Innovative Science, Collaborative Culture, and Meaningful Impact - Research Associate Absci Employee Review

I've been with Absci for almost 2 years, and it genuinely stands out as one of the best jobs of my career. The culture here is unlike anything I've experienced — people are collaborative, smart, and actually care about each other's success. Leadership is transparent and the mission feels real, not just a tagline on a wall. The work itself is fascinating. Being on the operations side of a company doing cutting-edge AI-driven drug design means every day there's something new to wrap your head around. It keeps you sharp and motivated. Compensation and benefits are competitive and the company clearly values its employees. You feel like you're being taken care of. If you want to do meaningful work alongside great people at a company that's genuinely trying to change how drugs are discovered and developed, Absci is a fantastic place to build your career.

Like any growing company, things move fast and priorities can shift. The work can be all consuming and you need to be comfortable with some ambiguity — but honestly, that's part of what makes it exciting.

The top pro is great pay. It's the only thing keeping people there long term. Secondly, the company pivots so often (to their own detriment most of the time) that there is always a lot of new things to pick up and learn. For someone who's entry level, or has perhaps worked at a large corp where they specialized in one little area, this may be appealing.

So many. Most senior and middle management is clueless about people leading. My manager would invite direct reports to offer up their differing opinions only to squash them during team meetings and insist they agree with him, pretend to be joking. No real performance management because of this, with a new model being implemented each year. Because of this promotions, and increases and bonuses are inconsistent. Constant lay-offs, restructurings. At this point they must be just under 100 employees, I'd guess. As mentioned, lots of pivoting, due to bad decision-making from senior managers and Sean, the CEO. Which, as mentioned in the pro section, is great for entry level and those looking to pick up experience, but grows tiresome to watch your projects turn into nothing due to poor upper management. The company is hemorrhaging cash, just look at the financials, and every opportunity they get they dilute the shares in order to keep going just a little longer, hoping for an acquisition or some other influx of cash.