal communication or revised compensation agreement? No. - Mid-level managers have brought up these issues multiple times and yet the ELT refuses to address these things. They say they care, but their actions, or inactions, have spoken louder. And as a result, many sales people, even some of our best, have recently left. Advice to prospects: - If you are interested in applying for a job here - don’t. Even if you crush your targets they’ll only take advantage of you the next year and pay you less despite bringing in much more revenue. - If you have received a job offer from here - turn it down. - If you already work here - well, you’re probably looking for other jobs already. I have spoken with many individuals on multiple teams here and literally every single one I’ve spoken to is currently looking for a new job.

- Flexible schedule if you’re fully remote - My direct manager is great - So many coworkers are wonderful to work with

TL;DR - the main issues come down to poor pay and the eroding culture. - I came from Hubs where the culture was the healthiest out of all the companies I’ve ever worked for. Since we’ve integrated with Protolabs the culture has completely eroded. This is mainly due to a lack of trust. The PL Executive Leadership Team (ELT) thinks that scheduling pizza parties will fix the culture, but they seemingly don’t understand that trust must be established again before the culture can improve. - Speaking of trust, I no longer trust anyone on the ELT, nor HR. We have given feedback countless times, through the proper channels, and yet the ELT and HR refuse to actually acknowledge our concerns. They want us to keep bringing our honest feedback and yet they have fired some people in retaliation when speaking up. ELT also refuses to address the elephant in the room regarding commission/pay and how unfair it is. If they truly cared, they would respond to these reviews by admitting there are legitimate issues and how they are working to address them instead of providing the boilerplate response to each one, which I’m sure they’ll do even for this review. - Commission / pay structure is unfair. Even at Hubs the base pay wasn’t the greatest but the commission structure was very generous and you could earn a lot if you hit / exceeded your targets. In other words, it actually rewarded top performers. But that is no longer the case. You are no longer rewarded for consistently hitting targets, but rather taken advantage of by them demanding more from you and paying you less. For example, I was one of the top salespeople last year and was paid well for it through commission and bonuses. But this year, my target was increased by well over 200%. I now have one of the highest quotas in the entire company, but was I offered the chance to be promoted to Strategic Account Manager (SAM)? No. Was my base pay adjusted accordingly despite now having a higher target than most of the SAMs? No. More importantly, aside from base, the commission plan doesn’t help you make up for it. Another example: in Q1 of this year I not only hit target but it was my best quarter ever by hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, Protolabs paid me literally over $20k less in Q1 under the new commission structure when compared to our previous structure, all else being equal. Even if I hit my target this year, PL will literally pay me $75k less for the year than if I had the exact same target and sales under our previous commission structure. This is how PL treats their best salespeople. There is no winning here. - For Employee Appreciation Day they gave us Maruchan ramen noodles. I wish I was kidding. - We used to have quarterly trips to Chicago for training and team building. Those are some of my favorite work memories of my entire career. Not only was it a great way for the remote people to feel connected, but the training was always effective and helpful. But the ELT no longer sees those as worthwhile, so those trips don’t happen anymore. I now feel more disconnected from my teammates and the company than I ever have. - The sales data is a mess. This is critical because this is how the sales people are paid out on commission and bonuses. Even ELT does not fully know how bad the issue is. The overall sales numbers are accurate, which is all that matters to them. However, even a miscalculation being $1 off can literally underpay a salesperson thousands of dollars. We don’t have a way of knowing if our sales numbers are correct or not. It is now mid-June and it still is not fixed. - At the beginning of the year our sales targets were increased four times. The fourth time was accidentally discovered by one of our salespeople. When brought up to the ELT they basically said, “oops, sorry.” Was our base pay adjusted accordingly even though some salespeople had their annual target increased by hundreds of thousands of dollars without any formal communication or revised compensation agreement? No. - Mid-level managers have brought up these issues multiple times and yet the ELT refuses to address these things. They say they care, but their actions, or inactions, have spoken louder. And as a result, many sales people, even some of our best, have recently left. Advice to prospects: - If you are interested in applying for a job here - don’t. Even if you crush your targets they’ll only take advantage of you the next year and pay you less despite bringing in much more revenue. - If you have received a job offer from here - turn it down. - If you already work here - well, you’re probably looking for other jobs already. I have spoken with many individuals on multiple teams here and literally every single one I’ve spoken to is currently looking for a new job.

Great manager, no micro management Flexible work schedule Fun team

The pay is not as competitive as it could be

Great pay. The team I was on was great. (miss you guys) Working form home was perfect while it lasted.

Just really disappointing over the last two years. Management made terrible unnecessary changes. Forcing us back in the office was the start of the negative trend. For non-reasons like "culture" and "cohesion". When I inquired about going to other department meetings to get detailed information from huddles I was met with a question as to why? I responded with: "To get detailed information, meet the people I work with, build culture, etc". I never got a response to this... So we were effectively forced back in the office to sit, work, and have zero in-person meetings or collaborations with other teams. Personally I don't see how that improved "culture" and "cohesion"... No-one is happy about this. Team morale was at an all-time low last I was there. We were being treated really poorly by management at the end of 2025. We referred to work as "middle school". Wondering when the next micro-manager rules would be forced on us next. Or who would be written-up first for "being on their phone too long"... Applied to several other internal positions with no luck. Despite Sales saying we've hit record high numbers more people have been let go after I was. The Google AI overview says it's from restructuring. The job was extremely strict on mistakes. It was like walking a tight-rope in fear everyday. The main reason for this is the disciplinary system was not updated with 2.0. If you like management breathing down your neck everyday, no freedoms or culture, and praying you didn't make any mistakes then this is the job for you.

Great benefits. Good pay. Laid back atmosphere.

They are a little too laid back. Lots of talking among employees instead of working

Good employees with learning opportunities

Pay wasn't great at the time

The company is a recognized leader in its product segment and provides a unique, highly valuable service to its customers. Its core product and technical capabilities remain best-in-class. Many frontline employees are talented, dedicated, and genuinely care about the mission.

Upper management in MN is destroying employee morale, creating toxic environment of mistrust and retaliation. Here is a non-exhaustive list of some examples: - Retaliation. While the company invests in leadership and review training for managers, in practice, honest feedback is not welcomed. In my experience, offering constructive feedback to an upper-level manager resulted in clear retaliation, which was neither subtle nor addressed by HR. While technically not illegal, this behavior is directly at odds with the company’s stated values. My case was not isolated. - Mistrust. After acquiring Hubs/Network, leadership promised to preserve its innovative and collaborative culture. Instead, that culture has been eroded. Many employees with deep institutional knowledge were laid off without proper knowledge transfer, creating long-term risks for the business. Others were given significant additional responsibilities without corresponding pay adjustments. Employees who devoted years to building the business have been let go abruptly, with little foresight or appreciation. - Economics & Morale. Company’s growth has been stagnant. To change that company is laying off long term valuable employees and gifting plastic bowls with a packet of Ramen noodles on employee appreciation day. True story. Much was said in the previous reviews about the noodles as well as about the notoriously low pay across all sectors of the compony compared to the market. The only ones who are compensated fairly are senior executives and HR. Director of HR is compensated 40-50% more than directors of other departments. 
Speaking of the senior management, while I cannot speak for all, some are arrogant and unapproachable, while some are incompetent in the areas where they should be competent. Example: Company procured a software solution from a vendor at a cost of $240k. The only problem was that there was absolutely no need in this software/solution and, moreover, internal GTS team did not even have the bandwidth to implement it. Company continued to pay for nothing, all while the most employees could hope for is a 3% annual raise max…and a packet of Ramen noodles.

• Remote work options based in a few select states • Company swag (shirts, hoodies) are higher quality than most • Micromanagement does not seem to be a common problem • Decent gig if you're management • Some DEI initiatives (see below) • Great coworkers (excluding HR/management)

• Management can be petty, vengeful, and ineffective. • Turnover is high, which is telling in the current market • In my 10 years of professional experience this company has the most sociopathic over-policing and out of touch HR group I've ever witnessed. At any company I have low expectations for HR, but this group still fell short. • Decisions impacting employees are often made without sufficient understanding or effort to learn. • Abysmal communication from leadership, but it doesn't matter since they will not take your feedback anyway. • Some sales managers seem to be completely unaware of anything, don't know how to help with any of my problems and are not willing to try. • Low salaries across the organization and sales commission structure that works against sales people. Some coworkers have received promotions yet earn less after promotion. • Questionable practice of adjusting sales targets on a whim, directly affecting comission payouts since sellers must meet a threshold to be eligible. • While DEI is promoted, support for neurodivergent staff is absent, upper leadership and HR shows little understanding in this area • Engineering teams have appalling salaries for the work they do. New hires are trying but lack acumen gained from on the job experience -> lost sales -> missing targets -> lost comission. • The company does not value you, they will never counteroffer or respond to a request for a raise. They'll let you walk instead and will backfill your spot with a lowballed college grad. • Many key knowledgeable staff were laid off or no attempt was made to retain staff that quit, creating operational struggles for those remaining • Protolabs crushes every company they buy. They do not take time to understand why companies they purchase have excellent growth (compared to their approximately 0% growth). They learn nothing from acquisitions. • Raises are fractions of a percent higher than COLA, but Protolabs does not have COLA. • The plan to combat poor culture and morale created by management and HR is pizza parties, pancake parties, and ramen packets. • I'm not kidding, this is a large multinational publicly traded company that gives ramen and pizza parties to try and fix their problems. • From the bottom of my heart I would not recommend Protolabs unless you have a dire need to put food on the table. I do not know employees outside HR or management who are satisfied with their jobs. I am ashamed of this company that I tried to like.