After SpaceX
- 25%Joined a startup20
- 16%Joined a big company13
- 58%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave SpaceX most often go to Zoox, Blue Origin and Google. 25% go small. Median stay 1y 11m
These are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer, not SpaceX's headcount: 106 people on a map of 26,572, the No. 88 company on it by people. Updated August 20, 2026.
- People on the map
- 1060.4% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 2725% of the people here
- Moved on
- 7975% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 1y 11mmiddle half 7m to 3y 6m
Put SpaceX 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 Tesla. Most leave for Zoox (6% of recorded departures).
23 of 90 recorded arrivals shown, 67 more from 63 other companies17 of 83 recorded departures shown, 66 more to 55 other companies
How long people stay
32%<1y
20%1-2y
28%2-4y
17%4-7y
4%7y+
76 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
1112
2113
3214
6515
8416
101117
10818
4519
12720
141221
6822
171023
8424
7525
2326
joined left2026 is a partial year
2012 to 2026: 110 joined, 86 left.
Caliber
84mediantop 10%93
0Eng Scorer caliber, 106 scored99
Titles held here
- Software Engineer32
- Software Engineer II11
- Software Engineer Intern8
- Avionics Intern5
- Lead Software Engineer5
- Senior Software Engineer4
- Vehicle Engineering Intern4
7 most common titles, by people who held them.
First job on the record for 10% of people here.
Behind the median
Everyone here with an Eng Scorer read, placed in their caliber tier.
- 6%Exceptional6 people
- 26%Strong28 people
- 47%Solid50 people
- 21%Emerging or unproven22 people
106 of the 106 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.
Exceptional and strong are the top two of the five tiers. 34 of the 106 people here with a read sit in them, 32%. 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. A tier holding fewer than 3 people is printed together with the one next to it, because a bucket that small is a person rather than a pattern.
Whether a title rose here
The level of the first title recorded here, against the last.
38%Titles that rose33 of 86 classified people
- 38%Rose33 people
- 62%Stayed level or fell53 people
86 of the 106 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 86 of the 106 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. A direction holding fewer than 3 people is printed together with the one next to it, because a bucket that small is a person rather than a pattern.
Where they studied
- UC Berkeley14.3%
- Stanford9.5%
- Cornell6.7%
- USC6.7%
- MIT5.7%
- University of Michigan5.7%
- Carnegie Mellon4.8%
- Georgia Tech4.8%
The 8 most listed schools among the 105 people here with a school on file.
Of the 105 people here with a school on file, 15 list UC Berkeley, 10 list Stanford and 7 list Cornell. A person can list more than one school, so these overlap rather than add up.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
26%have a public GitHub account on their profile
28 of the 106 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
55% of the people who have worked at SpaceX and list a location live in the San Francisco Bay Area today, against 47% of everyone on the map.
SpaceX
Everyone on the map
- 55%SF Bay Area58 · map 47%
- 24%Los Angeles25 · map 6%
- 14%New York15 · map 33%
- 8%Somewhere else8
All 106 people who worked at SpaceX 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 SpaceX: 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 SpaceX, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 106 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at SpaceX: 27 are there now and 79 have moved on.
- The most common next employer after SpaceX is Zoox (5 people, 6% of recorded departures), followed by Blue Origin and Google.
- The most common previous employer before SpaceX is Tesla (7 people), followed by Amazon and Google.
- The median tenure at SpaceX is 1y 11m (middle half 7m to 3y 6m).
- Of those who moved on from SpaceX, fewer than 3 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 SpaceX is 84 on the 0 to 99 scale (106 scored).
- The most common title held at SpaceX is Software Engineer, then Software Engineer II.
- Of the 105 people here with a school on file, 15 list UC Berkeley (14.3%), then Stanford (10). A person can list more than one school, so these overlap rather than add up.
- 55% of the 106 people here who list a location live in SF Bay Area today, against 47% of everyone on the map. That is where they live now, not the office they sat in while they worked here.
- 26% of the 106 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub account on it.
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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