Adyen
Large (~4,770)
Perplexity AI
Mid (~500)
Best For
Adyen
Best for: Payments and backend engineers who value a no-nonsense engineering-first culture with above-average WLB and the challenge of processing global financial transactions at massive scale
Perplexity AI
Best for: Builders who thrive on speed and want massive user-facing impact at a rocketship
Ratings
AdyenPerplexity AI
3.8
4.7
Overall
4.1
3.3
Work-Life Balance
3.9
4.8
Culture & Values
3.8
4.5
Comp & Benefits
3.6
4.5
Senior Mgmt
3.6
4.2
Career Opps
👍 76% Recommend
👤 80% CEO Approval (Ingo Uytdehaage)
👍 92% Recommend
👤 95% CEO Approval (Aravind Srinivas)
Culture Values
Adyen only
⚖️ Work-Life Balance
Perplexity AI only
💎 Strong Comp & Equity
Shared
⚙️ Engineering-Driven🚀 Ship Fast & Iterate🎯 Direct Product Impact🌱 Learning & Growth
Pros & Cons
Adyen
- Smart, humble colleagues with high standards and a market-leading payments product
- Good work-life balance with trust-based culture, free lunch, and international team trips
- Below-market compensation (~20% less than peers) with poor stock options
- Middle management quality issues as company scaled — inexperienced managers and internal politics
Perplexity AI
- Fastest-growing AI product — real users, real revenue, genuine product-market fit
- Small team, massive impact per engineer — your work ships to millions quickly
- Startup intensity — expect long hours and high expectations
- Growing pains as the team scales — roles and responsibilities shift frequently
Bottom Line
Adyen
Adyen's engineering culture is well-regarded in fintech — principled, WLB-conscious (4.1/5), and technically rigorous — but expect a methodical Amsterdam-centric culture rather than a high-growth startup vibe.
Perplexity AI
Choose Perplexity if you want the fastest-growing AI product and huge per-engineer impact — but expect startup intensity.
Open Roles
Adyen — 279 jobs
💻 Engineering
80
💼 Sales / GTM
65
⚖️ Legal
19
💰 Finance
14
⚙️ Operations
12
📋 Product
12
👤 HR / People
11
📊 Data
10
🎨 Design
5
📣 Marketing
2
🧠 ML / AI
2
Perplexity AI — 74 jobs
💻 Engineering
37
🧠 ML / AI
8
📊 Data
5
⚖️ Legal
4
📣 Marketing
3
⚙️ Operations
3
💼 Sales / GTM
2
🎧 Support
2
👤 HR / People
1
📋 Product
1
Summary
Adyen scores 3.8/5.0 on Glassdoor with a 4.1 work-life balance rating. Perplexity AI scores 4.7/5.0 overall with a 3.3 WLB. That’s a 0.9-point gap on overall satisfaction.
Both companies share these culture values: Engineering-Driven, Ship Fast & Iterate, Direct Product Impact, Learning & Growth. Adyen also emphasizes Work-Life Balance. Perplexity AI also emphasizes Strong Comp & Equity.
On the hiring front, Adyen has 279 open roles and Perplexity AI has 74 open roles.