After DeepMind
- 4%Founded something8
- 19%Joined a startup43
- 32%Joined a big company72
- 45%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave DeepMind most often go to OpenAI, Meta and Anthropic. Of them, 4% found something next and 19% go somewhere small. The median tenure is 1y 5m
Not DeepMind's headcount: these are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer. 1,014 people on a map of 67,181, No. 21 on it by people. Updated September 30, 2026. DeepMind sits inside Google. The map keeps them apart because each hires under its own name, and flags the moves between them instead of counting them as a change of employer.
- People on the map
- 1,0141.5% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 77977% of the people here
- Moved on
- 23523% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 1y 5mmiddle half 9m to 2y 4m
Came from, went to
Ribbon width is the number of people who made the move. Most arrive from Meta. Most leave for OpenAI (14% of recorded departures). DeepMind and Google are one company kept apart here, so the ribbon between them is a transfer inside one company.
630 of 849 recorded arrivals shown, 219 more from 162 other companies128 of 224 recorded departures shown, 96 more to 75 other companies
The DeepMind mafia
8 of the people who left went straight to a founding role, 4% of those who moved on, half of them within a month of leaving. The bars cover the ’21 to ’26 classes; earlier founders still count in the total.
How long people stay
33%<1y
36%1-2y
22%2-4y
7%4-7y
2%7y+
968 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
6012
3013
0014
5415
3016
11617
31918
231019
19820
371521
462622
1092523
2684724
3237925
1512926
joined left2026 is a partial year
2012 to 2026: 1,035 joined, 258 left.
Caliber
91mediantop 10%96
0Eng Scorer caliber, 329 scored99
there now 90 moved on 93. The people who left score higher than the people still there.
Titles held here
- Software Engineer235
- Staff Software Engineer182
- Senior Software Engineer150
- Research Scientist82
- Research Engineer75
- Senior Staff Software Engineer71
- Senior Research Engineer33
- Research Intern30
8 most common titles, by people who held them.
Behind the median
Everyone here with an Eng Scorer read, placed in their caliber tier.
- 16%Exceptional52 people
- 48%Strong159 people
- 27%Solid89 people
- 6%Emerging20 people
- 3%Unproven9 people
329 of the 1,014 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.
211 of the 329 people here with a read sit in exceptional or strong, the top two of the five tiers, 64%. 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.
52%Titles that rose181 of 346 classified people
- 52%Rose181 people
- 42%Stayed level147 people
- 5%Fell18 people
346 of the 1,014 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
- Stanford13.5%
- UC Berkeley13.3%
- Carnegie Mellon9.8%
- MIT8.3%
- Georgia Tech5.2%
- Cornell3.9%
- UC San Diego3.8%
- UIUC3.8%
The 8 most listed schools among the 1,013 people here with a school on file.
137 of the 1,013 people here with a school on file list Stanford, 135 list UC Berkeley and 99 list Carnegie Mellon. A person can list more than one, so these overlap.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
43%have a public GitHub account on their profile
436 of the 1,014 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
87% of the people who have worked at DeepMind and list a location live in the San Francisco Bay Area today, against 41% of everyone on the map.
DeepMind
Everyone on the map
- 87%SF Bay Area886 · map 41%
- 7%New York67 · map 18%
- 0.9%Boston9 · map 2%
- 0.9%Seattle9 · map 5%
- 0.5%Los Angeles5 · map 5%
- 0.5%Washington DC5 · map 13%
- 0.4%Atlanta4 · map 1%
- 0.4%Pittsburgh4 · map 0.4%
- 2%Somewhere else25
All 1,014 people who worked at DeepMind list a location, and every share here is over them.
Where they live now, from the profile as it reads today, not where they sat while working at DeepMind: 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 DeepMind, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 1,014 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at DeepMind: 779 are there now, 235 have moved on.
- Most leave for OpenAI: 31 people, 14% of recorded departures. Then Meta and Anthropic.
- Most arrive from Meta: 44 people. Then Windsurf and Apple.
- DeepMind and Google are one company here, kept apart because each hires under its own name. The 492 counted as arriving from Google and the 19 counted as leaving for it are almost certainly transfers inside one company, and they still sit inside every total on this page.
- Median tenure at DeepMind: 1y 5m, middle half 9m to 2y 4m.
- Of the people with a recorded next move after DeepMind, 4% went to a founder title next, 19% joined a company of 200 or fewer, and 32% joined one of 10,000 or more.
- Median Eng Scorer caliber here: 91 on the 0 to 99 scale, across 329 scored people.
- Most common title held here: Software Engineer, then Staff Software Engineer.
- Top school: Stanford, listed by 137 of the 1,013 people here with one on file (13.5%). Then UC Berkeley (135).
- 87% of the 1,014 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.
- 43% of the 1,014 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub.
- 181 rose, 147 stayed level, 18 fell, out of the 346 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 DeepMind? See how your profile reads to a startup hiring manager, and where it ranks among 67,181 engineers.
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