---
title: 'Senior Data Engineer - Data Lead at Foundry Robotics Inc.'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-data-engineer-data-lead-foundry-robotics-inc-san-francisco-7qyw81amsvdk'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-10'
---

# Senior Data Engineer - Data Lead at Foundry Robotics Inc.

- **Company:** Foundry Robotics Inc.
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Compensation:** $150k–$250k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-05-16
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-10
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/foundry-robotics/ce71d40b-7e82-4d2b-b3d9-187b55328737/application

**Skills:** Python, SQL, Spark, Flink, Kafka, Airflow, dbt, Data Pipeline Frameworks, Distributed Systems, Storage Engines, Data Modeling, Relational Databases, NoSQL, AWS S3, AWS Glue, AWS Redshift, GCP BigQuery, GCP Dataflow, Azure, Data Architecture

> Design and operate petabyte-scale data pipelines for Factory OS, ingesting visual, telemetry, and manufacturing data from the factory floor. Define data roadmap, architecture, and governance while contributing to backend services and ensuring data quality for ML and analytics.

## Job description

## About Us

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. We are reimagining manufacturing through advanced robotics. Our mission is to rebuild the American manufacturing industry as an AI-first, assembly-focused, dual-use contract manufacturer. We aim to empower manufacturers with intelligent, efficient, and adaptable robotic systems that redefine productivity and quality.

## The Role

We are hiring a Sr Data Engineer / Data Lead to own the data layer that powers Factory OS. You will design and operate petabyte-scale data pipelines that ingest visual, telemetry, and manufacturing data from the factory floor, move it reliably across edge, on-prem, and cloud environments, and make it available for ML training, analytics, and operational decision-making. You will define the data roadmap—architecture, governance, lifecycle, and tooling—and be the person the rest of the engineering org depends on for clean, reliable, well-modeled data. You will also contribute to backend services where data meets application logic. This is a hands-on engineering role. You will ship.

## Key Responsibilities

Petabyte-Scale Data Pipelines

- Design, build, and operate PB-scale data pipelines for ingesting, curating, indexing, and preparing manufacturing, visual, and telemetry data
- Implement reliable data movement across embedded, edge, on-prem, and cloud compute environments
- Build streaming and batch processing systems that handle high-throughput factory-floor data in real time
- Implement data lifecycle management: retention, archival, compaction, and cost optimization at scale

Data Architecture + Roadmap

- Define and own the Factory OS data roadmap—architecture, governance, quality, and tooling strategy
- Design data models, schemas, and contracts that serve application, ML, and analytics consumers
- Establish data cataloging, lineage tracking, and discoverability across the platform
- Drive data quality standards: validation, monitoring, alerting, and anomaly detection
- Evaluate and adopt data technologies (warehouses, lakehouses, streaming platforms) as the platform scales

Backend Services + Integration

- Contribute to backend services where data pipelines meet application logic (APIs, event-driven systems, database layers)
- Partner with ML engineers to ensure training and inference pipelines have access to clean, well-prepared datasets
- Collaborate with full-stack developers, robotics teams, and operations to translate data needs into reliable infrastructure
- Implement observability: metrics, logging, and tracing across data systems

## What We're Looking For

- Between 5-7 years of experience in data engineering, with demonstrated work at terabyte-to-petabyte scale
- Deep hands-on experience with data pipeline frameworks (Spark, Flink, Kafka, Airflow, dbt, or similar)
- Strong proficiency in Python and SQL; backend experience in Go, Java, or TypeScript is a plus
- Experience designing data architectures spanning streaming, batch, lakehouse, and warehouse patterns
- Solid understanding of distributed systems, storage engines, and data modeling (relational and NoSQL)
- Experience with cloud data services (AWS S3/Glue/Redshift, GCP BigQuery/Dataflow, or Azure equivalents)
- Comfortable defining roadmaps, making architectural decisions, and driving alignment across teams
- Comfortable operating independently and owning complex systems end-to-end

## Nice to Have (Not Required)

- Experience with visual or image data pipelines at scale (video ingestion, frame extraction, annotation workflows)
- Background in manufacturing, robotics, or industrial IoT data systems
- Familiarity with ML data preparation workflows (feature stores, dataset versioning, labeling pipelines)
- Experience with edge-to-cloud data architectures and intermittent connectivity patterns
- Exposure to infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Pulumi) and container orchestration (Kubernetes)

Growth Opportunities

- Define the entire data architecture and roadmap for an AI-native factory
- Work with petabyte-scale visual, telemetry, and manufacturing data in a real production environment
- Grow into a data leadership role as the team and platform scale
- Direct influence on how data drives quality, throughput, and cost improvements in physical manufacturing

Why Join Us? 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 San Francisco is: $150,000—$250,000 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.

## About Foundry Robotics Inc.

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Foundry Robotics is an AI-first, assembly-focused robotics company rebuilding American manufacturing with advanced automation and production systems.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2026
- **Founders**: Adarsh Kulkarni

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Robotics Engineering, Advanced Manufacturing, Defense & Dual-Use Contract Manufacturing
- **Target customers**: B2B, primarily defense contractors, hardware startups, and industrial companies needing flexible, small-to-medium scale assembly
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "AI-first, assembly-focused robotics that rebuilds American manufacturing—faster, more flexible, and ready for what’s next."

## Products & Services
- **Battery Pack Assembly**: Small to medium-scale battery pack assembly that streamlines the path from prototype to full-scale production, enabling faster iteration and secure domestic manufacturing.
- **Advanced Hardware Sub-Assemblies**: Rapid construction of complex mechanical assemblies for next-generation and legacy hardware using AI-driven robotic cells, eliminating the need for bespoke factories.
- **Defense & Dual-Use Robotics**: Modular robotic cells for defense and dual-use applications that enable rapid assembly of critical infrastructure through secure and resilient American supply chains.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding — $19M in seed funding (announced April 2026)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Khosla Ventures, Hanabi Capital, Red Glass Ventures, Zero Shot Fund
- **Growth Signals**: The company has grown from 14 employees to over 20 builders in a short period, with a monthly headcount growth rate of +26.7%. It opened its San Francisco HQ in May 2026, just 21 days after the space was still being opened with a sledgehammer. Website traffic is growing +128.4% month-over-month.

## Competitive Advantages
- **AI-first, assembly-focused approach**: Unlike traditional contract manufacturers that require bespoke factories, Foundry uses modular, AI-driven robotic cells that can be rapidly reconfigured for different products.
- **Dual-use capability**: Serving both defense and commercial applications, which opens up a large addressable market and provides mission-driven work.
- **Speed of iteration**: The company can go from prototype to full-scale production faster than traditional manufacturers, as demonstrated by opening its HQ in under a month.
- **Team pedigree**: The founding team includes talent from Tesla, Blue Origin, Scale AI, Google DeepMind, and the UPenn GRASP Lab.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scaling the engineering and manufacturing platform**: The company is actively hiring across robotics, AI, software, operations, and quality engineering roles to scale its platform.
- **Rebuilding American manufacturing**: Foundry is focused on creating a domestic, secure, and resilient supply chain for critical infrastructure, particularly for defense and dual-use applications.
- **Rapid iteration and deployment**: The company prioritizes speed, moving from concept to production floor in weeks, not years.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-driven work**: Employees directly contribute to rebuilding American manufacturing and strengthening national security through advanced robotics.
- **High-caliber team**: The team includes builders from Tesla, Blue Origin, Scale AI, Google DeepMind, and the UPenn GRASP Lab, offering a steep learning curve and exposure to cutting-edge technology.
- **Hybrid workspace**: The company operates a hybrid model with a strong in-office presence at its San Francisco HQ, which includes a factory floor where robots are built and deployed.
- **Early-stage impact**: As a seed-stage company, employees have significant ownership and influence over the product, culture, and direction of the company.
- **Rapid growth environment**: With a 26.7% monthly headcount growth rate and a focus on scaling, the company offers fast-paced career growth opportunities.

## Sources
1. [foundryrobotics.ai](https://foundryrobotics.ai/)
2. [LinkedIn - Foundry Robotics](https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundry-robotics)
3. [Built In - Foundry Robotics](https://builtin.com/company/foundry-robotics)
4. [Remix Reality - Foundry Robotics Raises $19 Million](https://www.remixreality.com/foundry-robotics-raises-19-million-to-build-ai-first-robotics-for-manufacturing/)
5. [Ashby - Foundry Robotics Careers](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/foundry-robotics)

## Other roles at Foundry Robotics Inc.

- [Founding Marketing Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/founding-marketing-lead-foundry-robotics-inc-san-francisco-72p3hewtt90m) — San Francisco, CA
- [Network Engineer, Autonomous Factory](https://feeny.ai/job/network-engineer-autonomous-factory-foundry-robotics-inc-san-francisco-d0q4ta3kfnwv) — San Francisco, CA
- [Infrastructure Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/infrastructure-engineer-foundry-robotics-inc-san-francisco-jhhav7qbccvg) — San Francisco, CA
- [Physical AI Deployment Strategist](https://feeny.ai/job/physical-ai-deployment-strategist-foundry-robotics-inc-san-francisco-zze5bv4das57) — San Francisco, CA
- [Head of Security](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-security-foundry-robotics-inc-san-francisco-352vqv4gk28v) — San Francisco, CA
- [Head of Talent](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-talent-foundry-robotics-inc-san-francisco-terq8j6fpkkw) — San Francisco, CA
- [Senior Robotics Control Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-robotics-control-engineer-foundry-robotics-inc-san-francisco-h08vzav6496s) — San Francisco, CA
- [Lead Robotics Platform Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-robotics-platform-engineer-foundry-robotics-inc-san-francisco-xzw9gcg2b008) — San Francisco, CA
- [Staff Full-Stack Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-full-stack-software-engineer-foundry-robotics-inc-san-francisco-zaamfcr5f34y) — San Francisco, CA
- [Senior Quality Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-quality-engineer-foundry-robotics-inc-san-francisco-r3bjndngc4xy) — San Francisco, CA