Founding Associate
Pelagon is a rapidly growing, mission-driven team working with navies and leading primes — but everything is yet to be built: the products, the processes, the relationships. That's the point.
You'll be embedded in the founding moment of a deeptech, high-impact company, with ownership over things that actually matter to the business surviving and growing. Your week will never look the same twice: one day you're deep in a technical discussion on sonar navigation or embedded systems, the next you're preparing a pitch or helping structure a partnership with a defense player. You'll figure things out as you go, because that's what early-stage looks like.
What you'll work across
- Business development & partnerships: identifying and structuring relationships with defense and civil stakeholders.
- Technical support: the interface between our customers and the tech team, enabling rapid iteration in product development.
- Demos, field exercises & events: in defense you don't tell, you show — building Pelagon's credibility and revenue toward becoming a global AI defense leader.
- Ops & strategy: helping build the operating infrastructure of Pelagon from scratch.
- Fundraising support: market research, competitive landscape, investor materials.
Who we're looking for
- You're finishing an engineering degree, ideally from a top engineering school or a science program with a strong technical foundation. You're drawn to hard problems, not just interesting ones.
- A genuine interest in the defense and maritime domains — ideally a strong personal passion for the sea (sailing, boat building, drone building) and/or defense.
- You care about European strategic autonomy and have thought about what it means to build critical infrastructure.
- You're equally at ease in technical discussions and on more business-oriented missions.
- A strong plus: you've done a VOA (Volontaire Officier Aspirant) or any form of military immersion, or you have direct exposure to naval operations.
Defense and maritime have historically been male-dominated fields. We think that's a missed opportunity — diverse teams build better products — so we're building Pelagon differently from day one, and we actively encourage women to apply.
Why Pelagon
- Work directly with two founders with complementary, rare profiles: a deeptech builder and a naval operator.
- Real ownership in a company at its earliest stage, building something that matters.
- Access to the Hexa network: 40+ companies built, $4.5bn in combined valuation, and the best operators and investors in Europe.
- Compensation: €1,500 per month.
- Based in Paris, at La Cristallerie.
- Green-transport allowance for your commute via Swile's mobility subscription, plus a Swile lunch card (50% covered).
- Demotime: a quarterly offsite where all our startups pitch and demo their latest products.
No lengthy cover letter needed — tell us which part of what we're building excites you most, and what you'd bring to the table.