Co Founding CTO

Co-founder / CTO — The Intelligent Foundry
Building the UK's first greenfield, autonomous, low-carbon cast-iron foundry — a tooling-free, data-born, self-certifying casting line. Patent-pending core technology; company incorporated; seed-stage.
We're looking for a hands-on technical co-founder to own automation, controls and the data/AI layer end to end.
Core engineering
Industrial automation, concept-to-production — proven track record taking a line or cell from design to running plant
Robotics integration (e.g. KUKA / ABB / Fanuc / UR) — cells, tending, material handling
Machine vision & in-line inspection (e.g. Cognex / Keyence)
Controls & safety-rated PLC (e.g. Siemens / Beckhoff / Rockwell), functional safety for autonomous lines
Electrified monorail / conveyor and motion control (SEW Eurodrive EMS a plus)
Data spine & intelligence layer
IT/OT integration — tying shop-floor signals to systems as one event-sourced data spine
IIoT architecture, edge/sensor data acquisition, time-series pipelines
Applied ML / optimisation for scheduling and process control (constraint solving, closed-loop control)
MES / ERP integration; digital-thread and traceability
Domain (advantageous, not essential)
Foundry, casting or heavy-process manufacturing exposure
Simulation (casting/process or discrete-event) — e.g. MAGMA, ProCAST
Metallurgy or thermal-process literacy
Founder attributes
Comfortable owning the whole technical stack solo early, then hiring under you
Start-up appetite: builds fast, hands dirty, thrives pre-structure
Full-time commitment and equity-first mindset; UK-based or relocating