# Vanessa Salas

![Vanessa Salas](/resources/cognition/portraits/vanessa-salas.webp)

Deployed Engineer @ Cognition  
Cognition  
San Francisco, California, United States

## At Cognition

- Role: Deployed Engineer (Engineering)
- Joined: Nov 2024
- How they joined: With Windsurf (https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/acquisitions/windsurf)
- Before Windsurf: Solutions Engineer, Pinecone
- Overlapped before Cognition with other Cognition people at: Codeium (Windsurf) (https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/worked-together)

## Identity
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-salas
- Domain: cognition.ai

## Notes
- On 2026-07-14, marking one year at Cognition, she posted verbatim: "One year later and working at Cognition is still exhilarating!" - the first-anniversary timing lines up with the July 2025 Windsurf acquisition. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/vanessa-salas_exactly-one-year-ago-was-the-craziest-72-activity-7482912600700133376-_EQv)
- Joined Codeium (maker of the Windsurf AI IDE) in November 2024 as a Deployed Engineer; the LinkedIn role entry is annotated 'Acquired by Cognition', and she moved to Cognition in July 2025 when Cognition acquired Windsurf, which is how she arrived at Cognition. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-salas)
- As Data Scientist II at Blue River (2021-2022) she 'defined and managed training and test set SLA, curated datasets, and presented summary to C-level executives', work that 'culminated in the approval and reveal of John Deere's autonomous tractor at CES 2022'. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-salas)
- Current role is Deployed Engineer at Cognition. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-salas)
- Co-presented the GenAI Gurus expert talk 'Beyond Code Completion: Windsurf and Human+Agent Software Development' (published 2025-05-09, 1h02m) with Windsurf GTM lead Rudy Garza; the talk bio says she 'connects enterprise clients with Windsurf's AI-native IDE and coding assistant tools'. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L40yro0RH_k)
- Modev announced her on 2025-03-19 as 'Strategic Engineer at Codeium' and speaker at GENERATE in Arlington, VA, leading a workshop on 'the technical foundations of integrating AI-assisted coding tools into your IDE'. (https://x.com/GoModev/status/1902375510589784109)
- On 2025-02-03 she posted verbatim: "Codeium is at HPE Tech Jam Vienna! Visit booth 21 to discover how our AI-powered developer tools are revolutionizing developer productivity. Experience firsthand the future of accelerated development with live demos and discussions!". (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/vanessa-salas_codeium-is-at-hpe-tech-jam-vienna-activity-7292166773787836416-Sh1K)
- On 2025-01-06 she posted verbatim: "New Year, New IDE, New You! What's a better way to start my morning commute than seeing Windsurf all over the Caltrain station? If you code, you should try it, and if you don't code, you should also try it-it's that good." (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/vanessa-salas_new-year-new-ide-new-you-whats-a-better-activity-7282075617011945472-lH72)
- Spent 4.5 years (Oct 2019-May 2024) at Blue River Technology, the John Deere-owned agricultural robotics company, rising from Data Analyst to Data Scientist I, Data Scientist II and Data Engineer II. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-salas)
- Her Windsurf talk bio describes 'a background in both machine learning engineering and computer science instruction', calls her 'a native Californian currently based in San Francisco', and says she holds 'a B.S. in Computer Science from UC Berkeley'. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L40yro0RH_k)
- Before Codeium she was a Solutions Engineer at Pinecone (vector database) from May to Nov 2024, a customer-facing technical role that previews the Deployed Engineer job she took next. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-salas)
- As Data Engineer II at Blue River (2022-2024) she 'designed, built, and maintained the pipelines that transformed autonomous tractor data at scale to support analytics throughout the company'. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-salas)
- Public headline says "Deployed Engineer @ Cognition". (https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-salas)
- Studied Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley College of Engineering (BS); activities listed include Hispanic Engineers Society, Society of Women Engineers, Regents' and Chancellor's Scholar and Bill & Melinda Gates Scholar. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-salas)
- Modev's GENERATE agenda lists 'Vanessa Salas, Strategic Engineer, Codeium' leading a workshop on how to troubleshoot common integration challenges and align AI capabilities with team goals; GENERATE New York (2025-06-13) and Vancouver (2025-06-19) pages also list her. (https://www.modev.com/generate/agenda?hsLang=en)
- Early career: Data Science Intern at Chegg (summer 2018) and Customer Support Engineer at Merge Mobile, Inc. (2018-2019). (https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-salas)
- Previous roles include Deployed Engineer at Cognition; Deployed Engineer at Windsurf; Solutions Engineer at Pinecone; Data Engineer II at Blue River Technology; Data Scientist II at Blue River Technology; Data Scientist I at Blue River Technology; Data Analyst at Blue River Technology; Customer Support Engineer at Merge Mobile, Inc. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-salas)
- Education history includes Bachelor of Science - BS, Electrical Engineer and Computer Science, UC Berkeley College of Engineering. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-salas)
- Reposted Cognition's Jeff Wang announcing a Cognition booth (#2015) at Google Cloud Next (2026-04-15). (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jefflinwang_ill-be-at-google-cloud-next-in-a-week-cognition-activity-7449866910537793536-Ea0C)
- Location is San Francisco Bay Area. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-salas)

## Experience
- Deployed Engineer at Cognition (Jul 2025 - Present)
- Deployed Engineer at Windsurf (Nov 2024 - Jul 2025): Acquired by Cognition
- Solutions Engineer at Pinecone (May 2024 - Nov 2024)
- Data Engineer II at Blue River Technology (Feb 2022 - May 2024): Designed, built, and maintained the pipelines that transformed autonomous tractor data at scale to support analytics throughout the company.
- Data Scientist II at Blue River Technology (Mar 2021 - Feb 2022): Defined and managed training and test set SLA, curated datasets, and presented summary to C-level executives. Culminated in the approval and reveal of John Deere’s autonomous tractor at CES 2022.
- Data Scientist I at Blue River Technology (Feb 2020 - Feb 2021)
- Data Analyst at Blue River Technology (Oct 2019 - Jan 2020)
- Customer Support Engineer at Merge Mobile, Inc. (Jan 2018 - Oct 2019)
- Data Science Intern at Chegg Inc. (Jun 2018 - Aug 2018)

## Education
- UC Berkeley College of Engineering - Bachelor of Science - BS, Electrical Engineer and Computer Science: Hispanic Engineers Society,
Society of Women Engineers,
Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholar,
Bill & Melinda Gates Scholar

## Sources
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-salas
- https://engineering.berkeley.edu/news/page/93/
- https://www.modev.com/generate/agenda?hsLang=en
- https://x.com/GoModev/status/1902375510589784109
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/vanessa-salas_exactly-one-year-ago-was-the-craziest-72-activity-7482912600700133376-_EQv
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/vanessa-salas_codeium-is-at-hpe-tech-jam-vienna-activity-7292166773787836416-Sh1K
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L40yro0RH_k
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-wu-8b94ab96?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_profile%3AACoAABRcyU0B3eVfSh_wWQgM7w3CZRywJOf28G8
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/vanessa-salas_new-year-new-ide-new-you-whats-a-better-activity-7282075617011945472-lH72
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cognition-ai-labs_today-we-announced-windsurf-20-our-biggest-ugcPost-7450291485624664064-F0aT
- https://engineering.berkeley.edu/news/2015/09/gm-foundation-funding-connects-engineers-with-underserved-communities/
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jefflinwang_ill-be-at-google-cloud-next-in-a-week-cognition-activity-7449866910537793536-Ea0C


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