Forward Deployed Engineer - Federal

Fdetimes; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Cognition, an applied AI lab building end-to-end software agents, seeks a foundational engineer for its newly formed federal group in Washington, DC. You will shape technical direction, own deployment success, and influence product strategy across federal accounts while driving growth of a fast-growing, mission-driven team.

You will work across strategic accounts, own critical architecture decisions, and translate field learnings into product requirements, ensuring scalable, enterprise-grade

Qualifications

• Strong engineering foundation.
• Experience working in or with government-focused organizations.
• Proficiency in Python and/or TypeScript.
• Experience scoping and shipping features with product and engineering teams.

Responsibilities

• Operate across strategic accounts, providing technical depth on complex engagements.
• Own the technical direction and success of customer accounts and deployments.
• Translate customer pain points into product direction: scope requirements, define solutions, and drive implementation.
• Be the connective link between our Federal GTM team and core product engineering teams.
• Build product extensions and integrations using Cognition’s APIs and platform primitives.
• Architect and maintain complex enterprise deployments.
• Handle escalated technical issues requiring deep debugging or architectural judgment.

Skills

Python

TypeScript

Cross-functional teamwork

Gov't experience

Feature shipping

Job description

We are an applied AI lab building end-to-end software agents.

We're the makers of Devin, the first AI software engineer.

Our team is extremely talent-dense. Among our founding team, we have world-class competitive programmers, former founders, and leaders from companies at the cutting edge of AI including Scale AI, Palantir, Cursor, Waymo, Tesla, Lunchclub, Modal, Google DeepMind, and Nuro.

Building Devin is just the first step—our hardest challenges still lie ahead. If you’re excited to solve some of the world’s biggest problems and build AI that can reason on real-world tasks, apply to join us.

About the Role

This is an unparalleled opportunity to join our team as a foundational engineer in our newly formed federal group. As one of the very first engineers in this critical space, you will not only be instrumental in shaping the technical direction and initial project successes but will also play a key role in the strategic growth and scaling of the entire federal engineering organization, establishing core engineering practices, defining our technical stack for federal clients, and directly influencing the culture of a fast-growing, mission-driven team. Your early contributions and leadership will be essential in defining the trajectory of our federal sector, making this an unparalleled opportunity for high-impact ownership and professional development.

Deployed Engineers bring technical depth to Cognition’s most federal enterprise engagements.

You’ll own a narrow set of strategic accounts, tackling the hardest problems—whether that’s architecting a deployment, building an integration, or debugging something no one else can figure out.

A core part of this role is shaping the product. You'll identify patterns from the field, build on the product edge to unblock customers, 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 accounts, making decisions that shape long-term adoption, architecture, and how the Cognition platform evolves in real-world environments.

Core Responsibilities

• Operate across strategic accounts, providing technical depth on complex engagements
• Own the technical direction and success of customer accounts and deployments
• Translate customer pain points into product direction: scope requirements, define solutions, and drive implementation
• Be the connective link between our Federal GTM team and core product engineering teams.
• Build product extensions and integrations using Cognition’s APIs and platform primitives
• Architect and maintain complex enterprise deployments
• Handle escalated technical issues requiring deep debugging or architectural judgment
• Be a credible technical voice to engineering on what the field needs

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
• Comfort operating across many contexts simultaneously

Requirements

• Strong engineering foundation
• Have operated cross-functionally—whether at a startup wearing multiple hats or by driving product/commercial thinking at a larger company
• Experience working within the government or working in a government focused company.
• Have a track record of pursuing excellence at high levels, in any domain
• Proficiency in Python, TypeScript, or similar; comfort navigating unfamiliar codebases
• Experience scoping and shipping features in collaboration with product and engineering teams

You might excel if….

• Have built software at companies known for engineering rigor and want broader impact
• Track record in forward-deployed engineering, solutions architecture, or similar technical roles
• Experience with enterprise infrastructure (cloud deployments, networking, security)
• Want to stay close to customers while shaping how the product evolves
• Enjoy hard problems without obvious solutions and the autonomy to figure them out
• Have a high tolerance for ambiguity, intensity, and sustained effort when the problem 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.

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