# Till Kern

![Till Kern](/resources/cognition/portraits/till-kern.webp)

Building Central Europe @ Cognition AI  
Cognition  
United Kingdom

## At Cognition

- Role: Special Projects (Research)
- Joined: Jan 2026
- How they joined: Directly
- Before Cognition: Co-Founder & CPTO, opus
- Overlapped before Cognition with other Cognition people at: Palantir (https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/worked-together)

## Identity
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tillkern

## Notes
- Current role is Special Projects at Cognition; the profile current-job fields identify both title and company. (linkedin.com/in/tillkern)
- Posted on LinkedIn (verbatim): "Next Tuesday Cognition is co-hosting a Founder Showcase in London together with Lightspeed and five degrees." The Oct 13 event at Lightspeed London offered "access to roles that aren't public yet". (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tillkern_next-tuesday-cognition-is-co-hosting-a-founder-activity-7513166706316500992-U0Vp)
- Co-founded Stitch Technologies (YC W24) with Raj Dosanjh, his former Palantir colleague. Raj announced it on LinkedIn: "So alongside my friend Till Kern we've decided to co-found Stitch!" (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rdosanjh_as-some-of-you-may-know-after-more-than-4-activity-7135234014507851776-SVmD)
- Current role is Special Projects at Cognition; the profile current-job fields identify both title and company. (linkedin.com/in/tillkern)
- Christian W. (Cognition VP, Central Europe) named Till Kern, Bryce Hunt and Yannis Psorakis as the people hiring "the best FDEs on the market" for Cognition. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/christian-w-35771723_hopp-schwiiz-extremely-happy-to-welcome-activity-7500921639157719040-aWPj)
- Hackathon judge bio for the Generative UI/A2A Hackathon (Google, CopilotKit, A2A Net): "Special Projects Engineer at Cognition and previously founded an AI Startup with funding from Y Combinator and General Catalyst after spending several years at Palantir as a product lead." This is the only source that names General Catalyst as a backer of his startup. (https://luma.com/a2a-and-generative-ui-hackathon)
- During YC W24 Stitch pivoted after a month in San Francisco. Kern wrote: "recently had to face a hard truth: people didn't want what we built." They rebuilt from scratch and "received more inbound in 4 days than over the last 5 months." (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tillkern_ycombinator-startup-pivot-activity-7166516955158401024-Ai1b)
- Y Combinator lists Till Kern as a W24 founder of Stitch Technologies ("Builder, part-time ski instructor, Co-founder & CEO of Stitch"). (https://www.ycombinator.com/founders/1550772-till-kern)
- After Stitch, he was Co-Founder & CPTO of opus (2024-2025), a Berlin company building AI agents that automate Purchase-to-Pay procurement workflows. Its listed founders include Niklas Tauch, Benedict Hofmann, Ozum P., Jan Stawowiak and Shane Soh. Moving from frontend tooling to agentic enterprise automation is the bridge to deploying Devin at Cognition. (https://opus-tech.ai)
- Public headline says "Building Central Europe @ Cognition AI". (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tillkern)
- Named inventor with Joshua Chomicki, Rajdeep Singh Dosanjh, Stephanie Yu and Walker Burgin on Palantir patent US 12737427, 'Multi-section support in graphical application builder' (filed 2023-09-29, granted 2026-09-15). (https://patents.justia.com/inventor/till-kern)
- He joined Cognition in 2026, after Cognition's July 2025 acquisition of Windsurf. Public sources reviewed tie his work to Devin go-to-market and deployment (Central Europe lead, FDE hiring, London founder events), not to Windsurf itself. He did not come to Cognition through an acquired company. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/christian-w-35771723_hopp-schwiiz-extremely-happy-to-welcome-activity-7500921639157719040-aWPj)
- Stitch's original product turned any React library into drag-and-drop widgets for frontend development. It was London-based, had a 2-person team and spent 4 months in stealth. (https://stealthstartupspy.substack.com/p/stealth-startup-spy-97)
- Public headline says "Building Central Europe @ Cognition AI". (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tillkern)
- The five degrees co-host's teaser for the Oct 13, 2026 London Founder Showcase described Cognition as "A $48B company. Backed by Sequoia, Index + Lightspeed" and promised "50 handpicked builders from Google DeepMind, Palantir + more". The event sources the kind of Palantir-style builders Kern himself came from. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zoran-kokolanski_london-this-ones-for-you-a-48b-company-activity-7514252850173181952-nSAl)
- Named inventor with Hemang Kandwal, Xinyi Fu, Rajdeep Singh Dosanjh and Cathleen Jia on Palantir patent US 12561227, 'Application to streamline debugging' (filed 2023-08-03, granted 2026-02-24, assignee Palantir Technologies). A continuation, US 20260086922, was published 2026-03-26. (https://patents.justia.com/inventor/till-kern)
- Previous roles include Co-Founder & CPTO at opus; Product Manager at Palantir Technologies; Intern | Data Analyst at Amazon; Student Researcher | SAP UCC at Technische Universität München; Intern | Technology Strategist at Microsoft; Student Consultant at Academy Consult München e.V.; Academic Tutor at Technische Universität München. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tillkern)
- Education history includes Honors Degree, Technology Management, Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM); Bachelor of Science - BS, Wirtschaftsinformatik, Technical University of Munich. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tillkern)
- Previous roles include Special Projects at Cognition; Co-Founder & CPTO at opus; Product Manager at Palantir Technologies; Intern | Data Analyst at Amazon; Student Researcher | SAP UCC at Technische Universität München; Intern | Technology Strategist at Microsoft; Student Consultant at Academy Consult München e.V.; Academic Tutor at Technische Universität München; the experience history lists these employers and titles. (linkedin.com/in/tillkern)
- Education history includes Bachelor of Science - BS, Wirtschaftsinformatik, Technical University of Munich; Honors Degree, Technology Management, Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM); the education section lists these schools and credentials. (linkedin.com/in/tillkern)
- Profile Stealth Startup Spy (Jan 2024) labeled him a technical founder and former FAANG, with prior roles as Product Manager at Palantir, Data Analyst at Amazon and Technology Strategist at Microsoft. (https://stealthstartupspy.substack.com/p/stealth-startup-spy-97)
- Listed in CDTM (Center for Digital Technology and Management, Munich) Class of Fall 2017, studying Information Systems. That is the TUM/LMU honors technology-management program where he earned his Honors Degree. (https://cdtm.com/people/classes/munich/fall-2017)
- Previous roles include Co-Founder & CPTO at opus; Product Manager at Palantir Technologies; Intern | Data Analyst at Amazon; Student Researcher | SAP UCC at Technische Universität München; Intern | Technology Strategist at Microsoft; Student Consultant at Academy Consult München e.V.; Academic Tutor at Technische Universität München. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tillkern)
- Education history includes Honors Degree, Technology Management, Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM); Bachelor of Science - BS, Wirtschaftsinformatik, Technical University of Munich. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tillkern)
- Previous roles include Special Projects at Cognition; Co-Founder & CPTO at opus; Product Manager at Palantir Technologies; Intern | Data Analyst at Amazon; Student Researcher | SAP UCC at Technische Universität München; Intern | Technology Strategist at Microsoft; Student Consultant at Academy Consult München e.V.; Academic Tutor at Technische Universität München; the experience history lists these employers and titles. (linkedin.com/in/tillkern)
- Education history includes Bachelor of Science - BS, Wirtschaftsinformatik, Technical University of Munich; Honors Degree, Technology Management, Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM); the education section lists these schools and credentials. (linkedin.com/in/tillkern)
- Location is United Kingdom. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tillkern)
- Location is United States; the profile location field provides this geography. (linkedin.com/in/tillkern)
- Location is United Kingdom. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tillkern)
- Location is United States; the profile location field provides this geography. (linkedin.com/in/tillkern)

## Experience
- Special Projects Engineer / Central Europe Lead at Cognition - London Area, United Kingdom (Jan 2026 - Present)
- Co-Founder & CPTO at opus (Jan 2024 - Jan 2025)
- Product Manager at Palantir Technologies (Jan 2018 - Jan 2023)
- Intern | Data Analyst at Amazon (Oct 2017 - Jun 2018)
- Student Researcher | SAP UCC at Technische Universität München (Jul 2017 - Sep 2017)
- Intern | Technology Strategist at Microsoft (Jan 2017 - Sep 2017)
- Student Consultant at Academy Consult München e.V. (Oct 2016 - Apr 2017)
- Academic Tutor at Technische Universität München (Oct 2016 - Feb 2017)
- Special Projects at Cognition (Jan 2026 - Present)

## Education
- Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM) - Honors Degree, Technology Management
- Technical University of Munich - Bachelor of Science - BS, Wirtschaftsinformatik

## Sources
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/tillkern
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tillkern_next-tuesday-cognition-is-co-hosting-a-founder-activity-7513166706316500992-U0Vp
- https://stealthstartupspy.substack.com/p/stealth-startup-spy-97
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tillkern_ycombinator-startup-pivot-activity-7166516955158401024-Ai1b
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/christian-w-35771723_hopp-schwiiz-extremely-happy-to-welcome-activity-7500921639157719040-aWPj
- https://www.ycombinator.com/founders/1550772-till-kern
- https://luma.com/a2a-and-generative-ui-hackathon
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zoran-kokolanski_london-this-ones-for-you-a-48b-company-activity-7514252850173181952-nSAl
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rdosanjh_as-some-of-you-may-know-after-more-than-4-activity-7135234014507851776-SVmD
- https://patents.justia.com/inventor/till-kern
- https://cdtm.com/people/classes/munich/fall-2017
- https://opus-tech.ai
- https://api.github.com/users/till-kern
- linkedin.com/in/tillkern


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