After Cruise
- 5%Founded something15
- 16%Joined a startup46
- 31%Joined a big company90
- 48%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave Cruise most often go to Meta, Google and Waymo. Of them, 5% found something next and 16% go somewhere small. The median tenure is 2y 5m
Not Cruise's headcount: these are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer. 330 people on a map of 67,181, No. 70 on it by people. Updated September 30, 2026.
- People on the map
- 3300.5% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 319% of the people here
- Moved on
- 29991% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 2y 5mmiddle half 1y 7m to 3y 8m
Came from, went to
Ribbon width is the number of people who made the move. Most arrive from Meta. Most leave for Meta (9% of recorded departures).
96 of 329 recorded arrivals shown, 233 more from 201 other companies121 of 301 recorded departures shown, 180 more to 143 other companies
The Cruise mafia
15 of the people who left went straight to a founding role, 5% of those who moved on, half of them the same month they left. The bars cover the ’20 to ’26 classes; earlier founders still count in the total.
How long people stay
12%<1y
27%1-2y
41%2-4y
18%4-7y
3%7y+
313 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
<3015
3016
25<317
40618
552219
342720
492721
634822
693623
137124
07325
01126
joined left2026 is a partial year
2015 to 2026: 353 joined, 322 left.
Caliber
84mediantop 10%94
0Eng Scorer caliber, 166 scored99
Titles held here
- Senior Software Engineer78
- Software Engineer52
- Senior Software Engineer II28
- Software Engineer Intern24
- Staff Software Engineer23
- Engineering Manager19
- Senior Machine Learning Engineer16
- Senior Machine Learning Engineer II14
8 most common titles, by people who held them.
First job on the record for 3% of people here.
Behind the median
Everyone here with an Eng Scorer read, placed in their caliber tier.
- 5%Exceptional8 people
- 32%Strong52 people
- 39%Solid64 people
- 19%Emerging32 people
- 5%Unproven9 people
165 of the 330 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.
60 of the 165 people here with a read sit in exceptional or strong, the top two of the five tiers, 36%. 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.
37%Titles that rose106 of 285 classified people
- 37%Rose106 people
- 49%Stayed level141 people
- 13%Fell38 people
285 of the 330 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 Berkeley13.5%
- MIT9.2%
- Stanford8.9%
- Georgia Tech6.1%
- Carnegie Mellon4.3%
- University of Michigan4.0%
- UIUC3.7%
- USC3.4%
The 8 most listed schools among the 327 people here with a school on file.
44 of the 327 people here with a school on file list UC Berkeley, 30 list MIT and 29 list Stanford. A person can list more than one, so these overlap.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
49%have a public GitHub account on their profile
162 of the 329 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
79% of the people who have worked at Cruise and list a location live in the San Francisco Bay Area today, against 41% of everyone on the map.
Cruise
Everyone on the map
- 79%SF Bay Area261 · map 41%
- 6%New York20 · map 18%
- 5%Seattle17 · map 5%
- 2%Los Angeles7 · map 5%
- 1%Washington DC4 · map 13%
- 0.9%Boston3 · map 2%
- 5%Somewhere else17
329 of the 330 people who worked at Cruise list a location, and every share here is over those 329.
Where they live now, from the profile as it reads today, not where they sat while working at Cruise: 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 Cruise, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 330 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at Cruise: 31 are there now, 299 have moved on.
- Most leave for Meta: 28 people, 9% of recorded departures. Then Google and Waymo.
- Most arrive from Meta: 24 people. Then Google and Amazon.
- Median tenure at Cruise: 2y 5m, middle half 1y 7m to 3y 8m.
- Of the people with a recorded next move after Cruise, 5% went to a founder title next, 16% joined a company of 200 or fewer, and 31% joined one of 10,000 or more.
- Median Eng Scorer caliber here: 84 on the 0 to 99 scale, across 166 scored people.
- Most common title held here: Senior Software Engineer, then Software Engineer.
- Top school: UC Berkeley, listed by 44 of the 327 people here with one on file (13.5%). Then MIT (30).
- 79% of the 329 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.
- 49% of the 329 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub.
- 106 rose, 141 stayed level, 38 fell, out of the 285 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 Cruise? See how your profile reads to a startup hiring manager, and where it ranks among 67,181 engineers.
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