Product Lead - Formic Cortex

Who We Are:

At Formic, we’re on a mission to revolutionize American manufacturing and create more abundance in the world. We believe in continuing the American legacy of innovation by making automation accessible to all manufacturers and increasing their factory productivity by 10x. 

Built upon deep expertise in robotics and manufacturing, our unique full service automation solutions combine the best automation technology, software, and analysis tools for manufacturers with best in class uptime, support, and maintenance services. We are creating a new era of supercharged efficiency and competitiveness for US manufacturers.   As the world faces growing pressure from tariffs, rising costs, and labor shortages, Formic is uniquely positioned as the industry leading solution to overcome these challenges.  Fueled by our vision for a re-industrialized domestic supply chain, everything we do is aimed at growing “Made in America” products. And we’re growing fast - achieving 7x growth in production hours YoY.

Supporting us in our mission, with investments thus far totaling over $60 million, are backers including Lux Capital, Initialized Capital, Blackhorn Ventures, Mitsubishi HC Capital NA, and CEOs and founders of multiple Fortune 50 companies.

As the Product Lead for Formic Cortex, you will build the intelligence layer that transforms frontline operational expertise into scalable processes, software, automation, and AI systems. Your work will redefine how Formic deploys, maintains, and scales systems by converting manual workflows with automated, repeatable, and elegant improvements. You’ll embed with various teams - including Deployment, Solutions, and Production Optimization - to capture their decision logic, map their processes, uncover bottlenecks, and translate real-world operations into intelligent systems that drive productivity and reliability. Over time, you’ll shape the engine that automates site evaluation, robot configuration, simulation, validation, and fleet management. This role is cross-functional, experimental, and entrepreneurial—ideal for someone eager to move fast, test bold ideas, and push the limits of what robotics, automation, and AI can achieve in a rapidly scaling environment.

In this role you will:

• Translate real-world decision criteria into structured logic, requirements, and clear system definitions
• Define the architecture and constraints for tools that ensure consistent execution across operational teams
• Set measurable targets for improvements and verify that delivered systems achieve those outcomes
• Create internal products that increase accuracy, speed, and reliability across deployment and support activities
• Design user flows, interfaces, and data models that streamline complex technical work
• Partner with engineering to deliver features aligned with technical feasibility and operational priorities
• Build mechanisms that validate system performance and confirm readiness before field deployment
• Introduce monitoring and diagnostic capabilities that surface early issues and inform timely action
• Support the development of structured playbooks and reference frameworks that raise organizational consistency
• Improve data pathways and integrations to enhance the flow of information between teams and systems
• Align stakeholders around requirements, tradeoffs, and timelines for key initiatives
• Manage initiative-level planning to move projects from concept to delivery with clarity and momentum
• Evaluate emerging technologies and assess their fit for internal operational needs
• Drive adoption of new tools through training, rollout planning, and continuous feedback loops

What makes you a great fit:

• 4+ years of experience in product management, technical program management, robotics deployment, automation engineering, or building operational tooling
• Strong systems thinking skills with the ability to deconstruct complex workflows and translate them into structured logic, requirements, and scalable products
• Proven ability to work with technical subject-matter experts (engineers, technicians, operators) and convert expertise into repeatable tools, processes, and system logic
• Experience with AI, automation, or simulation technologies, or demonstrated ability to learn emerging technologies quickly
• Familiarity with manufacturing, industrial automation, robotics integration, or field-based deployment environments—or experience building products that support these environments
• Comfort operating in 0→1 or high-ambiguity environments, making clear decisions with incomplete information
• Strong collaboration and communication skills, especially when aligning diverse teams a