Customer Success & Operations Leader

Company Description Third Wave Automation is a rapidly growing startup that has demonstrated its core technology components, proven its market fit, and just closed its Series C funding. If you are excited about cutting edge machine learning, robotics that affects the real world, and want to join a company where your skills can have a huge impact, you’ll fit right in. Third Wave Automation is applying modern machine learning to materials handling—delivering site-specific forklift navigation and infrastructure-free pallet handling that continuously adapts to changing floor configuration and warehouse demand. Job Description The Mission: Driving the Autonomous Revolution At Third Wave Automation, we don’t just deploy technology; we transform how the world’s largest OEMs and logistics providers operate. We are looking for a Field-Hardened Leader who acts as a force multiplier for our Deployment Engineers and an uncompromising champion for our customers. You are the bridge between site reality and product strategy—the internal voice of the Customer who ensures our engineering cycles and product priorities are held accountable to real-world operational excellence. How You Can Make an Impact Strategic Change Management: You won't just hand over a product; you will dive into performance data (partnering with our Data Intelligence team) to identify bottlenecks and design initiatives that help our customers evolve their operations. Tier-1 OEM Onboarding: You will lead the high-stakes onboarding process for our most critical OEM partners, ensuring our deployment and support processes are world-class from day one. Organizational Growth: You are a multiplier. You will be responsible for recruiting, mentoring, and growing a team of high-performing deployment engineers and operations managers. The Technical Bridge: You possess the technical "chops" to sit in a room with Engineering leads and then walk onto a customer site to lead a high-level strategic conversation with an Executive. Operational Excellence: You will oversee the setup, integration, and maintenance of our autonomous forklifts, ensuring that "getting stuff done" always meets our highest quality standards. What You'll Do (Your First 90 Days and Beyond) Design the Blueprint: Create and refine the end-to-end customer journey, from initial site integration through long-term product support and optimization. Drive Data-Led Initiatives: Use complex performance data to create "Customer Success Initiatives" that improve system performance and drive customer ROI. Crisis Leadership: Serve as the final point of escalation. When things get difficult at a customer site, you are the calmest person in the room with the technical plan to fix it. Scale the Function: Move our operations from "manual and heroic" to "repeatable and scalable" by documenting processes and automating repetitive tasks. Collaborative Innovation: Work hand-in-hand with TWA Engineering and Product teams to ensure field insights are baked into the next generation of our product. Qualifications 10+ Years of High-Stakes Leadership: Proven experience in robotics, industrial automation, or complex hardware/software deployments. The "Technologist-Communicator": You are as comfortable with Linux command lines and Python scripts as you are presenting to a Board of Directors. Change Management Expert: You understand that the hardest part of automation isn't the robot; it's the people and processes. You know how to drive adoption in traditional industrial environments. Growth Mindset: A track record of hiring and developing talent. You take pride in seeing your reports move into leadership roles. Operational Grit: This role requires 25-50% travel. You are ready to be on-site, in the warehouse, wherever the mission takes you. Preferred Bachelor’s degree or higher in Robotics, Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field. Deep experience with industrial machinery, WMS integration, and warehouse environments. Outstandi