Optimum

HQ
New York, New York, USA
Total Offices: 3
9,000 Total Employees
Year Founded: 1973

Optimum Company Culture & Values

Updated on March 24, 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

Cultural Alignment

Optimum’s culture centers on purpose, collaboration, and empowering employees to make an impact. Leadership emphasizes that the company’s success starts with its people, creating an environment where employees feel valued, supported, and encouraged to contribute ideas that shape products, services, and customer experiences. Teams across engineering, field operations, product development, and customer support work together to deliver connectivity services that serve millions of homes and businesses across 21 states.

Employees describe a culture built around shared accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement. Initiatives such as the Employee Experience Center of Excellence, employee listening programs, and leadership development efforts aim to strengthen engagement and collaboration across the organization. The company also encourages innovation through hackathons, learning opportunities, and cross-functional teamwork, reinforcing a culture where employees are empowered to build solutions and contribute to the company’s future.

Leadership reinforces openness and inclusion through guiding principles — Do What’s Right, Drive One Optimum, and Make It Happen — which encourage employees to collaborate, take ownership, and put customers first. Optimum also supports connection and belonging through employee affinity groups that provide opportunities for networking, professional development, and community engagement.

 

Employee Perspective

“We truly believe that the core of our culture comes from a sense of purpose — and knowing that purpose allows people to have a lot of freedom to go and build the right thing and build it right.”

— Joe Ambeault, Senior Vice President of Product Development

 

At-a-Glance

  • Culture traits: Purpose-driven, collaborative, innovative, inclusive
  • Core practices: Employee affinity groups, hackathons, mentorship and development programs, employee listening channels
  • Leadership style: People-focused, collaborative, and mission-driven, supported by guiding principles: Do What’s Right, Drive One Optimum, Make It Happen

External Signals

  • 2026 Best Places to Work, Built In
  • Great Place to Work® Certified (April 2025-April 2026)
  • Corporate Equality Index (2023–2024), Human Rights Campaign
  • Equality 100 Leader in LGBTQ+ Workplace Inclusion, Human Rights Campaign
  • DEI Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion (2023)

Team Dynamics & Collaboration

Teams at Optimum collaborate through a cross-functional, purpose-driven approach that connects engineering, product, field operations, and customer-facing teams around a shared mission of delivering reliable connectivity services. Employees across the organization contribute to building and supporting services like Optimum Fiber Internet, Optimum TV, and Optimum Mobile, working together to ensure technology, operations, and customer experiences operate seamlessly.

Collaboration is supported by Optimum’s hybrid work model for corporate roles, which typically combines three days in the office with two days working remotely. This structure enables in-person teamwork while maintaining flexibility for distributed collaboration. Teams align around shared goals through the company’s OKR operational model, team-based strategic planning, and regular company-wide meetings such as all-hands sessions and revenue kickoff events.

Within product and technology teams, collaboration emphasizes ownership and efficient decision-making. A working style known as “one raid, one ranger” empowers a single team member to represent product development in meetings and coordinate input from others as needed. This model helps streamline discussions and maintain momentum across projects. Innovation and knowledge-sharing are also encouraged through hackathons and continuous learning opportunities that bring employees together to solve problems and improve workflows.

 

Employee Perspective

Employees often highlight the collaborative and low-ego nature of teams, where colleagues share credit for successes and take collective responsibility for challenges.

“When things go well, people give credit freely. When things go wrong, they own it. It’s a low-ego, highly aligned team — and that makes all the difference.”
Joe Ambeault — Senior Vice President of Product Development

 

At-a-Glance

  • Collaboration style: Cross-functional, purpose-driven, and ownership-focused
  • Work model: Hybrid model for corporate roles (typically three days in office and two remote)
  • Core practices: OKR operational model, team-based strategic planning, company-wide meetings, hackathons
  • Decision framework: “One raid, one ranger” model enabling efficient decision-making and coordination

 

External Signals

  • 2026 Best Places to Work, Built In
  • Great Place to Work® Certified (April 2025-April 2026)
  • Corporate Equality Index (2023–2024), Human Rights Campaign
  • Equality 100 Leader in LGBTQ+ Workplace Inclusion, Human Rights Campaign
  • DEI Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion (2023)

Recognition Practices

Optimum employees describe a culture where recognition is tied to teamwork, impact, and shared success. Leaders emphasize that the company’s success begins with its people, and recognition often reflects employees’ contributions to improving customer experiences, building technology, and supporting communities across the company’s 21-state footprint.

Recognition occurs through both formal and informal channels. Company gatherings such as all-hands meetings and revenue kickoff events create opportunities to celebrate team achievements and highlight progress across the business. Employees also point to innovation programs like hackathons and internal recognition moments across teams, where contributions to new ideas, automation, and workflow improvements are acknowledged and celebrated.

Teams also emphasize everyday appreciation and shared accountability as part of recognition culture. Product development teams, for example, highlight a low-ego environment where credit for success is shared broadly and individuals take ownership when challenges arise. These norms reinforce a culture where recognition is tied to real impact and collaboration rather than formality alone.

Leadership further reinforces recognition through engagement initiatives and digital platforms that promote knowledge sharing and peer recognition. Programs introduced as part of Optimum’s employee experience transformation allow employees to celebrate achievements, recognize colleagues across functions, and strengthen company-wide connection.

 

Employee Perspective

“When things go well, people give credit freely. When things go wrong, they own it. It’s a low-ego, highly aligned team — and that makes all the difference.”

—Joe Ambeault, Senior Vice President of Product Development

 

At-a-Glance

  • Recognition formats: All-hands meetings, company events, hackathons, digital engagement platform recognition.
  • Values focus: Team success, innovation, and customer impact
  • Manager practice: Leaders celebrate contributions and highlight achievements across teams
  • Culture drivers: Collaboration, shared accountability, and continuous improvement


External Signals

  • 2026 Best Places to Work, Built In
  • Great Place to Work® Certified (April 2025-April 2026)
  • Corporate Equality Index (2023–2024), Human Rights Campaign
  • Equality 100 Leader in LGBTQ+ Workplace Inclusion, Human Rights Campaign

Optimum Employee Perspectives

We truly believe that the core of our culture comes from a sense of purpose — and knowing that purpose allows people to have a lot of freedom to go and build the right thing and build it right.

Joe Ambeault
Joe Ambeault, Senior Vice President of Product Development

Our employees live our mission each day by leaning into a customer-first culture of collaboration, excellence, pride and inclusion, supporting each other in a safe and fulfilling work environment. 

Heather Joines
Heather Joines, VP, Talent Acquisition and Operations

At Optimum, our culture is guided by three principles. We Do What’s Right by fostering a collaborative, transparent environment. We Drive One Optimum by uniting around a shared vision and bringing our expertise forward. And we Make It Happen by putting customers first and taking ownership to deliver results.

Optimum
Optimum,
From the article: Our Guiding Principles

We have implemented various feedback channels to ensure that every employee has the opportunity to make their voice heard. From lifecycle and engagement surveys to leadership roundtables and feedback sessions, we actively seek input from team members across various groups and regions.

Colleen Cone
Colleen Cone, EVP Chief Human Resources Officer

Thanks to our ongoing culture transformation initiatives, all directly influenced by employee feedback, we were honored to have earned a Great Place to Work® Certification™ this year. In addition, Optimum won the Work Culture Award at the 2024 Cablefax Top Ops awards.

Colleen Cone
Colleen Cone, EVP, Chief Human Resources Officer

Our Health and Safety team is committed to ensuring the long-term wellbeing of our employees and customers. They’re in the field, side-by-side with our field technicians, visiting sites to educate employees on protocol, and improving communication in times of crisis. A culture that feels safe is a culture that’s engaged, innovative, and dedicated to customer satisfaction.

Robert Grasty, SVP Talent

Optimum Employee Reviews

Working at Optimum has been an incredibly rewarding experience. This is a company that truly values lifelong learning. Our leadership team is committed to supporting our growth, whether we aim to excel in our current roles or prepare for future opportunities. I'm currently enrolled in a course at University of Phoenix and am paying zero tuition.

Bobbie
Bobbie, Recruiter
Bobbie, Recruiter