What's It Like to Work at Caliola Engineering?

What is your role, and what attracted you to Caliola Engineering? 

As a research scientist at Caliola, I appreciate the opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world problems. As someone who is early in his career, Caliola has been a great transition from school into industry. My expert coworkers are fantastic mentors who help me apply the ideas that I learned about in school to real-world applications. The difference between theory and application can be significant, and having help during that transition is invaluable.

Additionally, I enjoy the variety of projects that we work on here at Caliola. While the skills I already have are relevant to my projects (e.g. mathematical analysis), there are also so many other skills I can develop in the process (e.g. software engineering). I have learned so many skills at a reasonable rate since I have started here. This balance is very important, and I really appreciate how management has made that happen for me.

What’s your favorite part about working at Caliola Engineering? The projects, the team culture, the opportunities for career advancement?

Going from product requirements to actual solutions takes significant expertise. I appreciate working with my many coworkers who are experts in their respective fields. They help me bridge the gap from requirements to solutions. When I have questions about anything technical, they can either answer my question directly or point me in the right direction. Feeling like there is room for me to grow is very important to me, and I get that here.

Another aspect of Caliola that I really appreciate is how accessible management is. Management trusts us to make decisions and get things done. When I have a question or concern, I know I can have a conversation to resolve that issue. We are small enough that it feels like I can know and interact with everyone, but also big enough that we have access to so much in-house expertise. Management also takes into account my skills and interests when planning projects, and I feel that every project I have been involved in has been a good fit.

What advice would you give to jobseekers looking to join your growing team?

Don’t expect homework problems or science projects; we develop real solutions to practical problems at Caliola. This is a place to apply all sorts of knowledge in innovative ways. Additionally, Caliola isn’t a place where you get siloed onto a small part of a single project. Each project draws on many skills, from mathematics to physics to software engineering to project management. Caliola is a place where we need to understand all those things.

In one line, what proves the mission is authentic here?

Every decision we make, from the boardroom to the codebase, is singularly obsessed with one goal — powering the nation’s most mission critical communications.

Name a recent mission-aligned decision or policy and its result.

Our recent transition into a new building, approximately six times larger than our previous location, was a strategic decision to ensure our physical infrastructure keeps pace with our growth and the technical requirements of our mission-critical work. By dramatically increasing our footprint, we’re able to integrate high-end technical labs with collaborative workspaces, ensuring that Caliolans have both the tools and the cohesive environment necessary to solve technically interesting problems and then enjoy a phenomenal cup of coffee together in our expanded breakroom. 

We recognize that a mission-focused team performs best when they are well-supported and connected. This expansion has already resulted in higher employee engagement and the operational capacity to take on even more complex technical challenges.

Which ritual or behavior keeps purpose visible week to week?

We quite literally have our purpose written on the walls of the building. Caliola operates on the Entrepreneurial Operating System and we have physically posted our vision/traction organizer to maintain both the constant visual reinforcement of where this company is going and engage in active transparency with our team members. We want our core focus and long-term goals to be visible to every employee every day. We bring those words and statistics to life through weekly Level 10 meetings of our leadership and our quarterly State of the Company events where the CEO and chief scientist report directly to the entire staff. These sessions bridge the gap between daily tasks and national security by detailing our achievements and wins from the previous quarter and mapping out our trajectory for the next quarter, the next year, and the next 10 years. 

By constantly connecting individual efforts to the broader mission, we ensure every team member understands exactly how their work powers Caliola’s mission and therefore our nation’s most mission-critical communications, fostering a deep sense of belonging and long-term purpose.

In one memorable line, what does a “good week” feel like on your team?

A good week feels like steady momentum of engineering progress: We solved meaningful problems, supported each other and ended the week clearer and stronger than we started.

Would you recommend working here — and what proof backs that up?

Absolutely. I have referred several people here, which is probably the strongest personal proof I can offer. I would not recommend a workplace to people I know unless I genuinely believed they would be treated well, have meaningful work and be surrounded by capable teammates that they can learn from. From my experience, this is a strong place to work because the engineering problems are interesting, the work has real impact (I got an android app on the app store!) and people are trusted to take ownership. I have felt well-treated and respected, and I think the company does a good job giving engineers room to solve problems thoughtfully rather than just execute tasks.

How are you viewed externally right now, and what signals support it?

I think we are viewed externally as a solid, capable and effective engineering company. The perception is that we have strong technical judgment, can solve difficult problems and can deliver reliable solutions in complex environments. More than once, I’ve heard from government partners that we are trusted to solve problems well. A big part of that reputation comes from the quality of the engineering work itself. We are not just a company that talks about our technical acumen; we demonstrate it through actually solving problems on time and robustly. We have attention to detail and the ability to build systems that need to work reliably. I think our partners see us as the kind of company that can be trusted with hard technical challenges because we bring good engineers, discipline and a strive to solve the real problem rather than just checking a box.