Head of Platform Architecture
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
You own the system that runs the factory floor — the backbone that turns raw production data into decisions across every plant we operate. Foundational's factories generate more operational complexity per day than most manufacturers see in a year, and there is no off-the-shelf ERP or MES built for autonomous, AI-native production. You will architect it from scratch, more than once, as we scale from one site to many. Without this role, every new plant runs on a different patchwork of systems, and we lose the compounding advantage a unified platform gives us.
SKILLS
You have architected and shipped a manufacturing OS, MES, or ERP system from the ground up at least twice — not configured an existing one, not inherited one mid-build.
You have designed data models and system architecture for production scheduling, inventory management, and quality tracking in a real manufacturing environment.
You have integrated shop-floor systems — PLCs, SCADA, robotics controllers, sensors — with higher-level business systems, and you understand the failure modes on both sides.
You have made build-versus-buy calls on ERP or MES components under real time and budget pressure, and can defend the tradeoffs you chose.
You have designed systems for environments where downtime stops physical production, not just a website, and you architect for that failure mode.
You write and review code yourself — this is a hands-on architecture role, not a slides-and-standards role.
You have scaled a system from a single site to multiple sites without a rewrite, and can talk concretely about what you would do differently next time.
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.
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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