Senior Product Manager (2D)

Job Description

About us- Cognex is the largest, most successful and recognized global player in industrial machine vision! We are a financially strong, international company with no debt and have been in business for over 40 years. Using advanced optics, image sensors and artificial intelligence software Cognex vision and ID systems capture an image then analyze it to make sense of what’s being seen. We are deeply committed to fostering an inclusive and equitable work environment, guided by our "Work Hard, Play Hard, Move Fast" culture, which celebrates employee innovation, determination, and dedication in a dynamic, fun, and distinctive atmosphere.

We are working on a hybrid schedule: 3 days in the office, 2 at home.

A Senior Product Manager owns a product or significant product area end-to-end. This role defines problems, sets priorities, and drives alignment across functions with minimal guidance. A Senior Product Manager is a trusted owner of the full product lifecycle in their domain.

This is an individual contributor role owning a product area end to end. You’ll partner with customers and cross-functional teams, including sales, customer success, engineering, and product leadership to take agentic AI capabilities from beta to general availability while shaping multi-year roadmap decisions

Essential Functions

• Contributes to product roadmaps by analyzing competitor product portfolios and market positioning, and proposing ideas for Cognex's strategic response.
• Independently authors high-quality market/product requirements documents (MRD/PRDs) for owned products, grounded in validated voice of customer (VoC) and competitive analysis. Achieves alignment between Sales on market needs and Engineering on feasibility and investment direction before phase gate entry. Sets clear priority and scope, enabling focused engineering resource allocation with minimal rework.
• Regularly partners with adjacent product teams to ensure coherent workflows. Anticipates portfolio conflicts and proposes solutions.
• Owns the user experience (UX) vision for assigned products — ensuring they are easy to sell, configure, and maintain at every stage of the customer lifecycle. Drives cross-functional alignment on UI/UX priorities with Engineering and Industrial Design. Validates design decisions through customer testing, field trials, and post-launch feedback loops.
• Owns a product or major product area from concept through commercial launch and sustained performance. Accountable for scope, schedule, and cross-functional alignment. Drives decisions independently and escalates only on true ambiguity.
• Defines and prioritizes the problems worth solving.
• Manages the full product lifecycle — from concept through end of life (EOL) -- for owned products. Works closely and communicates regularly with Sales, Engineering, and Operations at each stage. Accountable for phase gate readiness and cross-functional coordination.
• Regularly engages customers directly to validate problems, workflows, and solution concepts. Synthesizes VoC into clearly articulated customer needs and requirements. Distinguishes between anecdotal feedback and representative market signals.
• Defines and develops marketing/technical collateral by collaborating with Sales and Marcomm to deliver white papers, webinars, seminars, tradeshows, and reference guides that support the product/solution.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Solid experience with return on investment (ROI) and pricing analyses; good understanding of financial tradeoffs in product decisions.
• Proven experience defining and launching AI/LLM-powered products or features (ideally an assistant or agent), from setting the vision and success metrics to owning the commercial approach, including pricing, packaging, and go-to-market
• High-level communication skills and experience with both internal and external stakeholders, including Senior Managers and Directors; able to guide and influence decision making.
• Synthesizes customer, market, technical, and financial inputs into clear product perspectives. Presents product strategies and recommendations with confidence to senior managers and directors. Adjusts messaging appropriately for technical vs. business audiences.
• Influences intelligent business decisions by organizing and filtering relevant information and building credibility across Engineering, Sales, Operations, Management, and Executives.
• Strong understanding and experience of the engineering phase gate process; owns selected opportunities to present at phase gate meetings.
• Models good product judgment and customer empathy in day-to-day decisions. Contributes to a culture of fact-based decisions and continuous improvement.
• Defines success metrics for owned product areas. Uses quantitative and qualitative data to validate hypotheses and prioritize.

Minimum Education and Work Experience Required

• Bachelor's degree or relevant experience; Master's degree preferred.
• 5+ years of relevant experience in product management, product marketing, or a technical field.
• ~30% overnight travel.
• English language proficiency required.

A reasonable estimate of the base salary range for this role is 122,000 USD - 170,000 USD. Please note that actual salaries may vary within the range based on factors including, but not limited to, education, training, experience, professional achievement, business need, and location. In addition to base salary, employees will participate in either an annual bonus plan based on company and individual performance or a sales incentive plan.

This position provides a comprehensive benefits package, including health, dental, and vision insurance; a 401(k) retirement plan with company matching; employer-paid disability, family leave, life insurance, paid time off (including holidays), optional voluntary benefits, and recognition and wellness programs.

Additional Job Description

Equal Employment Opportunity

Cognex is an equal opportunity employer. Cognex evaluates qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, protected veteran status, disability/handicap status or any other legally protected characteristic.

About Us

WE MAKE COMPUTERS THAT CAN SEE

Cognex is the largest, most successful and most recognized global player in industrial machine vision. Using advanced optics, image sensors, and artificial intelligence software Cognex vision and ID systems capture an image, then analyze it to make sense of what’s being seen.

Companies use Cognex vision and ID in their manufacturing processes to improve product quality, guide assembly robots, and track items through each stage of production and distribution.

Cognex is focused entirely on solving the toughest problems in industrial machine vision and ID, and we have sold more solutions in these areas than any other company in the world.

More than a billion products are made each day using Cognex vision.

The only thing smarter than our vision and ID systems are the people that stand behind them. One of them could be you!