Avantages
There are still some good people at Kiva, but many have left. Compensation is very competitive, but be warned that Amazon makes heavy use of stock bonuses as part of the compensation package, which don't vest until a year after your bonus. This makes it very difficult to justify leaving should you decide the company is not for you.
Inconvénients
This is a really tough place to work. Stress levels are through the roof, and aggressive and ever-changing deadlines and goals are pushed all the way through the organizational chain. The culture in many departments is such that very long hours are expected. Middle management is poor, but this is a consequence of the acquisition environment: (a) Amazon sets very aggressive goals which change frequently, (b) Kiva upper management, which contains many long-time "key employees", are essentially required to stay at Kiva for several years to cash in on stock / bonuses and likely required to meet certain business targets that Amazon demands, and (c) as a consequence, management has no choice but to push aggressive and unrealistic targets are pushed down the chain. A lot of unhappiness all around. Middle management sees no flexibility from upper management, and is forced to push a very large burden on employees at the bottom of the chain. Managers are conditioned by upper management to "spin" any critical feedback or negative news in a positive way during any meetings that include Amazon. If it isn't a "good story", then it it shouldn't be communicated. Several upper managers look terrified and act frantically when certain key Amazon deadlines appear at risk. This creates a culture that is very high paced, requires long hours, is stressful, yet is often successful at achieving short term goals. However, long term goals suffer, and employees leave in flocks. Another huge problem is retention: There are far too few employees for the tasks at hand. The turnover rate has been off the charts post-acquisition. This only compounds the problems above, and creates a downward spiral that is difficult to reverse. This used to be a five star company. Don't be fooled: it isn't anymore. As a final note: be advised that most of the five star reviews in 2014 occurred in a time frame when Kiva was initiating a major hiring push. Most of these reviews were from key managers and employees, and probably not representative of the types of jobs you'll be applying for.