Recruiting Lead

Foundational Industries · Palo Alto (Hybrid)· Full-Time

About Foundational

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.

WHO — Who Thrives Here

Before we describe the role, we want to describe the person.

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

Build and lead the recruiting engine that hires the hardware engineers, AI/software builders, and operators Foundational needs to stand up autonomous factories — fast, at a high bar, and at scale. If this seat is empty, hiring stalls, factory timelines slip, and the company's ability to execute is capped by the team it can't build.

OUTCOMES — What Success Looks Like in 6–12 Months

We track results. Here's what we expect this person to own and deliver:

6 months: Hire, onboard, and ramp a team of recruiters and coordinators, with clear ownership by function (hardware/manufacturing, AI/software, G&A/operations) and weekly pipeline and hiring goals each recruiter is accountable for.
12 months: Close the critical hardware hires behind our factory roadmap — robotics, mechanical, electrical, controls, and manufacturing engineers, plus factory operations leaders — on the timelines the build plan requires.
12 months: Win senior AI and software talent against top AI labs and well-funded startups — ML/perception, robotics software, autonomy, and platform engineers — with offer-accept rates and quality-of-hire that hiring managers stand behind.
Stretch, 12 months: Make Foundational a destination for physical-AI talent: a repeatable sourcing and employer-brand engine (university, community, referral, and targeted outbound) that makes us the obvious next move for the best people in the field.

These are the bar. The right person reads this list and knows they can hit it.

SKILLS

People leadership: 3+ years managing recruiters and coordinators. You hire well, set clear goals, coach on craft, and run a team on metrics without losing judgment.
Hardware and manufacturing hiring: A track record recruiting mechanical, electrical, controls, robotics, and manufacturing engineers — ideally in robotics, automotive, aerospace, semiconductors, or advanced manufacturing. You know where this talent sits and what moves them.
AI and software hiring: A track record closing ML, perception, autonomy, and software engineers in a competitive market. You can assess technical depth with hiring managers and compete with top AI labs on offers.
Full-cycle and executive recruiting: Sourcing, assessment, closing, and offer negotiation, including senior and leadership hires.
Recruiting operations: Building interview processes, scorecards, and funnel reporting from scratch. Fluent in a modern ATS (e.g., Ashby) and sourcing tools.
Stakeholder management: You partner with founders and engineering leaders as a peer — pushing back on the bar, the process, and the plan when it matters.

COMPETENCIES

These are the behavioral patterns that predict success here — in practice, under pressure.

Accountability — You own outcomes. If something's off track, you say so and fix it.
Bias for action — You ship. You iterate. You move toward the hard thing.
Clarity of communication — Direct and concise, especially when it counts.
Learning agility — You get up to speed fast in unfamiliar territory.
Resilience — You stay sharp when things are hard, ambiguous, or moving fast.
High standards — You raise the bar rather than match it — and hold yourself to it first.
Talent judgment — You can spot exceptional people across very different disciplines, from a controls engineer on a factory floor to an ML researcher, and you protect the bar under hiring pressure.
Builder-leader — You recruit in the weeds while building the team and system that let recruiting scale without you.

Why Foundational

This is a filter as much as it is an invitation.

We're turning reindustrialization from a talking point into an operating reality. The work is hard, the environment is demanding, and the stakes are real. We compensate with base, bonus, and equity to reflect impact, responsibility, and results, with meaningful upside for the people who help build and scale this company.

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.

Foundational Industries is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and applicants. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), age, disability, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Foundational complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment. We evaluate every candidate on what they can do and who they are.

Open roles (1)