Decagon
Small (~210)
Scale AI
Large (~1,200)
Best For
Decagon
Best for: Builders who want to ship AI customer support agents directly to F500 customers with technical founders deeply involved
Scale AI
Best for: Ambitious builders who want critical AI infrastructure work serving top-tier clients
Ratings
DecagonScale AI
3.9
3.5
Overall
3.7
2.7
Work-Life Balance
3.8
2.9
Culture & Values
3.2
3.5
Comp & Benefits
3.7
2.8
Senior Mgmt
3.7
3.6
Career Opps
👍 75% Recommend
👤 85% CEO Approval (Jesse Zhang)
👍 56% Recommend
👤 60% CEO Approval (Alexandr Wang)
Culture Values
Decagon only
💎 Strong Comp & Equity
Scale AI only
🌱 Learning & Growth
Shared
⚙️ Engineering-Driven🚀 Ship Fast & Iterate🎯 Direct Product Impact
Pros & Cons
Decagon
- Strong engineering-driven culture with technical founders still deeply involved
- Ship meaningful AI features to enterprise customers every week
- Intense workload and high expectations — not a typical 40-hour week
- SF-centric; most roles expect in-office presence
Scale AI
- Building critical AI data infrastructure used by OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, and the US government
- Strong compensation for engineers — competitive base + equity
- Work-life balance rated 2.7/5 — long hours common during client deadlines
- Culture and values scored 2.9/5 — inconsistent management quality
Bottom Line
Decagon
Choose Decagon if you want intense builder energy at a $4.5B Series D AI agents startup with real enterprise revenue — but expect SF office-centric culture and cash comp that trails top AI labs.
Scale AI
Choose Scale AI if you want to build data infrastructure for OpenAI and the US government — but expect long hours and inconsistent management.
Open Roles
Decagon — 95 jobs
💼 Sales / GTM
32
💻 Engineering
25
📋 Product
7
🧠 ML / AI
6
⚙️ Operations
3
⚖️ Legal
2
📣 Marketing
2
📊 Data
1
🎨 Design
1
👤 HR / People
1
Scale AI — 175 jobs
💻 Engineering
64
🧠 ML / AI
25
📋 Product
16
💼 Sales / GTM
14
⚙️ Operations
7
⚖️ Legal
5
📣 Marketing
4
📊 Data
2
💰 Finance
2
👤 HR / People
2
🎨 Design
1
🎧 Support
1
Summary
Decagon scores 3.9/5.0 on Glassdoor with a 3.7 work-life balance rating. Scale AI scores 3.5/5.0 overall with a 2.7 WLB. That’s a 0.4-point gap on overall satisfaction.
Both companies share these culture values: Engineering-Driven, Ship Fast & Iterate, Direct Product Impact. Decagon also emphasizes Strong Comp & Equity. Scale AI also emphasizes Learning & Growth.
On the hiring front, Decagon has 95 open roles and Scale AI has 175 open roles.