# Andrew Locke

![Andrew Locke](/resources/cognition/portraits/andrew-locke.webp)

Engineering Lead, Federal at Cognition (Devin/Windsurf); ex-Vannevar Labs EM; surfboard shaper on Kauai  
Cognition  
Kapaa, Hawaii, United States

## At Cognition

- Role: Engineering Lead | Federal (Engineering)
- Joined: Mar 2026
- How they joined: Directly
- Before Cognition: Engineering Manager, Vannevar Labs
- Overlapped before Cognition with other Cognition people at: Vannevar Labs (https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/worked-together)

## Identity
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmlocke
- GitHub: https://github.com/alocke12992
- Domain: cognition.ai

## Notes
- Joined Cognition in March 2026 as the first engineering hire for its Federal business, owning engineering strategy, roadmap, hiring and delivery across product engineering, infrastructure and DevOps for Federal and Defense customers. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmlocke)
- On Cognition's National Design Studio / American Forge partnership (2026-10-16): "This is why I joined cognition. Too many broken, backwards systems. At Cog, we're starting to help change that." (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewmlocke_weve-partnered-with-the-national-design-activity-7516868319409307648-PE7N)
- On Cognition's growth (2026-07-24, sharing the Interaction Company acquisition news): "In less than 6 months I've been blessed to watch as our team went from ~175 people and a single office in SF to over 400 (and still growing) with offices around the world. Keep an eye on Cog. We're only getting started." (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewmlocke_cognition-is-acquiring-the-interaction-company-activity-7486566718484471808-hJZN)
- Recruiting post 2026-05-22: "We are scaling fast at Cognition and looking for elite talent to bring AI modernization to the federal ecosystem. High pay, incredible mission, world-class team." He listed openings for Technical Engagement Managers, AEs (incl. a Navy Lead), Fed Ops PMs, DevOps/Infrastructure engineers and Forward Deployed Engineers. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewmlocke_cognition-jobs-activity-7463678905552510978-cHlQ)
- Announced the move on LinkedIn on 2026-03-13: "I'm excited to share I'm joining the new formed Federal team at Cognition to be at the forefront of this transition. Software is changing, the mission is evolving, and it's time to build." (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewmlocke_cognition-government-activity-7438297415469662210-rBBN)
- His role description says he owns deployment readiness, infrastructure and vulnerability management for restricted environments including FedRAMP High, IL4/IL5 and air-gapped networks. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmlocke)
- Shared Cognition's $2B+ raise at a $48B valuation (2026-09-08) with: "Crazy rocket ship we're on. And it's just getting started. Hop on." (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewmlocke_cognition-has-raised-over-2b-at-a-48b-valuation-activity-7503156885055750148-f5nr)
- Cognition's platform was listed as FedRAMP High (Class D) In-Process on the FedRAMP Marketplace in July 2026, about four months into his tenure owning federal deployment readiness. (https://cognition.com/blog/devin-fedramp-high-in-process)
- Same post on leaving Vannevar Labs: "I'm closing out my chapter with Vannevar this week. It's been a meaningful journey with an incredible team." The move went from defense-intelligence software to agentic coding for government, a lateral step within the national-security niche rather than a pivot. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewmlocke_cognition-government-activity-7438297415469662210-rBBN)
- At Vannevar Labs (defense-tech company led by co-founder and CEO Brett Granberg, co-founded with Nini Hamrick) he was Senior Fullstack Software Engineer from Sep 2024 ('Building AI-powered tools to support national security') and promoted to Engineering Manager in Apr 2025, working remotely from Kauai. (https://vannevarlabs.com/people/brett-granberg/)
- Other short Cognition posts quoted verbatim: "Devin is still up!" (2026-09-03, during a Codex/Claude outage), "It's pretty damn good" (2026-09-15, independent Devin benchmark), "Get on it" (2026-10-26, Devin Security launch), "Come work with us!" (2026-06-16), "Crazy being part of this explosive growth in real time." (2026-06-23), "The numbers speak for themselves." (2026-07-28). (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewmlocke_codex-claude-are-down-but-devin-is-still-activity-7501368526767833088-fjIc)
- Shared Cognition's MOU with a US department (2026-07-22): "Big day, big announcement." (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewmlocke_cognition-signs-mou-with-us-department-activity-7485792868524232705-Dn8F)
- Cognition signed a definitive agreement to acquire Windsurf (the agentic IDE, now Devin Desktop/Windsurf) in July 2025, including its IP, product, trademark and brand; Locke joined eight months later via Vannevar Labs, not through the Windsurf acquisition. (https://cognition.com/blog/windsurf)
- Was one of three founding engineers at Bubbles (May 2022-Jul 2023), the async video collaboration startup founded by CEO Tom Medema, working on Node/React/Redux TypeScript in an event-driven serverless AWS architecture. (https://www.usebubbles.com/authors/tom-medema)
- Career switcher: B.A. in Psychology from the University of Kansas (2014), then quit his job in Nov 2017 to attend DevPoint Labs (University of Utah full-stack certificate, 2018); his 2019 Medium post 'DevPoint Labs: One Year Later' tells the story. (https://medium.com/@AndrewLocke/devpoint-labs-one-year-later-89a337676eae)
- Interned as an Open Source Software Developer at Canopy (May-Jul 2018, Salt Lake City), building showcase sites, example repos and docs for Canopy's open-source tech; he wrote Medium tutorials on single-spa (Canopy's microfrontend framework) such as 'Creating a single-spa web application'. (https://medium.com/@AndrewLocke/creating-a-single-spa-web-application-4e115802f474)
- GitHub account alocke12992 (bio 'Senior Software Engineer', company @vannevar-labs, Kapa'a HI, 146 public repos, 102 followers) is cross-linked from his Apostrophe team profile alongside his LinkedIn. (https://github.com/alocke12992)
- Public headline says "Engineering Lead | Federal @Cognition | Surfboard Shaper | Veteran". (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmlocke)
- His network inside Cognition Federal shows up through reposts of Justin Herman, Chase Dalton, Shands Pickett (first federal all-hands at the new Georgetown office) and leaders Scott Wu and Russell Kaplan. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewmlocke_codex-claude-are-down-but-devin-is-still-activity-7501368526767833088-fjIc)
- At Spiral (Jul 2023-Sep 2024, New York) he was a Senior Software Engineer leading the frontend team building financial wellness and giving products for banking platforms. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmlocke)
- Spent 3.5 years at Apostrophe (Dec 2018-May 2022), the online dermatology platform, rising from Software Engineer to Senior Software Engineer; Wellfound lists him on the Apostrophe team. (https://wellfound.com/company/apostrophe/people)
- Building AI powered defense intelligence software while shaping surfboards boards on Kauai; this comes from the profile summary and preserves the person's own positioning. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmlocke)
- Owns Kauai Surf Repair (Apr 2022-Mar 2026), a surfboard shaping and repair business in Kapaa; his headline still reads 'Surfboard Shaper', and he leads the federal engineering team from Hawaii. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmlocke)
- Briefly a Cohort Lead for Hack Reactor at Galvanize (Jul-Dec 2018), responsible for student outcomes, placement and satisfaction, a teaching/ops role rather than an engineering one. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmlocke)
- Before software: Recruitment Manager (Midwest) at Teach For America 2016-2017 managing a remote team of eight, and Senior Project Manager at Sigma Pi Fraternity 2014-2016, where he says he recruited 85 men at Arizona State in under four weeks. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmlocke)
- Previous roles include Engineering Manager at Vannevar Labs; Senior Fullstack Software Engineer at Vannevar Labs; Small Business Owner at Kauai Surf Repair; Senior Software Engineer at Spiral; Senior Full Stack Software Engineer at Bubbles; Senior Software Engineer at Apostrophe; Full Stack Software Engineer at Apostrophe; Software Engineer at Apostrophe. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmlocke)
- Education history includes Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Psychology, The University of Kansas; Full Stack Web Development Certificate - DevPoint Labs, Computer Software Engineering, University of Utah. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmlocke)
- Engages with the Hawaii startup scene: posted about Hawaii Tech Week 2026 and Zack Hernandez, "Definitely worth making trip out to beautiful Hawaii to meet the team and the talented people helping build Hawaii's tech / startup scene." (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewmlocke_hawaiitechweek-htw2026-activity-7494044395655270400-jntk)
- Freelance and blockchain side work 2018-2022: React on Rails/Vue client sites and Ethereum/Binance DeFi, NFT and DAO development. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmlocke)
- His Apostrophe-era team profile links a personal podcast site, 'The Senior Junior Engineer' (Buzzsprout). (https://theseniorjuniorengineer.buzzsprout.com/)
- Location is Kapaa, Hawaii, United States. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmlocke)

## Experience
- Engineering Lead | Federal at Cognition - Honolulu, Hawaii, United States (Mar 2026 - Present): Engineering Lead, Federal | Engineering Strategy, Team Building & Technical GTM

First engineering hire for Cognition’s Federal business, building and leading the engineering organization supporting Federal and Defense customers. Own engineering strategy, roadmap, team growth, and delivery across product engineering, infrastructure, and DevOps, while partnering with GTM to bring agentic software engineering into mission-critical environments.

• Engineering strategy & execution: Set engineering priorities and own the roadmap, balancing customer commitments, product capabilities, security requirements, and operational reliability.

• Organization building: Lead hiring, onboarding, and team management, establishing the engineering practices and operating structure needed to scale the business.

• Customer & GTM leadership: Lead technical support for customer engagements, demos, and pitches, translating mission needs into product direction and deployment plans.

• Infrastructure & operational ownership: Own deployment readiness, infrastructure, and vulnerability management for secure Federal environments, including restricted (FedRamp High, IL4/IL5) and air-gapped networks.

Remain hands-on where it matters most, from critical customer issues to new capabilities, while building the team and systems that support sustained growth.
- Engineering Manager at Vannevar Labs - Kauai County, Hawaii, United States (Apr 2025 - Mar 2026)
- Senior Fullstack Software Engineer at Vannevar Labs - United States (Sep 2024 - Apr 2025): Building AI-powered tools to support national security.
- Small Business Owner at Kauai Surf Repair - Kapaa, Hawaii, United States (Apr 2022 - Mar 2026): Surfboard shaping and repair.
- Senior Software Engineer at Spiral - New York, United States (Jul 2023 - Sep 2024): Senior Software engineer leading frontend team to build financial wellness and giving products for banking platforms.
- Senior Full Stack Software Engineer at Bubbles (May 2022 - Jul 2023): As a Senior Software Engineer, and one of three founding engineers at Bubbles, I collaborated with product leaders and worked with technologies such as Node/React/Redux with Typescript in an event-driven, serverless-based architecture hosted on AWS to build a platform that enables effective asynchronous collaboration. I owned entire product epics and continuously learned new technologies while providing technical context to product designers to ensure a great user experience. Additionally, I challenged scopes, flagged issues, suggested alternatives, and managed technical debt to ensure ease of reasoning and separation of concerns. My contributions helped Bubbles achieve strong organic growth and relaunch as Bubbles 2.0. 

Features owned from ideation to deployment:
1. Migrating Authentication from Auth0 to Cognito
2. Building the Bubbles Chrome Extension allowing users to record and share their screen seamlessly
3. Monetization - Stripe and Subscription based access control
4. Slack integration 
5. Referral and Affiliate tracking and rewards program
- Senior Software Engineer at Apostrophe - San Francisco Bay Area (Jan 2021 - May 2022)
- Full Stack Software Engineer at Apostrophe - Oakland, California (Jan 2020 - Jan 2021)
- Software Engineer at Apostrophe - Oakland, California (Dec 2018 - Jan 2020): Solving real problems for real people. 

Building a vertically integrated healthcare platform that combines online/mobile consults with medications that are delivered directly to patients. 

Apostrophe is an easily accessible platform that matches patients with board-certified dermatologists and a dedicated Care Team. Apostrophe puts customized treatments just a few clicks away. Designed with our clients and their needs in mind, Apostrophe ensures that they receive expert care, proven treatments, proprietary solutions, and medications shipped direct-to-door.

Responsible for supporting all things technical and guided by a drive to make strategic decisions and implementations to have the biggest impact possible. This typically means full-stack software development focused on product improvement, client acquisition, and vertical scaling to grow the business.

Building robust applications in collaboration with a diverse group of engineers and designers to ship clean, maintainable, and tested code daily via rapid feedback and iteration cycles.

Practiced finding a balance and making trade-offs between the new-and-shiny, and the tried-and-true.

app.apostrophe.com: 
- Backend: Python/Django, MongoDB, AWS-based HIPAA compliant infrastructure
- Frontend: RequireJS + Backbone + Underscore + jQuery, HTML5, SCSS

www.apostrophe.com: 
- Backend: Contentful, Netlify, AWS
- Frontend: React, GatsbyJS, GraphQL, Styled Components, Jest and Enzyme

Admin Dashboard: 
- Serverless infastructure 
- Designed and implemented a secure api gateway via AWS to proxy requests through custom lambda functions
- Front end designed with React 16.8, redux, redux-saga
- Blockchain Developer (Jan 2021 - May 2022): Ethereum and Binance based DeFi, NFT & DAO development.
- Cohort Lead - Hack Reactor @ Galvanize at Galvanize Inc - San Francisco Bay Area (Jul 2018 - Dec 2018): Accountable for unconditional success for all metrics pertaining to the cohort, including placement rate, satisfaction ratings, starting salary, health and happiness of students.

Responsible for the health of academic and cultural student pipeline from admissions through job placement. Tasked with identifying and understanding what drives 5-star program's reviews, strong academic results and successful job placement.

Maintain accurate, deep, real-time data on how students are scoring across these dimensions, working with other members of the instruction team as required.

Suss out the reasons behind student success issues / risks. Determine remedial solutions and create, rollout & manage associated action plans.
- Software Engineer at Open Source and Freelance Developer (Jan 2018 - Dec 2018): Full Stack Web Development. Projects include: 

http://www.ssylvesterphd.com/ - React on Rails, hosted on AWS
http://www.joycelayman.com/  - WordPress Migration using the Divi theme, hosted by Flywheel
Recess Sports Now - JAM Stack, Netlify CMS
Nanest.io - VueJS, Node, AWS, PostgresQL
Blix - Javascript Generator and scripts, open source project
- OpenSource Software Developer at Canopy - Greater Salt Lake City Area (May 2018 - Jul 2018): - Build a website to showcase Canopy open-source technology
- Develop example projects and Github repositories for open-source add-ons and packages
- Manage Github issue queues and slack support inquiries
- Write articles and documentation for Canopy technology
- Recruitment Manager - Midwest at Teach For America - Kansas City, Missouri Area (Jun 2016 - Nov 2017): - Managed the full recruitment life-cycle through pipeline building, procuring, screening and interviewing candidates, and supporting the employment process through retention until matriculation across seven universities.
- Hired, trained and managed a remote team of eight to plan, execute, and improve strategy, while using data-based tools to identify gaps, patterns, and opportunities within the campaign and develop solutions to achieve outcomes. 
- Designed communication, engagement, and marketing strategies to increase portfolio output by 33%.
- Planned and executed over 50 on campus presentations, networking and professional development events to include Alumni Panels, LinkedIn Workshops, Career Panels, Career Fairs, etc.
- Strategically recruited and engaged over 40 corps members and an alumni board of 150 members to support broader campaign vision and build candidate conviction.
- Consulted as a Salesforce team lead for a cohort of 10 full time recruitment professionals.
- Senior Project Manager at Sigma Pi Fraternity, International - Greater Nashville Area (Jun 2014 - Jun 2016): - Managed the expansion efforts at 8 large universities and oversaw the recruitment of over 350 leaders through the development of novel marketing strategies that included print advertising, social media targeted networking through campus stakeholders to promote Sigma Pi’s brand.

- Sourced, cultivated and organized 85 men at Arizona State University in under 4 weeks, breaking Sigma Pi's recruitment record since its inception in 1897.

- Hired, trained and managed 10 teams of undergraduate executive board members  

-Trained colonies by facilitating over 100 hours of professional development on topics such as membership recruitment, operational management, officer transition, academic achievement and risk management.

- Built 3 alumni advisory boards to advise, guide and mentor collegiate members and officers in order to maintain trjectory toward long-term goals.
- Transportation Specialist | Supply Specialist at Kansas Army National Guard (Mar 2010 - Mar 2016): Operate all wheel vehicles and equipment over varied terrain and roadway. Manage load, unload, and safety of personnel being transported. Oversee and check proper loading and unloading of cargo on vehicles and trailers. Employ convoy defense techniques. Identify, correct or report all vehicle deficiencies. Prepare vehicle for movement/shipment by air, rail or vessel

- Responsible for the accountability of over $2M worth of critical unit property

- Assisted in the supervision of 10 supply personnel to ensure they received training necessary to unit readiness. 

- Ensured all readiness requirements were planned for through management of subordinate personnel in performing assigned functions and processes.

- Supported coordination preparation of unit movement plans, load plans, and Automated Unit Equipment List reports.

- Scheduled and managed the execution of preventative maintenance on all weapons systems, vehicles and sensitive items.

## Education
- The University of Kansas - Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Psychology - (Jan 2010 - Jan 2014)
- University of Utah - Full Stack Web Development Certificate - DevPoint Labs, Computer Software Engineering - (Jan 2018 - Jan 2018)

## Sources
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmlocke
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewmlocke_cognition-government-activity-7438297415469662210-rBBN
- https://medium.com/@AndrewLocke/devpoint-labs-one-year-later-89a337676eae
- https://medium.com/@AndrewLocke/creating-a-single-spa-web-application-4e115802f474
- https://github.com/alocke12992
- https://www.usebubbles.com/authors/tom-medema
- https://cognition.com/blog/windsurf
- https://cognition.com/blog/devin-fedramp-high-in-process
- https://api.github.com/users/alocke12992
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/gregsands_brett-granberg-co-founder-and-ceo-of-vannevar-activity-7105682168726650880-euUL
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewmlocke_devin-is-still-up-activity-7501368526767833088-idid
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewmlocke_crazy-being-part-of-this-explosive-growth-activity-7474983157495386113-Ggy0
- https://wellfound.com/company/apostrophe/people
- https://beforeyouapply.com/group/engineering-at-apostrophe/what-have-you-already-built-and-whats-next
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmlocke?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_profile%3AACoAAA4ZtdsB2mTk2ocpeJcusbWRIe12vv-kk8M
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewmlocke_cognition-jobs-activity-7463678905552510978-cHlQ
- https://vannevarlabs.com/people/brett-granberg/
- https://medium.com/@AndrewLocke/migrating-an-existing-react-project-6ca4a38da19f
- https://medium.com/@AndrewLocke/migrating-an-existing-angularjs-project-91f09423249e
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewmlocke_weve-partnered-with-the-national-design-activity-7516868319409307648-PE7N
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewmlocke_cognition-is-acquiring-the-interaction-company-activity-7486566718484471808-hJZN
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewmlocke_cognition-has-raised-over-2b-at-a-48b-valuation-activity-7503156885055750148-f5nr
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewmlocke_codex-claude-are-down-but-devin-is-still-activity-7501368526767833088-fjIc
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewmlocke_cognition-signs-mou-with-us-department-activity-7485792868524232705-Dn8F
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewmlocke_hawaiitechweek-htw2026-activity-7494044395655270400-jntk
- https://theseniorjuniorengineer.buzzsprout.com/


Researched with Autumn (https://www.autumn.ai) from public sources. Updated 2026-11-04. Profile: https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/people/andrew-locke · Everyone at Cognition: https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/people