# Brian Zhou

![Brian Zhou](/resources/cognition/portraits/brian-zhou.webp)

Engineering @ Cognition | prev. SpaceX  
Cognition  
New York City Metropolitan Area

## At Cognition

- Role: Engineering (Engineering)
- Joined: Jan 2026
- How they joined: Directly
- Before Cognition: Software, SpaceX

## Identity
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-zhou26
- X: @briannzhouu
- GitHub: https://github.com/briannzhou
- Domain: cognition.ai

## Notes
- GitHub README (verbatim): "I'm currently an engineer at Cognition, building our new public sector business. I work on Devin, infrastructure, FDE, and occasionally post-training. In particular, I lead segments of our product and harness work." (https://github.com/briannzhou)
- LinkedIn describes his Cognition role (2026-present) as "Product, infra, research, and FDE for new public sector business". (https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-zhou26)
- At SpaceX (2025-2026) he designed Starlink's enterprise and government interfaces and was "part of the original team that launched Starlink for Aviation" ("If you've flown recently (on certain airlines), you've probably used some of my code!"). The government-interface work is a direct bridge to his public sector role at Cognition. (https://github.com/briannzhou)
- X post (verbatim): "life as a 0.5x engineer at Cognition has been good this week" (https://x.com/briannzhouu/status/2080154626381480076)
- Cosign profile: "builds Devin at Cognition, working on model performance and the company's public sector business. He previously built Starlink software at SpaceX and researched AI alignment and computer vision at Princeton." (https://cosign.co/brianzhou)
- Princeton research (2025-2026): LLMs in government / AI alignment in multi-agent and public sector applications, advised by Prof. Arvind Narayanan and funded by Anthropic. (https://github.com/briannzhou)
- At SpaceX (2024-2025) he "wrote Starlink's wifi telemetry system", which LinkedIn says is "now on millions of kits and used company-wide". (https://github.com/briannzhou)
- X post (verbatim): "launching soon: how we improved airflow at the Cognition NYC office" - places him at Cognition's New York office. (https://x.com/briannzhouu/status/2080801153672192073)
- Army ROTC at Princeton (2022-2026): Distinguished Military Graduate, led the region as battalion commander, graduated Air Assault School. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-zhou26)
- Princeton research (2025): built a computer vision system for 2D quantum materials discovery, advised by Prof. Olga Russakovsky. (https://github.com/briannzhou)
- Public headline says "Engineering @ Cognition | prev. SpaceX". (https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-zhou26)
- Hi! Outside of work, I love lifting, hiking, and cooking. My best lift total is 1005 lbs, I most recently summited Mt. Elbert, and I helped run a pop-up restaurant on campus. I also really like my violin and air fryer.

https://github.com/briannzhou; this comes from the profile summary and preserves the person's own positioning. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-zhou26, https://github.com/briannzhou)
- X post (verbatim): "excited to share that now, for the price of a few chipotle burritos, your company can avoid getting hacked. this is primarily a criticism of chipotle" (https://x.com/briannzhouu/status/2072406133625573609)
- Previous roles include Software at SpaceX; Research at Princeton University; Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at United States Army Reserve. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-zhou26)
- Not the same person as the Harvard Brian Zhou (brianzhou.org, a37 cofounder, Google Scholar XW8VvkwAAAAJ) or the Harvard ICPC/HCS Brian Zhou; those results were excluded. (https://www.brianzhou.org)
- Location is New York City Metropolitan Area. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-zhou26)

## Experience
- Engineering at Cognition - New York, New York, United States (Jan 2026 - Present): Product, infra, research, and FDE for new public sector business.
- Software at SpaceX - Seattle, Washington, United States (Jan 2025 - Jan 2026): Designed Starlink’s enterprise/government interface, and part of founding Aviation team.
- Software at SpaceX - Seattle, Washington, United States (Jan 2024 - Jan 2025): Built Starlink's wifi telemetry system, now on millions of kits and used company-wide.
- Research at Princeton University - Princeton, New Jersey, United States (Jan 2025 - Jan 2026): LLMs in government, advised by Prof. Arvind Narayanan, funded by Anthropic.
- Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at United States Army Reserve - New Jersey, United States (Jan 2022 - Jan 2026): Distinguished Military Graduate, led region as battalion commander, graduated Air Assault.

## Education
- Princeton University - Computer Science: Minors: Math, Statistics & Machine Learning 
Activities (List): 
- Cap & Gown (Tech Chair)
- Princeton Pop Up (Student-run fine dining restaurant)
- The Daily Princetonian (Business Team)
- TigerLaunch (Executive Board)
- EX
Activities (List): 
- Student Body President
- Speech & Debate (National All-American)
- Model UN (All-American U.S. Team)
- Chamber Orchestra 
- Track & Field

## Sources
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-zhou26
- https://github.com/briannzhou
- https://cosign.co/brianzhou
- https://x.com/briannzhouu
- https://x.com/briannzhouu/status/2080154626381480076
- https://x.com/briannzhouu/status/2080801153672192073
- https://x.com/briannzhouu/status/2072406133625573609
- https://www.brianzhou.org


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