Director, Applied AI Platform Engineering

Cognex Corporation; Natick (MA); Hybrid; USD 220,000 - 320,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) retirement plan

Paid time off

Equity program

Job summary

Cognex Corporation seeks a Director of Software Engineering to own the strategy, technical direction, and delivery of an Applied AI platform for industrial automation. This leadership role coordinates R&D, platform engineering, product delivery, and organizational leadership to turn AI research into secure, production-grade capabilities on factory floors and logistics operations.

The role emphasizes leading a cross-functional team, setting long-term roadmaps, and delivering measurable customer

Qualifications

• 15+ years of software engineering experience
• 5+ years in senior engineering leadership roles
• Track record of shipping and scaling complex platforms
• Experience leading R&D or applied-research efforts
• Deep expertise in backend/cloud architecture
• Hands-on familiarity with modern AI application architectures
• Strong strategic and execution-oriented mindset
• Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills
• Customer-focused leadership approach

Responsibilities

• Set the technical vision and multi-year roadmap for a new Applied AI platform.
• Direct applied R&D on emerging AI capabilities with prototyping and production pathways.
• Lead architecture decisions spanning embedded devices, edge compute, and cloud services.
• Own reliability, scalability, security, cost efficiency of platform services.
• Establish engineering standards, guardrails, observability, and operational practices.
• Partner with Product, R&D, UX, and Hardware to turn problems into shipped capabilities.
• Drive adoption of the platform across Cognex product lines.
• Track AI landscape and translate advances into pragmatic bets.
• Drive cost efficiency, observability, and continuous delivery across cloud and hybrid deployments.
• Grow and mentor a high-impact engineering organization.

Job description

Cognex Corporation seeks a Director of Software Engineering to own the strategy, technical direction, and delivery of an Applied AI platform for industrial automation. This leadership role coordinates R&D, platform engineering, product delivery, and organizational leadership to turn AI research into secure, production-grade capabilities on factory floors and logistics operations.

The role emphasizes leading a cross-functional team, setting long-term roadmaps, and delivering measurable customer