20% of AI Hires at Google in 2025 Are Boomerang Employees

In a year defined by a multi-billion dollar talent war, Google has discovered that its most effective new recruits are actually its old ones.

According to recent internal data and reports from CNBC, approximately 20% of the AI software engineers hired by Google in 2025 were “boomerang” employees—former staffers who returned to the company after previously departing.

This surge in returning talent marks a strategic turnaround for the search giant as it aggressively scales its Gemini and DeepMind initiatives.

The “Boomerang” Strategy: Plug-and-Play Productivity

The primary driver behind this rehiring surge is the sheer speed of the current AI race. Unlike external hires who may require months to understand Google’s proprietary infrastructure, former employees are “plug-and-play.”

“Former Googlers already understand the codebase, internal tools like TPU (Tensor Processing Unit) scheduling, and the company’s complex launch approval pipelines,” noted an industry analyst. By skipping the standard orientation period, these returnees reduce onboarding time by an average of two weeks, allowing Google to ship AI features faster than its competitors.

Infrastructure Over Incentives at Google

While rivals like Meta and OpenAI have reportedly offered eye-watering signing bonuses—some reaching $100 million for top-tier researchers—Google is leveraging its “compute advantage” to lure back talent.

Returning engineers often cite Google’s massive data centers and specialized AI chips as the primary reason for their return.

John Casey, Google’s head of compensation, confirmed to staff that researchers are drawn to the “substantial financial resources and computational infrastructure” that only a company of Google’s scale can provide.

For many, the ability to train models on the world’s most powerful hardware outweighs the pure cash offers from smaller startups.

The Role of “Reverse Acqui-hires”

The most high-profile example of this trend was the return of AI pioneer Noam Shazeer.

After leaving Google in 2021 to co-found Character.AI, Shazeer rejoined Google DeepMind in late 2024 as part of a massive $2.7 billion licensing deal.

This “reverse acqui-hire” model has become a blueprint for Google to recover elite talent it lost during the initial generative AI boom.

Risks and Internal Tensions at Google

However, the boomerang trend is not without friction. Some internal teams have expressed frustration over “The Boomerang Premium.”

Data suggests that returning employees often earn a median cash raise of 12% to 25% compared to their prior salary, sometimes returning at higher job levels than those who stayed.

This pay disparity can create morale challenges among long-serving “Nooglers” (new Google employees) and veterans who remained loyal during the 2023 layoffs.

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