Founder Associate Intern

Who are we?

The sea is the physical layer of the economy: our energy, data and trade move across it and under it. It is also Europe's most exposed flank. Cheap underwater drones, divers and mines now threaten ports, naval bases, subsea cables and offshore energy sites.

Pelagon builds maritime interdiction: a persistent sensing network running our own acoustic-first AI detects and classifies underwater and surface threats, so operators can act on them. We work with navies and with the civilian operators of ports, subsea cables and offshore energy.

Pelagon was founded by Aymeric de Pontbriand (serial deeptech entrepreneur, founded and exited Scortex) and Gauthier Bouxin (French Navy officer, then McKinsey). Backed by Hexa and leading European investors.

By joining us, you'll play a key role in keeping a fast-moving defence startup running: the paperwork, the bills and the admin processes, and getting our systems into the water. Every test, fair, demo and admin file goes through you.

Your mission

• Run the company's admin: paperwork, supplier invoices and bills, expense receipts, contracts and forms, insurance, permits and declarations, offices.

• Build the admin processes: who does what, where every document lives, which deadline comes next, so nothing slips as the team grows.

• Own the logistics of our equipment: inventory, orders, packing, shipping, and driving the gear to test sites.

• Run data collection campaigns at sea with our hardware team: prepare, deploy, recover, log the data.

• Make every fair and demo happen: stand material, shipping, permits, boats, set-up on site.

• Support the founders on the business plan and the monthly numbers.

This job is your dream job if:

• You like things in order: every invoice filed, every form sent on time, every deadline in your tracker

• You'd rather be on a boat with a sensor than in front of a slide deck

• You've built, deployed or repaired real things and you like it when it gets wet

• You plan ahead, keep checklists and follow up without being chased

• You want to see from the inside how a defence startup is built

This job is not for you if:

• You want remote work or a pure engineering design role

• Paperwork, bills and admin processes feel beneath you: they are a real part of this job

• Early starts, cold days at sea and travel at short notice put you off

Requirements

• Engineering or science profile preferred, final year or recent graduate

• French fluent and working English

• EU citizenship (defence site access and security clearance)

• Driving licence (B)

• Based in Paris, on site full time

What we offer

• A founding role in a seed-stage defence tech company, working directly with the founders

• Real deployments at sea and on navy and operator sites

• Offices in Paris

Our recruitment process

1. A 30 minute intro call with Roland, our Chief of Staff.

2. A 60 minute deep dive with Gauthier: your background, one project you built, and a short logistics exercise.

3. A company fit conversation with Aymeric and the team.

We answer within 48 h after each step.

Pelagon is committed to creating a diverse environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment irrespective of gender, origin, identity, background and sexual orientation. Defence and maritime have long been male-dominated fields: we actively encourage women to apply.