Technical Architect - Forward Deployed Engineering

Avathon•Austin, TX

6d•Onsite

About The Position

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.

Requirements

12+ years of experience in enterprise technology delivery, management consulting, or professional services — with at least 4 years in a senior engagement leadership or client partner role
Proven track record managing strategic accounts in excess of $5M ACV — owning P&L, executive relationships, and commercial growth within the delivery motion
Experience leading complex, multi-workstream AI, data platform, or OT/industrial technology deployments in asset-intensive industries (energy, manufacturing, mining, aerospace, or logistics)
Demonstrated ability to build and manage high-performing cross-functional delivery teams in fast-paced, client-embedded environments
Strong commercial acumen — able to structure engagements, read contracts, manage margin, and identify and advance expansion 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
Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Business, or a related field
Excellent problem-solving, executive communication, and organizational leadership skills
Must be authorized to work in the United States without current or future company sponsorship

Nice To Haves

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

Responsibilities

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
Serve as the ultimate escalation point for client concerns, commercial issues, and strategic misalignments — resolving them with urgency and executive presence
Oversee the delivery health of multiple concurrent engagements — setting governance standards, holding program managers accountable to scope, schedule, and quality, and intervening on at-risk programs
Establish and enforce engagement governance frameworks: RAID management, milestone tracking, change control, financial reporting, and executive communication cadences
Ensure each engagement is staffed with the right mix of skills, that resource plans are defensible, and that team performance is actively managed and developed
Own engagement P&L — tracking revenue recognition, managing cost to deliver, forecasting margins, and optimizing profitability without compromising outcomes
Drive continuous improvement across the FDE delivery practice — institutionalizing lessons learned, refining delivery playbooks, and raising the standard of execution with every engagement
Partner with Sales and Account Management to shape statements of work, commercial terms, and engagement structures that are both compelling to clients and commercially sound for Avathon
Own renewal, upsell, and expansion deal qualification and progression within the delivery motion — converting delivery trust into commercial growth
Develop and present business cases and ROI analyses that demonstrate Avathon's value to both economic buyers and operational stakeholders
Provide pipeline visibility and account-level revenue forecasts to FDE and executive leadership, with the precision and confidence of a business owner
Champion customer reference-ability — driving the conditions that produce case studies, executive testimonials, and public advocacy for Avathon's platform
Lead, develop, and inspire a team of Program Managers and Delivery Leads — setting a high performance bar, coaching through complexity, and building organizational capability
Create clarity of roles, decision rights, and accountability structures across complex multi-team engagements — ensuring alignment without creating bureaucracy
Model Avathon's leadership culture in the field: operating with ownership, urgency, and intellectual honesty under pressure
Build the talent pipeline for the FDE practice — identifying high-potential team members, creating stretch opportunities, and partnering with recruiting on future hiring needs
Represent FDE interests in cross-functional forums with Product, Engineering, Sales, and Marketing — ensuring the voice of the field shapes platform and go-to-market decisions
Define success metrics and value realization frameworks at engagement kickoff — ensuring outcomes are measurable, commercially relevant, and tracked throughout delivery
Drive adoption and change management at the executive and operational levels — aligning client leadership around the behavioral and process changes required for AI-led operations
Lead post-go-live value reviews that tie platform utilization to business KPIs (uptime improvement, cost reduction, cycle time, revenue impact) and frame the case for next investments
Capture and synthesize strategic insights from the field — customer priorities, competitive intelligence, platform gaps — and deliver them as structured input to Avathon's roadmap and strategy