After Scale AI
- 7%Founded something25
- 26%Joined a startup95
- 21%Joined a big company78
- 46%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave Scale AI most often go to Meta, Google and OpenAI. Of them, 7% found something next and 26% go somewhere small. The median tenure is 1y 4m
Not Scale AI's headcount: these are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer. 781 people on a map of 67,181, No. 26 on it by people. Updated September 30, 2026.
- People on the map
- 7811.2% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 39450% of the people here
- Moved on
- 38750% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 1y 4mmiddle half 8m to 2y 2m
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).
226 of 741 recorded arrivals shown, 515 more from 395 other companies97 of 370 recorded departures shown, 273 more to 217 other companies
The Scale AI mafia
25 of the people who left went straight to a founding role, 7% of those who moved on, half of them the same month they left. The bars cover the ’20 to ’26 classes; earlier founders still count in the total.
How long people stay
35%<1y
34%1-2y
26%2-4y
4%4-7y
1%7y+
726 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
<3014
0015
3016
6<317
3018
19519
26620
502521
642822
1096023
21411824
21513825
811826
joined left2026 is a partial year
2014 to 2026: 791 joined, 399 left.
Caliber
84mediantop 10%93
0Eng Scorer caliber, 419 scored99
there now 83 moved on 84. Current staff and alumni score about the same.
Titles held here
- Software Engineer211
- Senior Software Engineer59
- Machine Learning Engineer56
- AI45
- Machine Learning Research Engineer26
- Software Engineer Intern25
- Staff Software Engineer21
- Strategic Projects Lead15
8 most common titles, by people who held them.
First job on the record for 3% of people here.
Behind the median
Everyone here with an Eng Scorer read, placed in their caliber tier.
- 4%Exceptional18 people
- 28%Strong118 people
- 35%Solid147 people
- 25%Emerging105 people
- 7%Unproven31 people
419 of the 781 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.
136 of the 419 people here with a read sit in exceptional or strong, the top two of the five tiers, 32%. 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.
35%Titles that rose124 of 356 classified people
- 35%Rose124 people
- 58%Stayed level206 people
- 7%Fell26 people
356 of the 781 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 Berkeley12.2%
- Stanford7.8%
- Carnegie Mellon6.8%
- MIT6.8%
- Georgia Tech5.4%
- Columbia3.2%
- University of Maryland3.1%
- Penn3.0%
The 8 most listed schools among the 779 people here with a school on file.
95 of the 779 people here with a school on file list UC Berkeley, 61 list Stanford and 53 list Carnegie Mellon. A person can list more than one, so these overlap.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
22%have a public GitHub account on their profile
170 of the 781 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 Scale AI and list a location live in the San Francisco Bay Area today, against 41% of everyone on the map.
Scale AI
Everyone on the map
- 51%SF Bay Area399 · map 41%
- 30%New York231 · map 18%
- 7%Washington DC53 · map 13%
- 2%Los Angeles13 · map 5%
- 1%Seattle9 · map 5%
- 0.6%Boston5 · map 2%
- 0.5%Atlanta4 · map 1%
- 0.5%Austin4 · map 0.8%
- 8%Somewhere else63
All 781 people who worked at Scale AI 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 Scale AI: 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 Scale AI, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 781 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at Scale AI: 394 are there now, 387 have moved on.
- Most leave for Meta: 31 people, 8% of recorded departures. Then Google and OpenAI.
- Most arrive from Meta: 53 people. Then Amazon and AWS.
- Median tenure at Scale AI: 1y 4m, middle half 8m to 2y 2m.
- Of the people with a recorded next move after Scale AI, 7% went to a founder title next, 26% joined a company of 200 or fewer, and 21% joined one of 10,000 or more.
- Median Eng Scorer caliber here: 84 on the 0 to 99 scale, across 419 scored people.
- Most common title held here: Software Engineer, then Senior Software Engineer.
- Top school: UC Berkeley, listed by 95 of the 779 people here with one on file (12.2%). Then Stanford (61).
- 51% of the 781 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.
- 22% of the 781 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub.
- 124 rose, 206 stayed level, 26 fell, out of the 356 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.
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