Paris Enterprise Deployment Lead

️ Position also known as (or close to): Strategy or Management Consulting, Solutions Architect, Solution Engineer, Program Manager

Location(s): mostly in-person (or at client !) in our Paris HQ (Bastille)

Contract: French CDI (Syntec branch). Usual French perks (incl. ≈ 25+10 ≈ 35 days off /year) or Freelance

What You'll Do

In a nutshell

You'll 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. This is a versatile role mixing Consulting, Tech, Product and Operations !

Broadly speaking

Deployment Strategists are doers who immerse themselves in our customers' most intricate workflows, partner with Customer teams, 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 Deployment Strategist, 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) with customer stakeholders to understand the critical problems they need to solve with Cognyx, locate their biggest pain points. You’ll be the main interface between our teams and theirs, thus facilitating a flawless execution.
• Own the client’s business case with Cognyx, ie. identify the strongest business-cases, define key success factors and success plan to achieve them ;
• Identify relevant data & information sources through deep engagement with customer problems and workflows, and work with our (and their!) Product and Tech teams to integrate client’s data into Cognyx ;
• Lead training sessions to ensure that Product is meeting user needs, and to ensure it is being used widely enough to have a massive impact on our partners' business drivers.
• Present the results and perspectives of our work, and proposals for further continuation, to audiences ranging from analysts to C-suite executives. You will need to make sure that the most important stakeholders in our clients’ organization know about our impact, and help us grow our footprint ;

Leveraging your strong knowledge of customer needs & constraints, we will also need you to:

• Embed with our Tech & Product teams to incorporate what you learnt in the field into Cognyx’s value proposition
• Think with us on how to maximizing the business/operational value of the product, increase “user love” and reduce deployment delays

Who you'll be working with

As one of our first 20 employees, you can expect to work closely with each member of our “Founding Team”, a dedicated team who will define our technology, our culture, our value proposition, our processes. This should be an exciting human & professional experience!

You’ll be reporting to 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 why Cognyx succeeds — or fails. Besides, Deployment Strategist are one of the hottest roles in Tech at the moment. It’s a great career path for future founders.

What’s next in your career path?

As one of our first employees, 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 founders will be there to provide extensive guidance & coaching.

Your profile to make this a success

You'll be successful in the role if...

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

• Proven Consulting and Project Management skills:
• 4-8y 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: Management/Strategy consulting, Data-heavy role with business context (Sales-Ops, Strat-Ops…), Enterprise CSM rollout, large IT project integration, strategic project management, etc.)
• 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 them into an actionable plan
• Adaptive leadership: willing to learn, teach, lead and follow. Able to address stakeholders of various level, from shop-floor to board room.
• Ability to understand complex business contexts , as evidenced by Academic training in a highly scientific area (a degree in hardware engineering would be a plus) AND/OR on-the-job experience on a data-intensive / rule-intensive product or area (finance, engineering, medical…) AND/OR high interest in technologies, e.g. in learning & mastering important technological pieces with a history of deep-diving into technical details ;
• Customer-centric mindset with inside sales capabilities: great general business understanding, deeply empathetic to customer needs, and dedicated to delivering the best possible experience while identifying upsell opportunities and naturally advancing client relationships.
• Data-savviness: awareness and general knowledge on Data architecture and IT systems.
• Agility in manipulating data, running automations, using AI, low- no-code, etc.
• Some experience with data extraction & programming, scripting (e.g. Python, SQL…) could be a plus
• Software Product ‘6th sense’: capacity to envision how Tech can be leveraged to solve a given problem.

We kindly advise you to think twice before applying if...

• You’re not location-flexible: ability to work at Customer’s location (likely in Ile de France region, but possibly in Régions , up to ≈40% 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.
• You are not ready for the early-stage journey - working in an early-stage startup means embracing uncertainty, wearing multiple hats, and being comfortable with rapid changes. We need team members who are energized by this environment, not drained by it.
• You’re not looking for a positively challenging role. Clearly, this is not an easy job. Although we make sure to reward efforts, and pay close attention to work & life balance (see below), we realize that we are in for a tough ride. We’re addressing a complex problem, for demanding clients. “Average” or “good” won’t cut it: we need “outstanding” and “excellence”.
• You’re not fully comfortable working in 🇫🇷 French and in 🇬🇧 English (our team is international from day 1 and English is our working language).

Application & Interview Process

Our interview process is quite extensive but intends to make sure that you'll be successful in the role — no one wants to make a bad move! We designed it to be thorough yet efficient, giving both sides the opportunity to evaluate fit before making a commitment:

• Quick intro call on role scope and fit with your career goals (30 min visio, with CEO)
• Hard Skills Assessment , focused on your technical competences for the Role (45 min, visio, with CEO or current Deployment Strategist)
• Deep-Dive into your career & past achievements (1.5hr F2F, with CEO)
• “Team-day” (more like 2.5hrs actually, in our office)
• Case-Study requiring home preparation (1hr F2F, with CEO + guests)
• Cultural fit discussion (45 min, with team members)
• Wrap-up and open questions with other team-members (30-60min)
• Reference checks - with your permission - before making you an offer.

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 our first team members in the critical early years of our company. While understanding that “life” happens and requires some flexibility, 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 (world-class :) Paris offices, or even better, from our clients’ offices when necessary to accelerate feedback loops.

Work & Life balance : yes, it's a thing

Let's be honest: working at an early-stage startup isn't your typical 9-to-5 job. Our days are fast-paced and action-packed, with every minute focused on driving progress. However, we understand the importance of work-life balance, especially for our employees who are parents (many of them are - including our CEO). 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.