Head of Platform Architecture

📋 Job Overview

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.

🎯 The Role

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.

✅ Key Responsibilities

• Architect and ship a manufacturing OS, MES, or ERP system from the ground up at least twice.
• Design data models and system architecture for production scheduling, inventory management, and quality tracking in a real manufacturing environment.
• Integrate shop-floor systems — PLCs, SCADA, robotics controllers, sensors — with higher-level business systems.
• Make build-versus-buy calls on ERP or MES components under real time and budget pressure.
• Design systems for environments where downtime stops physical production.
• Write and review code yourself — this is a hands-on architecture role.
• Scale a system from a single site to multiple sites without a rewrite.

📌 Required Qualifications

• Architected and shipped a manufacturing OS, MES, or ERP system from the ground up at least twice.
• Designed data models and system architecture for production scheduling, inventory management, and quality tracking in a real manufacturing environment.
• Integrated shop-floor systems — PLCs, SCADA, robotics controllers, sensors — with higher-level business systems.
• Made build-versus-buy calls on ERP or MES components under real time and budget pressure.
• Designed systems for environments where downtime stops physical production.
• Write and review code yourself.
• Scaled a system from a single site to multiple sites without a rewrite.

⭐ Desirable Experience

• Experience in autonomous, AI-native production environments.
• Experience with robotics and physical AI technologies.

🎁 Benefits

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.

🛂 Visa & Eligibility

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.