After OpenAI
- 20%Founded something8
- 17%Joined a startup7
- 17%Joined a big company7
- 46%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave OpenAI most often go to Anthropic, Thinking Machines Lab and Google. 20% found something next. 17% go small. Median stay 1y 5m
These are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer, not OpenAI's headcount: 668 people on a map of 26,572, the No. 10 company on it by people. Updated August 20, 2026.
- People on the map
- 6682.5% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 62393% of the people here
- Moved on
- 457% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 1y 5mmiddle half 8m to 2y 6m
Put OpenAI 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 Google. Most leave for Anthropic (26% of recorded departures).
189 of 642 recorded arrivals shown, 453 more from 293 other companies23 of 43 recorded departures shown, 20 more to 20 other companies
The OpenAI mafia
8 of the people who left went straight to a founding role, 20% of those who moved on, half of them within 2 months of leaving. The bars are the ’15 to ’26 classes; earlier founders count in the total.
How long people stay
33%<1y
28%1-2y
29%2-4y
7%4-7y
2%7y+
668 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
0012
0013
0014
1015
5016
6617
15218
4219
12320
16621
34222
78223
153824
2081125
142926
joined left2026 is a partial year
2012 to 2026: 674 joined, 51 left.
Caliber
95mediantop 10%97
0Eng Scorer caliber, 668 scored99
there now 95 moved on 95. Current staff and alumni score about the same.
Titles held here
- Member of Technical Staff577
- Software Engineer12
- Forward Deployed Engineer6
- Senior Software Engineer5
- Research Scientist4
- Engineering3
- Machine Learning Engineer3
- Research Intern3
8 most common titles, by people who held them.
Behind the median
Everyone here with an Eng Scorer read, placed in their caliber tier.
- 36%Exceptional237 people
- 51%Strong336 people
- 12%Solid80 people
- 1%Emerging6 people
- 1%Unproven5 people
664 of the 668 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.
Exceptional and strong are the top two of the five tiers. 573 of the 664 people here with a read sit in them, 86%. 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.
Whether a title rose here
The level of the first title recorded here, against the last.
4%Titles that rose10 of 249 classified people
- 4%Rose10 people
- 94%Stayed level233 people
- 2%Fell6 people
249 of the 668 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 249 of the 668 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 Berkeley17.4%
- Stanford15.9%
- MIT8.6%
- Carnegie Mellon6.2%
- Harvard4.2%
- Columbia3.6%
- Cornell3.6%
- Georgia Tech3.6%
The 8 most listed schools among the 662 people here with a school on file.
Of the 662 people here with a school on file, 115 list UC Berkeley, 105 list Stanford and 57 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
51%have a public GitHub account on their profile
339 of the 664 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
91% of the people who have worked at OpenAI and list a location live in the San Francisco Bay Area today, against 47% of everyone on the map.
OpenAI
Everyone on the map
- 91%SF Bay Area601 · map 47%
- 4%New York28 · map 33%
- 0.6%Los Angeles4 · map 6%
- 0.6%Seattle4 · map 3%
- 0.4%Boston3 · map 0.4%
- 0.4%Washington DC3 · map 7%
- 3%Somewhere else21
664 of the 668 people who worked at OpenAI list a location, and every share here is over those 664.
Where they live now, from the profile as it reads today, not where they sat while they worked at OpenAI: 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 OpenAI, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 668 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at OpenAI: 623 are there now and 45 have moved on.
- The most common next employer after OpenAI is Anthropic (11 people, 26% of recorded departures), followed by Thinking Machines Lab and Google.
- The most common previous employer before OpenAI is Google (51 people), followed by Meta and Stripe.
- The median tenure at OpenAI is 1y 5m (middle half 8m to 2y 6m).
- Of those who moved on from OpenAI, 20% went on to a founder title, 17% joined a company with 200 or fewer people, and 17% joined a company with 10,000 or more.
- The median Eng Scorer caliber of people who have worked at OpenAI is 95 on the 0 to 99 scale (668 scored).
- The most common title held at OpenAI is Member of Technical Staff, then Software Engineer.
- Of the 662 people here with a school on file, 115 list UC Berkeley (17.4%), then Stanford (105). A person can list more than one school, so these overlap rather than add up.
- 91% of the 664 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.
- 51% of the 664 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub account on it.
- Of the 249 people here whose title could be placed on a ladder both before and after, 10 rose, 233 stayed level and 6 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 OpenAI? See how your profile reads to a startup hiring manager, and where it ranks among 26,572 engineers.
Arrow keys move along the map.