---
title: 'Head of Electrical (Hardware Design) at Freeform'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-electrical-hardware-design-freeform-los-angeles-620f9w783qbn'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-12'
---

# Head of Electrical (Hardware Design) at Freeform

- **Company:** Freeform
- **Location:** Los Angeles, CA
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-04-03
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/freeformfuturecorp/jobs/7688767003

## Job description

## HEAD OF ELECTRICAL (HARDWARE DESIGN)

Freeform builds AI-native manufacturing systems that unify software, hardware, and physics to produce industrial-scale parts at the speed of human ideation. By treating manufacturing as a single integrated system, we unlock a new era of innovation where complex hardware is designed, built, and scaled without limits.

In this role, you will play a critical role in leading/building our electrical engineering team which develops the nervous system of our technology stack. The ideal candidate will have extensive technical breadth in electrical engineering concepts as well as specific expertise in architecting, designing, and developing complex electromechanical systems and/or state-of-the-art robotic / automation systems. All leadership roles at Freeform are technical in nature so in addition to being a leader you will also be expected to spend a significant portion of your time working alongside the team as an individual technical contributor.

3D printing experience is not required to be successful here - rather we look for smart, motivated, collaborative engineers who love solving hard problems and creating amazing technology!

Responsibilities:

- Provide technical guidance and leadership to the electrical engineering team with the goal of driving continuous improvement into the R&D process and maximizing pace of development
- Serve as the primary technical architect for all electrical elements in the system as well as lead design, analysis, and/or simulation efforts as an individual contributor where appropriate
- Roll up your sleeves and perform hands-on engineering work alongside your team
- Lead system level integration and validation of design efforts (testing and troubleshooting)
- Provide technical project management from conception to production when required by the size/scope of the project
- Facilitate effective communication and collaboration with the broader engineering team by working side-by-side with the software, mechanical, and process engineering teams

Basic Qualifications:

- Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering or computer engineering
- 10+ years of experience architecting, developing, and integrating complex electrical hardware systems
- Broad experience across analog and digital circuity design, power systems, data acquisition, image/signal processing, and control systems
- Successful track record of leading complex multidisciplinary projects and teams

Nice to Have:

- Advanced degree (Master's, PhD) in electrical engineering, computer engineering, mechatronics, or robotics
- Experience in high-tech automated hardware such as robotics, UAVs, autonomous cars, rockets, and spacecraft
- Experience developing electrical hardware in high-performance compute environments
- Knowledge of high-speed interfaces such as PCIe
- Experience writing software in Python and C++ to interface with electrical hardware systems
- Strong written and oral communication skills

Location:

- Based in Hawthorne, our vertically integrated facility brings technology development, R&D, and production together under one roof. We operate at the center of LA’s deep tech ecosystem, surrounded by some of the most ambitious hardware innovation happening anywhere in the country.

- Our fast-paced, cross-functional environment is built on close collaboration, and as such, this role requires full-time onsite presence (five days a week), with very limited exceptions.

What We Offer:

- We have an inclusive and diverse culture that values collaboration, learning, and making deliberate data-driven decisions.
- We offer a unique opportunity to be an early and integral member of a rapidly growing company that is scaling a world-changing technology.
- Benefits
- Significant stock option packages
- 100% employer-paid Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance (premium PPO and HMO options)
- Life insurance
- Traditional and Roth 401(k)
- Relocation assistance provided
- Paid vacation, sick leave, and company holidays
- Generous Paid Parental Leave and extended transition back to work for the birthing parent
- Free daily catered lunch and dinner, and fully stocked kitchenette
- Casual dress, flexible work hours, and regular catered team building events
- Compensation
- Our intent is to offer a salary that is commensurate for the company’s current stage of development and allows the employee to grow and develop within a role.
- In addition to the significant stock option package, the estimated salary range for this role is $175,000-$400,000. However this is a uniquely impactful role and we are open to discussing compensation packages outside of this range for the right person.
- Freeform is an Equal Opportunity Employer that values diversity; employment with Freeform is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

## About Freeform

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Freeform builds the world’s first AI-native manufacturing system – autonomous factories that use advanced sensing, compute, and machine learning to 3D-print industrial-grade metal parts at unprecedented speed and scale.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B, raised $67M in Feb 2026)
- **Headquarters**: Hawthorne, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2019
- **Founders**: Erik Palitsch (CEO), Thomas J. Ronacher (President & Co-Founder)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Industrial Automation, Additive Manufacturing (Metal 3D Printing), Physical AI
- **Target customers**: B2B, primarily serving mission-critical industries: Aerospace & Defense, Aviation, Automotive, Advanced Energy, Consumer Electronics, Robotics, and Motor Sports.
- **Mission or purpose statement**: “To radically change the way things are made” and “unlock advanced manufacturing for every industry” by treating manufacturing as a single, integrated AI-native system.

## Products & Services
For each major offering:
- **AI-Native Manufacturing System**: A fully integrated, software-defined network of autonomous factories. This system uses proprietary compute, sensors, controls, and ML to sense, learn, predict, and control metal formation in real-time. It unifies hardware and software to produce industrial-scale parts from prototype to full production, all under one roof.
- **Physical AI Stack**: The company built its own technology stack (compute, sensors, controls, software) to enable a new method of metal 3D printing that is faster, more predictable, and cost-effective than traditional methods.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Annual Revenue: $4.5M (LinkedIn estimate); Total Funding: $126M
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: NVIDIA (NVentures), AE Industrial Ventures (AE Ventures), Two Sigma Ventures, Founders Fund, Threshold Ventures, 8VC, Linse Capital, Valor.
- **Growth Signals**:
    - Raised $67M Series B in February 2026 to scale up laser AI manufacturing.
    - Named to Fast Company’s “World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2026.”
    - 48 active job postings as of mid-2026, with year-over-year hiring growth of +81.5%.
    - Headcount growth of 9.4% year-over-year (approximately 50 employees).
    - Key hires from SpaceX, Tesla, Apple, Google, Velo3D.

## Competitive Advantages
- **First-principles technology**: The company built all technology from scratch (compute, sensors, controls, ML stack) because the necessary tech didn't exist. This creates a deep technical moat.
- **AI-native, not AI-applied**: Their system is designed from the ground up to be autonomous, learning, and predictive, unlike traditional manufacturing methods that apply AI as an afterthought.
- **Proven leadership**: Founded and led by ex-SpaceX engineers (Erik Palitsch was Principal Architect of the Starship Vehicle and led the Merlin & Raptor engine programs) and a Chief Scientific Officer with deep experience in additive manufacturing (Tasso Lappas, former CTO at Velo3D).
- **Speed and scale**: Promises the ability to go from prototype to full-scale production faster than any competitor, enabling a "death of slow speeds and unpredictable systems."

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale up operations**: The primary focus of the $67M Series B is to scale the technology and expand production capacity.
- **Industry expansion**: Targeting a wide range of industries including aerospace, defense, automotive, energy, and consumer electronics.
- **Talent acquisition**: Aggressively hiring top-tier cross-disciplinary talent (MechE, Electrical, Software, ML/AI, Process, and Engineering leadership) to build out the team.
- **Product innovation**: Continuing to push the boundaries of speed, quality, and scale in metal additive manufacturing.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Described as a team of "first-principles thinkers" with "low ego" and a "healthy sense of humor." The company emphasizes working on "hard problems" and is driven by a mission to fundamentally change manufacturing.
- **Working policy**: Fully on-site in Los Angeles, CA (Hawthorne). This is a shop-floor and lab-heavy environment, ideal for those who want to be hands-on with hardware.
- **Compensation & Equity**: Offers competitive compensation and pre-IPO shares, meaning all employees are shareholders in the company’s success.
- **Notable Perks & Engineering Culture**: Opportunity to work with some of the most advanced manufacturing technology in the world (lasers, robotics, ML). The environment is described as high-trust, high-impact, and cross-disciplinary. The company encourages applications even if there is no exact role listed, signaling a flexible and growth-oriented culture.
- **Talent density**: The team includes top talent from SpaceX, Apple, Google, Tesla, Velo3D, and other leading tech and manufacturing companies.

## Sources
1. [freeform.co](https://freeform.co/)
2. [Freeform Careers](https://freeform.co/careers)
3. [Freeform Company Page](https://freeform.co/company)
4. [Freeform Greenhouse Job Board](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/freeformfuturecorp)
5. [LinkedIn - Freeform](https://www.linkedin.com/company/freeformfuture)
6. [TechCrunch - $67M Series B](https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/19/freeform-raises-67m-series-b-to-scale-up-laser-ai-manufacturing/)
7. [TechCrunch - $14M Venture Round](https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/22/ex-spacex-engineers-land-14m-to-scale-new-method-for-3d-printing-metal/)

## Other roles at Freeform

- [Principal Machine Learning Researcher (Physical AI)](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-machine-learning-researcher-physical-ai-freeform-los-angeles-663pzmgqpzjm) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Electrical Engineering Intern (Spring 2027)](https://feeny.ai/job/electrical-engineering-intern-spring-2027-freeform-los-angeles-0806bphqm9rg) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Senior Factory Infrastructure Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-factory-infrastructure-engineer-freeform-los-angeles-m0pv1y34aqqz) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Factory Infrastructure Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/factory-infrastructure-engineer-freeform-los-angeles-62ec1ncja35w) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Additive Engineering Intern (Summer 2027)](https://feeny.ai/job/additive-engineering-intern-summer-2027-freeform-los-angeles-1jkg1yg9wb5k) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Mechanical Engineering Intern (Spring 2027)](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineering-intern-spring-2027-freeform-los-angeles-vyt1gep498wt) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Electrical Engineering Intern (Summer 2027)](https://feeny.ai/job/electrical-engineering-intern-summer-2027-freeform-los-angeles-yq6a82we64ds) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Manufacturing Engineering Intern (Summer 2027)](https://feeny.ai/job/manufacturing-engineering-intern-summer-2027-freeform-los-angeles-hyrnk42qmhyd) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Process Engineering Intern (Summer 2027)](https://feeny.ai/job/process-engineering-intern-summer-2027-freeform-los-angeles-ahm5ck5w13a5) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Electrical Engineer (New Grad Summer 2027)](https://feeny.ai/job/electrical-engineer-new-grad-summer-2027-freeform-los-angeles-eeppz69v0gpa) — Los Angeles, CA