Forward Deployed 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. 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.