After Spotify
- 4%Founded something4
- 17%Joined a startup18
- 30%Joined a big company31
- 49%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave Spotify most often go to Google, Meta and Amazon. Of them, 4% found something next and 17% go somewhere small. The median tenure is 3y 3m
Not Spotify's headcount: these are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer. 192 people on a map of 67,181, No. 123 on it by people. Updated September 30, 2026.
- People on the map
- 1920.3% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 8142% of the people here
- Moved on
- 11158% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 3y 3mmiddle half 1y 5m to 4y 9m
Came from, went to
Ribbon width is the number of people who made the move. Most arrive from Amazon. Most leave for Google (8% of recorded departures).
31 of 183 recorded arrivals shown, 152 more from 139 other companies39 of 106 recorded departures shown, 67 more to 61 other companies
How long people stay
13%<1y
22%1-2y
25%2-4y
30%4-7y
9%7y+
173 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
<3<312
6<313
5314
5315
8416
12717
141018
251019
21620
281321
311822
182123
41424
12325
4<326
joined left2026 is a partial year
2012 to 2026: 195 joined, 116 left.
Caliber
82mediantop 10%87
0Eng Scorer caliber, 108 scored99
there now 79 moved on 83. The people who left score higher than the people still there.
Titles held here
- Software Engineer36
- Senior Software Engineer24
- Engineering Manager20
- Machine Learning Engineer19
- Data Engineer11
- Senior Machine Learning Engineer10
- Senior Engineer8
- Software Engineer II7
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.
- 14%Exceptional or strong15 people
- 44%Solid47 people
- 43%Emerging or unproven46 people
108 of the 192 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.
15 of the 108 people here with a read sit in exceptional or strong, the top two of the five tiers, 14%. 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 rose72 of 128 classified people
- 56%Rose72 people
- 41%Stayed level53 people
- 2%Fell3 people
128 of the 192 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
- Columbia8.0%
- UC Berkeley6.4%
- Stanford5.9%
- Georgia Tech4.8%
- NYU4.8%
- Carnegie Mellon4.3%
- Cornell2.7%
- Harvard2.7%
The 8 most listed schools among the 188 people here with a school on file.
15 of the 188 people here with a school on file list Columbia, 12 list UC Berkeley and 11 list Stanford. A person can list more than one, so these overlap.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
54%have a public GitHub account on their profile
104 of the 192 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
62% of the people who have worked at Spotify and list a location live in New York today, against 18% of everyone on the map.
Spotify
Everyone on the map
- 62%New York119 · map 18%
- 20%SF Bay Area39 · map 41%
- 5%Washington DC10 · map 13%
- 4%Los Angeles8 · map 5%
- 3%Boston5 · map 2%
- 6%Somewhere else11
All 192 people who worked at Spotify 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 Spotify: 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 Spotify, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 192 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at Spotify: 81 are there now, 111 have moved on.
- Most leave for Google: 9 people, 8% of recorded departures. Then Meta and Amazon.
- Most arrive from Amazon: 8 people. Then Google and Capital One.
- Median tenure at Spotify: 3y 3m, middle half 1y 5m to 4y 9m.
- Of the people with a recorded next move after Spotify, 4% went to a founder title next, 17% joined a company of 200 or fewer, and 30% joined one of 10,000 or more.
- Median Eng Scorer caliber here: 82 on the 0 to 99 scale, across 108 scored people.
- Most common title held here: Software Engineer, then Senior Software Engineer.
- Top school: Columbia, listed by 15 of the 188 people here with one on file (8.0%). Then UC Berkeley (12).
- 62% of the 192 people here who list a location live in New York today, against 18% across the map. Where they live now, not the office they sat in while they worked here.
- 54% of the 192 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub.
- 72 rose, 53 stayed level, 3 fell, out of the 128 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 Spotify? See how your profile reads to a startup hiring manager, and where it ranks among 67,181 engineers.
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