Director, Software Engineering

Job Description About us- Cognex is the largest, most successful and recognized global player in industrial machine vision! We are a financially strong, international company with no debt and have been in business for over 40 years. Using advanced optics, image sensors and artificial intelligence software Cognex vision and ID systems capture an image then analyze it to make sense of what’s being seen. We are deeply committed to fostering an inclusive and equitable work environment, guided by our "Work Hard, Play Hard, Move Fast" culture, which celebrates employee innovation, determination, and dedication in a dynamic, fun, and distinctive atmosphere . We are working on a hybrid schedule, 3 days in the office, 2 at home. Cognex is looking for a Director of Software Engineering to own the strategy, technical direction, and delivery of an Applied AI platform that will re-define how customers configure, manage and optimize industrial automation solutions on factory floors and in logistics operations. This is a highly visible leadership role with a unique opportunity to shape the future of AI-powered industrial automation. This role blends applied R&D, platform engineering, product delivery, and organizational leadership, turning emerging AI research into secure, reliable and scalable production-grade capabilities that create measurable customer value in the demanding realities of industrial manufacturing and logistics operations. Key Responsibilities Set the technical vision and multi-year roadmap for a new Applied AI platform to simplify complex, multi-step customer workflows across Cognex’s product portfolio. Direct applied R&D on emerging AI capabilities, with structured experimentation and prototyping and a clear path from research to production. Lead architecture decisions spanning embedded devices, edge compute, and cloud services and infrastructure, ensuring seamless experiences across hybrid experiences. Own the reliability, scalability, security, cost efficiency and operational excellences of the services that power the platform, including APIs, model-serving infrastructure, data pipelines, and connected experiences. Establish the engineering standards, evaluation frameworks, guardrails, observability, and operational practices (SLAs, on-call, incident response) required to deliver trustworthy AI systems in production, balancing capability, reliability, latency, safety, and operating cost. Partner with Product, R&D, UX, and Hardware organizations to turn ambiguous problems into shipped capabilities, on committed timelines. Drive adoption of the platform across Cognex's product portfolio, enabling product teams to rapidly build and consume shared AI capabilities and services. Track the fast-moving AI landscape and translate external advances into pragmatic bets for Cognex. Drive cost efficiency, observability, and continuous delivery across cloud and hybrid (edge-plus-cloud) deployments, with privacy and…