# Charity Quinn

![Charity Quinn](/resources/cognition/portraits/charity-quinn.webp)

Founding Applied AI Engineer at Cognition (Devin, Windsurf); ex-#1 global Solutions Engineer at Retool; ex-Capital One  
Cognition  
New York, New York, United States

## At Cognition

- Role: Applied AI Engineer (Engineering)
- Joined: Mar 2026
- How they joined: Directly
- Before Cognition: Solutions Engineer, Retool

## Identity
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charity-quinn
- X: @charityquinn_
- Website: https://quinn.charity
- Domain: cognition.ai

## Notes
- Says she joined Cognition 'as a founding member of the Applied AI team'. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/charity-quinn_first-week-at-cognition-in-the-books-i-activity-7436466407673847808-ZZQv)
- Joined Cognition (maker of Devin and Windsurf) in March 2026 as an Applied AI Engineer, based in New York; LinkedIn headline reads 'Applied AI @ Cognition'. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/charity-quinn)
- Spent her first week 'on site watching how customers interact with Devin and Windsurf'. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/charity-quinn_first-week-at-cognition-in-the-books-i-activity-7436466407673847808-ZZQv)
- In February 2026, while still at Retool, she announced a side project called Semantic Zoom, 'a context tool that lets you zoom in and out of code complexity', and argued AI coding value is shifting from flow to reasoning; one month later she joined Cognition, the autonomy-focused vendor her essay favored. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/charity-quinn_charity-quinn-solutions-engineer-activity-7426348331477663744-tt1_)
- Before Cognition she was a Solutions Engineer at Retool (Jun 2025 - Mar 2026) and lists 'Ranked #1 SE Globally in Q4 2025 - Finished the quarter as the top Solutions Engineer across all regions and segments in total ARR' and '#1 SE in Q3 2025' among commercial SEs. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/charity-quinn)
- Current role is Applied AI Engineer at Cognition; the profile current-job fields identify both title and company. (linkedin.com/in/charity-quinn)
- Recruited publicly for the Applied AI team in her first week, describing the profile as 'highly technical but thrive on the human element (teaching, consulting, and customer problem solving)'. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/charity-quinn_first-week-at-cognition-in-the-books-i-activity-7436466407673847808-ZZQv)
- Essay 'The Cognitive Decoupling: Why I'm Betting on Reasoning Over Flow in AI Coding' splits the market into autocomplete (Copilot), AI-native IDEs (Cursor, Windsurf 'before the acquisition'), agentic CLI (Claude Code) and autonomous agents (Devin), and states 'the real long term value lies in AI that can reason through architecture and codebases as a senior developer would.' (https://quinn.charity/blog/the-cognitive-decoupling-why-im-betting-on-reasoning-over-flow-in-ai-coding)
- Reposted Cognition's October 29, 2026 announcement that it is acquiring Corridor, the AI-code security startup, alongside reposts of the Devin Security launch. (https://x.com/charityquinn_/status/2115873065384972632)
- Her Retool-era blog was titled 'Diary of a Solutions Engineer' and she wrote that she was 'helping companies deploy AI systems at Retool', so the move to Cognition Applied AI continues a customer-deployment track rather than a pivot. (https://quinn.charity/blog/where-ai-will-drive-the-biggest-gains-in-unexpected-industrial-sectors)
- Windsurf, the AI IDE she supports at Cognition, came to Cognition through a July 2025 acquisition announced days after Google DeepMind hired Windsurf's CEO and research leads; she joined about eight months after the deal closed. (https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/14/cognition-maker-of-the-ai-coding-agent-devin-acquires-windsurf/)
- Spent about three years as a software engineer at Capital One: Associate Software Engineer (Jul 2022 - Jan 2024), then Senior Associate Software Engineer (Jan 2024 - Jun 2025); specific team or desk is not named in public sources. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/charity-quinn)
- Lists herself as Co-Founder of the Penn State Maker Ambassador program (Sep 2019 - Jan 2021), running BUILD Nights for hands-on prototyping; Penn State coverage names faculty Jessica Menold and Meg Handley as the program's founders in fall 2019. (https://www.psucollegian.com/news/campus/new-maker-ambassador-program-to-help-penn-state-women-marginalized-gr)
- Was a Research Assistant at Penn State's Technology and Human Research in Engineering Design (THRED) Lab (Jan 2019 - May 2020), led by Jessica Menold; she studied decision-making in prosthetic prescription and was second author on a resulting 2019 ASME conference paper, then studied how team gender ratios affect psychological safety and creativity in engineering design teams. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/charity-quinn)
- Public headline says "Applied AI @ Cognition". (linkedin.com/in/charity-quinn)
- Essay 'Where AI Will Drive the Biggest Gains in Unexpected Industrial Sectors' argues chemical plants, manufacturing and oil and gas are data-rich but under-served, drawing on her ChemE background and a Retool customer using AI for gas-well placement. (https://quinn.charity/blog/where-ai-will-drive-the-biggest-gains-in-unexpected-industrial-sectors)
- Engineer dedicated to building customer-focused solutions and creating innovative ways to simplify everyday challenges; this comes from the profile summary and preserves the person's own positioning. (linkedin.com/in/charity-quinn)
- Holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Penn State and an MS in Computer Science from Georgia Tech; the ChemE-to-CS path frames her writing on AI for industrial sectors. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/charity-quinn)
- Reposted Cognition's October 2026 FrontierCode 2.0 benchmark release, the Devin Desktop redesign and the Wells Fargo Devin Co:Lab session on LinkedIn. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cognition-ai-labs_wells-fargo-technology-engineers-spent-four-ugcPost-7521607844866002944-erpv)
- Joined X as @charityquinn_ in February 2026 (verified, ~133 followers); the feed is mostly reposts of Cognition launches such as Devin Desktop, Devin Oncall, Dreaming, Devin Security and the American Forge residency. (https://x.com/charityquinn_)
- Interned as a Chemical Engineering Intern at Dow (Jan - Aug 2021) before switching into software. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/charity-quinn)
- Previous roles include Applied AI Engineer at Cognition; Solutions Engineer at Retool; Senior Associate Software Engineer at Capital One; Associate Software Engineer at Capital One; Chemical Engineering Intern at Dow; Co-Founder at Maker Ambassadors; Research Assistant at Penn State Technology and Human Research in Engineering Design (THRED) Lab; the experience history lists these employers and titles. (linkedin.com/in/charity-quinn)
- Education history includes Bachelor of Science - BS, Chemical Engineering, Penn State University; Master of Science - MS, Computer Science, Georgia Institute of Technology; the education section lists these schools and credentials. (linkedin.com/in/charity-quinn)
- Maker Ambassador targeted women and marginalized engineering students and was sponsored by Lockheed Martin, per Penn State coverage. (https://www.psucollegian.com/news/campus/new-maker-ambassador-program-to-help-penn-state-women-marginalized-gr)
- Runs a personal site at quinn.charity styled as an interactive walkable 'farm' (WASD/arrow navigation, 'walk into buildings') that hosts her blog. (https://quinn.charity)
- Follows Cognition colleagues including Jared Zoneraich, Katie Cheng and Matt Schrage plus South Park Commons and Kleiner Perkins Fellows on X; these are leads to her network, not proof of relationships. (https://x.com/charityquinn_)
- Location is New York City Metropolitan Area; the profile location field provides this geography. (linkedin.com/in/charity-quinn)

## Experience
- Applied AI Engineer at Cognition (Mar 2026 - Present)
- Solutions Engineer at Retool (Jun 2025 - Mar 2026): Ranked #1 SE Globally in Q4 2025 
- Finished the quarter as the top Solutions Engineer across all regions and segments in total ARR

Ranked #1 SE in Q3 2025
- Finished the quarter as the top commercial Solutions Engineer in total ARR
- Senior Associate Software Engineer at Capital One (Jan 2024 - Jun 2025)
- Associate Software Engineer at Capital One (Jul 2022 - Jan 2024)
- Chemical Engineering Intern at Dow (Jan 2021 - Aug 2021)
- Co-Founder at Maker Ambassadors (Sep 2019 - Jan 2021): Co-founder of the Maker Ambassador Program. Helped students build confidence with hands-on design and rapid prototyping. Designed and supported BUILD Nights, mentored peers through maker projects, and enabled students to develop practical engineering and technical problem-solving skills.
- Research Assistant at Penn State Technology and Human Research in Engineering Design (THRED) Lab (Jan 2019 - May 2020): The first project I worked on studied the decision-making in prosthetic prescription. In this study, we analyzed how physicians prescribe patients prosthetics, in order to create an algorithm that would be more consistent and accurate. I was the second author in this paper, which was published at the 2019 American Society of Mechanical Engineers conference. Our findings and algorithm help doctors improve the quality of care by limiting mistakes and follow-up visits. The next project researched implicit bias within engineering design teams. It looked to identify how different gender ratios within groups impacted the participant's psychological safety and note if that impacted the creativity of the groups.

## Education
- Penn State University - Bachelor of Science - BS, Chemical Engineering
- Georgia Institute of Technology - Master of Science - MS, Computer Science

## Sources
- https://linkedin.com/in/charity-quinn
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/charity-quinn_first-week-at-cognition-in-the-books-i-activity-7436466407673847808-ZZQv
- https://quinn.charity/blog/the-cognitive-decoupling-why-im-betting-on-reasoning-over-flow-in-ai-coding
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/charity-quinn_charity-quinn-solutions-engineer-activity-7426348331477663744-tt1_
- https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/14/cognition-maker-of-the-ai-coding-agent-devin-acquires-windsurf/
- https://quinn.charity/blog/where-ai-will-drive-the-biggest-gains-in-unexpected-industrial-sectors
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/charity-quinn_ive-been-journaling-thoughts-on-ai-and-activity-7401292161205379073-PqP2
- https://x.com/craigweiss
- https://dealroom.co/news/168226-cognition-buys-code-security-startup-corridor-to-harden-devin/
- https://x.com/charityquinn_/status/2115590846271852966
- https://x.com/charityquinn_
- https://quinn.charity
- https://www.psucollegian.com/news/campus/new-maker-ambassador-program-to-help-penn-state-women-marginalized-groups-in-engineering/article_a717df52-51d1-11ea-933a-6bc8387830ec.html
- https://lnkd.in/eGv2TsQs
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/charity-quinn
- linkedin.com/in/charity-quinn
- https://x.com/charityquinn_/status/2115873065384972632
- https://www.psucollegian.com/news/campus/new-maker-ambassador-program-to-help-penn-state-women-marginalized-gr
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cognition-ai-labs_wells-fargo-technology-engineers-spent-four-ugcPost-7521607844866002944-erpv


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