Field Test Engineer
Summary
As Field Test Engineer on the Ghostfin Field Operations team, you own test planning and execution for Albacore's Ghostfin UUV: writing test plans and daily ops reports, running in-water launch/recovery and inspections, performing maintenance and troubleshooting in the field, and training customer operators overseas. A hands-on role spanning hardware, software, and networking with 25-50% travel.
- Prepare for field exercises by identifying, sourcing and preparing UUV test and support equipment
- Write and execute day to day test operations plans and capture detailed daily operations and test reports
- Conduct daily UUV inspections and systems checks for the Ghostfin both before and after operations
- Coordinate regular UUV launch and recovery operations–you’ll be in the water most weekdays as we rapidly mature the platform
- Become the vehicle subject matter expert in the field, able to perform maintenance, troubleshooting, repair, and upgrades in austere conditions
- Travel to client sites to train customer operators on vehicle functionality, deployment, retrieval, and mission planning capabilities
- Bring an operator's perspective to augment development, bringing constructive feedback to Engineering for UX/UI considerations, Standard Operating Procedures, and user documentation
- 4+ years working hands-on with a technical team through the full arc of integration, test, and field verification of a complex electromechanical system
- Comfortable becoming the go-to expert on a technical platform end-to-end
- Sharp, practical problem-solver who is at ease working across hardware, software, and networking boundaries, who can take an ambiguous, half-defined issue and work it methodically to a real answer
- Genuinely curious individual who picks up new technical systems and concepts on their own rather than waiting to be taught
- Highly organized and methodical, especially under pressure — someone who gets more deliberate, not reactive, when things get stressful
- Willing to be hands-on and in the field, not just planning from a desk
- Comfortable and confident working on the water — driving a boat, towing a trailer, handling dock lines, and generally at ease around marine equipment
- Ability to lift and maneuver test equipment and vehicle components up to 50 lbs
- Travel 25-50% as needed
- Engineering Degree or comparable experience preferred
- Comfortable reading and working from technical documentation including mechanical drawings, wiring diagrams, work instructions or equipment schematics
- Experience running functional checkouts or acceptance tests and knowing when to fix an issue on the spot versus flag it up the chain
- General Boating License

