Chief of Staff, Formant
Office located in Mill Valley, CA
Data platform for robotics companies
Posted today
Data platform for robotics companies
21-100 employees
Posted today
Office located in Mill Valley, CA
21-100 employees
Company mission
To be the leading cloud-based platform for managing fleets of heterogeneous robots.
Role
Who you are
- This role is a rare opportunity for a scrappy, systems-minded generalist with 6–10 years of experience, a founder’s mindset, and a deep appetite for owning the operational heartbeat of a growing startup
- If you’re energized by complexity, driven by impact, and comfortable moving from high-level strategy to hands-on execution, we’d love to meet you
- Love people, optimizing workflows and work with an AI first mindset
- Are an entrepreneur (it’s acting on the world with high agency and bigger than starting companies) and know what it means to build
- Have 6–10 years of experience across startups, consulting, product, operations, or similar generalist tracks
- Are deeply curious about robotics, AI, or the infrastructure that powers them
- Have a high EQ and communicate clearly and kindly in way that inspired trust and psychological safety
- Can articulate how you uniquely contribute the diversity of our team
- Are based in the San Francisco Bay Area or open to regular in-person time with the leadership team in San Francisco
What the job involves
- Formant is building the interface layer for intelligent machines
- As the leader in Physical AI, we help organizations orchestrate real-world robotic systems with the intelligence and flexibility of modern AI
- Now, we’re looking for a Chief of Staff to own our operations and work closely with our CEO and Chief Business Officer — someone eager to help scale a company defining the future of intelligent machines
- Own and upgrade operations — Streamline internal systems, implement tooling, and remove friction across the company
- Drive alignment — Coordinate planning cycles, track progress against goals, and keep our leadership team focused on what matters most
- Amplify leadership — Sit in on key meetings, prep materials, and help drive cross-functional decision-making
- Tackle ambiguity — Whether it’s a hiring challenge, a product bottleneck, or a fire drill with a partner, you’ll step in and lead with a founders mindset
- Build for scale — Design systems that not only work now but scale with our growth
Our take
The industrial robotics industry is a rapidly growing field, and its exponential scaling means human operators need to keep up with large amounts of data both being fed into automated tech and received from robotic operations. Looking to support robotics companies and help combat these operational challenges is Formant, a data robotics platform solution.
With Formant's cloud-based platform, users can easily deploy, scale, and manage their robot fleets, allowing them to focus on the robotics themselves. Founder Jeff Linnell has used his extensive expertise in the space to tackle insightful pain points like software issues or the hiccups where humans need to intervene.
Since its founding, Formant has acquired a number of customers and partners including the likes of BP and Soft Bank Robots. With several rounds of funding behind it, Formant is growing its customer base and increasing its stamp on the market, leveraging the increased interest in intelligent robot use at large enterprises and businesses.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Company
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Oct 2023
$21m
EARLY VC
Jan 2022
$18m
SERIES A
Total funding: $45m
Company benefits
- Stock options
- Unlimited vacation policy
- Unlimited potential for internal growth and advancement
Company HQ
Mission District, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Jeff Linell
(CEO)Previously Director of Robotics at X, the moonshot factory and Head of Product (Robotics) at Google. Also was Founder and CEO of Bot & Dolly and Autofuss.
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