After Scale AI
- 9%Founded something17
- 25%Joined a startup48
- 16%Joined a big company30
- 50%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave Scale AI most often go to Meta, Google and OpenAI. 9% found something next. 25% go small. Median stay 1y 5m
These are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer, not Scale AI's headcount: 370 people on a map of 26,572, the No. 21 company on it by people. Updated August 20, 2026.
- People on the map
- 3701.4% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 16745% of the people here
- Moved on
- 20355% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 1y 5mmiddle half 8m to 2y 3m
Put Scale AI 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 Meta. Most leave for Meta (9% of recorded departures).
110 of 360 recorded arrivals shown, 250 more from 206 other companies47 of 193 recorded departures shown, 146 more to 131 other companies
The Scale AI mafia
17 of the people who left went straight to a founding role, 9% of those who moved on, half of them the same month they left. The bars are the ’15 to ’26 classes; earlier founders count in the total.
How long people stay
33%<1y
33%1-2y
28%2-4y
5%4-7y
1%7y+
346 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
0012
0013
0014
0015
2016
5117
1018
15319
13520
331321
331422
513523
955124
957525
301126
joined left2026 is a partial year
2012 to 2026: 373 joined, 208 left.
Caliber
84mediantop 10%94
0Eng Scorer caliber, 370 scored99
there now 84 moved on 84. Current staff and alumni score about the same.
Titles held here
- Software Engineer112
- Senior Software Engineer32
- Machine Learning Engineer16
- Staff Software Engineer14
- Software Engineer Intern13
- Strategic Projects Lead13
- Machine Learning Research Engineer11
- Research Scientist6
8 most common titles, by people who held them.
Behind the median
Everyone here with an Eng Scorer read, placed in their caliber tier.
- 4%Exceptional16 people
- 31%Strong114 people
- 38%Solid142 people
- 22%Emerging82 people
- 4%Unproven16 people
370 of the 370 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.
Exceptional and strong are the top two of the five tiers. 130 of the 370 people here with a read sit in them, 35%. 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.
33%Titles that rose60 of 184 classified people
- 33%Rose60 people
- 61%Stayed level112 people
- 7%Fell12 people
184 of the 370 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 184 of the 370 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 Berkeley14.4%
- Stanford8.9%
- MIT7.9%
- Carnegie Mellon6.8%
- Columbia4.1%
- Penn3.8%
- Georgia Tech3.3%
- Cornell3.0%
The 8 most listed schools among the 369 people here with a school on file.
Of the 369 people here with a school on file, 53 list UC Berkeley, 33 list Stanford and 29 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
23%have a public GitHub account on their profile
86 of the 370 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
52% of the people who have worked at Scale AI and list a location live in New York today, against 33% of everyone on the map.
Scale AI
Everyone on the map
- 52%New York193 · map 33%
- 41%SF Bay Area153 · map 47%
- 4%Washington DC16 · map 7%
- 1%Los Angeles5 · map 6%
- 0.8%Somewhere else3
All 370 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 they worked at Scale AI: 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 Scale AI, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 370 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at Scale AI: 167 are there now and 203 have moved on.
- The most common next employer after Scale AI is Meta (17 people, 9% of recorded departures), followed by Google and OpenAI.
- The most common previous employer before Scale AI is Meta (24 people), followed by Amazon and Amazon Web Services (AWS).
- The median tenure at Scale AI is 1y 5m (middle half 8m to 2y 3m).
- Of those who moved on from Scale AI, 9% went on to a founder title, 25% joined a company with 200 or fewer people, and 16% joined a company with 10,000 or more.
- The median Eng Scorer caliber of people who have worked at Scale AI is 84 on the 0 to 99 scale (370 scored).
- The most common title held at Scale AI is Software Engineer, then Senior Software Engineer.
- Of the 369 people here with a school on file, 53 list UC Berkeley (14.4%), then Stanford (33). A person can list more than one school, so these overlap rather than add up.
- 52% of the 370 people here who list a location live in New York today, against 33% of everyone on the map. That is where they live now, not the office they sat in while they worked here.
- 23% of the 370 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub account on it.
- Of the 184 people here whose title could be placed on a ladder both before and after, 60 rose, 112 stayed level and 12 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.
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