Executive First Robotics Jobs in Chicago, IL (NOW HIRING)

One robot. One floor. One job. The automation layer for US senior living

Location: United States

Start date: ASAP

More about the concept here.

Founders Factory builds and funds startups together with exceptional entrepreneurs and the world's leading companies. Created by IPO-exited founders, we offer founders capital, operational support from a team of hands-on experts, and unrivalled access to a coalition of industry-leading corporate partners. Since 2015, Founders Factory's 450+ portfolio companies have secured 500+ pilots and commercial contracts with our partners.

Our Studio partners with entrepreneurs at day one, developing new ideas, technologies and business models into high-growth companies. In partnership with a leading global industrial technology partner, we are building a new portfolio of ventures.

America's ~1,900 continuing-care retirement communities (CCRCs) are the only elder-care buyers whose model rewards keeping residents healthier for longer: residents join at 75–80, pay a large entry fee (avg. ~$402k) plus $12–30k a month, and the community carries the lifetime cost of care. These campuses staff their night shifts at roughly twice the regulatory minimum — comfort-driven cover that can't simply be cut — and once holidays, sickness and cover are loaded, each night position carries ~$160k of true annual cost. Worse, the status quo causes the harm it exists to prevent: around 80% of falls happen in the window right after a nurse's check wakes the resident. Existing tech — pull cords, wearables, fixed sensors — is safety kit that never changes the staffing model.

We are building NightWatch: a mobile UWB-radar robot that patrols the corridor at night, senses through doors and walls, and reports movement as fact — in bed, out of bed, in the bathroom, on the floor — never as clinical judgement. Data is monitored remotely, and staff are alerted only when a physical check is warranted. No cameras. No wearables. No per-room installation. Sold as robot-as-a-service, it delivers a two-to-three-month payback and is the easiest pilot in the category to say yes to: zero capex, zero installation, nothing entering residents' rooms, and fully reversible.

The unfair advantage: our partner brings a production robotics stack already live in market with a paying customer — autonomous navigation, docking and fleet software — plus radar and UWB signal-processing IP already built, manufacturing scale to drive unit cost down, and edge compute that lifts the all-important robots-to-operator ratio. The sensing IP and the ROI model are the moat.

We don't just fund ideas — we co-build them. Join as Founder & CEO and get access to a full-stack venture studio offering designed to give you the best possible start:

• The programme runs in two phases:

  Months 0–6 (Build)

  • $128k ring-fenced build budget to cover founder stipends and additional specialist resource at the founders' discretion

  • Founder stipends are $6,675 per founder per month, drawn from this budget

  • Embedded studio team throughout: a full time venture builder, with support from a broader team consisting of a studio lead and growth marketer. Founders build; the Studio supports.

  • On-demand access to specialist support across data science, applied AI, fundraising, legal, finance, PR and commercial partnerships

  • Dedicated network access from day one

  Months 6–12 (Accelerator / Spinout)

  • At incorporation, the founding team will receive 70% equity in a new company set up for the venture, and the Studio 15%, both subscribed at nominal value. The remaining 15% is reserved as an employee option pool.

  • $320k cash investment goes directly into the new venture's bank account at IC approval - full founder discretion over how funds are deployed

  • Accelerator support: a dedicated squad covering growth, product and fundraising, plus continued access to shared services

As Founder & CEO, you will be responsible for turning a strong thesis into a scaled, defensible business.

• Define the wedge. Choose the operator profile and the 3-state cluster (consistent regulation) where you run concurrent pilots first.

• Turn a thesis into a product. Work with our partner's robotics teams to take the night-patrol robot and its remote-monitoring layer from concept to a fleet operators can run.

• Win the first pilots. Land 2–3 CCRC / senior-living operators and prove FTE substitution through the pilot sequence — service level held with one less night headcount.

• Sell savings, not safety. Frame the buy as an ROI decision for the CFO/COO, positioned as redeployment, not redundancy.

• Drive the economics. Push the robots-to-operator ratio toward the levels that make margins trend to software, working with our partner on a path to lower unit cost.

• Build the company. Hire the initial team, raise capital, and establish the venture as the automation layer for senior living.

We are not looking for a traditional senior-living executive or a pure robotics researcher. The ideal candidate sits at the intersection.

• Founder or senior operator who has built a hardware / robotics or hardware-as-a-service product from zero to one, ideally in the US market.

• Deep familiarity with at least one buyer segment: US senior living / CCRC operators, eldercare, or enterprise facilities operations.

• Enterprise commercial instinct: you can navigate multi-site operator sales cycles and turn a pilot into a fleet rollout.

• Strong product and technical instincts: you can reason about robotics, sensing, edge compute and unit economics even if you are not building the robot yourself.

• Comfortable operating in ambiguity: shaping the product, defining the buyer, and making irreversible calls with incomplete data.

• Credibility with conservative care operators and forward-looking venture investors, and willingness to be on the ground in the US.

Most importantly, you are motivated by category creation — building the operational backbone for how America ages, on robots you put there first.

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