MDA reviews

3.6

75% would recommend to a friend

(642 total reviews)
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Mike Greenley

53% approve of CEO

67% positive business outlook

MDA has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 642 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The MDA employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Aeroespacial y defensa industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

642 reviews
1.0
Sep 15, 2024

MDA tolerates harrasment

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-You'll likely enjoy the different teams you work with. -The space industry in itself is interesting

Cons

-MDA tolerates harassment from their senior management and directors. -There is diversity, but no inclusion. -Old company ran by old rich men with an old rich men mentality. -Boys club clearly visible in many departments, harassment to women occurs frequently. -Strikes by multiple unions in the same year while the company brags about all time high revenue, but will fight to lower employee salary and benefits. -Promotions are given by "who you know" and not how hard you work. Many managers and directors are not qualified for their job. -Mentally draining company

3.0
Jul 8, 2022

Antiquated Management

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Interesting/unconventional projects and contracts, especially if you are passionate about technology in the space domain.

Cons

Corporate has antiquated views; pay is on the low end of average, with no transparency into pay scaling, and very inflexible with remote work, enforcing a 3 day in office minimum for projects that do not ever require being on site, including during the height of the COVID-19 Delta/Omicron variant pandemics. When they transitioned to a new payroll system they "harmonized" pay periods, shifting many employees pay forward by a week but not compensating the extra week worked, which was only to be paid out when employment is terminated; the only option they offered in order to receive 3 weeks of pay after 3 weeks of work was to cash out a week of vacation. What a fun and convenient way to take out an easy loan on your employees without their consent!

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MDA Response
3y
Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback with us. We want to quickly address and correct a few misperceptions: • Regarding salaries, MDA regularly reviews market data and adjusts salaries to remain competitive. We also have our annual review and a merit increase process to continuously recognize and reward employees as they grow in their career with us. • Regarding remote work, like most companies, MDA has adopted a hybrid work model that gives many employees the flexibility to continue to work remotely a two days a week and work in the office three days per week to collaborate and engage with coworkers. • Regarding the new payroll system, this was launched recently to standardize the pay cycles for all employees. The change did not affect the amount employees were paid – it simply changed the timing for when some employees were paid. All employees are paid for all hours worked each 2-week pay period and paid the following week. This is a standard best-practice pay schedule. We also provided several months notice and multiple reminders to help employees prepare for the transition as we aligned the pay cycles. We also offered a voluntary pay advance option if it was needed for the one-time one week transition period. We value employee feedback. We encourage you – and any employee that has a concern, to reach out to your Human Resources Business Partner to better understand MDA policies and discuss ways to make your employment more fulfilling.
1.0
Sep 9, 2021

Scammers

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Beware of this company, they are scammers. They try to lure young people in by promising exciting space jobs - but pay you and work you like a slave. They have so many managers, yet the company is incredibly mismanaged. Go figure. It’s essentially a bunch of boomers getting paid $100k+ salaries, walking around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off. Also, they really aren’t working on anything innovative. The space sector in Canada is pretty non-existent (thanks, Liberal party). If you really want to work in space, you should probably head over to the states because this ain’t it. Seriously though, live in the most expensive city in Canada but barely get paid $50k after taxes = great life, right? Pathetic.

Cons

Pay is extremely low. Modern day slavery. Too many old people who don’t let young people do anything. HR is nonexistent and move at a glacial pace. Also full of old people… hmm are you seeing the same trend I am?

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MDA Response
4y
Thank you for taking the time to share your experience at MDA. We are very sorry that it was not as positive as the majority of our employees report. If you haven’t already done so, we strongly encourage you to reach out to your Human Resources Business Partner to share the specific details of your situation as we are always looking at ways we can improve. That said, we did want to address a number of your comments: Many of our young employees start with us through a Coop experience. We hire almost 100 Coop student each year and the vast majority of those chose to return and work for MDA after graduation. They cite the exciting work and the important mission we are involved in as just of few of the reasons they return. The space sector in Canada is actually thriving and vibrant. Because of the work MDA is doing to support the Lunar Gateway and Canadarm3 as well as the lunar base for Project Artemis, the Canadian Space Agency will have the honour of having an astronaut on the Artemis 2 mission, the first manned Artemis mission around the moon in 2023. And the work we are doing around satellites and space payloads as well as geospatial analytics, intelligence and ground operations is world leading. Not to mention our work on Mars and deep space exploration that is very high profile, exciting and impactful. There has never been a better time to join the space industry. From a salary perspective, we constantly survey the market to ensure we are competitive and adjust as required. To date this year (2021), we have hired almost 600 new employees, the majority of that to fuel the growth of our expanding business. Many of those new hires left existing jobs to join us. That would not be possible without a competitive pay structure. Thanks again for your comments.
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