Six Figure Work

Forward Deployed AI Engineer

Avathon

Company websiteavathon.com (Avathon, opens in new tab)

Base salary $110K  to $180K

Employer-published annual base salary, USD. Advertised base range in Pleasanton, CA

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  • LocationPleasanton, CA
  • WorkplaceWorkplace not stated
  • Status at last checkSource accepting applications when checked
  • Last checked (2 h ago) · observed since

About this job

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 the Role

As the only physical AI unicorn headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, we go beyond models and dashboards — we deploy AI that continuously computes across supply chains, energy systems, and industrial operations. Our Operational Technology platform turns fragmented data into real-time, autonomous decisioning across the systems that power the global economy. 

This is not digital AI. This is AI for operational reality — where latency, constraints, and failure have real-world consequences. 

Forward Deployed AI Engineers at Avathon are rewiring how the physical world operates. You will work directly with customers to take the hardest operational problems — multi-echelon supply chains, constrained production systems, global logistics networks — and turn them into continuously computing, AI-led systems. You will design, build, and deploy production-grade AI applications that operate across real-world infrastructure where decisions propagate across thousands of nodes in real time. 

Responsibilities

This role operates with the intensity and ownership of a founder in the field: 

  • Own end-to-end delivery of high-stakes deployments in operational environments
  • Design and implement Avathon's Computational Knowledge Graph (CKG) that unifies data, constraints, and decisioning — performing continuous computation across physical networks
  • Replace static planning workflows with real-time, autonomous execution applications
  • Work side-by-side with operators, planners, and key stakeholders to define problems and deliver solutions
  • Push systems into production that directly control and influence real-world operations
  • Drive product evolution by feeding field learnings back into Avathon's core platform

Preferred Skills

  • 6+ years of hands-on technical experience (including internships) building, scaling, or deploying software and AI/ML systems
  • Experience building AI/ML applications in production
  • Strong foundation in machine learning, optimization, and system design
  • Exceptional inferencing skills on applying necessary models in the field
  • Demonstrated proficiency in programming languages such as Python, Java, C++, TypeScript/JavaScript, or similar
  • Ability to reason complex, interconnected systems (supply chains, networks, infrastructure)
  • Ability to move from problem to architecture to deployment without handoffs

We Value

  • We value engineers who build systems and tune industrial models
  • Comfort operating in ambiguity, pressure, and high-stakes environments
  • Willingness to work directly with customers and operate in real-world environments
  • Travel to customer sites (up to 50%) 

Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in Science, Technology, Engineering
  • An active U.S. Government security clearance (preferred)
  • Excellent problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication skills
  • Must be authorized to work in the United States without current or future company sponsorship 

Compensation & Benefits

  • California Base Salary Range: $110,000 – $180,000 USD (based on experience)
  • 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

Location: Reporting out of Avathon’s HQ in Pleasanton (San Francisco Bay Area), California.

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.

Source: Avathon on Greenhouse · View original posting (opens in new tab)

Pay in context

This role's base floor ($110,000) is above 1% of the 1,510 Data & ML roles in California listed on this site; 7 others list the same floor. Their median floor is $187,000; the middle half runs from $159,256 to $229,800.

Only jobs on this site count, and each one publishes a base salary of $100,000 or more, so this compares six-figure jobs with each other, not with the whole market. Computed Nov 7, 2026.

This range next to 6 other live Avathon roles with the nearest advertised base floor
Chart as a table
This range next to 6 other live Avathon roles with the nearest advertised base floor
RolePublished base
Forward Deployed AI Engineer (this listing)$110K - $180K
AI Engineer$110K - $130K
Associate AI Engineer, Physical AI$110K - $130K
Forward Deployed Design Lead — Asset Performance Management$130K - $155K
Senior AI Engineer$130K - $155K
Senior Product Manager, Planning$140K - $180K
Senior Product Manager, Platform$140K - $180K

Same $100K to $400K scale as every card. All Avathon roles · How to read the bar

Observed changes

  1. Began meeting the published-salary criteria
  2. First observed on the employer's board
Observed since
Employer-stated posting date
2026-03-27
Where this pay comes from

Location as the employer wrote it: Pleasanton, California, United States

- California Base Salary Range: $110,000 – $180,000 USD (based on experience)

Method
Employer text, read with fixed rules and re-verified
Checked
Rule set
us-base-v2

The pay passage appears in the employer's own job text. Fixed, deterministic rules located it, and the passage below was checked against the stored copy of the posting.

What we verified

  • The pay figures come from the employer's own listing, quoted exactly above.
  • The pay is an annual base salary in US dollars with a minimum of at least $100,000.
  • The role was publicly listed on the employer's job board when last checked.

We do not verify what the employer will actually offer, whether the employer is still recruiting for the role, or anything beyond what the employer published. Full methodology.