Software Engineer

Company Overview

Foundational is building a network of AI-native, autonomous factories for modern contract manufacturing. We’re reshoring critical supply chains so companies can produce high‑quality products domestically, quickly, and at competitive cost.

Foundational exists to make reindustrialization practical. Our factories are autonomy-first, reconfigurable by design, and orchestrated by a unified, AI-native factory operating layer that connects design through production.

Transformative Opportunity

Recent breakthroughs in robotics and physical AI have shifted autonomous manufacturing from a theoretical promise to a deployable capability, triggering a global race to operationalize these systems at scale. The challenge is no longer whether autonomy works, but who can integrate AI-native robotics into real production environments.

The ability to manufacture advanced products domestically is now central to U.S. economic competitiveness and national security. Foundational is focused on deploying these capabilities at scale during a decisive decade for American industrial leadership.

Who We Are

Foundational was built by executive leadership from Google’s physical AI platform and America’s two largest contract manufacturers.

Manufacturing critical products requires trust. The Foundational team has deployed AI systems at multi-billion-dollar scale and delivered thousands of products across hundreds of manufacturing facilities.

Role Overview

We are hiring a Software Engineer to help design, build, and integrate software systems that power Foundational’s AI-native manufacturing and automation platforms. This role operates at the intersection of robotics, embedded systems, and factory operations, delivering software that runs reliably in real-world manufacturing environments.

This role requires strong software fundamentals, hands-on systems thinking, and an execution mindset. You will work closely with controls, AI, manufacturing, and hardware teams to design and implement systems that meet real operational constraints around reliability, performance, and scalability.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain backend and systems software that supports manufacturing, automation, and factory operations.

• Develop services, APIs, and data pipelines that connect factory equipment, robotics, and operational systems to higher-level applications and analytics.

• Build and maintain internal tools and platforms that support deployment, monitoring, and operation of factory systems.

• Write production-quality code with an emphasis on reliability, performance, and maintainability.

• Work closely with product and operations partners to translate real-world requirements into shipped software.

What You’ll Bring

• 3+ years of professional experience in embedded software development, robotics, or automation-adjacent roles.

• Strong programming skills in at least one modern language (e.g., Python, Go, Java, C++), with ability to work across a polyglot stack.

• Demonstrated competency in object-oriented programming and experience working within multi-layered system architectures.

• Experience designing and operating backend systems, services, or data pipelines in production environments.

• Familiarity with distributed systems concepts, APIs, and data storage technologies.

• Strong problem-solving and debugging skills, with comfort working across software and system boundaries.

• A builder mindset: ownership-oriented, comfortable in ambiguity, and motivated to ship software with tangible, real-world impact.

• Experience or strong interest in manufacturing or industrial environments, with appreciation for operational constraints.

Why Join Foundational

Foundational is built for people who want their work to matter. The ability to manufacture critical products domestically is central to U.S. economic strength and national security, and we are focused on turning that imperative into execution at scale.

We operate with a strong bias toward delivery. Progress is measured by what runs in production, what holds up under pressure, and what improves over time. Ownership, judgment, and follow-through define our culture.

Foundational brings together the most experienced leadership team in autonomous manufacturing — operators who have run the largest contract manufacturing platforms in the United States, alongside engineers who have built and deployed large-scale systems at Google. This combination positions us as the clear leader in this category, with both the credibility and capability to set the standard for autonomous production.

We reward exceptional outcomes exceptionally. Compensation and equity are structured to reflect responsibility, impact, and results, with meaningful upside for those who help build and scale the business. 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.