Cognition · 17 hours ago
Devops Engineer - Federal
Washington, DC
Full-time
Hybrid
Entry, Mid Level
2+ years expCognition is an applied AI lab focused on building end-to-end software agents. They are seeking a Federal DevOps Engineer to be a foundational member of their federal group, responsible for architecting and maintaining the technical lifecycle of complex federal enterprise deployments, ensuring compliance with security controls, and shaping the product for deployability and operability.
Telecom & CommunicationsArtificial Intelligence (AI)Information TechnologyFoundational AIGenerative AIInternet
Responsibilities
Architect, own, and maintain the end-to-end technical lifecycle of complex, mission-critical federal enterprise deployments and their environments
Work directly with customer engineering and GTM teams to define deployment scope, ensuring compliance with security controls and federal regulations
Provide technical depth on strategic deployments; serving as the trusted expert on deployment, security, and platform architecture
Contribute directly to the core product codebase to improve deployability, operability, and reliability across a variety of environments
Translate field learnings and customer pain points into actionable product direction: scope requirements, define solutions, and drive implementation
Build product extensions, integrations, and automation using Cognition’s APIs and platform primitives to unblock deployments
Serve as the key technical and connective link between the Federal team and core infrastructure engineering teams
Handle escalated technical issues and provide architectural judgment requiring deep debugging and systems analysis
Qualification
Required
Strong engineering foundation with a proven ability to build, debug, and maintain complex, distributed systems
2+ years of experience as a software engineer
Experience working within the government or working in a government focused company
Direct experience in, implementing compliance and security controls required for federal or highly regulated environments
Proficiency in Python, TypeScript, or similar; comfort navigating unfamiliar codebases
Have a track record of pursuing excellence at high levels, in any domain
Have operated cross-functionally—whether at a startup wearing multiple hats or by driving product/commercial thinking at a larger company
Preferred
Have built or contributed to software at companies known for engineering rigor and want the broader impact of a foundational role
Enjoy hard, ambiguous problems without obvious solutions and thrive on the autonomy to figure them out
Have a high tolerance for ambiguity, intensity, and sustained effort when the mission-critical nature of the work demands it
Company
Cognition
Cognition is an applied artificial intelligence lab that focuses on reasoning and code.
51-200 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Cognition has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2022 (1)
2021 (4)
2020 (1)
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageTotal Funding
$896MKey Investors
Founders Fund8VC,Lux Capital
2025-09-08Series C· $400M
2025-03-18Series B· $300M
2024-04-24Series A· $175M
Leadership Team
Scott Wu
Co-Founder and CEO
Steven Hao
Co-Founder
Recent News
Pear VC.
2026-02-04
Morningstar.com
2026-02-04
2026-01-24
Company data provided by crunchbase