Top Tech Companies to Work For: Best Employers and Benefits

A senior software engineer has two job offers on hand and is assessing between them based on the liquid stock vs. mandatory days in the office and the high level of being on call.

Instead of relying on corporate image PR to get insight on what it is like to work for a company, this guide gives you the raw data of each employer so that you can determine where to go by looking at pay, culture and flexibility to work remotely.

What the top tech companies really think of you

Most of the career ranking lists you will find are terrible because they blend startup aspirations with established corporate reality.

The market for an established global manufacturer of hardware, an established networking company and an immature laboratory for new products is not the same. Therefore, you cannot compare them without looking first at your career stage, the type of job you have, and how much risk you, personally, are comfortable taking.

A software engineer, for example, will want something very different than a data scientist or a sales specialist. For example, the best job for a young researcher will not necessarily make sense for a parent who requires a predictable work schedule.

So be sure to check who gathered the data. Most publications take the same framework for growth, pay and culture, without disclosing the sample size and location of the surveys they conducted. They typically publish very large dollar amounts, without giving context as to whether they are cash or stock options.

For example, the Forbes list of the top companies to work for is based on surveys of more than 25,000 tech employees in the U.S., while Glassdoor's list of the best companies to work is based on the written reports of actual employees.

We look at company size, role and career stage separately. Our approach looks at trade-offs instead of reiterating each company’s brand as an employer.

How the top tech companies to work for are rated

An understanding of how each company is rated by the media will be essential. Editorial ratings should not be viewed as comparable to a large company-wide employee survey.

The best indicator of an employer's rating can be determined solely by looking at the validated rating data for that company. The validated rating information can only be obtained from a company that has verified more than 1,000 employees.

Forbes looks to measure the level of trust that employees have in management and the company environment. A website that uses a weighted editorial score system to rank employers (e.g., gitGood) examines employees’ experiences related to compensation, company culture, company growth, and employer interview processes.

Each rating method is valuable; however, they have distinct focuses.

The consensus about those so-called “great” employers is that these top tech companies to work for have a number of strong indicators (e.g., excellent salaries, widely known products, opportunities for career advancement, technical contributions to the industry) that differentiate them from other companies.

If a company does not appear on a company's ranking list, it does not mean it is not a good company to work for; it may not qualify because the company is too small to meet the survey's size criteria.

Best AI and Hardware Employers

Companies focusing on frontier technology (defined as AI and hardware) are experiencing enormous growth. Companies within the AI and hardware space are offering employees the opportunity to work on difficult but meaningful projects at an accelerated speed with a higher rate of pay.

1. NVIDIA

• Core competencies: GPUs, infrastructure for AI, data centre operations and robotics as well as accelerated computing.
• Position within the market: NVIDIA is positioned as a one-stop-shop for all employees involved in GPU technology, software and system designers as well as hardware and AI personnel.
• Target market: Individuals who are engineers in the hardware space, CUDA programmers, machine learning researchers and performance engineers.
• Compensation: As reported by compensation data, NVIDIA is considered to be one of the highest paying companies in the space among large organisations.

2. Alphabet (Google)

• Core focus: AI, and advanced cloud and internet services.
• Positioning: An employer that focuses on advanced technologies (technology-first organisation) and successfully utilises them.
• Target market: Includes, but is not limited to: software engineers, hardware engineers, AI researchers, and technology managers.
• Compensation: It depends on several things, such as your location (usually Silicon Valley), your education level, experience level, and what role you will assume when you become an employee.
• Evidence: The company has one of the highest reviews on Glassdoor; it scored #1 out of 10 for job quality (careers), work environment (culture), and pay (pay-grade).
• The trade-off: High expectations for performance (and potential)—before accepting an offer, you should determine what and how much you will be expected to achieve and how hard you will have to work.

3. Meta (Facebook)

• Core focus: Social networking, virtual reality, and digital advertising.
• Positioning: Advanced social network; uses many different technologies to connect people, including artificial intelligence (AI), data mining, e-commerce, and others.
• Target market: All professionals (including, but not limited to: web developers, data scientists, marketing professionals, and general managers).
• Compensation: Very competitive; approximate compensation averages in North America for Meta's product managers is about $120,000 (USD); pay scales vary depending on the position you hold, your geographical area, the employer or company you will be working for, and whether or not you are compensated via stock options or equity awards.
• Evidence: Rated 2nd highest on Glassdoor for pay; also rated as #1 for pay and career opportunities.
• The trade-off: Fairly high turnover rates; significant pressure to perform at a high level and produce viable products quickly (timeline); potential for political or social conflicts within the workplace environment. Determining where to work and how much you will earn requires specialized challenges.

4. Salesforce

• Core focus: Cloud services, AI applications, and connecting people to their data via their mobile devices and the internet (online).
• Positioning: A market leader in digital connectivity tools, CRM software (core technology), and data warehousing tools for businesses (core technology).
• Target market: Sales, marketing, and general business professionals; typically requires post-graduate education.
• Compensation: Highly competitive; salary will depend on the type of role you assume at Salesforce and your location.
• Evidence: Rated as #5 out of 10 highest ranked on Glassdoor for job quality, career advancement opportunities, and pay.
• The trade-off: Possibly requires you to be on call 24/7. You could be working remotely as well if the employer/employee relationship is good.

5. Microsoft

• Core focus: Digital workplace productivity applications, cloud services, and online gaming (e.g., Xbox).
• Positioning: The global industry leader in digital workplace applications.
• Target market: Generally require 4-year degree or above. Most Microsoft employees are located in a metropolitan center such as: Redmond, Washington; New York City, New York; and London, England (UK).
• Compensation: Highly competitive; expected total pay for product management and business development positions is around $130,000 (USD). In North America, average total comp for Microsoft product managers is around $150,000 (USD). Microsoft also has an employee stock option plan (ESOP), which allows employees to purchase shares of Microsoft's publicly traded company stock at a discounted price.
• Evidence: Highly rated on Glassdoor; Microsoft has been recognized as one of the top 10 employers in the USA by Fortune Magazine.
• The trade-off: If you have an interest in playing Xbox, don't expect to get paid very much.

6. Apple

• Core focus: Software and hardware development, cloud services and digital content.
• Positioning: Pioneer in mobile, digital content and cloud services.
• Target market: Individuals interested in computers, mobile phones, video games, etc. All Apple employees are typically located near or around metropolitan centers like San Francisco, California; Los Angeles, California; and Tokyo, Japan.
• Compensation: Highly competitive; average total compensation for Apple product managers is approximately $110,000 (USD) in the United States. Verified global salary data indicates that Apple has one of the highest average salaries in the USA.
• Evidence: Apple has consistently been rated as one of the top employers in the USA; rating of #1 on Glassdoor; rated #5 for pay; rated #6 for career advancement opportunities; rated #8 for job quality.
• The trade-off: Apple tends to hire employees at lower compensation levels than other technology companies; however, if you are hired at Apple, you may be able to become an owner of the company by owning shares of the company's publicly traded stock (ESOP).

7. X (formerly Twitter)

• Core focus: Business collaboration tools; mobile devices; business cloud services.
• Positioning: The leading provider of cloud-based business tools.
• Target market: Individuals interested in using collaboration tools and business technology; all X employees are located near or around metropolitan centers like Boston, Massachusetts; San Francisco, California; and New York City, New York.
• Compensation: Highly competitive; average total compensation for X product managers is approximately $120,000 (USD); X also has an employee stock option plan (ESOP), so employees may purchase shares of the company's publicly traded stock at discounted prices.
• Evidence: X has been rated as one of the best places to work in the USA; rated #12 on Glassdoor for pay; rated #13 on Glassdoor for career advancement opportunities; rated #16 on Glassdoor for job quality.
• The trade-off: X's employee stock option plan allows employees to purchase shares of X at lower prices than those who purchase shares on the open market.

8. Airbnb

• Core focus: Hospitality management and vacation rentals.
• Positioning: Leader in global home sharing and vacation rental services.
• Target market: Individuals interested in the sharing economy (home sharing), including vacation rental homeowners.
• Compensation: Highly competitive; average total compensation for Airbnb product managers is approximately $120,000 (USD); Airbnb also has an employee stock option plan (ESOP), which allows employees to purchase discounted shares of the company's publicly traded stock.
• Evidence: Airbnb rated as one of the best places to work in the USA; rated #10 on Glassdoor for pay; rated #11 on Glassdoor for career advancement opportunities; rated #13 on Glassdoor for job quality.
• The trade-off: Airbnb has a relatively high employee turnover rate and relies on its highly trained and highly qualified employees to assume significant management responsibilities as part of their ESOP.

9. Adobe

• Core focus: Digital creativity tools; cloud services; videos, graphic design.
• Positioning: A marketplace innovator in creative technologies.
• Target market: Digital artists, weekly creators, graphic designers, etc., where Adobe will employ employees in locations throughout the world.
• Compensation: Highly competitive; average total compensation for Adobe creative product managers is approximately $125,000 (USD). Adobe also has an employee stock option plan (ESOP).
• Evidence: Adobe has been consistently rated as one of the best companies to work for in the USA by Fortune Magazine; rated #4 on Glassdoor for pay; rated #5 on Glassdoor for career advancement opportunities; rated #6 on Glassdoor for job quality.
• The trade-off: Adobe has a high employee turnover rate.

10. GitHub

• Core focus: Collaboration tools; cloud services.
• Positioning: A cloud service provider.
• Target market: GitHub is used by software developers, software architects, web developers and more.
• Compensation: Highly competitive; average total compensation for GitHub developers is approximately $130,000 (USD) based on geography.
• Evidence: GitHub has been rated as a best company to work for by Fortune Magazine; gitGood has rated GitHub as #3 for compensation and salary; rated #4 for compensation and salary; rated #5 for job quality.

Largest Enterprise and Cloud Platforms

The larger enterprise platform employers offer an extensive range of technological capabilities while providing substantial resources and more predictable working environments than other types of business.

Most people that are just starting their careers will likely want to consider working at one of these top tech companies to work for to gain potential career growth through internal movement and migrating between job roles.

1. Microsoft

• Core focus: The main focus at Microsoft is cloud infrastructure, enterprise software, developer tools, gaming and artificial intelligence.
• Positioning: Microsoft is a large enterprise platform employer with a large selection of technology offerings available for their employees to work with and extensive opportunities for internal movement within the company.
• Target market: Software engineers, cloud architects, security professionals, product managers and entry-level candidates.
• Compensation: According to Forbes, Microsoft was described as one of the highest paying employers in terms of base salary for all positions and also reported as providing very high equity compensation packages.
• Evidence: According to Forbes’ list, Microsoft is first on their list of the top enterprise employers; Microsoft has moved from 8th to 1st position on Forbes list in just one year.
• The trade-off: Working for a large enterprise most likely requires navigating through layers of bureaucracy. The experiences of team members working at Microsoft vary based on office location and how that office handles policies.

2. Google

• Core focus: Google’s primary areas of focus are on search, advertising, cloud services, Android, YouTube, and research on artificial intelligence.
• Positioning: Google is a great place to work if you are an engineer, researcher, or have skills in any of these areas; they have a huge amount of research, scale, and infrastructure available to them and they also have a global brand that is widely known and trusted.
• Target market: Software engineers, SREs, researchers, data scientists, and user experience designers.
• Compensation: Google has a strong history of providing their employees great pay with a generous stock package, although there is a large discrepancy between the different salary levels across different Google positions.
• Evidence: Forbes had ranked Google second on their list of the best companies for tech workers in America, moving from fifth place to second in just one year.
• The trade-off: Google is known for being highly selective and complex in its structure; this means that sometimes getting things done requires going through multiple levels of management.

3. Apple

• Core focus: Apple’s focus is on hardware for consumers, operating systems, silicon, services, and privacy.
• Positioning: Apple provides a unique experience for employees who want to work with hardware and software that are integrated into a single product offered to consumers.
• Target market: Hardware engineers, iOS developers, embedded engineers, industrial designers, and product managers.
• Compensation: Total compensation is very competitive typically in the form of restricted stock units.
• Evidence: The second highest ranked on gitGood's independent technology company list based upon product impact and engineering quality.
• The trade-off: Secrecy, high expectations and therefore, much lower flexibility compared to remote-first employers.

4. Salesforce

• Core focus: Salesforce is an enterprise-wide CRM, sales tools, marketing platforms, data ecosystems and enterprise artificial intelligence.
• Positioning: Salesforce is a broad enterprise-wide system with a large training and partner opportunity.
• Target market: Software engineers, platform administrators, solution architects, customer success professionals and sales engineers.
• Compensation: Salesforce offers a great base salary; however, a significant component of one's total compensation is based on the business unit where one works within.
• Evidence: Salesforce was ranked 4th by Forbes on the tech employer list. The Great Place to Work feedback rated Salesforce as a top company for inclusion and leadership development.
• The trade-off: The daily career trajectory and type of work is very different for product engineering consultants and sales roles.

5. ServiceNow

• Core focus: ServiceNow is an IT service management workflow automation and AI-enabled business process software.
• Positioning: ServiceNow is a highly successful software solution due to high demand and large wins in the workplace excellence awards categories.
• Target market: The target audience for ServiceNow includes platform engineers, enterprise developers, solution architects and implementation experts.
• Compensation: ServiceNow has very reliable and stable enterprise high-tier salary structures.
• Evidence: ServiceNow was ranked second by Glassdoor in the technology & AI list.
• The trade-off: Having the ability to create enterprise-class products may not be as beneficial for those who wish to create consumer apps or do pure frontier research.

6. Cisco

• Core focus: Cisco is providing solutions for networking, cybersecurity and collaboration for enterprises, like connectivity for enterprises.
• Positioning: Cisco is a long-established and highly successful provider with many satisfied long-term customers and a quality workplace culture.
• Target market: The target audience includes network engineers, software engineers, security experts, and technical support professionals.
• Compensation: Consistent and predictable packages offered by large technology companies.
• Evidence: Ranked #1 in Fortune/Great Place to Work list of great places to work in large technology companies. Employee feedback indicated that employees appreciate the supportive nature of their management and mentoring provided.
• The trade-off: The mature business environment provides less opportunity for start-up type of ownership and slower product development experimentation.

Top Data, Media, and Security Workplaces

These companies represent specific sectors and provide a very niche engineer environment. For engineers who enjoy and want to work on more complex, deep technical problems, they are good places to work.

1. Databricks

• Core focus: Lakehouse architecture, Apache Spark, data engineering, machine learning infrastructure.
• Positioning: Databricks is the ideal place to work for data infrastructure and artificial intelligence in a corporate setting.
• Target market: Data engineers, distributed systems engineers, platform engineers, technical account managers.
• Compensation: Described as best in class, with substantial equity.
• Evidence: Databricks has appeared prominently in the Fortune technology ranking. Employee feedback on Databricks has highlighted the transparency and clarity of communication within the company.
• The trade-off: Databricks’ environment is fast-paced, and as such, the company has ambitious performance goals and related risks associated with equity.

2. CrowdStrike

• Core focus: Cloud-native cybersecurity, endpoint protection, threat intelligence.
• Positioning: CrowdStrike is an excellent choice for security engineers looking for a fast-paced environment in a rapidly growing industry.
• Target market: Security engineers, detection engineers, threat researchers, kernel developers.
• Compensation: CrowdStrike has a competitive compensation package, consistent with the security industry.
• Evidence: In the large company technology section of Fortune’s ranking, CrowdStrike ranked #9.
• The trade-off: Working in the cybersecurity industry has extremely high-pressure incident response duties, high workloads due to on-call responsibilities and quickly changing threat environments.

3. Netflix

• Core focus: Streaming, recommendation systems, content delivery, media technology.
• Positioning: Netflix is extremely valuable to senior-level engineers who seek full autonomy and manage technically complex systems.
• Core competency: Technology encompasses software products that include cloud computing.
• Target market: Software engineers and developers are typically top talent; designers are generally low-skill developers.
• Compensation: Very high cash compensation (in lieu of stock options).
• Supporting evidence: 4th place in the gitGood rankings, cited as having a great freedom and responsibility culture.
• Trade-off: Your level of autonomy corresponds directly with your level of responsibility. They have a very strict performance expectation.

4. Adobe

• Core competency: Focuses on creative software, digital experience, documents, and generative AI.
• Target market: Software engineers and developers, UX designers, data scientists and analysts, and content specialists.
• Compensation: You will receive a competitive base salary with good benefits.
• Supporting evidence: 7th place in the Fortune rankings, with many employees praising the sabbatical benefit, parental leave policy, and employee networks.
• Trade-off: Total compensation at Adobe may be lower than at many AI frontiers.

5. EPAM Systems

• Core competency: Offers software engineering services, digital transformation, and technical consulting services.
• Target market: Software engineers, consultant, delivery managers, QA professionals, and analyst.
• Compensation: Standardized across consulting tiers.
• Supporting evidence: 3rd place in Glassdoor technology & AI rankings.
• Trade-off: The daily employee experience is dependent on which client assignment or project manager you are working for.

Best Remote and Distributed Teams

When looking for the top tech companies to work for, not everyone is looking to commute to a corporate campus. Several companies have developed a whole operating model on remote working practices, as well as asynchronous communication methods.

1. GitLab

• What they do best: Source code management; CI/CD (continuous integration and continuous delivery); collaboration tools for remote workers.
• Targeted market: Software engineers, DevOps engineers, technical writers, and remote ops professionals.
• What to expect regarding payment: Competitive salaries via remote-location pay bands.
• The evidence: GitLab has been listed as one of the best technology companies to work for by Fortune magazine. Employees have reported that they experience psychological safety in their work environment and are able to collaborate effectively across time zones.
• The trade-off: Asynchronous work is a trade-off between difficulty to perform. It requires excellent written communication skills and the ability to document work and experience a level of low opportunity for working alone in a room.

2. Atlassian

• What they do best: Jira, Confluence, project management tools; distributed work tools.
• Targeted market: Software engineers, product managers, designers, and platform engineers.
• What to expect regarding payment: Very competitive salaries within corporate pay grades.
• The evidence: Atlassian received Great Place to Work employee feedback as being a global remote-first company; employees report that Atlassian budget aligned with developing local team bonds.
• The trade-off: Asynchronous work is also a trade-off between difficulties in performing async work as well as remote work from physically different locations. Local employment and tax regulations are still applicable to where you live.

What to Test Before Accepting a Job Offer

1. Do not accept only based on the company's public ranking. You need to confirm the company's value to you and the company’s commitment to remote work.
2. The total compensation is more important than the headline salary figure. You need to understand the base salary; how much equity can be liquidated; how frequently re-fresh grants will be issued; and what is the downside risk of a large stock package if the company value drops or you cannot sell the stock.
3. The mode of operation of the company will be different than that of the public culture. You need to confirm what the volume of meetings is; how much time zone overlap exists; and how specific your manager’s behavior is on your team.
4. Your career growth is your priority. You need to know the likelihood of being given additional scope; learning marketable skills; and having real support to get promoted.

Ask the following questions during the final interview:

1. How often does this team work outside of normal work hours in the past quarter?
2. What percentage of your team is currently remote vs. office based?
3. How are promotions assigned and practiced?
4. How many team members changed teams within the last year?
5. What are the specific on-call rotations, and what was the incident load for the last month?
6. What would cause someone to fail within the first six months of employment?

If the hiring manager cannot or will not answer these questions or provide clear answers, then treat this as a major red flag.

Do Not Chase Prestige, Chase Fit Instead

Current market trends prove there is no single best technology company to work for.

The type of career you want to pursue should determine where you go to work.

For example, a computer scientist in Europe would apply to different companies than a remote senior engineer or first-time cloud professional would; the same for a parent wanting to work a predictable work schedule.

Do your own due diligence before accepting a position with a company. Be sure to normalize compensation data within your country and level of experience. Don't forget to review actual remote employment rules. Also, understand the difference between company-level reputation and team-level reality.

While the top tech companies to work for listed here have achieved their high ratings, the best company for you depends upon the work environment that you are willing to tolerate.