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Emeryville, California, United States
Onsite
Foundry Robotics is building an AI-native robotics manufacturing company focused on deploying advanced assembly and production capability for leading robotics companies and national-security-critical hardware. Basically, we're building robots that build robots. Our mission is to rebuild the American manufacturing industry as an AI-first, assembly-focused, dual-use contract manufacturer. As a founding member of our team, you will have a direct and significant impact on our product, culture, and ultimate success. This role is 100% in-person at our office in Emeryville, CA.
Foundry is crossing from building robots to selling them. This role owns the growth of the sales organization and of the business side — finance, legal, marketing, and the operations functions that keep a capital-intensive manufacturer solvent, compliant, and able to deliver what sales promised.
It is deliberately one role for now. As both sides grow we expect to split it, and whoever is in this seat gets first choice of which half to take. That is the offer: come in early, build both, and pick your specialization from the position of having actually done the work
Own hiring for the commercial organization: account executives, sales engineers, and marketing.
Own hiring across business operations: finance, legal, IT, supply chain, facilities, and program management.
Learn the business properly — how we make money, what a deal looks like, who our customers are and what they actually buy, our unit economics, and where the working capital goes. You cannot sell a role you do not understand.
Force role clarity before the req opens. What is this role for? What does success look like in 12 months? What are we willing to trade away? Do not source against a title.
Build the Foundry pitch for commercial candidates and have a real answer to the hardest questions in the room.
Run talent competitor analysis against robotics, AV, defense primes, and industrial automation — and separately against the software companies setting your candidates' comp expectations.
Own the offer and the close, including the cash-versus-equity conversation at a hardware company.
Decompose commercial roles into competency maps
Founder mentality: We love people who build like it’s their own company. You move fast, take ownership, and find a way through when the path isn’t obvious. You have the drive to make big things happen and the judgment to take smart risks along the way. If you prefer a clearly defined lane, a predictable pace, and all the answers before you start, there’s nothing wrong with that—but Foundry might not be the right fit.
5+ years recruiting, with real experience in either GTM or G&A (ideally both but a spike in one counts)
You are business savvy. You can read a pipeline, understand sales models, and hold a credible conversation with a finance candidate about what our finance function actually needs.
You are a great salesperson. Closing is a craft you have practiced, and you can point to candidates you won who had better offers on the table.
Genuine curiosity about how the business works — the customers, the deals, the margin structure. You ask the questions most r never think to ask.
You have hired first-of-kind roles — a first AE, a first controller, a first supply marketing lead— with no existing team to pattern-match against.
AI-efficient: you use tooling to multiply your sourcing, research, and market-mapping output.
You would rather lose a candidate at the offer stage than have them join on a story that is not true
Having experience in complex hardware or capital equipment.
Defense, dual-use, or government-adjacent commercial hiring, including capture and BD roles.
An early-stage company where the talent function was built rather than inherited.
Experience using Ashby
Straight Talk About this Role
We practice ethical hiring
Your reqs might change definition mid-search, it's normal as we shape the strategy and org. You can handle frustration and flexibility is a skill that defines you
Both halves have to be served well before you get to pick one. This means you will have 3 to 5 Hiring Managers to begin with.
How we hire
How we hire, including how we will hire you: each interviewer digs into one skill and reports back on just that. The hiring manager pulls it all together and decides. We are not measured on speed-to-fill. We are measured on whether the people we hired are still performing 12 to 18 months later. A bad hire is worse than no hire, and we would rather be held to that.
This is one of the only places where world-class manufacturing operators, mechanical engineers, robotics researchers, and software engineers sit in the same room — building production systems together.
We are committed to being deeply embedded in the U.S. industrial base. Our focus is simple: build adaptive robotic assembly systems that make American manufacturing scalable, resilient, and competitive again.
If you want to run a mature, well-defined commercial org, this may not be the role.
If you want to build the commercial engine that brings AI-driven manufacturing to every industrial and energy customer in America — this is it.
The base salary range for this full-time position in the location of Emeryville is: $140,000 - $175,000 USD
Compensation packages at Foundry Robotics for eligible roles include base salary, equity, and benefits. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position, determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, interview performance, and relevant education or training. Foundry Robotics employees in eligible roles are also granted equity based compensation, subject to Board of Director approval. You'll also receive benefits including, but not limited to: Comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage, and generous PTO.
Foundry Robotics is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic.
