What is the most common job move for software engineers?

In Zelcast's map of 67,181 engineers it is Google to Meta: 535 engineers, 9.3% of all moves out of Google, with 387 going the other way.

Which companies produce the most startup founders?

By count, Google (226 founders among its alumni), Meta (156) and Amazon (129). By rate, Opendoor, where nearly one leaver in five founds a company next, then Benchling and Brex at about one in six and OpenAI at about one in seven.

Where do engineers go after Google?

Meta most often (535 engineers, 9.3% of moves out of Google), then Microsoft (174) and OpenAI (142).

Which companies do engineers stay at longest?

Among companies with at least 20 engineers in the map, Amgen has the longest median stay at 56 months, then Google at 47, and Square, Maxar Technologies and Tinder at 45.

For engineers and founders

Where engineers go next in 2026

What 352,028 jobs held by 67,181 engineers show about the routes between companies, the companies that produce founders, and where the strongest profiles cluster.

Zelcast

The most common move between two companies in Zelcast’s map is Google to Meta, 535 engineers, with 387 going the other way. The company whose engineers most often found something next is Opendoor, nearly one leaver in five.

The most traveled routes

Moves between two different companies, counted by the people who made them. A move inside one company, such as Amazon to AWS or Google to YouTube, is left out. The share is of every move out of the first company.

Google to Meta: 535 engineers, 9.3% of moves out of Google
Amazon to Google: 479, 9.2% of moves out of Amazon
Microsoft to Google: 459, 12.7% of moves out of Microsoft
Amazon to Meta: 395, 7.6%
Meta to Google: 387, 9.3% of moves out of Meta
Microsoft to Meta: 355, 9.8%
Amazon to Microsoft: 226, 4.3%
AWS to Google: 178, 7.9% of moves out of AWS
AWS to Meta: 175, 7.7%
Google to Microsoft: 174, 3.0%

Most of the heaviest traffic runs in both directions. Google and Meta trade 535 engineers one way and 387 the other. Palantir and Google are almost exactly even, 91 and 90. Microsoft is the clearest net exporter: 459 of its engineers have gone to Google and 174 have come back.

The pull of the frontier labs

The busiest route into OpenAI starts at Google, with 142 engineers. Meta follows with 86 and Apple with 80, and those 80 are 5.1% of every move out of Apple. The labs also hold the strongest profiles in the map. On the Eng Scorer’s read of a public profile, scored out of 99, the median engineer who has worked at OpenAI or Anthropic scores 94, at DeepMind 91, and at Jane Street and Cursor 90.

Founder factories

By count, the largest companies produce the most founders: among their alumni in the map, Google has 226, Meta 156, Amazon 129, Microsoft 107 and Palantir 93. By rate, a different list appears: the share of engineers who left, and whose next recorded role is known, who founded a company next. Only companies with at least 40 alumni in the map are counted.

Opendoor: 19%, 9 founders
Benchling: 16%, 8 founders
Brex: 16%, 10 founders
Affirm: 15%, 12 founders
Zynga: 15%, 12 founders
OpenAI: 14%, 19 founders
Retool: 13%, 6 founders
Ramp: 12%, 5 founders
Instacart: 12%, 8 founders
Slack: 11%, 11 founders

Palantir stands out for doing both: 93 founders, about one in ten of its 927 alumni in the map.

Who stays

Median months at the company, among companies with at least 20 engineers in the map. Amgen leads at 56 months. Google, by far the largest company in the map with 9,268 engineers, holds them for a median of 47 months. Square, Maxar Technologies and Tinder follow at 45, and Indeed and Arista Networks at 44.

Where they are and where they studied

41.4% of the engineers in the map work in the San Francisco Bay Area, 18.4% in New York, 12.8% around Washington DC, 5.3% in Seattle and 4.6% in Los Angeles. The schools that appear most often are Georgia Tech (4,568), UC Berkeley (4,493), Stanford (3,213), Carnegie Mellon (3,130) and MIT (2,093).

What these numbers cover

The map is built from the careers of 67,181 engineers: the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer. It is not a census of the industry, and it leans toward engineers who are on our radar. A company appears once at least 20 of these engineers have worked there, and a route once at least three people have taken it. Figures are as of 30 September 2026. The full map, company by company, is the alumni map.

Common questions

What is the most common job move for software engineers?: In Zelcast’s map of 67,181 engineers it is Google to Meta: 535 engineers, 9.3% of all moves out of Google, with 387 going the other way.
Which companies produce the most startup founders?: By count, Google (226 founders among its alumni), Meta (156) and Amazon (129). By rate, Opendoor, where nearly one leaver in five founds a company next, then Benchling and Brex at about one in six and OpenAI at about one in seven.
Where do engineers go after Google?: Meta most often (535 engineers, 9.3% of moves out of Google), then Microsoft (174) and OpenAI (142).
Which companies do engineers stay at longest?: Among companies with at least 20 engineers in the map, Amgen has the longest median stay at 56 months, then Google at 47, and Square, Maxar Technologies and Tinder at 45.