Founding Software Engineer

Founding Software Engineer - Advanced Manufacturing 📍 Los Angeles — five days per week onsite 💰 Base salary of $180,000 The Opportunity Join an early-stage advanced manufacturing and defense-technology company accelerating the transition to advanced materials. The company combines AI software, robotics, and full-stack manufacturing to reinvent how high-performance composite parts are designed and produced. Its automated domestic factories will enable unmanned aircraft, undersea vehicles, space systems, and other critical hardware to be manufactured at mass scale rather than as bespoke products. The company raised a $17 million seed round, the largest in Entrepreneurs First’s history, and is backed by investors who were early believers in Applied Intuition, Astranis, Factory, Flock Safety, Relativity Space, and Valar Atomics. The Role As a Founding Software Engineer, you will build the software connecting raw materials, part design, simulation, factory operations, and the finished product. You will join a team of approximately five people and work alongside world-class hardware, robotics, and composites engineers. This is a high-autonomy role with broad ownership and direct influence over the product, technical architecture, and company. What You’ll Do Build Argos, the operating system orchestrating the journey from raw material to finished part, including supply chain, quoting, and pricingDevelop Argos Sim, covering CAD automation, design for manufacturing, mold generation, and composite-part simulationCreate tools that shorten design cycles and make advanced components easier to specify and manufactureIntegrate real-time equipment and sensor data into a continuously updated factory digital twinBuild factory-automation systems capable of supporting reliable, 24/7 productionDevelop internal software for engineers and operators alongside customer-facing product workflowsEstablish foundational practices for testing, deployment, observability, and reliabilityOwn consequential technical problems from definition through production What We’re Looking For At least two years of experience shipping production-grade softwareStrong frontend ability with TypeScript and/or backend experience with Python or GoA track record of delivering high-quality products at meaningful scaleStrong software engineering and computer science fundamentalsHigh agency, urgency, and learning velocityThe ability to work independently, resolve ambiguity, and keep buildingA desire to continuously master your craftComfort working across traditional software boundaries and directly with physical systems We value slope over intercept: what matters most is what you have built, how quickly you learn, and the ownership you take. Nice to Have Experience with manufacturing processes, industrial automation, or production toolingExperience integrating software with robotics, equipment, or sensor systemsFamiliarity with CAD, computational geometry, or 3D environmentsKnowledge of simulation, optimization, or numerical methodsExperience building digital twins or factory-control systems This May Not Be for You If You do not want to get your hands dirty or build in the physical worldYou rely on dedicated product management, QA, or design teams to move work forwardYou need multiple rounds of review before shippingYou prefer narrowly defined responsibilities, predictable problems, or extensive processYou are uncomfortable making important decisions with incomplete information The Culture Everyone owns problems end to end and makes consequential decisions that shape the outcome. The environment is intense, fast-moving, and built for people who want to attempt what others consider impossible. There is little bureaucracy. Meals are covered, along with tools and products that make employees more productive and support the people around them. Why Join? 🚀 The ambition is to do for composites what Bethlehem Steel did for steel. For too long, the world’s most advanced materials have been confined to exquisite, low-volume applications. This team is industrializing composites so the systems of the future can be built at mass scale, strengthening the West’s manufacturing base and competitive position in strategically important industries. You will join early, work directly with the founders, and help define the software foundation of a new manufacturing model. Visa sponsorship is not available.