Crusoe

What Crusoe does

Crusoe brands itself "the energy-first AI factory company" — next-generation AI infrastructure and cloud compute built on stranded and waste energy. It appears on the Forbes AI 50 for 2025, and McKinsey interviewed CEO Chase Lochmiller in November 2025 about Crusoe's role in the AI infrastructure of the future. Its 2025 Impact Report (published May 28, 2026) notes 700+ volunteer hours globally in 2025, part of the company's sustainability positioning. The core point for a candidate is that this is a hardware-coupled infrastructure business — physical data centers and GPU capacity powered by energy Crusoe controls — rather than a pure-software product. That physicality shapes everything downstream: the on-call load, the return-to-office reality, and the pace. The "AI factory" framing is not marketing gloss so much as an accurate description of a company that builds and operates real compute facilities at speed.

What it is like to work at Crusoe

Glassdoor shows 3.4/5 on 44 reviews, 58% recommend and work-life 3.1. The reviews capture a company scaling hard: a May 29, 2026 review says "the pace is absolutely brutal," while another the same day praises "good pay, smart colleagues, building neocloud from scratch." A Jun 1, 2026 review questions whether "competency at the top" keeps up with the growth. The two most consistent negatives are operational: "untenable 24hr on-call rotations" and a "ham-handed" 5-day RTO mandate that reviewers single out as an unfair maneuver. Blind is smaller-sample but more positive — 5.0/5 on two reviews with Career Growth as the standout dimension. The honest read is that the hot AI-infra halo coexists with hardware-facility grind: expect physical, on-site data-center work and real on-call burden rather than the soft remote flexibility common at pure-software startups.

What Crusoe pays

Comp is strong for an infrastructure company. Levels.fyi shows a median SWE total comp of $301K with a $146K–$301K SWE range, and an overall span reaching up to $585,413 for a Program Manager at the high end. Glassdoor's SWE salary figure is lower at roughly $125,434 average across 94 salaries, reflecting a broader and more junior mix. A posted Staff Enterprise AI Automation Engineer role listed a range of "$190,000–$190,000+" with a 401(k) match up to 4%. Pros in reviews consistently cite "good pay" alongside "smart colleagues," so compensation is not the sore point. The cost sits elsewhere: the 24-hour on-call rotations and the 5-day RTO are the price of admission, and candidates should weigh the strong cash-and-equity package against that operational burden rather than in isolation.

How hiring works at Crusoe

Crusoe's careers page describes the standard flow as a recruiter screen, technical or skills-based interviews, and a final round; the early-careers page adds an introductory recruiter meeting, a conversation with the hiring manager, and a final round of 2–3 interviews. The total process averages roughly 20 days per Glassdoor. A /r/datacenter thread walks through a Cloud Support Engineer interview trajectory in detail, useful for infra-adjacent roles. There is no security-clearance requirement, but because the product is physical data-center infrastructure, expect infra-oriented, on-site-aware screening. Most importantly, candidates should proactively clarify the on-call rotation structure and the 5-day RTO expectation during the loop — both surface heavily in reviews and materially shape the day-to-day, and neither is always obvious from the job posting. Confirming location and shift expectations early avoids the exact mismatch reviewers complain about.

Growth & trajectory

Crusoe was among 2025's fastest-rising AI-infrastructure shops. It closed a $600M Series D at $2.8B (Dec 12, 2024), then a $1.375B oversubscribed Series E at a >$10B post-money valuation (Oct 24, 2025). Revenue is estimated at ~$280M in 2025, about 82% YoY growth from $152M in 2023, per Rainmaker Securities, which also tracks Crusoe as a pre-IPO candidate and suggests a plausible 2026/27 IPO window. Customer count reportedly grew 7x in the year before the Series D. The trajectory is one of extremely rapid capital and capacity scaling — most of the valuation growth ($2.8B to $10B+) happened inside twelve months — which is exhilarating on the upside but implies aggressive ramp expectations, heavy execution pressure, and the kind of "brutal" pace reviewers describe. The pre-IPO positioning also means the next year or two will carry public-market scrutiny.

Risks to know

The 5-day RTO complaint shows up across multiple reviews and is the single most cited grievance — a reminder that the AI-infrastructure halo coexists with hardware-facility reality. The on-call burden is real too: reviewers describe "untenable 24hr on-call rotations," which is structural to running data centers rather than incidental. A Jun 1, 2026 review questions leadership competence relative to the pace of growth. Financially, most valuation growth compressed into twelve months ($2.8B in Dec 2024 to $10B+ in Oct 2025), implying aggressive ramp and burn expectations that raise the bar for execution. The pre-IPO positioning means a possible 2026/27 IPO window, which brings both liquidity upside and the risk that public-market conditions or growth deceleration reset expectations. Candidates comfortable with physical infra work will find these manageable; those expecting remote software flexibility will not.

Who thrives at Crusoe (and who should not)

Thrives: data-center and cloud-GPU engineers comfortable with hardware site work, mission-driven builders who want to "build neocloud from scratch," and ex-B2B infrastructure people who can handle hard RTO shifts and on-call rotations. The strong comp, smart colleagues and hot AI-infra positioning reward people who fit that mold. Should not join: anyone allergic to physical data-center work, or anyone expecting startup-soft remote flexibility — the "5-day RTO" is in living color across reviews and is not going away. Unlike the pure-software AI companies on this list, Crusoe's product is physical infrastructure, so on-call and on-site are structural rather than incidental, and the pace is described repeatedly as "brutal." This is a bet best suited to infra specialists who value the pre-IPO upside and don't mind the operational grind that comes with running real compute facilities.

Roles Crusoe is hiring for

The roles Crusoe is most actively hiring right now in our index, with a live count and the salary guide for each:

The full board of open roles — with comp and location on every posting — is at the top of this page.

The signals behind this page

The hiring picture here is read from 157 live Crusoe postings in our index (refreshed weekly); 100% are remote-friendly, and in a recent sample 129 disclose a pay-transparency band. The culture, growth, and interview detail above is researched and cited; the open-roles board is live from our jobs index.

Sources

• Crusoe Reviews (44) — Glassdoor
• Crusoe closes $1.375B oversubscribed Series E — Cooley (Oct 24, 2025)
• Crusoe Software Engineer Salary — Levels.fyi
• Careers at Crusoe — Crusoe
• Crusoe Pre-IPO Company Profile — Rainmaker Securities
• Crusoe closes Series D funding — Crusoe (Dec 2024)
• The AI infrastructure of the future — McKinsey (Nov 2025)