
Forward Deployed Engineer at Albacore (Philadelphia, PA)
Albacore· Philadelphia, PA·
Role details
Work type
Hybrid
Employment
Full-Time
Job description
Role description:
- Operate, troubleshoot, and maintain vehicle systems during customer engagements, field experiments, and operational evaluations.
- Support mission planning, launch and recovery, payload integration, and system bring-up in dynamic real-world environments.
- Serve as a key bridge between operators and the engineering team by translating field feedback into actionable design, reliability, and usability improvements.
- Collaborate with mechanical, electrical, and software engineers to diagnose issues, validate fixes, and improve vehicle performance across hardware and software.
- Help develop operational concepts, test procedures, training materials, and best practices for vehicle employment with defense users.
- Represent the company professionally in front of military stakeholders, helping build trust through strong technical execution and clear communication.
Desired qualifications:
- B.S. or M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, or related technical field, or equivalent hands-on technical experience.
- 1-7 years of experience in engineering, robotics, unmanned systems, field operations, defense technology, or military technical roles.
- Military background strongly preferred, especially Navy SEAL, Submarine Officer, or EOD/UUV Specialist, or maritime SOCOM experience. Other operational experience relevant to the field will also be considered.
- Experience operating, maintaining, troubleshooting, or supporting robotic, maritime, electromechanical, or autonomous systems in real-world environments.
- Strong communication skills and ability to engage constructively with military operators, program managers, and technical experts.
- Willingness to travel frequently for customer meetings, demonstrations, exercises, testing, and deployed support, including domestically and internationally.
- Comfort operating in ambiguous, fast-paced environments and turning field observations into concrete engineering recommendations.
- U.S. work authorization required, TS/SCI clearance preferred.
Why work at Albacore
- High-impact defense mission: Directly contribute to national security and maritime defense with a young, mission-driven team
- Early-stage ownership: Join post-seed, pre-scale startup (25 employees) where engineers have outsized influence on product and architecture
- Location: Based in Philadelphia, PA
- Open roles: Mechanical Engineer, Software Engineer, Electrical Engineer (plus past openings for Powertrain Engineer, Forward Deployed Engineer, Head of Supply Chain, and internships)
- Technical culture: Hands-on work spanning robotics, AI, propulsion, battery systems, manufacturing, and defense contracting — a broad, fast-paced engineering environment
- Backing: Y Combinator-backed with meaningful seed funding to support growth