After Shield AI
- 28%Joined a startup11
- 13%Joined a big company5
- 59%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave Shield AI most often go to Anduril Industries. Of them, 28% go somewhere small. The median tenure is 1y 4m
Not Shield AI's headcount: these are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer. 142 people on a map of 67,181, No. 169 on it by people. Updated September 30, 2026.
- People on the map
- 1420.2% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 10473% of the people here
- Moved on
- 3827% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 1y 4mmiddle half 9m to 3y 2m
Came from, went to
Ribbon width is the number of people who made the move. Most arrive from Lockheed Martin. Most leave for Anduril Industries (10% of recorded departures).
20 of 125 recorded arrivals shown, 105 more from 98 other companies4 of 39 recorded departures shown, 35 more to 34 other companies
How long people stay
34%<1y
24%1-2y
25%2-4y
14%4-7y
4%7y+
138 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
<3<315
0016
<3<317
4018
6019
9<320
9421
181022
15523
15924
43925
23<326
joined left2026 is a partial year
2015 to 2026: 145 joined, 42 left.
Caliber
78mediantop 10%84
0Eng Scorer caliber, 48 scored99
Titles held here
- Senior Software Engineer36
- Software Engineer28
- Staff Software Engineer18
- Engineering Manager6
- Senior Engineer6
- Machine Learning Engineer5
- Software Engineer II5
- Staff Engineer5
8 most common titles, by people who held them.
First job on the record for 4% of people here.
Behind the median
Everyone here with an Eng Scorer read, placed in their caliber tier.
- 27%Strong or solid13 people
- 65%Emerging31 people
- 8%Unproven4 people
48 of the 142 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.
Fewer than 3 of the 48 people here with a read sit in exceptional or strong, the top two of the five tiers, too few to print as a count. 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. A tier holding fewer than 3 people is printed with the one next to it, because that few is a person rather than a pattern.
Whether a title rose here
The level of the first title recorded here, against the last.
56%Titles that rose35 of 63 classified people
- 56%Rose35 people
- 32%Stayed level20 people
- 13%Fell8 people
63 of the 142 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
- Virginia Tech11.4%
- Georgia Tech8.5%
- Carnegie Mellon5.0%
- University of Maryland5.0%
- MIT4.3%
- UC San Diego4.3%
- Cornell3.6%
- Johns Hopkins3.6%
The 8 most listed schools among the 141 people here with a school on file.
16 of the 141 people here with a school on file list Virginia Tech, 12 list Georgia Tech and 7 list Carnegie Mellon. A person can list more than one, so these overlap.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
23%have a public GitHub account on their profile
32 of the 142 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
42% of the people who have worked at Shield AI and list a location live in Washington DC today, against 13% of everyone on the map.
Shield AI
Everyone on the map
- 42%Washington DC59 · map 13%
- 13%San Diego18 · map 0.5%
- 7%SF Bay Area10 · map 41%
- 6%Dallas-Fort Worth8 · map 0.9%
- 6%Los Angeles8 · map 5%
- 3%New York4 · map 18%
- 2%Denver3 · map 0.8%
- 23%Somewhere else32
All 142 people who worked at Shield 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 Shield 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 Shield AI, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 142 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at Shield AI: 104 are there now, 38 have moved on.
- Most leave for Anduril Industries: 4 people, 10% of recorded departures.
- Most arrive from Lockheed Martin: 7 people. Then Heron Systems, Inc. (A Shield AI Company) and Northrop Grumman.
- Median tenure at Shield AI: 1y 4m, middle half 9m to 3y 2m.
- Of the people with a recorded next move after Shield AI, fewer than 3 went to a founder title next, 28% joined a company of 200 or fewer, and 13% joined one of 10,000 or more.
- Median Eng Scorer caliber here: 78 on the 0 to 99 scale, across 48 scored people.
- Most common title held here: Senior Software Engineer, then Software Engineer.
- Top school: Virginia Tech, listed by 16 of the 141 people here with one on file (11.3%). Then Georgia Tech (12).
- 42% of the 142 people here who list a location live in Washington DC today, against 13% across the map. Where they live now, not the office they sat in while they worked here.
- 23% of the 142 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub.
- 35 rose, 20 stayed level, 8 fell, out of the 63 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 Shield AI? See how your profile reads to a startup hiring manager, and where it ranks among 67,181 engineers.
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