Senior Leadership is out to Lunch - Software Engineer Shopify Employee Review

2.0
May 9, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Great/close colleagues. - Interesting projects to work on. - Great learning resources and opportunities. - Good WLB, depending on where you are in the organization.

Cons

- The company is run by a CEO that changes his mind on a whim with little to no pushback from people directly under him. Case-and-point, he acquires a fulfillment company for 2.1 billion dollars, only to sell it for 1.1 billion dollars 10 months later. This is not an example of sane or prudent decision making. I understand that successful acquisitions are rare but I've never seen an acquisition given up on or resold less than a year later. Such whimsical decision making does not happen with people who know how to run companies. - Senior leadership outright lies. Case-and-point, in Feb 2023, the president of Shopify states that no more layoffs will happen. Then 3 months later a 20% layoff occurs. Even the most senior leaders of a company cannot guarantee, under all circumstances, that layoffs will not occur. So don't bother saying that they won't occur in major business news publications. This is an example of why you shouldn't take what leadership says at face value. - Depending on where you are in the organization, you may find yourself on project where you have to deliver features, quality be damned. You may or may not be okay with this approach to software development. - Internal processes and communication tools change with no realized benefit. On the contrary, there have been net negative benefits of some changes. - Attempts at fostering a trusting culture are laughable.

Explore other reviews about Shopify

5.0
May 29, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Very collaborative, even across team boundaries - Very healthy work-life balance culture - Lots of room to grow, explore, and be impactful - Remote-friendly - Fun

Cons

- Seeks constant growth and visibility, which can be difficult to achieve depending on the circumstances - Internal documentation can be hit-or-miss - One of Shopify's tenets is "thrive on change" and so there can be a lot of change (org restructures, project scope, etc.)

2.0
Mar 31, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The work itself is genuinely exciting. Shopify is doing cutting-edge work in AI search visibility and GEO that very few companies are touching at this scale. The tooling is excellent, the problems are interesting, and the peers are talented, collaborative, and generous with their time. If you're passionate about where search is heading, the craft-level work here is hard to beat.

Cons

The management experience on the Growth Marketing / SEO team did not match the quality of the work. Feedback was inconsistent (positive in meetings, critical in private messages) which made it difficult to know where you actually stood. Issues that were never flagged in real time were later consolidated into a formal performance document, which felt predetermined rather than developmental. When I raised concerns professionally about the communication dynamic, the relationship shifted noticeably. I've spoken to others who experienced a similar pattern on this team. The culture says it values direct feedback, but in practice, giving feedback upward was treated very differently than receiving it.

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