Role OverviewThe 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 ResponsibilitiesStrategic 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
- Serve as the ultimate escalation point for client concerns, commercial issues, and strategic misalignments - resolving them with urgency and executive presence
Engagement Governance & Delivery Oversight - 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
Commercial & Revenue Accountability - 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
Team Leadership & Organizational Development - 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
Client Value Realization - 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
Preferred Qualifications- 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
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
- Generous PTO and company holidays
- Ongoing learning and development opportunities
