Head of Platform Architecture

Foundational Industries

2d•Onsite

About The Position

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. 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.

Requirements

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.
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, and you understand the failure modes on both sides.
Made build-versus-buy calls on ERP or MES components under real time and budget pressure, and can defend the tradeoffs you chose.
Designed systems for environments where downtime stops physical production, not just a website, and you architect for that failure mode.
Write and review code yourself — this is a hands-on architecture role, not a slides-and-standards role.
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.

Responsibilities

Own the system that runs the factory floor — the backbone that turns raw production data into decisions across every plant we operate.
Architect the platform from scratch, more than once, as we scale from one site to many.
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, not just a website, and architect for that failure mode.
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.