machine learning engineer

software engineer

senior software engineer

engagement manager

product manager

Scale AI

Scale's federal workforce started out promising.
Data labeling paid a good bit higher for the required experience (none) than most other positions I could qualify for.

Labeling is pretty easy overall, though the standards of what is good definitely went up in my time there, which is reasonable but there was a lot of situations where people that were originally good were no longer able to do a good job.

The company is almost ten years old and still calls itself a startup. I guess this helps them feel better about having nothing standardized. Expectations with the workforce change every few months, and if the customer requests a change it can be more often than that. Scale will bend over backwards to do whatever to make their customer happy and win more contracts, regardless of how feasible it is, then instead of coming up with a solution, they'll put all the responsibility of solving those problems on their queue managers without providing and kind of resources to help - but they'll tell you to reach out any time you need help. Not sure what else to expect from a company whose has credos of "run through walls" or "why not faster?". Even the "Experts" that are supposed to be there to help people are constantly confused and often cause more confusion than clearing things up.

They've had mass layoffs multiple times, each time saying it won't happen again. Then saying that it was for different reasons, so it doesn't count. They did give the people reasonable severance each time though.

Somehow every time they get rid of people, they expect the rest of the workforce to have the same amount of work done. Managers have quit multiple times and more often than not that managers team is just given to another manager.

Somehow all of the managers went from having their own teams and having two in office days expected, to taking over multiple teams and... Just being in office all the time because of it.

A lot of this isn't inherently a deal breaker, especially if you know what you're getting in to. But the constantly changing expectations and responsibilities for anyone that gets promoted leads to constant burn out and isn't worth it.

Did some courses and onboarding for their AI assessment program, and worked on a few tasks. The most chaotic freelancing job I've seen in more than a decade of full time freelance work. The communication is segmented in emails, Remotasks, and several Slack channels, some of which have no PM participating and freelancers are left at themselves with infinite questions. The software has many bugs which often result in lost tasks and unpaid work, no one is there to assist as team leaders tell you to open a ticket and tickets are closed telling to contact a team leader. There is a lot of confusion also regarding the worked time, it takes days before the tracked time appears, many colleagues are reporting discrepancies. The instructions continuously change so you should ideally spend your whole day following two or three never ending conversation on different Slack channels to be on pace, and all of this time is of course non compensated. The rate for every actual worked hours doesn't remotely make up for all of this investment of time, hassles and risks. The system used to track worked time is also quite shady, the server knows how long you are working on a task even when your are researching on different windows and it's not disclosed how they do it and what data they get from you. Writing this review is the very last piece of my time I'm spending with Remotasks and Scale AI. It's a pity, because I was actively looking for a path to combine my linguistic and analytic skills with the development of AIs and it could have been an interesting project, but luckily I have well managed, fairly paid projects on my schedule I can give priority to.

The idea of the company is really great: work remote, do some editing/writing/reviewing/etc., get paid. But it doesn't work like that, unfortunately. Everything is a struggle. From onboarding, to training, to getting credentials, to understanding what is going on...nothing works the way it supposed to. I make $40/hr and it has been lucrative for me, I'll admit. But there are people making $17/hr.--it's not worth it. You can barely get the work you are supposed to get. Leadership has no control or power to assist--they tell you, "we can just pass messages" or they say, "clear you cookies" if there is a problem and take an hour to get back to you when you tell them it doesn't work. They place unrealistic timers on tasks (20 minutes to read and rewrite paragraphs is not enough and if you don't get a particular level of quality, they boot you from the project and onto another where you have another underpaid training ($17/hr) and have to start again from scratch. I've been fortunate that most of my time at Scale AI/Outlier has been OK, but honestly, in the past month or so, it has gotten worse. Instead of investing time and effort training (properly) and supporting employees, they just keep hiring and hiring and hiring new people, hoping they'll stick around for a month or so to get some data done and then kick then to the curb. Its a ridiculous organizational structure. I give myself 2-3 more months before I bail unless something turns around--the money is good and I am paying off debt, but this is NOT a sustainable job and I question how long this company will last.

Currently contracted to work for ScaleAI through a company called HireArt. I work onsite. My coworkers and managers have all been great. But ScaleAI will lay you off via email with absolutely no notice. You might get a week or two of severance pay at most. I've seen three large layoffs in the short amount of time I've been there. They're completely random. They've laid off some of the brightest and most enthusiastic workers they have because it's a lottery as to who goes and who stays. They send someone from HireArt (who has absolutely no answers to any of our questions) and never tell us why people were laid off, how they make those decisions, or if they anticipate it happening again. The projects we work on are so poorly managed and the expectations that clients have are often completely unreasonable. There are no advancement opportunities, or even opportunities to become direct employees of ScaleAI. The onsite managers are just as stressed and confused as the rest of us and it is clear we are all on a sinking ship. There were around 400 people in my office when I started in March. Now there are around 120. This company clearly does not care about the quality of the work it does for clients since they are laying off waged, English speaking employees in favor of non-english speaking taskers in other countries that get paid per a task versus hourly and do poor quality work. They care about quantity more than quality. Overall, horrible and unethical company to work for and I'll be relieved when I get laid off. 

The good: Remote work, think of it as a side hustle with projects (tasks as they call it) that are grouped by focus. Sometimes you'll be asked to write a whole response to a user prompt, sometimes you'll rate a response, sometimes you'll write a prompt to stump the AI. Pay is sometimes decent. 

The bad: pay fluctuates, which is very unfortunate. You have to keep track of your tasks by writing down your task ID's so that you make sure you're paid. I didn't realize this until about my 100th project. So that means that I may have not been paid a few times because it happens a lot. You can contact support with your Task ID and they'll eventually pay you. Support is kind but it's all over the place. Main source of communication is through Slack. You'll be moved around projects so often with empty queues that happen very often. Meaning, you'll be without a project/task for a week and sometimes two weeks. Fluctuation of pay is frustrating but the most frustrating part is when new tasks arrive, you have to go through training courses that pay you a fraction of your time. WHY? Incredible amounts of reading and studying to make sure you do your projects correctly. What's worse is that you can be moved to another project in the middle of your course. Then you forget what you learned until you review the course again. VERY time consuming. Pay needs to be higher. For those of us who do a good job on these tasks, Scale AI should know that we spend unpaid hours reviewing these courses/instructions to do a good job. Pay needs to be higher. 


Even when I first got hired, there was chaos on all fronts. However, this was made up with the understanding nature of Managers/Trainers, the complete lack of micromanagement, and a large project that had both interesting tasks and an understanding production expectation.

However, there have been so many changes since then. From screen-recording/key-logging software being forcibly installed to a forced move that was in the works even when I was hired but was never mentioned until we were hired, and much more. 

Projects are a complete mess. It is not uncommon for guidelines for what you are doing to change daily and to be the opposite of what you were told. Productivity expectations for projects will be completely divorced from what is possible to achieve with any level of good quality, and then it will be announced in front of the entire workforce that the quality isn't up to par. 

The one saving grace is the unpaid/sick time policy, which I have had to use copiously as going into work every day is such a struggle. There is no job fulfillment. Between the constant changes, your work being a single tiny data point in a gigantic set of data points, and the attitude from upper management of 'you are replaceable' (which has been directly said), there is no reason to want to come to work. 

Scale operates at the cutting edge, combining advanced AI research with applying AI for major companies and governments in its enterprise and Public Sector businesses. This attracts incredibly smart, ambitious, and entrepreneurial people passionate about AI and quality work. You'll be given substantial responsibility and expected to deliver with minimal oversight. While this intensity can strain work-life balance, the chances to learn, make an impact, and collaborate with driven peers on crucial AI problems are exceptional. If you value autonomy and thrive on challenges, Scale provides an unmatched growth environment.

Working at Scale AI is demanding but offers significant rewards, making it a top tech destination if you fit the culture. The pace is fast and expectations are high. This requires strong agency and the ability to handle ambiguity, as it's not a place for coasting. The culture is built on extreme ownership and a drive for excellence.

When you get hired you will be hired as a contract worker. Because it is cheaper for them. When looking into salary ranges for this position the difference is staggering. Actual Scale employees get unlimited PTO, are allowed mental health days, and get to park their cars in a garage underneath the building, while everyone else (contract employees) park in the open elements. When you park in the parking lot you have to walk through an alley to get to the building. If you have PTO when you are fired they won't pay you for unused PTO. If you are a civilian with no military  experience it will be harder to move up in the company. The training is outdated so when you move into active tasking you're labeling objects that may have changed in definition which also effects your quality score. The labeling rules change on a whim, so your quality is at the mercy of the rules that week. And in turn effect your bonus (if you qualify). The coworkers are the best part of working there. We all helped each other because that's all we have. In conclusion, on the outside it looks promising but its peacocking. They will use you to get government contract money and pay you the bare minimum. The owner of Scale AI is the youngest billionaire but somehow can't afford to pay the employees who do the work a livable wage.

They shuffle you around constantly and require you to do their onboarding for every new job, but then you complete it, are given zero tasks, and moved to another project. You are not paid for this time and each course takes over an hour. 

Pay rate is inconsistent. Hired at a certain rate, then rug pulled and suddenly there's no work at your rate, but hey, here's one for $25 less.

Pay structure is unclear. Advertised as an hourly rate but there is no mention that there is a time cap on certain jobs so you are essentially working without pay once you pass that time. This is never stated anywhere.

There are "Attempters" and "Reviewers" and the reviewers are the ones who check answers and give ratings which determine if you stay on the job or not. Except the reviewers know just as much as you do and are extremely subjective so if you get a bad reviewer, you get a low rating which causes you to get kicked off of the project. Thus starts the cycle of waiting for another project and getting tossed around to complete course after course with no pay.

All in all, completely disorganized company and I suspect a large class-action in the future for wage theft, which they probably already suspect and chalk up to the price of doing business.

Working at Scale has been an incredibly rewarding experience. Based in Mexico, I was able to see the company's impact on a global scale almost immediately after joining. The opportunity to contribute directly to the company’s growth and success is a key benefit. What stands out is the autonomy you have to make decisions and shape the direction of your work. The freedom to take ownership of projects and create your own path is something I truly value here.
While Scale can be a demanding place, it’s the kind of demand that pushes you to grow and evolve both professionally and personally. The challenges here are motivating and exciting, encouraging you to continuously improve and make a meaningful impact. You’re surrounded by talented, driven people who are passionate about what they do, which creates a collaborative and high-energy environment.
The culture at Scale fosters growth at all levels. There’s a strong focus on development, whether it’s through mentorship, cross-functional collaboration, or access to resources. 
Overall, Scale is an excellent place to work if you’re looking for a dynamic, fast-paced environment where your contributions are valued, and you have the autonomy to shape your role and impact the company’s success.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Machine learning engineer 63 salaries reported	$263,571 per year
Software engineer 35 salaries reported	$222,084 per year
Senior software engineer 21 salaries reported	$242,135 per year
Engagement manager 29 salaries reported	$208,836 per year
Product manager 20 salaries reported	$232,834 per year

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