Manufacturing Applications Engineer

Foundry Robotics • Emeryville, CA

1d • Onsite

About The Position

Foundry Robotics is hiring its first Manufacturing Applications Engineer to bridge customer product requirements with the factory’s manufacturing capabilities. The engineer will assess whether and how customer products can be built, estimate costs, and carry technical proposals from initial discovery through a signed purchase order and into first-article and pilot delivery. The role turns drawings, bills of materials, and production volumes into design-for-manufacturing reviews, process flows, cost models, and proposals, then hands manufacturing a complete technical package. The position also establishes and improves the company’s scoping and estimation processes and helps automate repeatable work. The role is 100% in person at the Emeryville, California office, with travel to customer sites across the United States expected 30–40% of the time.

The successful candidate will help estimate robotic assembly programs without established industry benchmarks, produce process flows and estimates quickly, define AS9100-compliant build standards suited to startup customers, and feed lessons into FoundryOS. The company expects that, within a year, each new opportunity will have a technical owner from the first call, estimates will turn around in days, and at least two scoped programs will be in production on the committed timeline and margin.

Foundry Robotics describes itself as an AI-native robotics manufacturing company developing advanced assembly and production capabilities for robotics companies and national-security-critical hardware. Its mission is to rebuild American manufacturing as an AI-first, assembly-focused, dual-use contract manufacturer. The company brings manufacturing operators, mechanical engineers, robotics researchers, and software engineers together to build adaptive robotic assembly systems.

Requirements

• 5–10 years of experience in manufacturing engineering, NPI, or applications engineering, including at least 2 years in a customer-facing role at a contract manufacturer, EMS provider, or hardware supplier.
• Experience estimating real programs from drawings and bills of materials through process flow, labor estimate, and a cost model that holds up when parts arrive.
• Hands-on familiarity with mechanical and electromechanical assembly, wire harness build, and related testing and inspection.
• Working proficiency in 3D CAD, such as SolidWorks, Onshape, or an equivalent, sufficient to review customer designs and provide credible DFM and DFA feedback.
• Ability to work effectively with customers at engineering-manager and VP levels, in conference rooms and on shop floors.
• Clear, fast writing skills for proposals and statements of work that readers can understand and act on.
• Experience in a formal quality system such as AS9100, ISO 9001, or IATF 16949, including defining build standards with revision control.
• Must be a U.S. person (citizen, permanent resident, or protected individual) as defined by ITAR and EAR.
• Willingness to travel to customer sites 30–40% of the time, including multi-day onsite visits during pilot builds.
• Action-oriented, resourceful problem solving without sacrificing rigor.
• Founder mentality: moves quickly, takes ownership, exercises judgment, and is comfortable finding a path through ambiguity.

Nice To Haves

• Tier 1 or EMS supplier experience serving robotics, aerospace, defense, automotive, or EV customers.
• Experience taking a vehicle or robot program from prototype to volume production.
• Experience with MES or ERP systems and interest in automating estimation.

Responsibilities

• Lead discovery calls and customer visits alongside go-to-market, qualifying customer and program fit before committing engineering time.
• Own technical intake, including drawings, bills of materials, volumes, materials, tolerances, test and certification requirements, and export-control status such as ITAR, EAR, and CUI.
• Conduct design-for-manufacturing and design-for-assembly reviews and provide written findings that customers can act on and engineers can build to.
• Provide technical inputs for quotes, including process steps, labor and cycle-time estimates, tooling, supplier quotes, lead times, and non-recurring engineering costs.
• Scope design-services engagements such as DFM, DFA, and DFRA, including deliverables, milestones, and engineering-hour estimates for go-to-market to use in statements of work.
• Define build standards with customers before purchase orders, including frozen revisions, deviation processes, and customer-furnished material, working with Quality to maintain AS9100 compliance.
• Hand off a complete technical package at purchase order and remain the customer’s technical point of contact through first-article and pilot delivery.
• Develop reusable technical intake forms, process-estimate templates, and cost models.
• Feed customer needs and lessons into FoundryOS and robotic cell roadmaps.
• Help establish how Foundry scopes and estimates programs and automate estimation tasks that should not require an engineer.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health coverage
• Dental coverage
• Vision coverage
• Generous paid time off
• Equity-based compensation for eligible roles, subject to Board of Director approval

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed