You’ll own a narrow set of strategic deployments, working directly with customer engineering teams to scope out complex deployments, ensure compliance with security controls, and implement any needed platform modifications.
A core part of this role is shaping the product from a deployability and operability standpoint. You will make changes directly to the core codebase to ensure our products can be deployed in a variety of environments easily and reliably. You'll identify deployment patterns from the field and translate those learnings into requirements that inform what core engineering builds next. When customers hit friction that the product doesn’t solve, you’re the person who figures out what should exist—and makes it happen.
You’ll own the technical direction of our deployments, making decisions that shape long-term adoption, architecture, and how the Cognition platform evolves in real-world environments.
Core Responsibilities
Architect, own, and maintain the end-to-end technical lifecycle of complex, mission-critical federal enterprise deployments and their environments.
Work directly with customer engineering and GTM teams to define deployment scope, ensuring compliance with security controls and federal regulations.
Provide technical depth on strategic deployments; serving as the trusted expert on deployment, security, and platform architecture.
Contribute directly to the core product codebase to improve deployability, operability, and reliability across a variety of environments.
Translate field learnings and customer pain points into actionable product direction: scope requirements, define solutions, and drive implementation.
Build product extensions, integrations, and automation using Cognition’s APIs and platform primitives to unblock deployments.
Serve as the key technical and connective link between the Federal team and core infrastructure engineering teams.
Handle escalated technical issues and provide architectural judgment requiring deep debugging and systems analysis.
What We Value
Technical depth and the judgment that comes from seeing many deployments
Product instinct — you synthesize feedback into solutions, not just feature requests
Builder mentality — you’d rather ship something than wait for someone else to build it
Credibility with engineering teams, both internal and customer-side
An automation-first mindset—you look to engineer repeatable solutions to operational challenges.
A collaborative approach to problem-solving, bridging the gap between internal and external teams.
Comfort operating across many contexts simultaneously
Requirements
Strong engineering foundation with a proven ability to build, debug, and maintain complex, distributed systems.
2+ years of experience as a software engineer.
Experience working within the government or working in a government focused company.
Direct experience in, implementing compliance and security controls required for federal or highly regulated environments.
Proficiency in Python, TypeScript, or similar; comfort navigating unfamiliar codebases
Have a track record of pursuing excellence at high levels, in any domain
Have operated cross-functionally—whether at a startup wearing multiple hats or by driving product/commercial thinking at a larger company
You might excel if….
Have built or contributed to software at companies known for engineering rigor and want the broader impact of a foundational role.
Enjoy hard, ambiguous problems without obvious solutions and thrive on the autonomy to figure them out.
Have a high tolerance for ambiguity, intensity, and sustained effort when the mission-critical nature of the work demands it.
OUR COMMITMENT
Equal Opportunity. Cognition is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of any protected characteristic under applicable law. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities throughout the hiring process - please let us know if you need any. Cognition also considers applicants with criminal histories consistent with the SF Fair Chance Ordinance and similar local laws.
Data Privacy and Arbitration: By submitting your application, you agree to our Global Applicant and Job Candidate Privacy Notice https://cognition.com/documents/Cognition-Global-Applicant-and-Job-Candidate-Privacy-Notice.pdf. For US applicants, by submitting your application, you agree to the Applicant Arbitration Agreement https://cognition.com/documents/Cognition-Applicant-Arbitration-Agreement.pdf.
