Software Engineer

About the role

About

Foundation Industries is building a physical API for the frontier: manufacturing infrastructure that turns designs into real hardware near the speed of development. We believe the future science fiction promised will only arrive if manufacturing infrastructure matches the pace of development.

We’re starting with CNC machining critical components and building a manufacturing platform that connects every step of the process into one continuously improving, software-defined system.

We’re backed by Y Combinator and other awesome investors and have shipped parts to customers like Skydio, Westmag, and Askari Defense.

Role Description

We’re hiring a Software Engineer to work with the Head of Software to build and operate this platform. The work centers on the deep backend ERP/MES-like workflow engines, data models, and integrations that run the factory.

You’ll own features and technical areas from design through deployment and ongoing operation, working directly with manufacturing, operations, and commercial teams to turn operational needs into reliable production systems. The Head of Software will own the roadmap, architectural direction, and engineering standards; you’ll contribute to technical design and take ownership of execution.

You’ll also help apply AI to accelerate engineering and automate operational workflows, with careful attention to correctness, security, and measurable value.

Near-term

• Execute against the software roadmap and own projects through production
• Develop deep context on the platform and factory
• Stabilize and harden the core backend through testing, monitoring, and debugging
• Build reliable workflows, data models, APIs, and integrations that support increasing operational complexity
• Apply AI where it creates measurable value

Long-term

• Help build the manufacturing operating system
• Grow ownership of core systems and contribute to architectural decisions
• Make AI a compounding advantage
• Strengthen reliability, security, and compliance as the platform scales

What we’re looking for

• Strong backend engineering experience with complex, stateful business systems in production
• Ability to model workflows and data carefully and balance speed, correctness, reliability, and maintainability
• Comfort across APIs, databases, background jobs, integrations, permissions, and internal tools
• Experience testing, deploying, monitoring, and debugging production software
• High ownership, practical judgment, and clear communication with technical and operational partners
• ERP, MES, manufacturing software, workflow systems, or applied AI experience is helpful but not required

Comp

• $100k–$150k annual salary
• Meaningful equity based on experience, impact, and ownership

About Foundation Industries

America once turned breakthroughs into abundant products with unmatched speed. Our edge wasn’t just invention; it was the ability to prototype, iterate, and scale production faster than anyone else.

Over time, we kept inventing but lost production velocity. High-volume manufacturing moved offshore, and low-volume, high-mix production became slow, fragmented, and burdened by overhead, quoting, programming, scheduling, and coordination. For decades, fixing this wasn’t economical. The indirect workaround costs more than the production itself.

That constraint is no longer.

New tools now automate the cognitive layers that once slowed everything down, collapsing weeks into days and turning overhead into code.

For the first time in decades, fast, flexible domestic production can be economically superior. We’re rebuilding America’s productive edge by accelerating high-tech, low-volume, high-mix manufacturing, helping hard-tech teams prototype faster, launch sooner, and build more here.

If you want to restore American productive power and ship real hardware, reach out.

jakob@foundation-industries.com