Databricks

Data + AI Platform — Creators of Apache Spark & the Lakehouse

The consensus on Databricks: Choose Databricks if you want elite data infrastructure work with strong equity — but brace for constant org changes.

2013
Founded
San Francisco
Headquarters
~7,000
Employees
~$62B
Valuation
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Culture Overview

Built by the people who created Spark

Databricks was founded in 2013 by the original creators of Apache Spark, Delta Lake, and MLflow. That engineering-first DNA runs deep. With a $62B valuation and roughly 7,000 employees, Databricks has grown into the undisputed leader of the data lakehouse category. The culture balances startup intensity with the resources of a late-stage giant — internal tech talks, generous learning budgets, and a genuine belief that engineers should drive product decisions.

Glassdoor Ratings

Databricks Glassdoor Ratings & Employee Reviews

4.1
Overall Glassdoor Score
Based on 1,200 reviews
Culture & Values 4.0
Work-Life Balance 3.9
Compensation & Benefits 4.3
Career Opportunities 3.9
Senior Management 3.8
Overall Rating 4.1
82% Recommend to a Friend
88% CEO Approval
Employee Review Themes

Working at Databricks: Pros & Cons

What employees love

  • Engineers who built Spark, Delta Lake, MLflow — deep technical pedigree across the org
  • Strong compensation and equity packages that are consistently above market
  • Genuine learning culture with internal tech talks, knowledge sharing, and learning budgets
  • Data lakehouse category leader — working on infrastructure that defines the industry

What could be better

  • Hypergrowth means org changes are constant — teams restructure frequently
  • Some legacy Spark-era tech debt that can slow down new feature development
  • Some large-company dynamics are emerging as the org scales past 7,000 employees
  • Work-life balance varies heavily by team — some teams are intense, others are chill
Engineering Culture

How the engineering team works

Tech Stack

Scala Python Go Rust

Open Source & Research

Apache Spark Delta Lake MLflow

AI / ML

Mosaic AI (acquired 2023) — integrating foundation model capabilities into the Databricks platform.

Team Structure

Engineering-first culture where founders built the core tech. Small teams with high ownership, operating at massive scale.

Open Positions

Join the Databricks team

... open positions.

Community Sentiment

What the community says about Databricks

Mostly Positive 5 mentions from Hacker News & Reddit · Updated 2026-04-17
“BIT Capital | Principal Engineer (Data & Platform) | Berlin, Germany | ONSITE (2 days/week) | Full-timeLooking for experienced engineers to build and scale infrastructure and data platforms for a Berlin asset management fund.”
Hacker News dipshady · 2026-04-01 View thread →
“I've worked at a number of non-tech companies the past few years. They bought every SaaS product, Palantir, Databricks, multi-cloud, their dev teams adopted every pattern popularized by big tech and the results were always mixed.”
Hacker News mgrat · 2025-12-30 View thread →
“we have databricks at my company 50m ARR, 150 employee thats still growing at 15% YoY. With 0 full time Data Engineer (1 data scientist + 1 db admin both co-manage everything on there as part-time jobs. They have their full-time role).”
Hacker News naijaboiler · 2025-08-21 View thread →
“we have databricks at my company 50m ARR, 150 employee thats still growing at 15% YoY.. With 0 full time Data Engineer (1 data scientist + 1 db admin manages everything on there as part time jobs).”
Hacker News naijaboiler · 2025-08-21 View thread →

Sentiment data refreshed daily from public Hacker News and Reddit discussions. See all company profiles →

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