Prós
There are opportunities to work on some awesome missions. Work/life balance is great for many positions. 9/80 work week, get every other Friday off!
Contras
Company policies affecting performance reviews, merit increases, promotions, and compensation remove all incentive to excel and try to move up quickly. High performers aren't really differentiated from average performers. It takes forever to move up - every coworker, high contributors included, has been promoted years after it was deserved due to HR policies. Your title doesn't reflect your actual level of competency or responsibility. Engineering salaries are lower than SF Bay Area averages, and almost no one receives profit sharing. Lots of ancient technologies & policies everywhere. Multi-disciplinary technical teams often require software engineers to come in at unnecessarily early hours.