---
title: 'Senior Electrical Engineer at Albacore'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-electrical-engineer-albacore-philadelphia-vy3f9zsb0rz9'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-26'
---

# Senior Electrical Engineer at Albacore

- **Company:** Albacore
- **Location:** Philadelphia, PA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-10-06
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-26
- **Apply:** https://jobs.gem.com/albacore/am9icG9zdDpNXTUjDKikM867IwyFrICY

## Job description

Senior Electrical Engineer

Albacore Inc. is a Philadelphia-based company building highly-capable, mass-producible drone submarines to defend sovereign waters of America and allied nations. We are backed with more than $10 million from Y Combinator and venture capital investors.

We are seeking a Senior Electrical Engineer specializing in undersea robotics who will lead the design, prototyping, testing, and production of integrated hardware including power systems, embedded electronics, sensing, communications, and control interfaces. This role requires hands-on development from schematic through PCB layout, verification, system integration, and field validation in harsh marine environments, while collaborating closely with mechanical, software, and operations teams to deliver reliable, mission-critical robotic platforms. The engineer drives requirements definition, component selection, vendor engagement, and lifecycle management, and is responsible for troubleshooting, FMEA, and continuous design iteration based on real-world performance. Success in this role demands strong multidisciplinary expertise, ownership mindset, and the ability to operate effectively in fast-paced, resource-constrained settings where individuals contribute broadly, lead technical direction, and directly impact product outcomes.

Work Environment & Expectations

- The position requires 90% on-site attendance with our robotics hardware team in Philadelphia PA but provides flexibility for occasional remote work.
- This position will be most rewarding for an applicant who desires a mix between office and lab/field work.
- The candidate is able to collaborate with the diverse engineering team to work towards a cohesive and group derived design.
- They are also willing to perform functions outside of normal duties, such as assisting with local sea testing and mobilization of equipment when required.

Core Electrical Design & Integration

- Serve as the primary designer of new electrical subsystems, including power generation, storage, sensors, motor control, compute, power electronics, and protection.
- Own schematic capture and circuit design across analog, digital, and mixed-signal subsystems, including component selection and power architecture.
- Perform PCB layout, including stackup, impedance, and routing constraints, and review layout against design intent.
- Board bring-up and circuit-level debug on the bench using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, electronic loads, and standard interface tooling.
- Apply DFT, DFM, and DFR to production builds, including resolving issues on assemblies returned from contract manufacturers.
- Integrate commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components and design custom electronics (PCBA, harnesses, connectors) for power electronics, sensor integration, and control interfaces.
- Design and integrate control interfaces for thrusters, rotating actuators, and other motion components.
- Integrate acoustic, sonar, and localization sensors to expand the AUV’s data-gathering capabilities.
- Evaluate and manage battery systems (charging, discharging, and protection circuits) while ensuring compliance with safety and industry standards.

Process, Documentation, and Vendor Management

- Develop and track functional system requirements.
- Author electronics verification plans that trace requirements to specific test methods and acceptance criteria. Validate against prototype and production hardware.
- Generate internal and external system design and fabrication drawings.
- Maintain documentation, revision control, and testing/simulation protocols for robust electrical systems management.
- Conduct Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) on existing and upcoming designs.
- Manage relationships with external contract manufacturers and suppliers for PCB fabrication, assembly, and harness production.
- Oversee quality checks, testing procedures, and project timelines to ensure successful production runs.

Collaboration and Leadership

- Collaborate seamlessly with other engineering disciplines and across the organization to ensure alignment, drive innovation, and approach designs holistically.
- Ability to self-manage and communicate project goals and status to senior leadership.
- Mentor junior electrical engineers and technicians, fostering a culture of continuous learning and technical excellence.
- Travel occasionally (10-20% anticipated) for vendor visits, field testing, or contract manufacturing oversight.

## Requirements

- Required five (5+) years of hands-on experience in electrical subsystem design, ideally for robotics, aerospace, automotive, or other high-reliability platforms.
- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering
- Demonstrated ownership of multi-domain (analog, digital, mixed-signal) designs you personally captured, from schematic through PCB layout and verification close-out, on production hardware.
- Proficiency in CAD/CAE tools (e.g., Altium) for PCB design.
- Working knowledge of embedded systems, sensor integration, and communication protocols relevant to underwater applications.
- Proven track record in product lifecycle management for electrical systems, FMEA, and risk management.
- Expertise in DFT, DFM, and DFR, applied to production builds.
- Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively across cross-functional teams and mentor junior staff.
- U.S. Citizen

## Preferred

- Familiarity with marine, subsea, or other harsh-environment design.
- Experience with autonomous/unmanned platforms.
- Familiarity with battery technologies, charging solutions, and safety standards for high-capacity energy storage.
- Experience in automotive electric vehicle design.
- Experience in PCB design, actuation, AC & DC power management, robotics, battery systems, and ruggedization of designs.
- Previous experience designing for SWaP-C (Size, Weight, Power, and Cost).

This job description covers only the essential functions of the position. Other duties may be assigned.

## 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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