---
title: 'Supply Chain Manager at Albacore'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/supply-chain-manager-albacore-philadelphia-x25q8k1skrqh'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-14'
---

# Supply Chain Manager at Albacore

- **Company:** Albacore
- **Location:** Philadelphia, PA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-03-15
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-14
- **Apply:** https://jobs.gem.com/albacore/am9icG9zdDrsXPluUA6xZ45pdYoJOJwK

## Job description

## About the Role

Albacore is looking for a Supply Chain Manager to build and own the systems that take our hardware from engineering design through procurement, receiving, inventory, build, and ultimately deployment.

We are building the systems and processes needed to support the development and production of complex hardware. You will work closely with engineering and operations to establish effective approaches for sourcing, receiving, inspecting, tracking, storing, and managing materials as our products evolve.

This is a highly hands-on role. You will run RFQs, place orders, manage suppliers, expedite critical hardware, and solve day-to-day material issues while simultaneously building the processes and infrastructure that will scale with the company. Over time, you will help turn what we learn from our first vehicles into a repeatable supply chain and production system.

## What You’ll Do

- Build and own supply chain processes across sourcing, procurement, inventory, and supplier management
- Work closely with engineering to translate BOMs, drawings, and technical requirements into sourcing and material plans
- Identify, qualify, and manage suppliers across machining, fabrication, electronics, and electromechanical assemblies
- Run RFQs, negotiate pricing and lead times, manage purchase orders, and expedite critical components
- Establish practical systems for part numbering, revision control, serialization, labeling, inventory, and material traceability
- Develop receiving and incoming inspection processes and work instructions
- Track supplier performance across cost, quality, and delivery and resolve issues quickly
- Identify and mitigate long-lead, single-source, and other supply chain risks
- Support prototype builds and help turn early build processes into repeatable workflows as we scale toward production

## What We’re Looking For

- 5+ years of experience in supply chain, sourcing, procurement, or materials for complex hardware products
- Hands-on experience sourcing machined components, electronics, and electromechanical assemblies
- Experience working directly with engineering teams in prototype, NPI, or hardware development environments
- Strong understanding of BOMs, engineering drawings, specifications, and revision-controlled hardware
- Experience running RFQs, negotiating with suppliers, and managing purchasing and delivery schedules
- Experience building or significantly improving supply chain, inventory, or material control processes
- Ability to create structure and operate effectively in a fast-moving, ambiguous environment
- Must be able to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance

## Preferred Qualifications

- Experience building or scaling supply chain processes in an early-stage hardware company
- Experience supporting hardware from prototype through NPI or low-rate production
- Experience with part numbering, serialization, inventory control, traceability, and incoming inspection
- Background in defense, aerospace, robotics, autonomous systems, maritime, or other complex electromechanical products
- Familiarity with ERP/MRP systems and ITAR, DFARS, or government contracting requirements

Who Will Thrive Here You are someone who sees an empty inventory cage and an evolving BOM and starts thinking about how the entire system should work.

You are comfortable creating structure without waiting for someone else to define it. You can work with an engineer on a changing design, call a machine shop about a late part, determine how that part should be received and inspected, and then document the process so the next build is better than the last.

You also understand that the goal is not process for the sake of process. The goal is to give engineering and manufacturing enough control, visibility, and repeatability to build increasingly complex vehicles quickly and reliably. If you have spent your career operating inside a mature supply chain organization with established systems, dedicated teams, and clearly defined processes, this role may not be the right fit. If you like building those systems yourself, it probably is.

## 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

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- [Software Engineering Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineering-intern-albacore-philadelphia-r9qnyvtza79f) — Philadelphia, PA
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