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Cadence Design Systems

Engaged employer

Decent Company Culture but Team Determines Happiness - Lead Software Engineer Cadence Design Systems Employee Review

3.0
20 Jul 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Large, stable company with resources - Encouragement to participate in company-wide events such as hackathons and volunteer events - Some teams can emulate start-up culture with research focus and fast turnaround - Good job security if you're baseline competent, no major recent layoffs - Innovation conferences and trainings held for education - Listed as Top 50 Best Place To Work

Cons

- Lots of legacy software with extremely poor or no documentation, especially from acquisitions - Often re-inventing the wheel because there is little inter-team communication or design standard across the company. You'll find software written in almost every language, sometimes the same functionality across codebases. Each team almost feels like its own company, which makes sense given the acquisitions - Bureaucracy often stifles development time and design decisions - Many people in leadership positions do not seem to understand the product(s) they work on, either because they were outside hires or don't have enough technical experience - Questionable decisions made by VP-level leadership, often at the detriment of the products they affect - Feels like the company would rather rest on its laurels than innovate. They spend more money on marketing and sales than engineering -- which by itself wouldn't be an issue if they were clearly a front runner but they aren't even #1 in the EDA sector.

Explore other reviews about Cadence Design Systems

5.0
31 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Small office with nice space

Cons

Less pay not too low

4.0
11 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The office culture and work ethics are onpar with other companies.

Cons

The Office HQ in Santa Fe is really worse, like the city is no fun at all.

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