Inside WorkOS

At WorkOS, our mission is simple: help every application become enterprise ready. For SaaS companies, winning enterprise customers requires advanced features like single sign-on, directory sync, audit logs, and role-based access control. These aren’t just “nice to have,” they’re deal breakers. Yet for most startups, they’re complex, time-consuming, and often deprioritized in favor of core product work. The result? Teams miss out on opportunities, and the gap between early adopters and enterprise customers (the Enterprise Chasm) widens.

WorkOS bridges that gap. We’re a modern API platform that makes it fast and simple for developers to add enterprise capabilities and win the biggest customers in their category. We power companies like OpenAI, Vercel, Webflow, Cursor, and Perplexity, and we’re just getting started. Beyond just the products we build, we wanted to highlight who we are, what we value, and how we work as a team.

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Building

When you talk to people at WorkOS, a few things always stand out in the way we approach building, in our engineering practices, and in the high standards we hold for our craft. (Our goal is to balance a long-term vision for WorkOS with an openness to rethinking assumptions as circumstances change.) Balancing ambition with self-awareness has fostered a culture that values purposeful growth. Intentionality defines much of the work here. We hold ourselves to high standards in design, hiring, brand, and strategy. The name “WorkOS” itself speaks to that deliberate mindset and a vision that extends beyond a single product.That’s the culture here: focused, fast, intentional, and always tied back to building what customers need.

Leadership by Example

When people talk about leadership at WorkOS, they describe a team that is sharp, hands-on, and deeply invested in both people and product. Leaders are known for providing clarity and direction, while setting an ambitious bar that inspires the rest of the company. They are pragmatic, keeping everyone laser-focused on priorities, and active participants in the work, whether that means analyzing metrics, joining customer calls, or workshopping ideas.

A High Bar from Day One

The early team at WorkOS set a remarkably high standard, one that continues to shape the experience for new hires. From the very first interview, candidates notice that WorkOS sets an unusually high bar—and that standard only intensifies once they join. New employees quickly recognize that the pace is fast, the expectations are high, and excellence is non-negotiable.

That culture of excellence extends across every corner of the company. It shows up in the meticulous planning of events like MCP Night, where everything, from the contributors to the napkins, reflects an obsession with detail and impact. It appears in All Hands demos, where even something as seemingly trivial as fixing a janky scrollbar turned into a masterclass in craftsmanship, complete with handwritten physics equations to ensure the experience was perfect.

Empowering Great People

At WorkOS, we pair impact with trust and empowerment. From the earliest days, our CEO Michael Grinich has personally met with every candidate. Once you join, you’re given remarkable autonomy. WorkOS is a place of low oversight and high expectations, where initiative, curiosity, and ownership are rewarded. Processes are kept intentionally light, and we are expected to thrive in ambiguity. This means formulating plans, making decisions, and executing simultaneously, often without step-by-step direction.

The people who succeed at WorkOS are those who take initiative, embrace ambiguity, and contribute across multiple roles in a dynamic environment. Failure is understood as part of learning. The culture encourages jumping in, experimenting, and iterating quickly rather than overthinking or over-engineering. The expectation is not perfection but ownership, transparency, and proactive communication. Asking questions, flagging issues, and seeking feedback are seen as cultural strengths, not weaknesses.

For new hires, these values come to life immediately. Our interview process makes our standards clear, and joining WorkOS often feels like stepping into a place where pace is fast, expectations are high, and quality is non-negotiable. Those who thrive here are motivated by autonomy, energized by excellence, and comfortable wearing multiple hats to solve undefined problems.

Excellence in Service of Customers

WorkOS values intentional builders: people who push beyond playbooks, seek feedback, and challenge assumptions. The magic happens when customer insights combine with the team’s skills, resulting in experiences that go far beyond the status quo.

How We Work

We’re a remote-first, but not remote only, team of about 95 people spread across the US and Canada, with an office in San Francisco for those who prefer in-person collaboration. Our day-to-day work happens online, where we rely on Slack, Zoom, Notion, Quip, and Linear to stay connected and aligned. We know remote-first can feel disconnected, so we invest intentionally in connection. For new hires we run our Basecamp Onsite to help you connect with other team members and learn in-person about how to be successful at WorkOS. Weekly “donut chats” pair colleagues randomly to build bonds across teams, while onsites throughout the year make it easy to feel like you’ve known your teammates for years and hack weeks are sprinkled in throughout the year.

Transparency is also a cornerstone of how we work. Information is shared openly, decisions are visible, and anyone can ask questions publicly. This radical openness helps ensure that everyone feels included, informed, and empowered to contribute.

What We Value

Our operating principles guide everything we build:

• Developer Joy: Always do right by the developer.
• Move Fast with Intention: Speed matters, but never at the cost of quality.
• Talk with Users: They’re why we’re here.
• Earn the “Wow”: Minimum awesome product.
• Default to Transparency: Share openly.
• Seek Truth: Always aim to understand.

And our culture pillars remind us that how we work is just as important as what we ship:

• Kindness
• Humility
• Curiosity
• Thoughtfulness
• Collaboration
• Ownership
• Optimism

Why Join WorkOS?

We’re not just building infrastructure, we’re building a company where excellence in service of the developer is the guiding force. That shows up in the details: smooth scrollbars, refined onboarding flows, obsessively considered API docs. It’s also why we’re trusted by hundreds of companies to power their most critical enterprise features.

If you’re driven by autonomy, motivated by excellence, and excited to build products that developers love, WorkOS might be the place for you.

👉 Open roles

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