As an Associate Applications Engineer, you will join an Applications Engineering (AE) team that is responsible for supporting customers through their journey with Cognex. The AE team determines the right combination of Cognex products, lighting, optics and automation engineering for an optimal solution that fits within the customer’s defined budget and skillset. The AE team provides technical expertise to customers and collaborates with the Sales organization to influence the selling of Cognex products.

Essential Functions

• Learns to provide application guidance for low to medium-complexity applications across Cognex products and prioritizes as necessary. For more complex applications, may require the support of more experienced AEs.
• Learns to provide standard integration of Cognex products with devices such as PLCs, PCs, or Controllers
• Learns to perform standard troubleshooting for Cognex products and develops knowledge of peripheral technology
• Supports Sales with technical inputs when communicating with or visiting customers to help Cognex win.
• Learns from the AE community
• Responsible for maintaining business systems information in a timely manner for accurate reporting
• Provides product/customer feedback to AE Manager to improve products.

Knowledge

• Develops entry-level technical knowledge of Cognex’s vision and sensor product families.
• Entry-level knowledge of image processing, optics and/or lighting for machine vision.
• Entry-level knowledge of industrial communication methods, networks, programming languages*, controls (installation, wiring, operability), PLCs, and/or Warehouse Management Systems (WMS).
• *Programming languages may include: javascript, VB, VB.Net, C#, .Net, C++
• Entry-level industry knowledge to include movement of product, understanding of motion control, robotics, and other automation equipment.
• Entry-level knowledge of controls engineering concepts such as installation, wiring, and operability
• Working knowledge of MS Office applications. Windows based PC industrial connectivity in a lab and automation environment.

Skills and Abilities

• Basic understanding of electro-mechanical solutions.
• Learns to conduct and troubleshoot onsite optimizations, perform trials, and conduct data analytics to improve performance on solutions.
• Learns to handle challenging customer situations.
• Learns interpersonal skills with the ability to effectively establish relationships, communicate, influence, and present to various stakeholders
• Basic presentation skills

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in a technical discipline such as Engineering, Computer Science; or an otherwise equivalent technical experience
• Typically requires a minimum of 0-2 years of experience in technical application development.
• Ability to adapt to flexible working hours including the availability to work evening and weekend hours or varying work patterns depending on customer or project needs. Ability to be on-call and respond to customer emergencies.
• Ability to travel up to 50% of the time, sometimes on short notice. Travel will vary depending on region, time of year, and customer needs. 
• Ability to work safely in industrial environments by strictly following safety guidelines and protocols (may vary per region/customer). This job has physical requirements including the ability to lift up to 50 pounds (appx. 23 kilograms).
• Must maintain customer confidentiality to protect confidential or sensitive customer information.
• English language proficiency (written and oral).