No company has a better culture and leadership team - Senior Data Engineer Health Catalyst Employee Review

5.0
10 Mar 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Health Catalyst has the best leadership of any company I have ever worked for. They live firmly by their mission statement, and believe strongly in what they are doing. Employees and colleagues are incredibly bright and great at what they do. They care deeply about their employees and try to make sure they feel heard and are happy. You will hear me complain a bit about the bonus structure in the Cons list but overall I STRONGLY recommend Health Catalyst to anyone looking for a great career, and the other incentives, although pretty similar to other surrounding Utah tech companies, are really great.

Cons

I don't feel that the bonus structure is created in a way that it is a welcome incentive to work. I am not alone in this feeling, and as the bonus is completely collective, and although leadership may disagree with the following statement, I (and many others) strongly feel completely powerless in moving the needle on the bonus in any way. I have never received a bonus of less then 100% before coming to Health Catalyst because of my strong work ethic, but since coming every quarterly bonus has been more and more disappointing. It is just a bit disheartening when you decide to join a company looking at the total "built in" compensation and I just have not been prepared to receive lower bonus compensations. And here I will make my last point, I don't understand how one of the strongest and fastest growing companies in Utah, posts a company bonus of less then 45%. This would indicate to me personally of a failing grade and that I and others are under preforming which I assure you is not the case. So, don't let this discourage your interest from Health Catalyst. It didn't work out for me, because I had the wrong expectations up front, but it can work out for you, just make sure you "total built in compensation" is salary based and put little stock in the bonus as it may be near non-existent.

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Health Catalyst Response
6y
Thank you for this thoughtful review and feedback. I'm very happy to hear of the positive elements of your experience thus far at Health Catalyst, and thank you for your kind words regarding the leadership team. I agree with you regarding the talent and dedication of our teammates, and I'm also happy to hear that the benefits are positive. I also very much appreciate your feedback regarding the bonus structure of the company. And I acknowledge that there is downside to our current bonus structure which, for many years now, has been nearly entirely focused on companywide performance. I believe there are many positives of this team-based approach to bonuses. But there are also downsides, and as we grow and mature as a company, it's important for us to be open to updating and changing "practices" while also remaining true to "principles". Over the years I've tried to think carefully about whether the team-based bonus is closer to a "principle" or a "practice", and we have debated this as a leadership team as well. In a recent 1:1 with a long-time colleague, teammate and fellow-leader at Health Catalyst, we had an interesting and reflective discussion of learnings along the way of our nearly decade-long work together at Health Catalyst. One of the learnings I shared was the realization that almost every topic and decision of significance turned out, when I really understood it, to be along a spectrum, rather than being more "digital" or clear-cut "yes" or "no" or "always" vs. "never." Navigating through where we should fall on a spectrum, with an acknowledgement of ambiguity, judgment, and decisions based on limited data, has been an experience that has repeated itself thousands of times throughout the years. And the structure of the bonus is also on this spectrum. I believe the way we approach the bonus is a practice that can and should be modified over time as our circumstances change. As we make updates to the bonus, we should also be informed by and guided by a balanced view of timeless principles. Perhaps all of this is a convoluted way of sharing with you that I'm open to and in the process of pondering, with active dialogue with our leadership team, how we might consider evolving the bonus structure over time to potentially include some individual-specific components. And I also would like to move towards a more consistent higher-percentage-of-target bonus payout over time, which is also extra challenging as our company also works towards profitability. One of the benefits of moving to an annual bonus payout cadence is that this provides us with some time and space to consider the bonus structure, and to potentially utilize some of 2020 to iterate on some ideas that can inform our structure moving forward. We'll discuss this more in depth during today's All Team Member meeting, and will keep working on this in the weeks and months ahead. I do believe there may well be a place for a portion of the bonus to be based more on items that an individual has more direct control over, with another portion remaining tied to the companywide performance. Finally, thank you for your encouragement regarding transparency. We'll try to actually increase our transparency and frequency of communication in challenging times like our current COVID-19 situation, with weekly all-team-member meetings and written updates from me every few days, in addition to encouraging all managers to conduct weekly video one-on-ones with every team member. We will make it through this and many other challenges, together, in the weeks, months and years ahead. Thank you again for choosing to join Health Catalyst! Best, Dan

Explore other reviews about Health Catalyst

5.0
23 Jan 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Supportive team environment with opportunities to work cross-functionally on meaningful healthcare initiatives. Strong focus on client impact, collaboration, and continuous learning.

Cons

Processes and roles can feel ambiguous at times, requiring employees to be comfortable navigating change and figuring things out as they go.

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Health Catalyst Response
3mo
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. I appreciate the thoughtful recognition of our collaborative culture and the meaningful work the team does together. How we work together matters just as much as what we do. Our operating principles and cultural attributes remain foundational. To address your concerns about processes and roles, as the organization evolves, we’re prioritizing clarity in these areas to better support teams. There’s real momentum building right now, and the work ahead is meaningful. I’m grateful for you and the role you play here, and I’m excited about what we’re building together.
3.0
5 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great Talent & Culture: The people here are highly capable, collaborative, and committed to helping each other succeed. The partnership between onshore and offshore teams works well and is a real strength. There’s a culture of grit and stability that has helped the company navigate multiple major transitions over the years. Mission-Critical Engineering: The work involves complex data infrastructure that requires deep technical expertise. It can be demanding, but seeing these systems run successfully and support real-world operations is consistently rewarding.

Cons

Wage Compression and Retention Risk: Compensation for tenured and high-performing staff has not kept pace with the market for specialized data engineering and support leadership. In practice, tenure can feel undervalued or even penalized. This creates risk around losing institutional knowledge and operational continuity. Stagnant Career Progression: Contrary to stated expectations, strong performance ratings do not consistently translate into meaningful, market-aligned compensation growth. The process of how compensation is benchmarked lacks clarity in practice, obscuring how compensation decisions are made and what is required to advance.

5
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