After Plaid
- 6%Founded something5
- 34%Joined a startup26
- 12%Joined a big company9
- 48%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave Plaid most often go to Cursor, Google and OpenAI. Of them, 6% found something next and 34% go somewhere small. The median tenure is 2y 1m
Not Plaid's headcount: these are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer. 188 people on a map of 67,181, No. 126 on it by people. Updated September 30, 2026.
- People on the map
- 1880.3% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 11461% of the people here
- Moved on
- 7439% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 2y 1mmiddle half 1y to 4y
Came from, went to
Ribbon width is the number of people who made the move. Most arrive from Amazon. Most leave for Cursor (6% of recorded departures).
54 of 197 recorded arrivals shown, 143 more from 121 other companies12 of 77 recorded departures shown, 65 more to 60 other companies
How long people stay
22%<1y
24%1-2y
29%2-4y
23%4-7y
3%7y+
177 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
<3<315
6016
5<317
3<318
8<319
221220
27521
412422
182123
231924
331025
25326
joined left2026 is a partial year
2015 to 2026: 212 joined, 98 left.
Caliber
84mediantop 10%89
0Eng Scorer caliber, 141 scored99
there now 83 moved on 85. The people who left score higher than the people still there.
Titles held here
- Software Engineer99
- Software Engineer Intern34
- Senior Software Engineer29
- Engineering Manager11
- Machine Learning Engineer6
- AI5
- Staff Software Engineer5
- Software Engineer II4
8 most common titles, by people who held them.
Behind the median
Everyone here with an Eng Scorer read, placed in their caliber tier.
- 3%Exceptional4 people
- 19%Strong27 people
- 57%Solid80 people
- 18%Emerging26 people
- 3%Unproven4 people
141 of the 188 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.
31 of the 141 people here with a read sit in exceptional or strong, the top two of the five tiers, 22%. 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.
41%Titles that rose39 of 95 classified people
- 41%Rose39 people
- 55%Stayed level52 people
- 4%Fell4 people
95 of the 188 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 Berkeley12.9%
- MIT7.0%
- Stanford5.4%
- UCLA4.8%
- UIUC4.3%
- University of Waterloo4.3%
- Carnegie Mellon3.8%
- Georgia Tech3.8%
The 8 most listed schools among the 186 people here with a school on file.
24 of the 186 people here with a school on file list UC Berkeley, 13 list MIT and 10 list Stanford. A person can list more than one, so these overlap.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
37%have a public GitHub account on their profile
69 of the 188 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
51% of the people who have worked at Plaid and list a location live in the San Francisco Bay Area today, against 41% of everyone on the map.
Plaid
Everyone on the map
- 51%SF Bay Area96 · map 41%
- 36%New York68 · map 18%
- 4%Washington DC7 · map 13%
- 2%Boston3 · map 2%
- 2%Los Angeles3 · map 5%
- 2%Seattle3 · map 5%
- 4%Somewhere else8
All 188 people who worked at Plaid 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 Plaid: 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 Plaid, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 188 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at Plaid: 114 are there now, 74 have moved on.
- Most leave for Cursor: 5 people, 6% of recorded departures. Then Google and OpenAI.
- Most arrive from Amazon: 12 people. Then Meta and Google.
- Median tenure at Plaid: 2y 1m, middle half 1y to 4y.
- Of the people with a recorded next move after Plaid, 6% went to a founder title next, 34% joined a company of 200 or fewer, and 12% joined one of 10,000 or more.
- Median Eng Scorer caliber here: 84 on the 0 to 99 scale, across 141 scored people.
- Most common title held here: Software Engineer, then Software Engineer Intern.
- Top school: UC Berkeley, listed by 24 of the 186 people here with one on file (12.9%). Then MIT (13).
- 51% of the 188 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.
- 37% of the 188 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub.
- 39 rose, 52 stayed level, 4 fell, out of the 95 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 Plaid? See how your profile reads to a startup hiring manager, and where it ranks among 67,181 engineers.
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