Applied AI Engineer
Cognition is hiring an Applied AI Engineer in San Francisco, United States. It pays $180k-$225k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Cognition.
Level's read on this job
- On Level's scale, this AI engineer role is Works on AI ●●●○: the daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
- The listed pay starts close to the typical AI engineer posting on Level.
- Tools and skills the posting cites include Cursor, Devin and AI agents.
- Level lists 104 other open roles at Cognition.
AI in this role
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
Applied AI Engineers are how Cognition operationalizes AI modernization at the enterprise level. You don't demo Devin - you deploy it. You embed with engineering teams, integrate agentic workflows into how they actually build and ship, and drive the kind of measurable productivity gains that make adoption irreversible.
As one of our first Applied AI Engineers, you'll also shape the function itself - turning individual customer engagements into repeatable playbooks, digital learning content, and partner-driven enablement models that allow Cognition to reach hundreds of thousands of engineers worldwide.
This role is perfect for someone who has strong engineering fundamentals, enjoys working directly with customers, and finds deep satisfaction in driving product adoption and having users unlock their potential with Devin - while also thinking systematically about how to scale those learnings to the next 100 teams.
In this role, you will:
Embed with enterprise engineering teams to drive deep, lasting adoption of Devin — owning outcomes, not just onboarding
Architect and implement agentic workflows across engineering, QA, support, data, and product — identifying where AI creates the highest leverage and building toward it
Lead interactive programs for enterprise engineering teams (live workshops, pair programming sessions)
Guide customers through installing, configuring, and optimizing Devin and its associated tools (DeepWiki, MCP integrations, etc.)
Pair-program on live production problems to demonstrate high-value usage patterns and accelerate the team's applied AI fluency
Quantify impact — tracking productivity metrics, surfacing ROI stories, and making the business case for expanding Devin's footprint within accounts
Work with leadership to scale field learnings into structured playbooks and best practices that scale beyond individual engagements
Create enablement materials, best practices, and shared playbooks based on customer learnings
Requirements for the Role:
Degree in a STEM field or equivalent hands-on experience
3+ years as a software engineer, technical consultant, deployment strategist, forward deployed engineer, solutions engineer or similar roles with strong coding proficiency (Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, or similar)
Proven ability to communicate complex technical topics to diverse audiences
Proven track record of driving technical adoption and measurable impact inside engineering organizations
Strong commercial instincts; you understand that successful engagements grow accounts, and you operate accordingly
Excellent verbal and written communication skills
Demonstrated ability to learn and adapt exceptionally fast
You might excel if you…
You've led developer enablement, platform adoption, or internal AI modernization initiatives — and you can point to the before/after metrics
Have deployed or integrated LLM or agent-based systems in production settings
Have previously founded or joined early-stage startups where autonomy and execution speed were critical
You're energized by seeing a team's velocity compound after working with them — and you engineer those outcomes deliberately
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. For US applicants, by submitting your application, you agree to the Applicant Arbitration Agreement.
How we rate this
Applied AI Engineer at Cognition rates 76 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Works on AI (AI Level 3 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Works on AI. The daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Also common in AI engineer jobs at this level
Pay
- This job starts at
- $180k
- Typical AI engineer job
- $185k
This posting starts close to the typical AI engineer job. See AI engineer jobs
Questions you could be asked
- How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
- Walk me through how you've used Cursor in your day-to-day work.
- What are the limits of Devin that you've run into, and how did you work around them?
- Describe a typical day in a role like this one: which parts run through AI directly?
- If you removed AI from this role, what would be left, and how do you decide what still needs a human?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: AI agents, Cursor, and Devin. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
- Show where AI is part of your daily process, not a one-off project. This role expects it to be a running habit.
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