Cognex is the global leader in the exciting and growing field of machine vision, with annual revenue approaching $1 Billion. We are a financially strong international company with a culture that maintains the fast-paced, creative environment of a startup. Our employees, proudly called "Cognoids," take their work seriously but don't take themselves seriously. Our Work Hard, Play Hard, Move Fast culture recognizes our employees for their innovation, perseverance, and hard work in a fun and rewarding environment. We value in-person team collaboration, while offering remote workplace flexibility up to two days a week depending on the role.

We are working on a hybrid schedule, 3 days in the office, 2 at home

We are looking for an experienced HR Professional to cover the full range of HR activities and work in close alignment with the business towards executing the HR and business strategies. This is a senior individual contributor role reporting into the Lead HR Business Partner of the Cognex Engineering organizations in Europe.

Key Responsibilities

HR Leadership:

• Partner with business leaders to align HR strategies with business goals, ensuring effective workforce planning and performance management.

• Support organizational design and structure to enable talent optimization and drive business success.

Performance Management:

• Enhance productivity by driving ongoing performance discussions, coaching, and, when necessary, implementing disciplinary actions or terminations.

• Facilitate the establishment of clear performance objectives and oversee their timely evaluation.

Organizational Development & Change Management:

• Identify and address structural barriers to achieving strategic initiatives.

• Revise organizational designs and resource allocation to support business goals effectively.

• Help create a change ready culture and use data to predict and plan.

Talent Development:

• Identify high-potential employees and create tailored development plans to ensure succession planning and readiness for critical roles.

• Drive employee engagement by fostering a culture of feedback, recognition, and continuous improvement.

Employee Relations:

• Promote a positive employee relations environment by addressing concerns proactively and maintaining open communication.

• Enhance retention strategies by cultivating an engaging workplace culture.

Talent Acquisition:

Collaborate with the recruitment team to attract and hire top talent that aligns with Cognex's values and objectives and the mission of the business

Qualifications and Competencies

• 7+ years relevant working experience and proven success in a similar role, ideally supporting engineering organizations (Software and Hardware) at European level with focus on Germany and Eastern Europe.

• Expert knowledge and experience in general employment law, overall company HR policies and processes.

• Experience in managing complex employee relations cases.

• Ability to build a strong reputation by developing relationships with internal and external customers.

• Excellent communication, coaching and influencing skills, especially in sensitive and conflict situations.

• Ability to navigate "gray area" and make effective decisions.

• A self-starter with a creative and flexible approach to work, with proven ability for adapting to fast-paced and dynamic work environment.

• Knowledge and experience with German employment law, administration and market practices.

• Fluency in English and German.

• Excellent knowledge of the Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook), adept at data analytics.

• Experience with Workday is a strong advantage.

• Bachelor's Degree in a HR-related field required, Master's Degree is a strong advantage.

• Being part of an international HR team with a holistic approach.

• Challenging and diverse area of responsibility in a fast-growing international company.

• Great personal and professional development opportunities.

• Unique people-centric company culture of "Work Hard, Play Hard, Move Fast".

• Multicultural environment in a pleasant office with own gym and many team activities.

• Benefits: Occupational Pension Plan, 30 days holidays plus 1 company day, Gym, Job Bike, free drinks, team events, regular salary reviews

Kevin Duemont

Recruiting Lead Europe