# Roshan Fernando

![Roshan Fernando](/resources/cognition/portraits/roshan-fernando.webp)

Deployed Engineering Lead (EMEA founding team) at Cognition; ex-Scale AI PM, ex-Warp Chief of Staff  
Cognition  
New York, New York, United States

## At Cognition

- Role: Deployed Engineering Lead (Engineering)
- Joined: Oct 2025
- How they joined: Directly
- Before Cognition: Head of Product, Applied AI for Education, Scale AI
- Overlapped before Cognition with other Cognition people at: Scale AI; Microsoft; UC San Diego (https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/worked-together)

## Identity
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roshan-fernando
- X: @rdf004
- GitHub: https://github.com/roshanfernando
- Website: https://rdf004.substack.com/
- Domain: cognition.ai

## Notes
- Joined Cognition (maker of Devin and, after the July 2025 Windsurf acquisition, Windsurf) as Deployed Engineering Lead in October 2025; his LinkedIn describes the role as 'Founding team for EMEA, responsible for $XXM'. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/roshan-fernando)
- At Scale AI (Feb 2024-Jul 2025) he was a Product Manager on the founding team for International Public Sector and the founding team for MENA. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/roshan-fernando)
- Was Chief of Staff at Warp (the Rust-based AI terminal) from Nov 2021 to Feb 2024 and lists himself as 'Employee #8'. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/roshan-fernando)
- On 30 Sep 2026 he quote-posted Cognition's CRO hire, writing word for word: "One of the Silicon Valley greats is joining Cognition as CRO". (https://x.com/rdf004/status/2105380139186147355)
- Reposted a LinkedIn post about Cognition's work with Comarch, which is modernizing the ~10-million-line Clarion ERP XL system with Devin ('The original plan: ~5 years. With Devin: 18 months.'); the post's author framed Poland as a market they were kickstarting with Cognition, matching his EMEA remit. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/christian-w-35771723_customers-comarch-devin-activity-7506507314363899904-EOFT)
- Was a Venture Partner at Contrary (student venture program) from 2019 to 2021; he later tweeted 'I would not be the person I am today without Contrary' and that Contrary 'changed my life and gave me wonderful friends like @rlescoezec'. (https://x.com/rdf004/status/1960061975041343527)
- Moved to Cognition only about three months after becoming Head of Product, Applied AI for Education at Scale AI (Jul-Oct 2025). (https://www.linkedin.com/in/roshan-fernando)
- On 1 Oct 2026 he reposted CEO Scott Wu's public reply defending Cognition against Factory CEO Matan Grinberg's allegations. (https://x.com/rdf004/status/2105487530321924098)
- Listed as a RAISE Summit 2026 speaker as 'Deployed Engineer, Cognition', alongside Cognition colleague Till Kern (Special Projects Engineer). (https://www.raisesummit.com/speakers-2026?fbd50a67_page=4)
- Co-authored the IEEE TCAD paper 'Locality-Based Encoder and Model Quantization for Efficient Hyper-Dimensional Computing' (published online 29 March 2021, vol. 41 issue 4, April 2022) with Justin Morris, Yilun Hao, Mohsen Imani, Baris Aksanli and Tajana Rosing. (https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9388914)
- Described his Warp role in his own words: "I'm the Chief of Staff at Warp, a startup reinventing the terminal. I lead HR, hiring, recruiting, content, and some marketing. I also help out with growth." (https://medium.com/@roshandf/which-8vc-portfolio-companies-are-you-interested-in-working-with-and-why-ebc1b451089c)
- Before Warp he was a Founding Software Engineer at Rely Health in the San Francisco Bay Area (Nov 2020-Nov 2021). (https://www.linkedin.com/in/roshan-fernando)
- As a UC San Diego undergraduate (B.S. Computer Science, 2017-2020) he did research in Professor Tajana Rosing's System Energy Efficiency (SEE) Lab on lightweight alternatives to classic ML models, a lab he says was funded by DARPA and UC San Diego. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/roshan-fernando)
- Public headline says "Cognition". (https://www.linkedin.com/in/roshan-fernando)
- Reposted a Christian Lawless LinkedIn essay on nations turning AI software engineers into economic output (public-sector framing). (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/christianlawless_publicsector-ips-activity-7519399250028380160-GLHZ)
- Warp's 'Why You Should Join' Substack profile lists him as 'Roshan Fernando - Chief of Staff, Growth' and notes he previously interned at DoorDash, Goldman Sachs and Microsoft in engineering and product. (https://whyyoushouldjoin.substack.com/p/warp)
- Interned as a Software Engineer on DoorDash's Core Infrastructure team in summer 2020; he wrote that the team used CockroachDB and found AWS Aurora lacking. (https://medium.com/@roshandf/which-8vc-portfolio-companies-are-you-interested-in-working-with-and-why-ebc1b451089c)
- Two Microsoft PM internships: 2019 on Cloud+AI Security (shipped a way for banks to do device attestation) and 2020 in Xbox on the PlayFab team (shipped gifting-as-a-service for the game economies team). (https://www.linkedin.com/in/roshan-fernando)
- Writes a Substack, 'Operating a startup', about things he learned as a chief of staff at a startup. (https://rdf004.substack.com/)
- His X bio reads 'ripping @cognition, prev product @scale_ai; I also write here' and links to his writing; the account (@rdf004, created Dec 2015) has about 569 followers. (https://x.com/rdf004)
- Summer 2018 Asset Management Summer Analyst at Goldman Sachs, where he says he built software tools end to end. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/roshan-fernando)
- Previous roles include Head of Product, Applied AI for Education at Scale AI; Product Manager at Scale AI; Chief of Staff at Warp; Founding Software Engineer at Rely Health; Venture Partner at Contrary; Product Manager Intern at Microsoft; Software Engineer Intern at DoorDash; Undergraduate Researcher (Published) at UC San Diego. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/roshan-fernando)
- Education history includes B.S., Computer Science, UC San Diego. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/roshan-fernando)
- Reposted Alexandr Wang (Scale AI CEO) in Oct 2026 and Michelle Lim's Flint launch, which claimed Cognition and Windsurf doubled conversions with Flint. (https://x.com/rdf004/status/2109382430083695011)
- Location is New York, New York, United States. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/roshan-fernando)

## Experience
- Deployed Engineering Lead at Cognition (Oct 2025 - Present): Founding team for EMEA, responsible for $XXM
- Head of Product, Applied AI for Education at Scale AI (Jul 2025 - Oct 2025)
- Product Manager at Scale AI (Feb 2024 - Jul 2025): Founding team for International Public Sector, founding team for MENA
- Chief of Staff at Warp (Nov 2021 - Feb 2024): Employee #8
- Founding Software Engineer at Rely Health - San Francisco Bay Area (Nov 2020 - Nov 2021)
- Venture Partner at Contrary (Jan 2019 - Jan 2021): Contrary is a talent and research-driven investment firm. We back a small number of exceptional people and the companies they build, from seed to scale.
- Product Manager Intern at Microsoft (Jan 2020 - Jan 2020): Product Manager intern in Xbox on the PlayFab team, shipped gifting as a service for the game economies team
- Software Engineer Intern at DoorDash (Jan 2020 - Jan 2020): Core infrastructure team
- Undergraduate Researcher (Published) at UC San Diego (Jan 2019 - Jan 2019): Conducted computer science research in Professor Tajana Rosing's System Energy Efficiency Lab, focused on developing efficient and lightweight alternatives to classing machine learning models. The research lab was funded by DARPA and UC San Diego. 

I was the second author on a research paper published in IEEE: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9388914
- Product Manager Intern at Microsoft (Jan 2019 - Jan 2019): Product Manager Intern on Cloud+AI Security, shipped a way for banks to do device attestation
- Asset Management Summer Analyst at Goldman Sachs (Jan 2018 - Jan 2018): Asset Management + software engineered tools end to end

## Education
- UC San Diego - B.S., Computer Science - (Jan 2017 - Jan 2020): Also did a little bit of salsa dancing

## Sources
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/roshan-fernando
- https://whyyoushouldjoin.substack.com/p/warp
- https://www.raisesummit.com/speakers-2026?fbd50a67_page=4
- https://github.com/intern-hub/frontend/blob/master/README.md
- https://medium.com/@roshandf/which-8vc-portfolio-companies-are-you-interested-in-working-with-and-why-ebc1b451089c
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-w-35771723?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_profile%3AACoAAATpRjMBVxdZ4NKjTwGoZEbMRJI8tB7GfJM
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianlawless?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_profile%3AACoAAAEM_A0BsrIPIxNj_sgz3pKKhTmx9-ftVm8
- https://rdf004.substack.com/
- https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9388914
- https://x.com/rdf004
- https://github.com/roshanfernando
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/evatuecke?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_profile%3AACoAACmn4rYBzx2go3b69jDfJvPo2t2IjGr6crQ
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/rlescoezec?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_profile%3AACoAABfUz1UB0_crddQGcWo-wvfbstktAAR63d8
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/michlimlim?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_profile%3AACoAAB-lEvQBDMC4WORPKPe-emksA3DMuDZNghg
- https://medium.com/@roshandf
- https://x.com/rdf004/status/2105380139186147355
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/christian-w-35771723_customers-comarch-devin-activity-7506507314363899904-EOFT
- https://x.com/rdf004/status/1960061975041343527
- https://x.com/rdf004/status/2105487530321924098
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/christianlawless_publicsector-ips-activity-7519399250028380160-GLHZ
- https://x.com/rdf004/status/2109382430083695011


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