Lambda
Mid (~500)
Poolside
Small (~150)
Best For
Lambda
Best for: Professionals interested in Lambda
Poolside
Best for: AI researchers who want frontier code generation work with genuine remote flexibility and Paris offsites
Ratings
LambdaPoolside
3.6
3.8
Overall
3.7
3.5
Work-Life Balance
3.7
3.9
Culture & Values
3.6
3.8
Comp & Benefits
3.4
3.6
Senior Mgmt
3.4
3.6
Career Opps
👍 72% Recommend
👤 76% CEO Approval (CEO)
👍 76% Recommend
👤 80% CEO Approval (Jason Warner)
Culture Values
Lambda only
🚀 Ship Fast & Iterate💎 Strong Comp & Equity🎯 Direct Product Impact
Poolside only
🌐 Remote-Friendly🤝 Flat Hierarchy🧩 Wears Many Hats🌱 Learning & Growth
Shared
⚙️ Engineering-Driven
Pros & Cons
Lambda
- Building the GPU cloud that powers the world’s top AI labs — genuinely impactful infrastructure
- Smart engineering team with strong technical culture and good WLB on most teams
- Management style described as top-down; strategy clarity could be better
- Internal politics and coordination overhead slow things down for some teams
Poolside
- Remote-first with monthly Paris gatherings
- Cutting-edge code generation research
- Early-stage with limited structure
- Comp may trail larger AI labs
Bottom Line
Lambda
Lambda — check Glassdoor for detailed reviews.
Poolside
Choose Poolside if you want cutting-edge code AI research on a remote-first flat team (ex-GitHub CTO leadership) — but expect early-stage ambiguity and comp that trails the larger AI labs.
Open Roles
Lambda — 32 jobs
💻 Engineering
14
💰 Finance
6
📋 Product
4
👤 HR / People
2
⚖️ Legal
1
Poolside — 12 jobs
💻 Engineering
9
📊 Data
2
🧠 ML / AI
1
Summary
Lambda scores 3.6/5.0 on Glassdoor with a 3.7 work-life balance rating. Poolside scores 3.8/5.0 overall with a 3.5 WLB. That’s a 0.2-point gap on overall satisfaction.
Both companies share these culture values: Engineering-Driven. Lambda also emphasizes Ship Fast & Iterate, Strong Comp & Equity, Direct Product Impact. Poolside also emphasizes Remote-Friendly, Flat Hierarchy, Wears Many Hats, Learning & Growth.
On the hiring front, Lambda has 32 open roles and Poolside has 12 open roles.