Cedar
Cedar Career Growth & Development
Frequently Asked Questions
Cedar is a company where people consistently grow beyond the role they came in for. Hanna, an Engineering Director who joined Cedar as her first job out of college, describes it plainly: Cedar creates an environment of "trust but support" — you're given real responsibility and set loose to prove what you've got, with the right scaffolding when you need it.
Our Chief People Officer says stretch opportunities are "around every corner" and that the job she came in to do six years ago looks nothing like the one she does today. We have a centralised Top Talent programme that identifies emerging leaders across the company for accelerated developmental investment, and our managers are expected to have active career conversations — not just annual reviews.
We invest in learning through our AI Guild and ongoing internal upskilling around emerging tools, through our manager development programmes, through external conference and course opportunities, and through the nature of the work itself — which consistently exposes people to problems outside their immediate lane.
A senior technical leader shared that when she joined Cedar, she expected to work in a specific area and instead found herself developing across technical, business, and product domains in ways that "took her career to the next level." Our CTO recently shared that one of our designers — not an engineer — pushed her first feature change into production, enabled by AI tools and a culture that encourages people to stretch.
Our approach to people development is embedded rather than episodic. Our Chief People Officer describes it as "highly touch" — her team does direct coaching with Cedarians, managers, and leaders at every level of the org.
We have formal mentorship programmes that give employees access to people they wouldn't otherwise connect with day to day. Our "Friendly Neighbourhood Staff Engineer" program pairs senior engineers with every product team, so that even junior engineers have a senior technical resource to learn from and ask questions of. Managers are trained to have consistent, growth-focused conversations that go beyond performance to career aspirations.
One of the most consistent things we hear is that people at Cedar feel genuinely empowered to create their own path. Daniel, our Director of Procurement, chose Cedar because he was given the opportunity to build a function from scratch — and that's not unusual here.
If you see a problem and want to do something about it, Cedar gives you the latitude to take a next step. As Hanna, an Engineering Director, puts it: "If I have something I want to make happen, I'll do something about it." That culture of proactive ownership is one of the things that makes Cedar a genuinely good place to grow.
Cedar Employee Perspectives
Give us a snapshot of what you do to stay on top of your engineering knowledge and skills.
As an engineer in this ever-evolving technology industry, sharpening my engineering skills is a continuous and paramount endeavor. My personal learning routine involves a balanced combination of practical, hands-on exposure to real-world engineering challenges within my professional role and dedicated time each week for external learning after hours.
A key principle for me is maintaining a genuine interest in the topic at hand; motivation alone can only sustain learning to a certain extent before it is no longer perceived as relevant and engaging. To maintain this engagement, I often connect my learning objectives to a side project or task that provides real-time feedback and tangible outcomes as I am a very hands-on learner.
In addition to actively seeking out learning opportunities, I’ve found ways to integrate learning into my daily routine. For example, I’ve started using my commute time or the time I spend doing chores to listen to podcasts or audiobooks. This allows me to passively absorb information and learn new things even when I’m not actively reading.
What are your go-to resources for keeping your engineering skills sharp?
Before embarking on any learning journey, I find it crucial to acknowledge and overcome the fear of venturing outside my comfort zone into the unknown. In today’s era, the sheer volume of available information, both digital and physical, can be overwhelming and deter many from even starting. I’ve learned from past experiences that the best recommended resources are often subjective; there is no one-size-fits-all solution. The key is to start somewhere and gradually, through the learning process, develop preferences and opinions that enable the identification of key concepts and valuable information sources for personal and professional growth.
My go-to resources include reading books — and I like to read them in various formats, whether that’s physical copies, e-books or audiobooks — on subjects that pique my interest. Hacker News for staying up-to-date with industry news, GitHub for exploring code and trending projects and AI-powered tools like Perplexity to gather and synthesize information from diverse sources. Of course, I also rely heavily on the internal resources at Cedar, like the meetings, forums, demos, programs and team initiatives.
What does the learning culture look like at your company or on your engineering team?
Cedar is genuinely invested in the growth of each individual.
Internal recurring sessions like the ASG (Architecture Steering Group) meetings, Tech Lead forums, Tech Talks and Engineering Demos have been invaluable for my growth. These open forums for discussion and knowledge-sharing broaden my perspective beyond my day-to-day work within a specific domain. For instance, a recent engineering demo where a colleague showcased their use of GitHub Copilot and the resulting efficiency gains led me to adopt the tool and experience similar benefits. In addition to these recurring events, Cedar offers numerous other opportunities like hackathons, onsite meetings, a mentorship program and a partnership with Hone, all of which provide practical and interactive learning experiences that foster engineering growth.
Beyond the resources available to everyone, each team has the autonomy and encouragement to develop their own processes that promote collective learning. On top of regular retrospectives, teams have implemented various initiatives like book clubs and team tech talks to foster a culture of continuous learning.
What People Are Saying About Cedar
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Growth Culture: Company materials emphasize a “growth mindset” and “intentional, people-centered” development with continuous learning and stretch opportunities. Stories and values around small, empowered teams signal learning by doing in a high-standards environment.
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Challenging Assignments: Roles operate at the intersection of healthcare finance, AI, and patient experience, tackling complex issues like coverage, payments, and affordability. Outcome-driven work with client co-building creates tight learning loops tied to measurable impact.
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Internal Mobility: Career spotlights show moves from implementation to product management and from individual contributor to leadership. References to promoting from within and centralized “Top Talent” programs indicate avenues to expand scope internally.
Cedar's Benefits
Hosts Lunch and Learns
Cedar hosts lunch & learns monthly. This allows employees to present in-depth on projects they're working on or for the occasional guest invitee to teach the team about a topic of interest.
Job training & conferences
Offers mentorship program
Our mentorship program pairs folks based on shared interests and goals, from the same team or cross-functionally, and emphasizes building mutually beneficial relationships for professional equity.
Provides paid industry certifications
Provides personal development training
Promote from within
Provides customized development tracks
