Foundational Industries

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Company Overview Foundational is building a network of AI-native, autonomous factories for modern contract manufacturing. We’re reshoring critical supply chains so companies can produce high‑quality products domestically, quickly, and at competitive cost. Foundational exists to make reindustrialization practical. Our factories are autonomy-first, reconfigurable by design, and orchestrated by a unified, AI-native factory operating layer that connects design through production. Transformative Opportunity Recent breakthroughs in robotics and physical AI have shifted autonomous manufacturing from a theoretical promise to a deployable capability, triggering a global race to operationalize these systems at scale. The challenge is no longer whether autonomy works, but who can integrate AI-native robotics into real production environments. The ability to manufacture advanced products domestically is now central to U.S. economic competitiveness and national security. Foundational is focused on deploying these capabilities at scale during a decisive decade for American industrial leadership. Who We Are Foundational was built by executive leadership from Google’s physical AI platform and America’s two largest contract manufacturers. Manufacturing critical products requires trust. The Foundational team has deployed AI systems at multi-billion-dollar scale and delivered thousands of products across hundreds of manufacturing facilities. Role Overview We are hiring a Director of Administration to serve as a strategic force multiplier for Foundational’s founders, with a primary responsibility of supporting the CEO and CTO. This role sits at the center of a small, senior team and is critical to enabling the company to operate at high velocity. This role goes beyond traditional executive assistance and calendar management. You will manage the company’s internal systems and AI-enabled tools (including Notion, Affinity, and Ashby), coordinate with the external vendors that support those systems, and make sure information flows cleanly across the organization. You will also play a key role in managing the recruiting pipeline and in-office operations. Key Responsibilities • Own complex calendar, workflow, and travel management for the CEO and select leaders, prioritizing across investors, customers, partners, internal teams, and personal commitments. • Act as a trusted, discreet extension of the CEO, exercising sound judgment on what to escalate, delegate, or decline in day-to-day interactions. • Lead day-to-day office management for the New York office: supplies, vendors, visitors, workspace logistics, and basic IT coordination. • Ensure the office environment operates smoothly and reflects company standards, enabling the team to perform at a high level. • Support the planning and execution of key in-person moments, including board meetings, investor visits, customer meetings, internal offsites, and leadership working sessions. • Build strong working relationships with investors, advisors, candidates, and senior external partners while representing the company with professionalism. • Run day-to-day operations of core internal systems (Notion, Ashby, Affinity), coordinating with outsourced vendors to maintain, improve, and deliver on priorities. • Own the operational side of recruiting in Ashby: posting roles, managing candidate pipelines, scheduling interviews, and keeping candidates and interviewers informed and prepared. • Partner with hiring managers and external recruiters to ensure a tight, professional process from first touch through offer. What You’ll Bring • 5–10 years of experience in an Executive Assistant, Chief of Staff, or similar high-exposure support role, ideally supporting a CEO or founder. • Experience operating in high-growth startups, investment environments (VC/PE), or complex operating businesses, with comfort navigating ambiguity and sustained intensity. • Fluency with modern productivity and data systems, with hands-on experience running platforms such as Notion, ATS/CRM tools in a structured and disciplined way. • Proven ability to design and maintain disciplined workflows across calendars, tools, and teams, with exceptional attention to detail and operational rigor. • Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to synthesize information, manage priorities and tradeoffs, and represent leadership with professionalism and discretion. • Strong judgment on priorities and tradeoffs; comfortable saying no or reshuffling when necessary. • Low ego, high ownership: comfortable doing whatever is needed, from strategic triage to detailed data entry, to keep the leadership team effective. • Calm under pressure: able to operate thoughtfully when timelines compress, plans change, or stakes are high. Why Join Foundational Foundational is built for people who want their work to matter. The ability to manufacture critical products domestically is central to U.S. economic strength and national security, and we are focused on turning that imperative into execution at scale. We operate with a strong bias toward delivery. Progress is measured by what runs in production, what holds up under pressure, and what improves over time. Ownership, judgment, and follow-through define our culture. Foundational brings together the most experienced leadership team in autonomous manufacturing — operators who have run the largest contract manufacturing platforms in the United States, alongside engineers who have built and deployed large-scale systems at Google. This combination positions us as the clear leader in this category, with both the credibility and capability to set the standard for autonomous production. We reward exceptional outcomes exceptionally. Compensation and equity are structured to reflect responsibility, impact, and results, with meaningful upside for those who help build and scale the business. 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.