• The Career Coyote
  • Posts
  • 🐺 A defense founder's second act. A public solar giant hiring 36. And OpenAI's SD partner scaling up.

🐺 A defense founder's second act. A public solar giant hiring 36. And OpenAI's SD partner scaling up.

Reax's Hermeus-alum founder, SOLV's post-IPO growth wave, and Cadre AI's OpenAI Partner status.

September 22, 2026

Six days ago, Hermeus won the Pratt & Whitney F100 deal. Its co-founder is now hiring 8 in SD for Reax.

Meanwhile, SOLV Energy is riding the AI power buildout and hiring 36 in SD. And Cadre AI is scaling its OpenAI partnership out of a bigger office in Torrey Pines.

Howl yeah, let's dive in.

Applying to a role we share? Tell them the Coyote sent you 🐺

A Hermeus co-founder's second act. All 8 SD engineering + ops roles still open.

Why they matter:

Six days ago, Hermeus won the deal to manufacture Pratt & Whitney's F100-PW-229 engine, the powerplant in every F-15 and F-16 in the US fleet.

Reax's founder Skyler Shuford built and led Hermeus as co-founder and President. Prior stops: SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, Generation Orbit. He's now building the next thing from a new hangar at Brown Field in Otay Mesa.

Per nvp capital co-founder Dan Borok, the Reax kick-off drew "former colleagues from Hermeus, three recently retired Air Force generals, and new team members from best-in-class aerospace companies."

Twelve weeks post-launch, Reax has 8 SD roles open. They've cycled at least one and added a Staff Mechanical Systems Engineer. Building carefully.

  • $7.25M pre-seed closed in June, oversubscribed. Co-led by Scout Ventures and NVP Capital, with Bling Capital participating.

  • Building autonomous defense aviation systems for national security applications.

  • New 3,000 sq ft hangar at Brown Field in Otay Mesa.

Open roles across:

  • Growth (Growth Director)

  • Operations (Operations Manager, Staff Operations Engineer)

  • Engineering (Staff Avionics Systems, Staff Flight Sciences, Staff Mechanical Systems, Staff Software Systems, Staff IT and Security)

Utility-scale solar and battery storage builder. Went public on NYSE (MWH) earlier this year. 20+ GW installed capacity across the country.

Why they matter:

AI is driving the biggest power buildout in a generation. SOLV Energy is positioned right at that intersection. Their backlog just hit $8.2B.

  • Q2 2026 revenue up 77% YoY to $951M.

  • Acquired Roberson Waite Electric in July, expanding self-perform electrical capabilities.

  • June scale-up: multiple 600+ MW solar+storage projects totaling more than 4 GW of new work.

Founded 2008 by CEO George Hershman. HQ at 16680 West Bernardo Drive in San Diego. Roughly 2,600 employees.

Open roles across:

  • Multiple new Directors (Marketing, Permitting, Energy Storage O&M).

  • Corporate scale-up (Legal, Tax, Accounting, plus Talent Acquisition).

  • Engineering leadership and field ops (Control Center, Electrical Superintendent).

AI strategy and implementation firm. Just crossed 80 people, hiring 2-3 per week.

Why they matter:

Cadre AI is an Official OpenAI Service Partner, one of a small number of firms OpenAI trusts to implement enterprise AI.

Per co-founder Riley Stricklin, they added 14 people in August alone, with ~55 at their San Diego HQ and the rest remote, working out of a new 14,000+ sq ft office overlooking Torrey Pines (first reported by Fred Grier at Business of San Diego).

Founded by Grayson Lafrenz (previously founded Power Digital Marketing), with co-founders Riley Stricklin (Chief Strategy Officer, previously co-founded Lume Cube), Chad Lohrli (Chief AI Officer), and Ben Shapiro (Head of AI Strategy).

  • Launched the AI Maturity Index, a free enterprise AI readiness assessment.

  • Team culture investment through the summer: family day at the office, Padres games, Del Mar race track days, weekly happy hours (per Riley).

Open roles across:

  • Engineering (Forward Deployed AI Engineer, Staff Forward Deployed AI Engineer, Technical AI Solutions Architect)

  • Sales (VP of AI Strategy)

  • Solutions (Training and Enablement Specialist)

Also worth knowing

Downtown SD SaaS company automating field workflows.

Launched a Microsoft Power Automate integration in May, connecting field data capture to the full Microsoft ecosystem. Also stood up an Australian data center in May for in-region customers like PSA, NQCranes, and VINCI Energies.

CEO Rob Brewster (ex-Twilio VP of Global Sales, ex-Eloqua) leads the team from a downtown SD office. Founded 2012.

Hiring:

  • Field Marketing Manager

  • Marketing Content Manager

  • Senior Marketing Manager, ABM Campaigns

  • Account Executive

  • AI QA Automation Engineer

Vista-based food-tech company scaling their Rubi Protein platform (made from duckweed).

Secured a $35M debt-and-equity package in August ($25M USDA-backed loan from X-Caliber Rural Capital plus $10M equity from RA Capital, Piva Capital, and existing investors) to expand production capacity fivefold to over 1,000 metric tons annually. Also received an FDA "No Questions" GRAS letter for Rubi Protein in February, the first US government affirmation for isolated RuBisCO in food.

Co-founded by CEO Tony Martens and Maurits van de Ven.

Hiring:

  • Technical Business Development Manager (Vista)

  • Business Development Manager, Functional Ingredients (Vista)

Still on the Radar

Three companies from last week still hiring and worth your time:

Applying to a role we shared this week? Tell them the Coyote sent you. It helps us know the pack works.

Howl yeah,

Jonah 🐺
the Howl Guy
Find me on LinkedIn

Want to promote a job? Send me a DM
Hiring a tricky role and need help? Send me a DM