# Daniel Levin

Applied AI @ Cognition | Ex-McKinsey  
Cognition  
San Francisco, California, United States

## At Cognition

- Role: Applied AI (Sales/GTM)
- Joined: Jul 2026
- How they joined: Directly
- Before Cognition: Director, Product & Technology, Zafin
- Overlapped before Cognition with other Cognition people at: McKinsey & Company (https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/worked-together)

## Identity
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellevin01
- Website: https://medium.com/@daniel.levin_11149
- Domain: cognition.ai

## Notes
- Joined Cognition (maker of Devin) in July 2026 as Applied AI Transformation Manager after ~18 months at Zafin and ~2 years at McKinsey. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellevin01)
- Cognition's job posting for his title describes the role verbatim: "Applied AI Transformation Managers are technically oriented strategic advisors and operators who ensure value alignment to our customer's most strategic projects and drive program delivery across several strategic accounts." It sits in the SalesAI Transformation department, SF/NYC on-site. (https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/cognition/ca40e489-d1cb-4a8a-b761-ec3a67c8fda6)
- Cognition, maker of Devin, signed a definitive agreement to acquire Windsurf in July 2025, days after Google DeepMind hired Windsurf's CEO and research leaders; he joined a year later. (https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/14/cognition-maker-of-the-ai-coding-agent-devin-acquires-windsurf/)
- Public headline says "Applied AI @ Cognition | Ex-McKinsey". (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellevin01)
- Named among Zafin colleagues (with Branavan Selvasingham, Mayank Sharma, Radhakrishna Pillai, Nisha Shankar) in Suja Chandy's post on Zafin's first AI Build Day 2026 in India, so internal AI enablement at Zafin was part of his work just before Cognition. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/schandy01_ai-trivandrum-chennai-activity-7438647272395096064-HaK9)
- Wrote 'Product Management at Zafin' on Zafin's engineering blog (2025-05-02), arguing "A product manager's mission is deceptively simple: make sure real people get what they need from the product." and that selling to a tier-one bank means selling to a whole committee. (https://medium.com/engineering-zafin/product-management-at-zafin-27f20152c40b)
- Was a Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company from 2023 to 2025 before moving into Zafin's product org. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellevin01)
- Public headline says "Applied AI @ Cognition | Ex-McKinsey". (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellevin01)
- In that essay he quotes Zafin's internal motto: "The first iteration is exactly that — a first iteration." and describes Zafin PMs doubling as product owners who sit in stand-ups and parse architecture diagrams, a product-and-engineering hybrid that previews his technical customer-facing Cognition role. (https://medium.com/engineering-zafin/product-management-at-zafin-27f20152c40b)
- Previous roles include Director, Product & Technology at Zafin; Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellevin01)
- Education history includes Queen's University. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellevin01)
- Acted as editor/publisher on Zafin's Medium engineering blog, publishing posts such as 'BIAN Adoption at Zafin (Part 2): Product Directory' by principal architects Arno Hensbergen and John Sew (2025-06-16). (https://medium.com/@daniel.levin_11149)
- Previous roles include Director, Product & Technology at Zafin; Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellevin01)
- Education history includes Queen's University. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellevin01)
- Location is San Francisco, California, United States. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellevin01)
- Location is San Francisco, California, United States. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellevin01)

## Experience
- Applied AI Transformation Manager at Cognition (Jul 2026 - Present)
- Director, Product & Technology at Zafin (Jan 2025 - Jul 2026)
- Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company (Jan 2023 - Jan 2025)

## Education
- Queen's University

## Sources
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellevin01
- https://medium.com/engineering-zafin/product-management-at-zafin-27f20152c40b
- https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/14/cognition-maker-of-the-ai-coding-agent-devin-acquires-windsurf/
- https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/cognition/ca40e489-d1cb-4a8a-b761-ec3a67c8fda6
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/schandy01_ai-trivandrum-chennai-activity-7438647272395096064-HaK9
- https://medium.com/@daniel.levin_11149
- https://github.com/daniel-levin


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