About the job
Founding Robotics Research Engineer
About Us
At Foundry Robotics, we are revolutionizing the manufacturing landscape with cutting-edge robotic technology. Our mission is to rejuvenate the American manufacturing sector by becoming an AI-driven, assembly-oriented, dual-use contract manufacturer. We are dedicated to equipping manufacturers with advanced, intelligent, and versatile robotic systems that enhance productivity and ensure superior quality. As a pivotal member of our engineering team, your contributions will profoundly influence our products, corporate culture, and overall success. This position requires you to be present 100% in-person at our Mission District office in San Francisco.
The Role
We are on the lookout for a Founding Robotics Research Engineer to conceptualize, execute, and launch smart robotic systems tailored for manufacturing environments.
This is a hands-on role that transcends typical academic or generic software development tasks. You will engage in a variety of areas including:
Architecting systems based on ROS2
Robotic manipulation and navigation
Implementing perception and VLA-based control mechanisms
Integrating traditional controls with innovative learning methodologies
Overseeing on-site deployments in manufacturing workcells
Your skill set should encompass reading and analyzing robotics research papers, fine-tuning controllers, calibrating sensors, and deploying production-ready code to robots operating on factory floors.
Key Responsibilities
Robotics Systems & Architecture
Design and develop distributed robotic systems utilizing ROS2
Create modular autonomy frameworks for manipulation and mobile robotics
Take ownership of system-level performance, latency, and reliability
Robotics Foundation Models (VLA)
Develop and integrate Vision–Language–Action models for robotic operations
Design data collection frameworks and refine foundational models for assembly tasks
Benchmark and assess real-world effectiveness
Controls + Learning
Integrate traditional control methods with learned policies
Implement hybrid perception-planning-control architectures
Enhance robustness, repeatability, and safety in physical systems

