Head of Quality
Foundational Industries · San Francisco
Foundational Industries · SF Bay Area · Full-Time
About Foundational
Foundational is building a network of AI-native, autonomous factories for modern contract manufacturing — reshoring critical supply chains so companies can produce high-quality products domestically, quickly, and at competitive cost. Recent breakthroughs in robotics and physical AI have shifted autonomous manufacturing from theoretical to deployable, and we're focused on operationalizing these capabilities at scale during a decisive decade for American industrial leadership.
WHO — Who Thrives Here
At Foundational, we're building with people who want to own something — to do work that matters, in an environment where what you ship is what counts.
The people who thrive here:
Take ownership before they're asked. They see the gap and close it.
Operate with a high degree of judgment. We move fast, and good judgment travels farther than a playbook.
Communicate directly — concise, clear, and candid, especially when stakes are high.
Hold a high bar for themselves first, then for everyone around them.
Are genuinely energized by hard problems in physical, real-world environments. Energized — not just interested.
Stay effective when things are ambiguous, changing, or under pressure. That's the job.
This is a place for people who want to build something that has never existed before and leave a clear mark on it.
MISSION
This person owns the quality system that earns Foundational the right to build — across every vertical we serve and every standard our customers run on. Without it, we don’t pass first audit, we don’t win regulated programs, and our customers can’t ship.
OUTCOMES — What Success Looks Like in 6–12 Months
We track results. Here's what we expect this person to own and deliver:
Stand up a single QMS that serves every vertical Foundational builds in — architected from day one to absorb the toughest standards (AS9100, ISO 13485, IATF 16949, ISO 9001) so layering on additional certifications and customer-specific requirements is a configuration step, not a rebuild.
Own the certification roadmap end-to-end — ISO 9001 as the baseline, then the vertical-specific standards our first programs require (AS9100, ISO 13485, IATF 16949, NADCAP, and others as the customer mix demands) — and pass each audit on the first attempt.
Build supplier quality from zero — qualification, FAIs, PPAP where required, source inspection, and counterfeit-mitigation controls aligned to AS9100 / AS6171.
Establish the operating cadence that keeps quality real on the floor — control plans, FAIs, in-process inspection, NCR/CAPA discipline, MRB, SPC, and the closed-loop feedback that drives yield and cost of poor quality down every quarter.
Define the digital QMS — document control, training records, NCR/CAPA, audit, supplier quality — and partner with engineering so traceability and inspection data are software-native, not paper retrofitted into a database.
SKILLS
Multi-standard QMS architecture — deep fluency in ISO 9001, AS9100, ISO 13485 / FDA QSR (21 CFR 820), and IATF 16949, and a working sense of where they converge, where they don’t, and how additional customer- and vertical-specific standards layer on top
Audit leadership — registrar, customer, and regulatory; you’ve led companies through first-time certification and passed cleanly
Core quality engineering toolkit — APQP/PPAP, FMEA, control plans, MSA, SPC, 8D, root cause and CAPA discipline that actually closes loops
Electronics & precision-manufacturing quality — IPC-A-610 / J-STD-001, FAIs (AS9102), source inspection, dimensional metrology, and special-process accreditation (NADCAP)
Digital QMS & data fluency — comfortable defining the systems and data model (eQMS, traceability, inspection records) that the function runs on, not just operating off a shared drive
COMPETENCIES
These are the behavioral patterns that predict success here — in practice, under pressure.
Accountability — You own outcomes. If something's off track, you say so and fix it.
Bias for action — You ship. You iterate. You move toward the hard thing.
Clarity of communication — Direct and concise, especially when it counts.
Learning agility — You get up to speed fast in unfamiliar territory.
Resilience — You stay sharp when things are hard, ambiguous, or moving fast.
High standards — You raise the bar rather than match it — and hold yourself to it first.
Building from zero — You can stand up a quality system from scratch — documents, processes, certifications, the team — and run it yourself until there’s a team to hand it off to.
Why Foundational
This is a filter as much as it is an invitation.
We're turning reindustrialization from a talking point into an operating reality. The work is hard, the environment is demanding, and the stakes are real. We compensate with base, bonus, and equity to reflect impact, responsibility, and results, with meaningful upside for the people who help build and scale this company.
For those aligned with the mission and motivated by execution at scale, Foundational offers the opportunity to help define one of the most consequential industrial transformations of the next decade.
Foundational Industries is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and applicants. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), age, disability, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Foundational complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment. We evaluate every candidate on what they can do and who they are.
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