Forward Deployed Design Lead — Asset Performance Management
Avathon · Austin, Pleasanton
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
About Avathon
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.
About the Role
The Forward Deployed Design Lead — APM is embedded directly at customer sites as the primary experience and implementation owner for Avathon's Asset Performance Management deployments. You live at the intersection of industrial workflow knowledge and experience design, responsible for configuring, implementing, and continuously improving how operators, reliability engineers, and maintenance teams actually use Avathon's platform day to day.
You will spend Monday through Thursday on the plant floor, in control rooms, and in client working sessions — translating real operational workflows into configured APM solutions, designing the screens and interactions users will rely on in high-stakes environments, and driving adoption from go-live through steady-state operations. Fridays are typically remote for synthesis, documentation, and cross-team collaboration.
Key Responsibilities
APM Implementation & Configuration
- Own end-to-end implementation of Avathon's APM platform at client sites — configuring asset hierarchies, alert thresholds, health scoring models, and work order integration workflows to match each customer's operational context
- Lead functional configuration of APM modules: predictive maintenance rule sets, condition monitoring dashboards, asset criticality rankings, and maintenance strategy mappings aligned to client RCM frameworks
- Set up and validate integrations between Avathon's platform and client CMMS/EAM systems (SAP PM, IBM Maximo, IFS, Infor EAM) — ensuring work orders, notifications, and asset master data flow accurately
- Configure data pipelines from historian systems (OSIsoft PI, Aspen, Honeywell) and IoT/SCADA sources — validating signal quality, tag mappings, and anomaly detection thresholds in live operational environments
- Conduct go-live readiness assessments — verifying system configuration, user access, data completeness, and integration health before each deployment milestone
Experience Design & Workflow Mapping
- Lead onsite discovery sessions — interviewing reliability engineers, maintenance planners, and operations supervisors to map as-is workflows and define the future-state experience on Avathon's platform
- Produce implementation-grade design artifacts: annotated screen flows, configured dashboard layouts, alert routing rules, and role-based view specifications — directly actionable by the engineering team
- Design and validate the end-user experience within Avathon's APM product: asset hierarchy navigation, alert triage consoles, trend analysis views, and work order dispatch screens — optimized for control room and field environments
- Facilitate working sessions with client stakeholders to validate designs against real operational scenarios — iterating in real time based on operator feedback before configuration is finalized
- Ensure designs account for the physical realities of industrial use: screen size constraints, shift-change handoffs, noisy environments, and the cognitive load of operators managing hundreds of assets simultaneously
User Adoption & Change Management
- Design and execute role-specific onboarding programs — building training plans, hands-on exercises, quick-reference guides, and SOPs tailored to how each user group (reliability engineer, maintenance planner, operations supervisor) will use Avathon daily
- Conduct live training sessions and floor walk-throughs at client sites — coaching operators through the platform with patience, domain fluency, and credibility earned from understanding their workflows
- Identify adoption barriers early — resistance to change, workflow mismatches, data trust issues — and develop targeted interventions in partnership with client champions and Avathon's FDE team
- Track adoption metrics post-go-live (active users, feature utilization, alert response rates, work order completion) and use data to drive continuous improvement sprints with the client
- Serve as the primary point of contact for end-user questions, configuration requests, and workflow adjustments during hypercare — escalating to engineering only when platform-level changes are required
Client Engagement & Delivery
- Act as the day-to-day client contact for all design, configuration, and adoption activities — building trusted working relationships with operators, reliability leads, and plant management
- Facilitate weekly client working sessions, design reviews, and sprint demos that keep stakeholders aligned, engaged, and confident in the deployment's progress
- Maintain implementation documentation — configuration logs, integration specs, training materials, and acceptance test records — that serve as the client's operational handbook post go-live
- Capture field learnings and configuration patterns from each engagement and contribute them to Avathon's delivery playbooks, accelerating future APM implementations
- Identify opportunities to expand Avathon's footprint within accounts — additional asset classes, new user populations, or adjacent modules — and surface them to the engagement director
Preferred Qualifications
- 5+ years of experience in enterprise software implementation, industrial systems delivery, or a UX/design role embedded in client-facing delivery — with hands-on configuration and deployment ownership
- Demonstrated APM domain knowledge: predictive maintenance workflows, condition monitoring, reliability-centered maintenance (RCM), FMEA, P-F interval, OEE, and asset criticality frameworks
- Hands-on experience implementing or configuring enterprise asset management platforms: IBM Maximo, SAP EAM/PM, Oracle eAM, IFS, Infor EAM, Hexagon EAM, or similar
- Familiarity with industrial data sources: historian systems (AVEVA PI, Aspen IP.21, Honeywell Uniformance), OPC-UA/MQTT, and IoT sensor integration in plant environments
- Strong UX and design execution skills — able to produce annotated wireframes, dashboard layouts, and workflow diagrams that engineering teams can build directly from (Figma preferred)
- Proven ability to facilitate discovery sessions and working meetings with mixed audiences of operators, engineers, and plant management — translating operational complexity into clear, actionable design decisions
- Experience designing and delivering end-user training programs for enterprise software in industrial or operational environments — including hands-on floor training
- Comfort with agile delivery rhythms: sprint planning, backlog grooming, and iterating rapidly based on user feedback in live client environments
- Excellent written communication — able to produce configuration documentation, SOPs, and training guides that operators with varying technical backgrounds can follow independently
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Industrial Design, or a related technical field
- Experience working in or closely with industrial environments — power plants, manufacturing facilities, refineries, or mining operations — is highly valued
- Willingness and ability to travel up to 80%; based in Pleasanton, CA or Austin, TX
- Must be authorized to work in the United States without current or future company sponsorship
Compensation & Benefits
- California Base Salary: $130,000 - $155,000
- Equity in the form of stock options
- Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage
- 401(k) participation
- Generous PTO and company holidays
- All travel expenses covered per Avathon policy
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.