After Shield AI
- 23%Joined a startup3
- 77%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave Shield AI most often go to a long tail of companies. 23% go small. Median stay 1y 10m
These are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer, not Shield AI's headcount: 37 people on a map of 26,572, the No. 271 company on it by people. Updated August 20, 2026.
- People on the map
- 370.1% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 2568% of the people here
- Moved on
- 1232% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 1y 10mmiddle half 1y 1m to 3y
Put Shield 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.
Not enough recorded moves to draw a river for Shield AI yet.
How long people stay
22%<1y
28%1-2y
42%2-4y
8%4-7y
0%7y+
36 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
0012
0013
0014
1115
0016
0017
0018
4019
4020
3221
5522
2223
4224
13125
2026
joined left2026 is a partial year
2012 to 2026: 38 joined, 13 left.
Caliber
78mediantop 10%84
0Eng Scorer caliber, 37 scored99
Titles held here
- Senior Software Engineer13
- Software Engineer9
- Machine Learning Engineer3
- Senior Engineer3
- Software Engineer Intern3
- Staff Software Engineer3
6 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.
- 30%Solid11 people
- 70%Emerging26 people
37 of the 37 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.
Exceptional and strong are the top two of the five tiers. Fewer than 3 of the 37 people here with a read sit in them, which is too few to print as a count. 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.
46%Titles that rose11 of 24 classified people
- 46%Rose11 people
- 42%Stayed level10 people
- 13%Fell3 people
24 of the 37 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 24 of the 37 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 San Diego13.5%
- Virginia Tech10.8%
- Carnegie Mellon8.1%
The 3 most listed schools among the 37 people here with a school on file.
Of the 37 people here with a school on file, 5 list UC San Diego, 4 list Virginia Tech and 3 list Carnegie Mellon. A person can list more than one school, so these overlap rather than add up.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
14%have a public GitHub account on their profile
5 of the 37 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
41% of the people who have worked at Shield AI and list a location live in Washington DC today, against 7% of everyone on the map.
Shield AI
Everyone on the map
- 41%Washington DC15 · map 7%
- 14%San Diego5 · map 0.1%
- 14%SF Bay Area5 · map 47%
- 8%New York3 · map 33%
- 24%Somewhere else9
All 37 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 they worked at Shield 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 Shield AI, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 37 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at Shield AI: 25 are there now and 12 have moved on.
- The median tenure at Shield AI is 1y 10m (middle half 1y 1m to 3y).
- Of those who moved on from Shield AI, fewer than 3 went on to a founder title, 23% joined a company with 200 or fewer people, and fewer than 3 joined a company with 10,000 or more.
- The median Eng Scorer caliber of people who have worked at Shield AI is 78 on the 0 to 99 scale (37 scored).
- The most common title held at Shield AI is Senior Software Engineer, then Software Engineer.
- Of the 37 people here with a school on file, 5 list UC San Diego (13.5%), then Virginia Tech (4). A person can list more than one school, so these overlap rather than add up.
- 41% of the 37 people here who list a location live in Washington DC today, against 7% of everyone on the map. That is where they live now, not the office they sat in while they worked here.
- 14% of the 37 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub account on it.
- Of the 24 people here whose title could be placed on a ladder both before and after, 11 rose, 10 stayed level and 3 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 Shield AI? See how your profile reads to a startup hiring manager, and where it ranks among 26,572 engineers.
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