Great company going through growing pains - Software Engineering Lead Kraken Employee Review

4.0
Nov 5, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Very software engineering led, great for engineers - Huge opportunity for ownership - Lots of autonomy - Working on exciting problems in energy, perhaps one of the only companies it's possible to work on some of these problems at - The parent company, Octopus Energy Group, has been incredibly successful in a short space of time so there's a real feeling of momentum and growth

Cons

- Poor approach to pay, lack of transparency on bandings, below market rate pay & compensation, lack of clear progression, etc. - Processes stuck in a startup mentality which are struggling to scale to the size Kraken has become - No real HR, so this responsibility falls on managers; for an employee this can be great if your managers good, terrible if they're bad - Poor communication between senior management and the rest of the org which has gotten worse as the org has grown in size

Explore other reviews about Kraken

5.0
Jun 8, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Amazing work environment and people

Cons

fast growing so sometimes dissorganized

5.0
Dec 12, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Newhire here, extremely glad to have landed at Kraken. The company is genuinely driven by a desire to deliver the transition to a sustainable energy future. Does an amazing job of making employees genuinely empowered and accountable, in a blameless and humane setting, which gives people the authority to make themselves productive. Normally I'd consider that to be a Silicon Valley thing, but here at Kraken this has a bit of a British spin on it, being the company's history derives from the UK's Octopus Energy. The resulting mix slices through corporate politics with real talk and joviality. I just got out of one genuinely hilarious and inspirational optional all-hands which left others commenting "OMG It's my first week, does this happen every Friday???" In my department, clients (such as electrical utilities) love the way we're revolutionizing their businesses, including the way they treat their call center staff, humanizing them to become wide-ranging, informed and empowered problem solvers on behalf of their customers, instead of helpless automatons following scripts. Elsewhere, Kraken has tentacles in all kinds of sustainable tech, from sustainable generation, huge demand-flattening battery installations, domestic EV chargers, and smart meters. Business is booming, growth is spectacular, and huge markets still exist for the taking...

Cons

I'm a programmer. We have a big codebase. There is some tech debt. But show me a 2,000 person high growth company for which that isn't true. Everyone has a very sane attitude towards it. Not a biggie.

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