What skills do you need to be successful in the Engineering department at Cognex?

You need political skills. Your best bet to make it far up in the Engineering department at Cognex is to brownnose your manager and agree to what he says. At least try to keep the amount of own ideas you communicate to a minimum. You definitely want to network with other managers to keep your options open and get some leverage and gain power. It's not about how good your actual Engineering work is. Results don't matter much. Don't get me wrong, if you are lacking basic Engineering skills you will get kicked out quickly but from what I have seen, exceptional Engineering skills won't bring you far up either.