---
title: 'Powertrain Engineer, Internal Combustion Engines at Albacore'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/powertrain-engineer-internal-combustion-engines-albacore-philadelphia-8cz2apq6ry3g'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-14'
---

# Powertrain Engineer, Internal Combustion Engines at Albacore

- **Company:** Albacore
- **Location:** Philadelphia, PA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-05-13
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-14
- **Apply:** https://jobs.gem.com/albacore/am9icG9zdDoCYGU2vQoNk5ZQBQO4lsDW

## Job description

Role description:

- Own the design and development of internal combustion engines end-to-end, from clean-sheet architecture through fabrication, dyno characterization, integration, and field testing.
- Specify and develop core engine subsystems including fuel delivery, air handling, ignition or compression-ignition systems, cooling, lubrication, and exhaust, applying a strong first-principles engineering mindset to hit aggressive targets for power density, fuel efficiency, and reliability.
- Design the engine to deliver clean shaft power into a downstream generator and power conversion stage, working closely with electrical teammates on coupling, vibration isolation, and operating-point selection.
- Build, instrument, and run engine test cells and dyno setups to characterize performance, validate durability, and drive root-cause analysis on failures.
- Collaborate closely with mechanical, electrical, software, and systems engineers to integrate engines into robust, demanding-environment power generation systems.
- Get hands-on with build, assembly, and debug of prototype engines, driving rapid iteration and continuous improvement in performance, reliability, and manufacturability.

Desired qualifications:

- B.S. or M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Electromechanical Engineering, or related technical field.
- 5–7 years of experience designing and developing internal combustion engines, ideally in a startup, motorsports, small UAV/UGV, or APU/genset environment where you owned problems end-to-end.
- Deep working knowledge of two- or four-stroke engine design, including fuel delivery, air handling, cooling, lubrication, and exhaust subsystems.
- Hands-on experience running engines on a dynamometer, including instrumentation, data acquisition, and performance characterization.
- Proficiency with CAD tools (SolidWorks preferred) and experience producing clear engineering documentation, including drawings and tolerance specifications.
- Comfort working across disciplines and reading schematics to collaborate effectively with EE and firmware teammates on ECU and engine controls integration.
- Strong first-principles engineering mindset and a bias toward building, testing, and iterating over endless analysis.
- U.S. work authorization and ability to obtain a security clearance.

## 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)

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