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Carbon Black Employee Reviews, Feedback, Testimonials

Endpoint security and threat detectionWaltham, United States501-1,000 employees
3.7
3 reviews

About Carbon Black

Carbon Black is a cybersecurity company focused on endpoint protection and threat detection. Based in Waltham, Massachusetts, it built its name on cloud-native security platforms—Cb Response and Cb Protection—before VMware acquired it in 2019. Its en...

Detailed Carbon Black employee reviews & experience

Employee Testimonials

"I joined as an entry-level analyst and felt welcomed from day one. The onboarding was hands-on and people actually helped me find my footing." A longer-tenured employee was more measured: "You get exposure to meaningful projects fast, but you also need to push to be heard."

That tension shows up a lot. People praise the smart teammates and collaborative culture; others mention resource crunches that make deadlines genuinely stressful. Both things are true. If you're weighing Carbon Black as an employer, expect a place with real technical pride and a startup energy that hasn't fully faded, even inside a larger organization.

Company Culture

Technical, mission-driven, a little scrappy. Security-minded thinking runs through most decisions, and people generally care about doing right by customers rather than just shipping and moving on.

Day-to-day, it's collaborative. Engineers pair willingly, sales teams celebrate wins together, and knowledge tends to move around. There's also a persistent sense of urgency — patches need to go out, features need to land — which can feel exciting or grinding depending on how you're wired. People who do well here tend to like moving fast and figuring things out as they go.

Work-Life Balance

It depends on what you do. Customer-facing and incident-response roles will have late nights and on-call rotations. Product and corporate functions are more predictable. Most employees say they can protect personal time if they communicate clearly with their manager — but anyone expecting a strict 9-to-5 should know some weeks will run longer. Flexibility exists; it just requires asking for it.

Job Security

Solid for core, revenue-generating roles where you're consistently delivering. Less certain for highly specialized positions that could get consolidated during a reorg, and those do happen — usually tied to strategic shifts rather than performance. The honest read: reasonable stability, but worth keeping your skills current and your internal network active.

Leadership and Management

Senior leadership is visible and communicates regularly, especially around major initiatives. The focus is on product reliability, customer outcomes, and measured growth. Accountability is real, and leaders do respond to feedback — particularly when it touches product or customer impact. Execution expectations vary across teams, which is worth asking about before you join.

Manager Reviews

Managers are generally competent and technically grounded. Some are genuinely good at mentoring, advocating for resources, and helping people grow. Others are more focused on delivery and short-term targets. Managerial quality isn't consistent across the org, which is probably the most honest thing to say about it. Employees who do well tend to be proactive about setting expectations and aligning with their manager early rather than waiting for direction.

Learning & Development

Strong on the technical side, especially security engineering, cloud platforms, and threat intelligence. There are conference budgets, training resources, and internal knowledge-sharing sessions. Formal career development programs aren't as structured as you'd find at a larger company, but mentoring and hands-on experience cover a lot of ground. If you want to grow fast, shadowing senior engineers here will actually teach you things.

Opportunities for Promotions

Promotions happen, more visibly in engineering and sales where output is measurable. In corporate functions, the path is slower and often requires active advocacy. The practical advice: document your impact, ask for stretch assignments, and have an explicit conversation with your manager about what advancement looks like. Don't assume it's being tracked for you.

Salary Ranges

Competitive, though it varies by location and level. Mid-level engineering salaries are solid; senior specialists can land above market. Sales roles include variable comp that meaningfully boosts total pay. Pay bands aren't published, so come to negotiations with market data — candidates who benchmark against regional tech rates tend to do better.

Bonuses & Incentives

Bonuses are part of the mix for most roles, particularly sales and customer-facing positions. Individual and team performance bonuses are fairly common, and equity is typically included for higher-level hires. None of it is guaranteed, but it does track against hitting targets and company milestones.

Health and Insurance Benefits

Medical, dental, and vision with employer contributions, plus HSA/FSA options and some mental health resources. Benefits vary slightly by region but are broadly in line with what comparable companies offer. Nothing exceptional, nothing missing.

Employee Engagement and Events

Regular all-hands, team offsites, and social events keep people connected. Employee resource groups and interest-based meetups exist and get real support. Energy tends to peak around product launches and customer wins — those moments pull teams together in a way that's hard to manufacture.

Remote Work Support

Hybrid and fully remote options are available for many roles, depending on the team. Communication tooling is standard and managers are used to distributed work. Remote employees generally have access to the same learning resources as people on-site, and virtual onboarding is functional if not particularly exciting.

Average Working Hours

Most weeks run 40–45 hours. On-call duties and release cycles can push that higher in bursts. Teams aren't trying to run people into the ground, but you should expect short stretches of heavier effort, especially around launches or incidents.

Attrition Rate & Layoff History

Attrition is moderate — partly the competitive market for security and cloud talent, partly the normal churn of a company that's gone through strategic shifts. There have been restructurings; they weren't constant, but they did affect specific teams. Worth asking about the history of your target team specifically rather than treating the company as a monolith.

Overall Company Rating

Worth a serious look if you want to work on security-focused products, move at a real pace, and learn from people who know the domain. Culture is collaborative, work-life balance is manageable with some self-advocacy, and the experience carries weight in the industry. It's not the smoothest-running machine and it won't suit everyone — but if you want work that matters and room to grow into it, this is a reasonable place to do that.

Detailed Employee Ratings

3
Work-Life Balance
3.3
Compensation
3.3
Company Culture
3.7
Career Growth
3.7
Job Security

Filter Reviews

3 reviews found

Employee Reviews (3)

Read authentic experiences from current and former employees at Carbon Black

4.0
Verified Anonymous

Account Executive Review

SalesFull-timeOn-site
Jun 2, 2025

What I liked

Good commission structure and brand recognition made closing deals easier. Sales leadership was supportive and there were regular training sessions that helped ramp quotas.

Areas for improvement

Long hours at the end of quarters and onboarding for new hires could be inconsistent. After some restructures there was more internal politics and role overlap.

4.0
Verified Anonymous

Senior Software Engineer Review

EngineeringFull-timeHybrid
Mar 18, 2025

What I liked

Strong engineering culture at Carbon Black, lots of mentorship and code reviews. Work is technically challenging and you get to work on real security problems. Flexible hybrid schedule helps with work-life balance.

Areas for improvement

Compensation is okay but a bit below market for the region. Occasional product re-orgs and extra meetings during release weeks.

3.0
Verified Anonymous

Product Marketing Manager Review

MarketingFull-timeRemote
Jan 28, 2025

What I liked

Product is strong and customers are passionate. I enjoyed working with cross-functional teams and presenting at customer events. Remote setup was flexible and enabled good focus time.

Areas for improvement

Frequent reorganizations made career paths unclear. Communication from middle management could be better, and promotions were slower than expected.