The posting
Foundational Industries · SF Bay Area · Full-Time
ABOUT FOUNDATIONAL
Foundational is building a network of AI-native, autonomous factories for modern contract manufacturing — reshoring critical supply chains so companies can produce high-quality products domestically, quickly, and at competitive cost. Recent breakthroughs in robotics and physical AI have shifted autonomous manufacturing from theoretical to deployable, and we're focused on operationalizing these capabilities at scale during a decisive decade for American industrial leadership.
WHO — WHO THRIVES HERE
At Foundational, we're building with people who want to own something — to do work that matters, in an environment where what you ship is what counts.
The people who thrive here:
- Take ownership before they're asked. They see the gap and close it.
- Operate with a high degree of judgment. We move fast, and good judgment travels farther than a playbook.
- Communicate directly — concise, clear, and candid, especially when stakes are high.
- Hold a high bar for themselves first, then for everyone around them.
- Are genuinely energized by hard problems in physical, real-world environments. Energized — not just interested.
- Stay effective when things are ambiguous, changing, or under pressure. That's the job.
This is a place for people who want to build something that has never existed before and leave a clear mark on it.
MISSION
The Factory HR Manager is the day-to-day HR presence on the plant floor — the person hourly employees come to first. You own attendance, scheduling conflicts, disciplinary action, workers' comp coordination, and the daily friction of running an hourly workforce, in direct partnership with plant leadership. When this role is empty, small people problems become production problems.
OUTCOMES — What Success Looks Like in 6–12 Months
- Stand up a regular floor presence — a walking cadence and standing office hours for hourly employees — with a clear escalation path for shift-level HR issues. [6 months]
- Own attendance and timekeeping administration for the hourly workforce, including point systems, corrective action documentation, and clean handoff to payroll. [6 months]
- Partner with EHS/safety on incident response — workers' comp claims, return-to-work coordination, and OSHA recordkeeping — with no missed reporting deadlines. [6 months]
- Build and run new-hire onboarding and orientation for hourly production staff, calibrated to a 30-day ramp to full productivity. [6 months]
- Reduce voluntary hourly attrition by identifying root causes through stay and exit interviews, and partnering with plant leadership on fixes. [12 months]
- Establish consistent, defensible disciplinary and termination processes across all shifts, reducing legal exposure and uneven enforcement. [12 months]
SKILLS
- You have run HR for an hourly, blue-collar workforce inside a plant, warehouse, or distribution environment — not corporate HR with occasional site visits.
- You have managed attendance policies, progressive discipline, and termination processes for shift-based employees, and can defend every decision you've made.
- You know workers' comp claims administration, OSHA recordkeeping, and return-to-work processes cold.
- You have partnered directly with plant or operations leadership on headcount, shift scheduling, and floor-level performance issues.
- You are comfortable being on the floor daily. This is not a desk job with occasional plant visits.
- You understand wage and hour compliance for hourly, non-exempt employees — overtime, meal and rest breaks, state-specific rules.
- Preferred: experience navigating a union-avoidance effort or operating in a right-to-work versus organized-labor environment. Bilingual Spanish is a plus depending on workforce composition.
COMPETENCIES
These are the behavioral patterns that predict success here — in practice, under pressure.
- Accountability — You own outcomes. If something's off track, you say so and fix it.
- Bias for action — You ship. You iterate. You move toward the hard thing.
- Clarity of communication — Direct and concise, especially when it counts.
- Learning agility — You get up to speed fast in unfamiliar territory.
- Resilience — You stay sharp when things are hard, ambiguous, or moving fast.
- High standards — You raise the bar rather than match it — and hold yourself to it first.
- Builder mentality — You have operated as a function of one. You are energized by building systems from scratch, and comfortable being the person who figures it out before asking for help.
WHY FOUNDATIONAL
This is a filter as much as it is an invitation.
We're turning reindustrialization from a talking point into an operating reality. The work is hard, the environment is demanding, and the stakes are real. We compensate with base, bonus, and equity to reflect impact, responsibility, and results, with meaningful upside for the people who help build and scale this company.
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.
Foundational Industries is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and applicants. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), age, disability, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Foundational complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment. We evaluate every candidate on what they can do and who they are.
