Why we need you ?

Cognyx is a powerful platform, solving highly complex organizational and engineering challenges. However, it is not a simple “off the shelf” SaaS solution. Its successful implementation requires a comprehensive, well-conducted deployment plan that is able to adapt the platform to the unique needs, data structures and workflows of each organization.

In order to streamline this process and ensure that we can deploy our platform as quickly and efficiently as possible, we are looking for an outstanding professional who can not only tailor the product to each organization’s needs, but who can also help us refine our Product to minimize deployment time. She/he will play a critical role in shaping our product development strategy, ensuring that we are building a product that is both impactful and easy to implement.

What you’ll do ?

In a nutshell: as a Senior Operations Manager, you’ll work to deploy Cognyx and solve the most challenging organizational and engineering challenges that a large manufacturing organization can face! You’ll be ultimately responsible for the successful deployment of our Product, and successful business-case by our Client.

Broadly speaking: Senior Operations Manager are doers who immerse themselves in our customers’ most intricate workflows, partner with Customer teams and deep-dive into their data, and find the very best way to rollout and scale our Product in their organization. They also help Cognyx’s Product & Tech team to close the user & market feedback loop, so as to help us figure out what to build next.

On a day to day basis: as a Senior Operations Manager, you can expect to:

• Be the main point of contact for our Enterprise customer, responsible for the successful deployment of Cognyx. You’ll interact (virtually or frequently onsite) and meet with customer stakeholders to understand the critical problems they need to solve with Cognyx, locate their biggest pain points.

• define the business case, success factors and success plan to achieve it ;

• Identify relevant datasets through deep engagement with customer problems and workflows, and work with our (and their!) Product and Tech teams to integrate the data into Cognyx

• Lead training sessions to ensure that the product is meeting user needs, and to ensure it is being used widely enough to have concrete impact on our partners’ operations.

• Present the results and perspectives of our work and proposals for future work to audiences ranging from analysts to C-suite executives.

Although this is less central to your role, you will also be expected to:

• Embed with our Tech & Product teams to incorporate what you saw in the field into Cognyx’s value proposition

• Think with us on how to reduce deployment & implementation delays

Who you’ll be working with:

As one of our very first employees, you can expect to work closely with each member of our “Founding Core Team”, a team of 8-10 people who will build the defining our technology, our culture, our value proposition, our processes. This should an exciting human & professional experience!

You’ll be reporting into Matthias, our CEO. Matthias is a very experienced founder, with proven leadership skills acquired during his 20 years of experience in Tech.

Why is this fun & interesting to do with us?

Because… there is no one else doing this job! You’ll be an essential reason for which the project succeeds — or fails.

What’s next?

As one of our first employees and a member of our “Founding Core Team”, there will be many opportunities to grow in expertise and/or leadership in the months & years to come. Cognyx aims at a high growth rate, so this could come as fast as 6-12 months away!

We will also put a strong emphasis on making sure you are building new skills, whether in terms of tech abilities and leadership. Our experienced founding team will be there to provide extensive guidance & coaching.

Your profile to make this mission a success

We’re looking for a talented, driven and ambitious professional. We think the necessary skills to succeed are the following, by order of importance:

1. Customer-centric mindset: great general business understanding, deeply empathetic to customer needs, and dedicated to delivering the best possible experience

2. Proven organizational skills: 6-10y of experience in high-paced, high-standard and high-complexity roles. Managing complex projects with multiple stakeholders of various seniority. Planning and organizing to meet ambitious deadlines. Typical relevant experiences include: Enterprise CSM rollout, Management/Strategy consulting, IT project integration, etc.

3. Ability to understand complex business contexts, as evidenced by:

   • Academic training in a highly scientific area (mechanical engineering would be a plus)

   • On-the-job experience on a data-intense product or area (finance, engineering, medical…)

   • High interest in technologies, e.g. in learning & mastering important technological pieces with a history of deep-diving into technical details ;

   • Willingness to learn: ability to learn skills & subjects one is not an expert on.

4. Curious, analytical and synoptic mindset: extraordinary ability to solve open-ended problems in unstructured environments. Making sense of complex data points and ability to synthesize it into a massive.

5. Data-savvy: experience with data extraction & programming, scripting or statistical packages (e.g. Python, R, Matlab, SQL) would be a huge plus.

6. Adaptive leadership: willing to learn, teach, lead and follow. Able to address stakeholders of various-level, from shop-floor to the board room members.

7. Product 6th sense: strong degree of user empathy, capacity to envision how tech can be leveraged to solve a given problem

We kindly advise to turn back if…

• You’re not location-flexible: ability to work at Customer’s location (very likely in Ile de France region, 25 – 50% of working time in the early months)

• You’re not an entrepreneurial profile: self-driven, autonomous, dynamic. You need to be comfortable with uncertainty, frequent change and a certain degree of improvization. You like taking on new tasks what weren’t mentioned on this job desc. This is especially true for our Core Team!

• You’re not fully comfortable working in French and English (our team is international from day 1)

• You’re not looking for a positively challenging job. Clearly, this is not an easy job. Although we pay a close attention to work & life balance (see below), we realize that we are addressing a complex problem, for demanding clients, and that our mission is a very hard one. “Average” or “good enough” won’t cut it: we need “outstanding” and “excellence”.

Final words to our candidates!

WFH or in-office?

At Cognyx, aligning with our values and culture means embracing the energy of working together, especially for members of our founding “Core Team” in the critical early months of our company. While understanding that “life” happens and requires some flexibility (= 1-2 days WFH per week), we’re convinced that in-person collaboration sparks creativity and drives innovative outcomes. To enhance this connection, we encourage all employees to work mostly from our offices, or from our clients’ offices when necessary to accelerate feedback loops.

Work & Life balance: yes, it’s a thing.

At Cognyx, we understand the importance of work-life balance, especially for our employees who are parents. Our CEO, a father of 2 young children, is a testament to our commitment to create a flexible and supportive environment for all. We believe in the importance of being there for our families and we strive to provide flexible schedules where possible. We always encourage our employees to take the time they need for their personal lives, as we understand that a balanced life leads to longer tenures, increased productivity and happiness in the workplace.

We welcome all candidates!

Cognyx is dedicated to fostering a culture of diversity, equality, and inclusion. We invite candidates from diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences to apply as we strive to solve Manufacturing’s most challenging problems. We recognize that not all candidates will meet every requirement; we value your unique contributions and encourage you to apply even if you do not check all the boxes.

Cognyx is committed to ensuring our job application process is accessible to everyone. If you have a disability, whether visible or not, and require any reasonable accommodations at any stage of the application or hiring process — or within the job itself — please contact us so we can provide the necessary support.

Please use the form of this website to apply. After this, here’s what you can expect:

1. Quick intro discussion on reciprocal fit (30 min Call, with CEO)

2. Deep-Dive into your career & past achievements (1.5hr F2F, with CEO)

3. Case-Study requiring home preparation (1hr F2F, with CEO + guests) 

4. Final cultural fit & wrap-up discussion (45 min, with CEO) 

5. Reference check (2-3 calls – note: you’ll also be allowed to run this on us :) 

6. Final board approval (might require 1 more quick call)