Powder Coat/Paint Engineer
Foundational Industries · San Francisco
Foundational Industries · 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
Stand up and own Foundational’s powder coating capability: specify, commission, and run processes to spec, at takt, with first pass yield above 99%. Own the cleanest, most data-instrumented finishing operation.
OUTCOMES — What Success Looks Like in 6–12 Months
We track results. Here's what we expect this person to own and deliver:
First 90 days — Line specification complete and equipment on order: pretreatment (phosphate or zirconium), spray booth and powder reclaim, cure oven, and conveyor/fixturing for parts. Coating spec written per SKU: film thickness windows; masked zones, contact surfaces, and blind-mate interfaces; adhesion and corrosion acceptance criteria (ASTM D3359, ASTM B117).
First 6 months — Line commissioned and first articles approved. BAAQMD air permit secured; VOC, hazmat, and waste streams compliant and documented. Faraday-cage and film-build issues on deep channels and weldments resolved, with documented rework paths.
By 12 months — Line running at program takt with first-pass yield at or above 99%; costs tracked and trending down; full process parameters (gun settings, line speed, cure profiles) captured in MES and traceability platform; one technician trained and certified per shift.
SKILLS
5+ years of powder coating process engineering on large-format welded steel or heavy sheet metal — racks, cabinets, enclosures, frames — not small batch parts.
Pretreatment chemistry ownership: iron/zinc phosphate or zirconium conversion, titration, and bath maintenance.
Electrostatic application expertise: corona and tribo charging, Faraday cage mitigation, film build control, and reclaim systems; experience with automated large-part application systems strongly preferred.
Cure oven thermal profiling and diagnosis of partial-cure and over-bake failures.
Test and acceptance methods: cross-hatch adhesion, MEK rub, salt spray, impact, and gloss/color to ASTM/ISO standards.
California environmental compliance: BAAQMD permitting, VOC reporting, and hazardous waste handling.
Masking and fixturing design for parts with electrical grounding and contact requirements.
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 manufacturing engineering function from scratch — routings, fixtures, work instructions, the line itself — 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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