# Elliot Branson

![Elliot Branson](/resources/cognition/portraits/elliot-branson.webp)

CTO of Federal at Cognition (Devin, Windsurf); ex-VP ML & Engineering Scale AI, first Head of Perception at Cruise  
Cognition  
San Francisco, California, United States

## At Cognition

- Role: CTO of Federal (Sales/GTM)
- Joined: Jan 2026
- How they joined: Directly
- Before Cognition: Vice President of Engineering, Vannevar Labs
- Overlapped before Cognition with other Cognition people at: Scale AI; Vannevar Labs (https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/worked-together)

## Identity
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliot-branson
- Domain: cognition.ai

## Notes
- Current role is CTO of Federal at Cognition. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliot-branson)
- Public headline says "CTO of Federal, Cognition AI". (https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliot-branson)
- Specialties: Artificial Intelligence Programing, Robotics, National Defense, Network Programing, Systems Deployment; this comes from the profile summary and preserves the person's own positioning. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliot-branson)
- Previous roles include CTO of Federal at Cognition; Vice President of Engineering at Vannevar Labs; VP of Machine Learning & Engineering at Scale AI; Director of Machine Learning & Engineering at Scale AI; Head of Perception at Cruise Automation, Inc.; Graduate Student at University of Minnesota; Undergraduate Researcher at University of Minnesota; Undergraduate TA at University of Minnesota. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliot-branson)
- Location is San Francisco Bay Area. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliot-branson)

## Experience
- CTO of Federal at Cognition (Jan 2026 - Present)
- Vice President of Engineering at Vannevar Labs (Jan 2024 - Dec 2025)
- VP of Machine Learning & Engineering at Scale AI (Apr 2022 - Apr 2024)
- Director of Machine Learning & Engineering at Scale AI (Jul 2019 - Apr 2022)
- Head of Perception at Cruise Automation, Inc. (Jan 2015 - Apr 2019)
- Graduate Student at University of Minnesota (Dec 2012 - Jan 2015): Working for Stergios Roumeliotis I completed research projects on topic such as:
- Fast efficient place re-recognition for loop closure detection
- Online SLAM algorithms on computationally constrained hardware
- Computationally constrained visual odometry
- Fast visual feature extraction in computationally constrained environments
- Sensor transmission over networks

Some hardware platforms which I worked on include:
- Indoor drones with a carrying capacity of 500g
- Google's Project Tango
- Desktop scale computation
- Undergraduate TA at University of Minnesota (Sep 2010 - May 2012): I was a teacher's assistant for the following courses
- CSci 1902, Structure of Computer Programming II
- CSci 4061, Introduction to Operating Systems
- Systems Programer at University of Missouri (Dec 2007 - Aug 2009): Information Technology repair work, Systems Setup, Server Programing, Web Programing and Development
- Lifeguard at City of Columbia (May 2006 - Sep 2007): Worked as a lifeguard as well as teaching swimming lessons to children age 5-12.

## Education

## Sources
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliot-branson
- https://learn.scale.com/public/videos/scale-zeitgeist-ai-readiness-report-featuring-scales-elliot-branson-director-of-machine-learning-and-engineering-and-sasha-harrison-machine-learning-engineer-2022-08-10
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliot-branson?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_profile%3AACoAAALTvvcBMU-lMum3VF3M1O-4QlNWC_oGiWc
- https://www.chieftechnologyofficer.org/event/devin---first-autonomous-software-engineer
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/justintherman?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_profile%3AACoAAAC8lwwB8cDahrilIUwnBKNy3E92-CqR-ho
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/cognition-ai-labs/posts
- https://cognition.ai/blog/windsurf
- https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Elliot-Branson-2034983952
- https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.08243
- https://alldus.com/podcast/ai-in-action-e273-elliot-branson-director-of-machine-learning-engineering-at-scale-ai/


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