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 Regional Lead Field Service Engineer, you are a senior, hands-on technical leader responsible for supporting a flexible regional territory, while leading a small local team of Field Service Engineers.
You will be a working lead, spending approximately 80% of your time doing field service work and 20% on technical leadership, coordination, and team support. You’ll serve as the primary escalation point for customer down situations in the region and ensure consistent service delivery through strong technical execution and field presence.
In this position you will lead through expertise and accountability, rather than formal people-management authority.
What You’ll Do
Field Service and Regional Support
- Perform advanced preventative, corrective, and predictive maintenance on robotic manufacturing cells.
- Respond to and lead resolution efforts for complex or high-impact service issues.
- Serve as the escalation point for customer down situations within the region.
- Provide on-site technical leadership during critical production interruptions.
- Support flexible regional coverage based on service demand and operational needs.
- Provide on-site production support and informal training to customer operators and technicians.
- Maintain a clean, safe work environment and ensure compliance with OSHA and Formic safety standards.
Technical Leadership
- Act as the senior technical resource for 2 to 4 Field Service Engineers in the region.
- Mentor and coach engineers through hands-on guidance, troubleshooting support, and technical review.
- Provide technical validation and sign off on work performed by less experienced engineers.
- Reinforce technical standards, safety practices, and service quality expectations.
- Share best practices and lessons learned to improve regional service execution.
Team Direction and Coordination
- Provide day-to-day direction to local Field Service Engineers and own team-level scheduling, coverage, and work assignment coordination.
- Coordinate service priorities and escalations within the team to minimize customer impact.
- Support onboarding and field ramp-up for new engineers.
- Participate in technical interviews and hiring decisions as needed.
Monitoring, Documentation, and Insights
- Monitor system performance remotely using Formic dashboards and tooling.
- Ensure accurate and timely service documentation, including root cause analysis and follow-ups.
- Identify recurring issues, systemic risks, and opportunities for fleet-wide improvement.
- Communicate field insights to Engineering, Continuous Improvement, and Service leadership.
Customer Interaction and Representation
- Build trusted, professional relationships with plant managers, operators, and technicians.
- Communicate clearly and calmly with customers during high-pressure service events.
- Represent Formic’s mission and operating principles with a customer-first mindset.
What Makes You a Great Fit
Required
- 5+ years of hands-on field service experience supporting robotics or industrial automation systems.
- High-level technical proficiency across mechanical, electrical, controls, and robotic systems.
- Experience working with industrial robots from one or more major manufacturers.
- Proven ability to independently diagnose and resolve complex system-level issues.
- Demonstrated experience mentoring or leading other engineers in the field.
- Strong communication skills in customer-facing environments.
- Willingness to travel approximately 50 percent of the time within the US.
Preferred
- Prior experience acting as a technical lead or informal team leader.
- Experience supporting distributed or multi-site manufacturing environments.
- Background in uptime-critical industries such as food, packaging, CPG, or logistics.
Success in This Role Looks Like
- Customer down situations are resolved quickly and effectively with clear technical leadership.
- Field Service Engineers in the region are supported, coordinated, and growing technically.
- Regional service execution is consistent, predictable, and professional.
- Customers view this role as a trusted technical escalation resource.
- Field insights lead to measurable improvements in uptime and reliability.
What we look for:
We’re building a company from the ground up, so every single person we hire has a massive impact on our team, culture, and ability to accomplish our mission. While each individual brings their own unique skills and perspectives to Formic, we look for people who share our vision and act in alignment with our Operating Principles. If this sounds like you, Formic could be the place for you!
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Fearless Optimism: You share our ambitious vision of what we can accomplish. You’re aware of the challenges we will face as a startup doing new things in an old space, but you’re energized by the incredible opportunity we have to drive change for our customers, and for the manufacturing industry at large.
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Factories First: You have a strong customer focus, no matter who your customer is. You seek to make things easier and better for our customers, even if it makes your job a little harder.
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Today, Not Tomorrow: There are always plenty of projects to tackle in a startup, but you prioritize, take accountability for work, and have a bias toward action.
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Be Right Often: You don’t do things just because that’s how they’ve always been done. You keep looking for ways to improve, seek out feedback along the way, and back your decisions up with data.
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Made of Rubber: Just like rubber, when you fall you bounce back up. You know there’s going to be a lot of challenge and change in our work ahead but you are adaptable, resilient, and ready to thrive through it all.
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Good Baton Passes: You work with a desire to make things easier and better for your team members. You use empathy to understand the needs and goals of others and support each other so Formic can be successful together.
Equal Opportunity
Formic is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion or religious creed, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, marital status, family or parental status, disability, military or veteran status, or any other basis protected by law. All employment decisions are based on a person’s merit, business needs, and role requirements. If you require further accommodations or have questions regarding accessibility of our roles, please reach out to [email protected].
AI Use
At Formic, fairness and transparency are at the heart of our hiring process. We use AI-powered tools in some interviews to help our teams evaluate candidate responses, but all final hiring decisions are made by humans. You can learn more about how AI is used in our recruitment process by reviewing our AI Hiring Disclosure linked here.
**Important Notice on Recruitment Scams
Formic has been made aware of fraudulent outreach claiming to represent Formic through various scam or phishing attempts. Please note that all communications from Formic will come from a verified @formic.co email address or verified LinkedIn account. Formic will never ask you to download unsolicited documents, schedule interviews via third parties without prior application, or share personal or financial information. If you receive suspicious outreach, please disregard it and report it to [email protected].
