After Airbnb
- 7%Founded something20
- 17%Joined a startup51
- 25%Joined a big company75
- 52%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave Airbnb most often go to Meta, Google and Stripe. Of them, 7% found something next and 17% go somewhere small. The median tenure is 2y 11m
Not Airbnb's headcount: these are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer. 500 people on a map of 67,181, No. 39 on it by people. Updated September 30, 2026.
- People on the map
- 5000.7% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 18737% of the people here
- Moved on
- 31363% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 2y 11mmiddle half 1y 5m to 4y 11m
Came from, went to
Ribbon width is the number of people who made the move. Most arrive from Meta. Most leave for Meta (10% of recorded departures).
166 of 502 recorded arrivals shown, 336 more from 256 other companies122 of 312 recorded departures shown, 190 more to 156 other companies
The Airbnb mafia
20 of the people who left went straight to a founding role, 7% of those who moved on, half of them the same month they left. The bars cover the ’15 to ’26 classes; earlier founders still count in the total.
How long people stay
11%<1y
25%1-2y
29%2-4y
22%4-7y
13%7y+
445 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
<3012
10413
17414
331215
562416
722717
514018
964619
165420
373821
292822
302723
291824
502125
121226
joined left2026 is a partial year
2012 to 2026: 540 joined, 355 left.
Caliber
86mediantop 10%95
0Eng Scorer caliber, 280 scored99
there now 83 moved on 87. The people who left score higher than the people still there.
Titles held here
- Software Engineer166
- Senior Software Engineer112
- Software Engineer Intern80
- Staff Software Engineer55
- Engineering Manager22
- Machine Learning Engineer15
- Senior Staff Software Engineer13
- Data Scientist11
8 most common titles, by people who held them.
First job on the record for 4% of people here.
Behind the median
Everyone here with an Eng Scorer read, placed in their caliber tier.
- 10%Exceptional27 people
- 37%Strong103 people
- 40%Solid111 people
- 13%Emerging36 people
- 1%Unproven3 people
280 of the 500 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.
130 of the 280 people here with a read sit in exceptional or strong, the top two of the five tiers, 46%. A tier is the band a caliber score falls in, so this is the same measurement as the median on the caliber card, opened up.
Whether a title rose here
The level of the first title recorded here, against the last.
44%Titles that rose145 of 332 classified people
- 44%Rose145 people
- 52%Stayed level171 people
- 5%Fell16 people
332 of the 500 people here had a title that could be placed on the ladder before and after.
A title rose when the last title recorded here sits higher on the ladder than the first. For someone with one title here who then left, it's measured against the first title of their next role. The ladder runs intern, junior, mid, senior, staff or manager, principal, director, VP, then founder or C-level. Titles that match no rung are left out rather than guessed, and product, program and project managers are left out entirely as a different ladder. What's left leans towards people who have left: someone still here on one recorded title has nothing to measure against.
Where they studied
- UC Berkeley14.9%
- Stanford11.7%
- Carnegie Mellon6.6%
- MIT5.0%
- Georgia Tech4.0%
- Cornell3.6%
- Penn3.0%
- Columbia2.6%
The 8 most listed schools among the 497 people here with a school on file.
74 of the 497 people here with a school on file list UC Berkeley, 58 list Stanford and 33 list Carnegie Mellon. A person can list more than one, so these overlap.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
55%have a public GitHub account on their profile
274 of the 500 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts. An account the check missed reads the same as no account, so this is a floor.
31% is the median across the 857 companies that can show this figure.
Where they are now
72% of the people who have worked at Airbnb and list a location live in the San Francisco Bay Area today, against 41% of everyone on the map.
Airbnb
Everyone on the map
- 72%SF Bay Area359 · map 41%
- 12%New York60 · map 18%
- 5%Seattle27 · map 5%
- 2%Los Angeles11 · map 5%
- 2%Washington DC9 · map 13%
- 0.8%Boston4 · map 2%
- 0.6%San Diego3 · map 0.5%
- 5%Somewhere else26
499 of the 500 people who worked at Airbnb list a location, and every share here is over those 499.
Where they live now, from the profile as it reads today, not where they sat while working at Airbnb: a metro here isn't an office there. The lower strip is the same metros across the whole map.
On the same resumes
Companies that show up most often alongside Airbnb, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 500 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at Airbnb: 187 are there now, 313 have moved on.
- Most leave for Meta: 31 people, 10% of recorded departures. Then Google and Stripe.
- Most arrive from Meta: 45 people. Then Google and Amazon.
- Median tenure at Airbnb: 2y 11m, middle half 1y 5m to 4y 11m.
- Of the people with a recorded next move after Airbnb, 7% went to a founder title next, 17% joined a company of 200 or fewer, and 25% joined one of 10,000 or more.
- Median Eng Scorer caliber here: 86 on the 0 to 99 scale, across 280 scored people.
- Most common title held here: Software Engineer, then Senior Software Engineer.
- Top school: UC Berkeley, listed by 74 of the 497 people here with one on file (14.9%). Then Stanford (58).
- 72% of the 499 people here who list a location live in SF Bay Area today, against 41% across the map. Where they live now, not the office they sat in while they worked here.
- 55% of the 500 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub.
- 145 rose, 171 stayed level, 16 fell, out of the 332 people here whose title could be placed on a ladder before and after.
About this data: built from 352,028 jobs across 67,181 engineers in the Zelcast network and Eng Scorer reads, updated September 30, 2026. A move counts when the next role starts within 24 months of leaving. Companies under 20 people on the map aren't shown, and destinations under 3 people fold into the totals. Caliber is the Eng Scorer score.
Worked at Airbnb? See how your profile reads to a startup hiring manager, and where it ranks among 67,181 engineers.
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