After Cruise
- 6%Founded something7
- 18%Joined a startup20
- 20%Joined a big company22
- 55%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave Cruise most often go to Meta, Waymo and Google. 6% found something next. 18% go small. Median stay 2y 3m
These are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer, not Cruise's headcount: 128 people on a map of 26,572, the No. 73 company on it by people. Updated August 20, 2026.
- People on the map
- 1280.5% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 1512% of the people here
- Moved on
- 11388% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 2y 3mmiddle half 1y 7m to 3y 8m
Put Cruise side by side with another company, every number against every number.
Came from, went to
Ribbon width is the number of people who made the move. Most arrive from Meta. Most leave for Meta (8% of recorded departures).
How long people stay
13%<1y
28%1-2y
38%2-4y
17%4-7y
4%7y+
117 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
0012
0013
0014
1015
2016
12117
23518
261619
121320
181221
272322
161223
32624
01425
0326
joined left2026 is a partial year
2012 to 2026: 140 joined, 125 left.
Caliber
85mediantop 10%94
0Eng Scorer caliber, 128 scored99
Titles held here
- Senior Software Engineer37
- Software Engineer25
- Software Engineer Intern16
- Senior Software Engineer II11
- Staff Software Engineer7
- Engineering Manager6
- Machine Learning Engineer5
- Senior Machine Learning Engineer II5
8 most common titles, by people who held them.
First job on the record for 2% of people here.
Behind the median
Everyone here with an Eng Scorer read, placed in their caliber tier.
- 4%Exceptional5 people
- 36%Strong46 people
- 43%Solid54 people
- 17%Emerging or unproven22 people
127 of the 128 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.
Exceptional and strong are the top two of the five tiers. 51 of the 127 people here with a read sit in them, 40%. A tier is the band an Eng Scorer caliber score falls in, so this is the same measurement as the median on the caliber card, opened up. A tier holding fewer than 3 people is printed together with the one next to it, because a bucket that small is a person rather than a pattern.
Whether a title rose here
The level of the first title recorded here, against the last.
39%Titles that rose44 of 112 classified people
- 39%Rose44 people
- 47%Stayed level53 people
- 13%Fell15 people
112 of the 128 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 who recorded one title here and then left, it is 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. A title that matches no rung is left out rather than guessed, and product, program and project managers are left out entirely, being a different ladder. That leaves 112 of the 128 people here classified, and it leans towards people who have left: someone still here on a single recorded title has nothing to be measured against.
Where they studied
- UC Berkeley18.1%
- Stanford10.2%
- MIT9.5%
- Carnegie Mellon3.9%
- UIUC3.9%
- UC San Diego3.2%
- University of Michigan3.2%
- USC3.2%
The 8 most listed schools among the 127 people here with a school on file.
Of the 127 people here with a school on file, 23 list UC Berkeley, 13 list Stanford and 12 list MIT. A person can list more than one school, so these overlap rather than add up.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
53%have a public GitHub account on their profile
67 of the 127 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts. An account the check did not find reads the same as no account, so this is a floor rather than a census.
Across the 325 companies on the map that can show this figure, the median is 38%.
Where they are now
87% of the people who have worked at Cruise and list a location live in the San Francisco Bay Area today, against 47% of everyone on the map.
Cruise
Everyone on the map
- 87%SF Bay Area110 · map 47%
- 9%New York12 · map 33%
- 4%Somewhere else5
127 of the 128 people who worked at Cruise list a location, and every share here is over those 127.
Where they live now, from the profile as it reads today, not where they sat while they worked at Cruise: a metro here does not mean the company has an office in it. The lower strip is the same metros across the whole map, for comparison.
On the same resumes
Companies that show up most often alongside Cruise, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 128 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at Cruise: 15 are there now and 113 have moved on.
- The most common next employer after Cruise is Meta (9 people, 8% of recorded departures), followed by Waymo and Google.
- The most common previous employer before Cruise is Meta (6 people), followed by Google and Amazon.
- The median tenure at Cruise is 2y 3m (middle half 1y 7m to 3y 8m).
- Of those who moved on from Cruise, 6% went on to a founder title, 18% joined a company with 200 or fewer people, and 20% joined a company with 10,000 or more.
- The median Eng Scorer caliber of people who have worked at Cruise is 85 on the 0 to 99 scale (128 scored).
- The most common title held at Cruise is Senior Software Engineer, then Software Engineer.
- Of the 127 people here with a school on file, 23 list UC Berkeley (18.1%), then Stanford (13). A person can list more than one school, so these overlap rather than add up.
- 87% of the 127 people here who list a location live in SF Bay Area today, against 47% of everyone on the map. That is where they live now, not the office they sat in while they worked here.
- 53% of the 127 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub account on it.
- Of the 112 people here whose title could be placed on a ladder both before and after, 44 rose, 53 stayed level and 15 fell.
About this data: built from 144,786 jobs across 26,572 engineers in the Zelcast network and Eng Scorer reads, updated August 20, 2026. A move counts when the next role starts within 24 months of leaving; companies with fewer than 20 people on the map are not shown, and destinations with fewer than 3 people are folded 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 26,572 engineers.
Arrow keys move along the map.