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Third Wave Automation is a Series C-funded startup applying machine learning to materials handling, deploying autonomous reach trucks for warehouse operations. The company has proven market fit and core technology and is scaling rapidly.
You will serve as the Customer Success & Operations Leader, owning long-term ROI for deployed robotic fleets and acting as the strategic bridge between warehouse operations, customer executives, and the internal product roadmap. This is a director-level role reporting to executive leadership, with responsibility for Field Engineering team oversight, Tier-1 OEM operational engagement, and ensuring physical deployments translate into measurable business value.
Key responsibilities include:
• Executive Engagement: Serve as the primary face of Third Wave to customer C-suite and VP-level leadership, building trust through transparent communication on progress toward operational objectives.
• QBR Leadership: Lead Quarterly Business Reviews with senior customer executives, translating fleet telemetry and operational data into clear business outcomes and ROI metrics.
• Field Engineering Oversight: Manage the strategic activities of the Field Engineering team, driving alignment and change management when introducing software updates, hardware changes, or operational experiments.
• OEM Operational Engagement: Own the operational and customer success aspects of Tier-1 OEM partnerships, ensuring world-class onboarding, deployment standards, and knowledge-sharing as the company scales.
• Metrics Architecture: Define the throughput and efficiency metrics customers care about, propose measurement frameworks, and partner with the Data team to build these metrics into the platform.
• Customer Voice Integration: Own the internal Customer Success operating rhythm, synthesizing customer feedback and field realities through weekly documentation and cross-functional meetings to drive organizational visibility.
• Product-Operations Alignment: Navigate tradeoffs between immediate customer needs and long-term product roadmap, ensuring scalable solutions.
• Scaling Blueprint: Codify deployment and success best practices to build the knowledge-transfer pipeline that will eventually empower OEM dealer networks.
Required qualifications: 10+ years of high-stakes leadership in Customer Success, Technical Account Management, or Field Operations within robotics, industrial automation, or complex hardware/software environments. You must combine technical credibility (understanding autonomy, perception, localization) with executive communication skills. Strong track record of cross-functional influence and change management in traditional, heavy-industry settings. Up to 50% travel required, with comfort working on-site in warehouse environments.
