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.
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.
The Production Optimization team is responsible for delivering uptime, performance, and insight across Formic's nationwide fleet of robotic systems. This team is deeply technical and customer-facing—at the intersection of automation engineering, field service, and business impact.
The Robotics Field Service Engineer (FSE) plays a critical role in this mission. You will diagnose issues, perform maintenance, monitor systems, and interact with customers to ensure optimal performance. You’ll work hands-on with equipment from OEMs like Fanuc, Yaskawa, ABB, Universal Robots, and others across food, packaging, CPG, and logistics environments.
What You'll Do:
Field Service and Support
- Perform preventative, corrective, and predictive maintenance for robotic manufacturing cells
- Respond to alarms or escalations (remote or on-site), diagnosing and resolving issues in accordance with customer ASA (agreed service agreements)
- Provide on-site production support and informal training to operators and technicians
- Use CMMS tools (e.g. MaintainX) to log and track all field activity, asset status, and spare parts needs
- Coordinate self, vendors, and partners for in-field support—including scheduling and customer alignment
- Maintain a clean, safe work environment and ensure compliance with OSHA and Formic safety standards
Monitoring, Documentation, and Insights
- Monitor system performance remotely via Formic dashboards (e.g., Grafana)
- Generate detailed service reports including issue, RCA (root cause analysis), resolution, and follow-ups
- Feed real-world system and customer insights back into Continuous Improvement and Customer Success teams
- Help identify systemic issues and opportunities to drive fleet-wide maintenance reductions
Customer Interaction and Relationship Building
- Build trusted, professional relationships with plant managers, operators, and technicians
- Document and escalate feedback from the field to internal stakeholders for commercial or product consideration
- Support site onboarding by identifying key champions and mapping decision-makers
- Represent Formic’s mission and values while on-site with a customer-first, solution-oriented mindset
Team Participation and Self-Development
- Collaborate in RCA sessions, site audits, and Continuous Improvement initiatives
- Train and mentor junior field technicians as needed
- Continuously improve technical knowledge (robotics, controls, networking, pneumatics, packaging equipment)
- Maintain required safety, Lockout / Tagout (LOTO), and forklift certifications
- Contribute to internal documentation, shared playbooks, and field service SOPs
What Makes You a Great Fit:
Required:
- 3+ years of hands-on field service experience working on robotic or automation equipment
- Located in, or willing to relocate to, the Chicago, IL area and report to our Woodridge, IL office
- Practical troubleshooting skills across electrical, mechanical, and PLC/robotic control systems
- Experience reading electrical schematics, wiring diagrams, and pneumatic drawings
- Strong familiarity with safety protocols, especially LOTO, and adherence to GMP or industrial SOPs
- Experience using CMMS tools (MaintainX, UpKeep, FIIX, etc.) to track, schedule, and report maintenance
- Comfortable with local area travel up to 80%, (Formic will provide mileage reimbursement for travel in your personal vehicle)
- Overnight travel up to 50% (travel and meal expenses covered by Formic)
- Clear communicator across email, phone, and on-site conversations—able to write effective service reports
Preferred / Bonus Points:
- Experience with some 6-axis robot brands (e.g. Fanuc, Kuka, Yaskawa, ABB, Universal Robots)
- Familiarity with robot palletizing, case packing, pick-and-place, and conveyor systems
- Background in high-speed manufacturing (food, beverage, packaging, CPG)
- Comfort operating in customer-facing or account-support roles
- Bilingual (English/Spanish) a strong plus
Success in this role looks like:
- High autonomy and ability to resolve issues without extensive supervision
- Clean and timely documentation of all service work
- Frequent collaboration with Customer Success, Continuous Improvement, and Engineering teams
- Contribution to reducing overall fleet downtime and improving system uptime and customer satisfaction metrics
- Trusted by customers as a reliable technical partner and representative of Formic’s mission
This role is ideal for field engineers who are mechanically sharp, detail-oriented, calm under pressure, and passionate about the future of American manufacturing. If you’re looking to be part of a fast-paced, mission-driven company at the leading edge of automation—this is your chance.
Our Total Rewards
At Formic, we believe you perform your best when you're supported in caring for yourself and your loved ones. That's why we've thoughtfully designed a comprehensive benefits and perks package for our full-time, U.S.-based team members, including:
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Equity in Formic: Own a meaningful stake in a fast-growing Series A startup, backed by leading global investors
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Comprehensive Healthcare Coverage: 99% covered Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance plans, with 75% coverage for dependents, provided by Blue Cross Blue Shield and Guardian
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Additional Fully Covered Insurance Benefits: FSA & DCFSA, Life Insurance, Short-Term Disability, and Long-Term Disability through Guardian, all 100% employer-paid
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Employee Assistance Program (EAP): Fully funded by Formic and provided via Guardian, offering support when you need it most
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Paid Parental Leave: Generous parental leave to support our employees and their growing families
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Company-sponsored 401(k): Invest in your future with our company-backed retirement savings plan
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Home Office Stipend: A one-time allowance for fully remote employees to set up your ideal at-home or on the road work environment
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Monthly Cell-Phone Reimbursement: Monthly stipend toward phone and internet expenses
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Flexible Time-Off: Take the time you need, when you need it, supported by our flexible PTO policy
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Paid Company Holidays: Celebrate important dates with paid time off
Compensation Philosophy
Formic’s compensation packages - including salaries and equity - are thoughtfully benchmarked against peer companies at a similar growth stage. Equity represents a critical part of our mutual investment: when Formic succeeds, so do you.
Final compensation packages are carefully customized based on candidate preference for cash and equity balance, experience, geographic location, and market considerations. Our goal is to attract and reward top talent who will significantly impact our organization. We're open to meaningful discussions about compensation structure to secure exceptional team members.
The anticipated base pay range for this position is detailed below.
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!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 careers@formic.co.
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.