Engagement Director - Forward Deployed Engineering

The posting, as Avathon wrote it

Who We Are & Why Join Us

Avathon is the leading Industrial AI autonomy platform, helping customers across heavy industries -- energy, mining, manufacturing, aerospace, defense, and logistics -- accelerate the journey toward autonomous operations. Our platform is built on a Computational Knowledge Graph foundation that contextualizes and connects operational data across siloed systems, bringing together time series, structured, unstructured, and machine vision data to power AI-driven applications in asset performance management, supply chain intelligence, visual AI, and global trade management. With capabilities spanning digital twins, normal behavior modeling, natural language processing, and computer vision, Avathon delivers real-time predictive intelligence and agentic decision-making at industrial scale.

Cutting-Edge AI Innovation -- Join a team at the forefront of AI, developing groundbreaking solutions that shape the future. High-Growth Environment -- Thrive in a fast-scaling startup where agility, collaboration, and rapid professional growth are the norm. Meaningful Impact -- Work on AI-driven projects that drive real change across industries and improve lives.

Learn more at: avathon.com

The Engagement Director is Avathon's most senior client-facing delivery leader — accountable for the commercial health, executive relationships, and strategic outcomes of our largest and most complex customer engagements. Where a Program Manager runs the plan, the Engagement Director owns the partnership. You operate at the intersection of delivery accountability and business development, ensuring that every engagement Avathon undertakes becomes a reference win, a contract expansion, and a long-term strategic alliance.

You lead multiple concurrent engagements across strategic accounts, managing cross-functional FDE teams — program managers, technical architects, AI engineers, and change management leads — while maintaining direct executive sponsorship relationships at the customer. You are equally at home in an operational steering committee and a C-suite business review, and you bring the commercial acumen to identify, shape, and close expansion opportunities from within the delivery motion.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Account Leadership

• Own executive relationships at the VP, SVP, and C-suite level across Avathon's strategic accounts — serving as the trusted senior partner who connects delivery outcomes to business value
• Define and drive the long-term engagement strategy for each account: expansion roadmap, capability phasing, success milestones, and multi-year partnership vision
• Lead executive business reviews (EBRs) and steering committee meetings — presenting progress, value realization metrics, and forward-looking roadmap with authority and credibility
• Identify, shape, and advance expansion opportunities within existing accounts — new use cases, additional modules, expanded user populations, and adjacent business units
• Ser

[…]
nsion opportunities with or without a dedicated sales resource

• Executive communication and presence: able to command a room of C-suite stakeholders, deliver difficult messages with clarity, and build lasting advisory-level trust
• Familiarity with AI/ML platform deployments and the organizational change required to adopt data-driven and autonomous operations in industrial environments
• Experience with program governance frameworks (PMI, PRINCE2, SAFe, or equivalent) and the judgment to apply them proportionally — not bureaucratically
• Willingness and ability to travel up to 80%; based in Pleasanton, CA or Austin, TX

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Business, or a related field; MBA or advanced degree preferred
• PMP, PgMP, or equivalent program/engagement management certification is a plus
• An active U.S. Government security clearance is advantageous
• Excellent problem-solving, executive communication, and organizational leadership skills
• Must be authorized to work in the United States without current or future company sponsorship

Compensation & Benefits

• California Base Salary: $170,000 - $220,000
• Performance bonus tied to account growth and delivery outcomes
• Equity in the form of stock options
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage
• 401(k) participation
• Generous PTO and company holidays
• Ongoing learning and development opportunities

Avathon is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, pregnancy, genetic information, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other protected category under applicable federal, state, and local laws.

Avathon is committed to providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruiting process. If you need a reasonable accommodation, please contact us to discuss how we can assist you.