--- title: 'IT Lead at Albacore' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/it-lead-albacore-philadelphia-93cdp2m8db7c' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-05' --- # IT Lead at Albacore - **Company:** Albacore - **Location:** Philadelphia, PA - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-08-10 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-05 - **Apply:** https://jobs.gem.com/albacore/am9icG9zdDoYL-Bv0uklUIuKPCHJo7vT ## Job description ## The Role Albacore is looking for an IT Lead to build and own our IT function from the ground up. As our first dedicated IT hire, you’ll establish the systems, infrastructure, security practices, and processes that support our team today and scale with us as we grow. This is a highly hands-on role. You’ll own everything from employee devices and onboarding to identity and access management, networking, SaaS administration, security tooling, and IT vendors. We’re looking for someone who can think strategically about how our IT environment should operate while also being comfortable jumping in and solving day-to-day technical problems. ## What You’ll Do - Build and own Albacore’s IT infrastructure, systems, policies, and processes. - Own employee IT, including laptops, hardware procurement, device management, troubleshooting, and onboarding/offboarding. - Manage identity and access across company systems, including SSO, MFA, permissions, and user provisioning. - Administer core SaaS platforms and implement scalable processes for application and license management. - Design and maintain secure office networking, Wi-Fi, firewalls, VPNs, and network segmentation. - Implement and manage MDM, endpoint security, encryption, patching, backups, and other security controls. - Evaluate and manage IT vendors, tools, and hardware as the company grows. - Partner with engineering, operations, and leadership to support technology needs across the organization. - Help build an IT environment capable of meeting defense industry security and compliance requirements, including CMMC and NIST 800-171. - Identify opportunities to automate IT workflows and continuously improve how employees interact with internal technology. ## What We’re Looking For - 5+ years of experience in IT, systems administration, infrastructure, or a related field. - Experience owning or building IT systems in a startup, high-growth company, or similarly hands-on environment. - Strong experience with identity and access management, SSO, MFA, and employee lifecycle management. - Experience administering Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 and modern SaaS environments. - Hands-on experience with MDM, endpoint management, and endpoint security. - Strong networking fundamentals, including Wi-Fi, VLANs, VPNs, firewalls, DNS, and DHCP. - Ability to independently evaluate technology, make decisions, and implement solutions. - Comfortable being both the owner of the function and the person doing the work. ## Nice to Have - Experience building an IT function from scratch. - Experience in defense, aerospace, robotics, manufacturing, or another security-conscious environment. - Familiarity with CMMC, NIST 800-171, CUI, ITAR, or government security requirements. - Experience with GCC High, Azure Government, AWS GovCloud, or similar environments. - Scripting or automation experience with Python, Bash, PowerShell, or APIs. We’re looking for a builder who wants significant ownership. You’ll have the opportunity to define how IT operates at Albacore from the beginning and build the foundation that supports the company as we scale. ## About Albacore ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Albacore Inc. builds mass-producible, long-range autonomous drone submarines (unmanned underwater vehicles) designed to support military operators with ocean-spanning, scalable undersea missions. - **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage) - **Headquarters**: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States - **Founded**: 2025 - **Founders**: John Huddleston (Co-Founder, mechanical engineer & unmanned systems expert) and Dante Vaisbort (Co-Founder, second-time defense founder, previously founded Haylon Technologies) ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Defense and Space Manufacturing — specifically autonomous underwater vehicles (UUVs) / drone submarines - **Target customers**: B2G — U.S. Navy, Special Operations Forces, intelligence community, allied foreign militaries; also open to commercial entities with undersea needs - **Mission**: Build the next generation of unmanned underwater vehicles to prevent maritime invasions and provide asymmetric undersea dominance at scale ## Products & Services - **Ghostfin (Expeditionary Drone Submarine)**: A 6-foot autonomous underwater vehicle designed for mass production and long-range deployment. Specs: 102 in base length, 12.75 in outer diameter, 425 lbs dry weight, 200 lbs max payload, 1,000 nautical mile range (10x greater than comparable vehicles), 30-day endurance. It is scalable (built from commercial off-the-shelf components), modular (configurable mission modules for survey, logistics, and strike), persistent (longer transit/loiter via novel energy storage and propulsion), and autonomous (embedded analytics and navigational software). Capable of rapidly launching from boats, piers, or beaches; supports persistent undersea sensing, observation, and communication, and can deliver kinetic strike effects across ocean distances. Also supports swarm deployment and high-bandwidth data relay to support vessels. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available (private company) - **Key Metric**: Total Funding — $6.6M ($6,625,000) across 2 seed rounds - **Funding History**: - Seed Round (June 2025): $125,000, 1 investor - Seed Round (September 2025): $6.5M, 15 investors - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Y Combinator (led), Outlander VC (led) - **Growth Signals**: - Headcount: 25 employees, with +3.6% monthly growth - Team talent sources include Lockheed Martin, Honeywell, Boston Consulting Group, and the University of Pennsylvania - Founding team has led >$9B in unmanned systems manufacturing/procurement efforts (Huddleston) and >$10M in DoD contract efforts (Vaisbort) - Actively hiring for Mechanical, Software, and Electrical Engineering roles ## Competitive Advantages - **10x range advantage**: Ghostfin offers 1,000 nautical miles of transit distance versus other vehicles of comparable size - **Mass-producibility**: Designed from widely available commercial off-the-shelf components requiring minimal specialized machinery — a key cost and scale advantage - **Modular architecture**: Configurable mission modules enable rapid maintenance, upgrade pathways, and mission-specific payloads (survey, logistics, strike) - **Experienced team**: Engineering heritage includes Lockheed Martin, Honeywell, and Johnson & Johnson; combined 20+ years in space flight technology, autonomous vehicle AI, medical robotics, and robo-submarine competitions - **Founder track record**: Repeat defense founder with existing DoD relationships and active company (Haylon Technologies) in the autonomous power space ## Strategic Focus - **Go-to-market**: Deliver solutions to the Navy, Special Operations Forces, intelligence community, and allied foreign militaries; also exploring commercial applications - **Product priorities**: Continued development of Ghostfin's energy storage and propulsion technology to maintain the endurance/range edge; expanding modular payload capabilities for strike, logistics, and survey missions - **At-scale deployment**: Emphasizing swarm operations, rapid launch from minimal infrastructure, and ocean-wide autonomous precision effects - **Manufacturing**: Building out supply chain and production capabilities for true mass production of undersea systems ## Why Work Here - **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 ## Sources 1. [albacore.inc](https://www.albacore.inc/) 2. [albacore.inc/careers](https://www.albacore.inc/careers) 3. [jobs.gem.com](https://jobs.gem.com/albacore) 4. [linkedin.com/company/albacore-inc](https://www.linkedin.com/company/albacore-inc) 5. [ycombinator.com/companies/albacore-inc](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/albacore-inc) ## Other roles at Albacore - [Powertrain Engineer, Internal Combustion Engines](https://feeny.ai/job/powertrain-engineer-internal-combustion-engines-albacore-philadelphia-8cz2apq6ry3g) — Philadelphia, PA - [Supply Chain Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/supply-chain-manager-albacore-philadelphia-x25q8k1skrqh) — Philadelphia, PA - [Software Engineering Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineering-intern-albacore-philadelphia-r9qnyvtza79f) — Philadelphia, PA - [Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-albacore-philadelphia-ynn2pfwcerfj) — Philadelphia, PA - [Mechanical Engineering Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineering-intern-albacore-philadelphia-b5q800psm3pw) — Philadelphia, PA - [Mechanical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-albacore-philadelphia-s272xzw90st7) — Philadelphia, PA - [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-albacore-philadelphia-0br1zvx11hrv) — Philadelphia, PA - [Electrical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/electrical-engineer-albacore-philadelphia-dpr3dxpnzg5q) — Philadelphia, PA - [MBA Business Development Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/mba-business-development-intern-albacore-philadelphia-20jxd93p3ek0) — Philadelphia, PA - [Engineering Technician](https://feeny.ai/job/engineering-technician-albacore-philadelphia-fy61vj6f9s4m) — Philadelphia, PA