After OpenAI
- 14%Founded something19
- 27%Joined a startup35
- 21%Joined a big company28
- 38%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave OpenAI most often go to Anthropic, Google and DeepMind. Of them, 14% found something next and 27% go somewhere small. The median tenure is 1y 3m
Not OpenAI's headcount: these are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer. 1,529 people on a map of 67,181, No. 11 on it by people. Updated September 30, 2026.
- People on the map
- 1,5292.3% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 1,37990% of the people here
- Moved on
- 15010% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 1y 3mmiddle half 8m to 2y 3m
Came from, went to
Ribbon width is the number of people who made the move. Most arrive from Google. Most leave for Anthropic (19% of recorded departures).
455 of 1,432 recorded arrivals shown, 977 more from 544 other companies71 of 135 recorded departures shown, 64 more to 56 other companies
The OpenAI mafia
19 of the people who left went straight to a founding role, 14% of those who moved on, half of them within 2 months of leaving. The bars cover the ’17 to ’26 classes; earlier founders still count in the total.
How long people stay
38%<1y
31%1-2y
24%2-4y
5%4-7y
3%7y+
1,528 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
<3015
20516
191417
33818
13419
25920
281021
55422
137823
3172424
5004825
3953326
joined left2026 is a partial year
2015 to 2026: 1,544 joined, 167 left.
Caliber
94mediantop 10%97
0Eng Scorer caliber, 938 scored99
there now 94 moved on 94. Current staff and alumni score about the same.
Titles held here
- Member of Technical Staff1,180
- Research Scientist26
- Software Engineer23
- AI12
- Applied AI10
- Forward Deployed Engineer10
- AI Deployment Engineer9
- Machine Learning Engineer9
8 most common titles, by people who held them.
Behind the median
Everyone here with an Eng Scorer read, placed in their caliber tier.
- 28%Exceptional261 people
- 43%Strong397 people
- 28%Solid257 people
- 1%Emerging10 people
- 1%Unproven9 people
934 of the 1,529 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.
658 of the 934 people here with a read sit in exceptional or strong, the top two of the five tiers, 70%. 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.
13%Titles that rose45 of 354 classified people
- 13%Rose45 people
- 81%Stayed level285 people
- 7%Fell24 people
354 of the 1,529 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
- Stanford16.0%
- UC Berkeley14.9%
- MIT8.8%
- Carnegie Mellon6.1%
- Harvard4.1%
- Georgia Tech3.8%
- UIUC3.3%
- UCLA3.2%
The 8 most listed schools among the 1,520 people here with a school on file.
243 of the 1,520 people here with a school on file list Stanford, 227 list UC Berkeley and 133 list MIT. A person can list more than one, so these overlap.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
46%have a public GitHub account on their profile
696 of the 1,525 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
92% of the people who have worked at OpenAI and list a location live in the San Francisco Bay Area today, against 41% of everyone on the map.
OpenAI
Everyone on the map
- 92%SF Bay Area1,401 · map 41%
- 3%New York43 · map 18%
- 1.0%Washington DC15 · map 13%
- 0.5%Los Angeles7 · map 5%
- 0.5%Seattle7 · map 5%
- 0.3%Boston5 · map 2%
- 0.2%Pittsburgh3 · map 0.4%
- 0.2%Portland3 · map 0.2%
- 3%Somewhere else41
1,525 of the 1,529 people who worked at OpenAI list a location, and every share here is over those 1,525.
Where they live now, from the profile as it reads today, not where they sat while working at OpenAI: 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 OpenAI, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 1,529 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at OpenAI: 1,379 are there now, 150 have moved on.
- Most leave for Anthropic: 26 people, 19% of recorded departures. Then Google and DeepMind.
- Most arrive from Google: 142 people. Then Meta and Apple.
- Median tenure at OpenAI: 1y 3m, middle half 8m to 2y 3m.
- Of the people with a recorded next move after OpenAI, 14% went to a founder title next, 27% joined a company of 200 or fewer, and 21% joined one of 10,000 or more.
- Median Eng Scorer caliber here: 94 on the 0 to 99 scale, across 938 scored people.
- Most common title held here: Member of Technical Staff, then Research Scientist.
- Top school: Stanford, listed by 243 of the 1,520 people here with one on file (16.0%). Then UC Berkeley (227).
- 92% of the 1,525 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.
- 46% of the 1,525 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub.
- 45 rose, 285 stayed level, 24 fell, out of the 354 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 OpenAI? See how your profile reads to a startup hiring manager, and where it ranks among 67,181 engineers.
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