---
title: 'Head of IT at Freeform'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-it-freeform-los-angeles-hh3k0jwkn35p'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-24'
---

# Head of IT at Freeform

- **Company:** Freeform
- **Location:** Los Angeles, CA
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-10-22
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-24
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/freeformfuturecorp/jobs/8040921003

## Job description

## HEAD OF IT

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 report directly to the CEO and own the technology infrastructure behind Freeform: the data centers and cloud platforms that run our factories, the networks and security that protect them, and the corporate IT that keeps our people productive. You will set the IT strategy and be accountable to the executive team for uptime, security, and compliance. Your most immediate priority is the infrastructure and dedicated data center for our new manufacturing facility, which becomes the blueprint as we deploy factories around the world. The many petabytes of data our factories generate are a core advantage, and the systems that capture, store, and protect it are part of the product.

All leadership roles at Freeform are technical in nature. You will spend a significant portion of your time hands-on, making architecture calls, reviewing designs, and building alongside the team while you run

Responsibilities:

- Set the IT and infrastructure strategy and roadmap, tied to Freeform’s factory expansion, and present it to the executive team
- Architect, build, and commission the infrastructure and dedicated data center for our new facility, including power, cooling, compute, storage, network, and edge-compute on the factory floor, as a repeatable blueprint for future factories
- Own storage and compute for petabyte-scale physics and process data, including high-bandwidth interconnects
- Own the Kubernetes and virtualization platforms, on-prem and in the cloud
- Own network architecture across all sites, including segmentation between corporate, server, OT, and guest zones
- Build and run the security program: controls, monitoring, incident response, audits, and vulnerability management
- Own compliance with NIST 800-171, CMMC, and ITAR, and serve as the point of accountability for IT-related audits and customer security reviews
- Ensure high availability, disaster recovery, and business continuity for systems that drive production
- Run corporate IT alongside engineering infrastructure, including identity and access, endpoints, and collaboration tools
- Own the IT budget and make the build-vs-buy and on-prem-vs-cloud calls that keep infrastructure cost-efficient as we scale
- Select and manage vendors, hardware suppliers, and cloud providers, and set IT policies, standards, and change management
- Report on availability, risk, and security posture to executive leadership
- Stay hands-on: review designs, make architecture calls, and build and troubleshoot alongside the team
- Lead and mentor the IT team, and plan, hire, and build the organization as Freeform scales, setting its priorities and a culture of ownership and continuous improvement

Basic Qualifications:

- 12+ years of enterprise IT and infrastructure experience, including 2+ years leading IT or infrastructure teams, with current hands-on technical skills
- Data center infrastructure experience across compute, storage, and networking
- Strong knowledge of both on-premises and cloud infrastructure
- Hands-on experience with Kubernetes, on-prem and in the cloud
- Deep expertise in Linux-based infrastructure
- A track record of owning an IT budget, setting strategy, and managing vendors, with experience reporting to senior executives

Nice to Have:

- Experience as the first IT leader at a startup or high-growth company, building the function from a small team
- Experience building or commissioning a data center, including edge compute for hardware-centric or manufacturing operations
- Experience with OT/ICS environments and securing factory networks
- Experience with high-speed data and high-bandwidth interconnects such as InfiniBand
- Experience leading an organization through NIST 800-171, CMMC, or ITAR compliance
- Knowledge of both corporate and engineering IT, including Microsoft and Linux-based technologies
- Degree in computer science or computer engineering

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.

Why Freeform?

- 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)
- 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
- As a growing company, the salary range is intentionally wide as we determine the most appropriate package for each individual taking into consideration years of experience, educational background, and unique skills and abilities as demonstrated throughout the interview process. 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.
- The salary range for this role is not determined at this time as it is a new position without existing internal benchmarks. We are more interested in finding the right, exceptional candidate and working together to craft a fair and compelling compensation package.
- 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 sttus, 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

- [Senior IT Systems Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-it-systems-engineer-freeform-los-angeles-x85nd4e3z9r1) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Head of Turbomachinery Technology](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-turbomachinery-technology-freeform-los-angeles-653e2cds2gwa) — Los Angeles, CA
- [FPGA Engineer (New Grad Summer 2027)](https://feeny.ai/job/fpga-engineer-new-grad-summer-2027-freeform-los-angeles-50qdjgef58je) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Additive Engineering Intern (Spring 2027)](https://feeny.ai/job/additive-engineering-intern-spring-2027-freeform-los-angeles-qhg5v84pg57p) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Manufacturing Engineering Intern (Spring 2027)](https://feeny.ai/job/manufacturing-engineering-intern-spring-2027-freeform-los-angeles-r43mfa3jsbq7) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Process Engineering Intern (Spring 2027)](https://feeny.ai/job/process-engineering-intern-spring-2027-freeform-los-angeles-sc6esmgan641) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Manufacturing Engineering Intern, CNC Machining (Summer 2027)](https://feeny.ai/job/manufacturing-engineering-intern-cnc-machining-summer-2027-freeform-los-angeles-pzthb7edgjb2) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Materials Lab, General Helper (1st Shift)](https://feeny.ai/job/materials-lab-general-helper-1st-shift-freeform-los-angeles-faga6tyj404t) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Manufacturing Engineer, CNC Machining (New Grad Summer 2027)](https://feeny.ai/job/manufacturing-engineer-cnc-machining-new-grad-summer-2027-freeform-los-angeles-8psr93z57c32) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Manufacturing Engineer, CNC Machining (New Grad December 2026)](https://feeny.ai/job/manufacturing-engineer-cnc-machining-new-grad-december-2026-freeform-los-angeles-h7mgdj17njag) — Los Angeles, CA