Autodesk is proud to be featured in Fast Company’s list of Best Workplaces for Innovators 2024

For the third consecutive year, Autodesk has been honored by Fast Company as one of the Best Workplaces for Innovators, recognizing our enduring commitment to foster a culture of innovation across the entire organization.

This prestigious annual list ranks 100 companies from diverse industries—ranging from entertainment and biotech to healthcare and education—based on their effectiveness in nurturing innovation across the enterprise. This year, Autodesk has risen into the top third of the list, climbing from 62 to an impressive 28, and we are thrilled to announce our victory in the “Software & Computing” category  for our Flex Forward program.

This accolade is a testament to our efforts to create authentic spaces where employees can thrive and bring their most original ideas to life. To celebrate this achievement, we turned to three of our own trailblazers to share what innovation means in their roles and how Autodesk inspires creative thinking at every level in their own words:

Technology Innovator: Mari Vidaurre, insights & solutions design partner, Lumi team

What does innovation mean to you in your role at Autodesk?
Innovation in my role means continuously pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in HR technology. It involves leveraging emerging technologies, like AI and advanced analytics, to create scalable, human-centered solutions that enhance the digital employee experience. Innovation is not just about adopting new tools but also about reimagining how we use technology to meet employee needs, drive business outcomes, and foster a culture of inclusivity and accessibility. It’s about leading change and ensuring that our solutions evolve with the ever-changing landscape of work.

How does Autodesk encourage creative thinking and innovation among its employees?
Autodesk encourages creative thinking and innovation by fostering a culture that values collaboration across diverse teams and disciplines. In my experience, it provides the tools and resources needed to experiment with emerging technologies, such as AI, and supports continuous learning through access to training and development programs. Additionally, Autodesk promotes an open environment where new ideas are welcomed and we are empowered to take ownership of projects that drive both technological advancements and improved employee experiences.

What do you enjoy most about working at Autodesk?
After three years at Autodesk, I’m continually inspired by how much we’ve accomplished as a cross-functional team. Our culture of trust is at the heart of our success—we consistently keep our commitments to one another and our employees. The principle of “do what you say and say what you mean” truly defines our partnerships. This strong foundation enables us to deliver tailored employee experiences through Lumi and other digital solutions across different channels.

Lumi is designed to shine a light on useful material from all of Autodesk’s resources, allowing employees to spend less time manually searching for HR, IT, procurement, stock and payroll information.

Impact Innovator: Ky Begley, employee impact project lead for Pro Bono Consulting, Autodesk Foundation team

What does innovation mean to you in your role at Autodesk?
Innovation in my role means finding new and creative ways to deliver a best-in-class experience to both our employees and our partner organizations. Whether it’s scaling the program while maintaining quality service, ensuring our volunteers are matched to projects that best fit their skills and interest, thus keeping them engaged, or supporting our innovative partnerships with our portfolio customers and beyond, I’m always working to continually improve and adapt the program to meet evolving needs and exciting opportunities!

How does Autodesk encourage creative thinking and innovation among its employees?
Autodesk really encourages creative thinking and innovation among employees by providing and fostering Impact programming that encourages them to apply their professional skills and expertise in settings that allow for the creative solving of real-world problems with sustainability focused organizations. By volunteering with these organizations, our employees are exposed to new and exciting challenges, and are pushed to come up with outside-of-the box solutions.

What do you enjoy most about working at Autodesk?
I really love being able to connect our highly skilled and amazing employees with deeply impactful non-profits and start-ups that are scaling innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges.

Through Autodesk’s skill-based Pro Bono Consulting program, employees are empowered to lend their expertise to advance the design and scale of sustainable, resilient, and inclusive solutions.

Workplace Innovator: Michelle Berry, senior director, people consulting & program lead, Flex Forward team

What does innovation mean to you in your role at Autodesk?
To me, it means thinking about things differently and questioning if there is another way. At a time when so many companies were mandating employees back to the office (and still are), Autodesk took a more thoughtful approach and designed Flex Forward as a way to support hybrid work. For Autodesk, that meant rethinking what workplaces could look like, from the way we design physical spaces, to technology, to enablement tools, and employee benefits. We wanted to help our employees think about gathering in a different and more intentional way.

How does Autodesk encourage creative thinking and innovation among its employees?
At the heart of Flex Forward is employee choice. We enable employees to think logically and holistically about how they structure their day. That means knowing when they need heads-down thinking time and when they need to come together with others to brainstorm and collaborate to solve a problem or design a solution. By taking the one-size-fits-all approach out of our working model, we allow our teams to really think about what they need to do their best work and remove barriers to innovative thinking.

What do you enjoy most about working at Autodesk?
The culture at Autodesk is so unique. We don’t automatically follow the grain and do things just because our tech peers are doing it. We think about what is right for us and our business as a whole and that naturally includes thinking about our people and leading with care and empathy. It takes a lot of trust to do things differently and to experiment with something that is new and different. Our culture is a big part of what has made Flex Forward successful. Autodesk is a company with a lot of heart, and I think people feel that.

Flex Forward offers opportunities for individual choice in where and how work gets done, while still maintaining productivity, connection and belonging across the company.

To learn more about what makes Autodesk a special place for our innovative employees, check out Autodesk Life.