🐺 The drones that flew in Ukraine were 3D-printed in San Diego.

The Squall drone tested in Ukraine was 3D-printed in San Diego. Last month, the Department of War awarded Firestorm a $30M contract to scale the platform that built it.

That's one of three SD companies worth knowing about this week.

Plus a medtech company that recently IPO'd, and a quantum startup whose customers include NASA, Quantinuum, and Infleqtion.

Howl yeah, let's dive in.

Pack Partners:

Head of Electronics Engineering - Seasats ($170,000-$230,000)

Design the brains of Seasats’ autonomous vessels that crossed the Pacific within meters of a Chinese warship, set the Atlantic speed record, and operate in the Taiwan Strait.

Reports to the CTO. They’re looking for an engineering leader who loves electronics and loves managing engineers.

All open roles at Seasats

Pack Partners pay to feature their roles here and support the Career Coyote. Want your role featured? Reply to this email.

Firestorm - 44 Open SD Roles

3D-printed drones tested in Ukraine. $100M U.S. Air Force IDIQ contract. xCell mobile manufacturing units deploying in the Indo-Pacific.

Why they matter:

In a Pacific conflict, the nearest U.S. drone factory is thousands of miles away.

Firestorm's answer: a drone factory that fits inside a shipping container.

Their xCell platform packs an industrial HP 3D printer into two shipping containers that can be flown to a forward base. The Tempest drone (55 pounds, 6-foot fuselage) prints in 9 hours and assembles in 36. Their Squall drone, co-developed with Croatian company Orqa, has already been tested in Ukraine.

Since the Career Coyote last featured Firestorm in April, the company added a $100M U.S. Air Force IDIQ contract for 3D-printed drones, plus a $30M Pentagon APFIT contract (boostable to $50M) to deploy xCell units and 200+ Tempest drones into the Indo-Pacific.

The team is hiring 44 in San Diego.

Momentum signals:

• $100M U.S. Air Force IDIQ contract (five-year) for 3D-printed unmanned aircraft systems

• $30M Pentagon APFIT contract, boostable to $50M, funding five xCell mobile manufacturing units and 200+ Tempest drones in the Indo-Pacific

• Squall drone, co-developed with Croatian company Orqa, tested in Ukraine

• Five-year global exclusive with HP for industrial 3D printing in mobile deployment

Open roles across:

• Drone Engineering and Avionics

• Manufacturing and Production

• Software and Systems

• Operations and Program Management

• All 44 open SD roles

Most defense companies win huge contracts long before the product ships. Firestorm flipped that. Squall has flown in Ukraine, xCell is deploying in the Indo-Pacific, and the Air Force just bet $100M on what comes next. If you want hardware that's already shaping the geopolitical map, here are 44 seats in San Diego.

Carlsmed - 6 Open SD Roles

AI-designed, 3D-printed personalized spine implants. Publicly traded on NASDAQ (CARL). Q1 2026 revenue $16.1M, up 58% year over year.

Why they matter:

Spine surgery has a precision problem.

Most spine implants are stock. Surgeons pick from a standard set and shape the patient's anatomy around the hardware. Carlsmed flips that. Their aprevo platform uses AI to design a custom titanium implant for each patient's specific anatomy, then 3D-prints it for surgery.

The company went public this year. In Q1 2026, they reported $16.1M in revenue, up 58% year over year, and raised 2026 full-year guidance to $72-77M, up from $70-75M. A published clinical study on the aprevo platform shows a 74% reduction in reoperations. Their cervical fusion extension of the platform, aprevo Cervical, commercially launched in early December 2025.

Founded in San Diego in 2018 by CEO Mike Cordonnier.

Momentum signals:

• IPO'd on NASDAQ as CARL in 2025, raising approximately $101M in net proceeds; total capital raised to date approximately $200M

• Q1 2026 revenue $16.1M, up 58% year over year; raised 2026 full-year guidance to $72-77M, up from $70-75M

• Published clinical study on the aprevo platform shows 74% reduction in reoperations; cervical fusion extension (aprevo Cervical) commercially launched December 2025

• AI-driven design platform with 3D-printed personalized titanium spine implants, FDA-cleared and reimbursed

Open roles:

• Engineering

• Quality

• Commercial

• All 6 open roles

When you watch which SD companies survive the gauntlet from venture-backed to publicly traded to actually growing, Carlsmed is the one most people missed. Six SD seats, a public company, and a market that's only getting bigger.

Monarch Quantum - 28 Open SD Roles

Quantum Light Engines for the companies building real quantum hardware. Customers include Quantinuum, Infleqtion, and NASA. Just closed a $55M growth round. Salary transparency on every listing.

Why they matter:

When the Career Coyote featured Monarch Quantum in April, they were six months old with $100M in combined capital and contracts. We thought that was the story.

Three months later: a $55M growth round, NASA on the customer list, and 28 active SD roles. The careers page still shows the old count. LinkedIn shows the actual hiring spree.

Monarch Quantum builds Quantum Light Engines, integrated photonics systems that make quantum computing, sensing, and communications work outside a laboratory. Customers include Quantinuum and Infleqtion (NYSE: INFQ), the quantum technology companies whose hardware Monarch's photonics power. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory selected Monarch's Quantum Light Engines for the Quantum Gravity Gradiometer Pathfinder, the first planned space deployment of a quantum gravity gradiometer. Infleqtion will integrate Monarch's laser-optical subsystems into the quantum sensor itself.

Founder Dr. Timothy Day previously built Daylight Solutions, which sold to Leonardo DRS for $150M in 2017. He's doing it again with photonics for quantum.

Momentum signals:

• $55M growth round closed March 31, 2026, led by Serendipity Capital

• Total capital and contracts now exceed $115M, up from approximately $100M at the April feature

• Customer roster expanded to include Quantinuum, Infleqtion (NYSE: INFQ), and NASA

• 28 active SD roles posted on LinkedIn within the last two weeks, with full salary transparency from $125K to $250K

Open roles across:

• Photonics Engineering (multiple levels: 3, 4, 5)

• Electrical Engineering (multiple levels: 3, 4, 5)

• Firmware Engineering (levels 4 and 5)

• Mechanical Engineering and Quantum Systems

• Process Development and Operations

• All 28 SD roles

A serial founder rebuilding what worked. Customers in the actual quantum hardware companies you've heard of. Salary bands posted publicly on every listing. If you're a photonics, electrical, or firmware engineer, here's what a serious second-act company looks like.

On the Radar

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

• Biolinq - 9 open SD roles. FDA just cleared the first fully autonomous, needle-free continuous glucose sensor. Commercial launch underway, valued near $400M.

• South 8 Technologies - 2 open SD roles. UCSD spinout building lithium-ion batteries that run from -60°C to +60°C. Backed by Lockheed Martin Ventures and W.L. Gore.

• Flock Freight - 6 open SD roles. Fast Company 2025 Next Big Things in Tech winner. The largest shared truckload freight brokerage in the U.S., based in Encinitas.

One pattern this week:

Air Force contracts. NASDAQ listings. NASA on the customer list.

Firestorm, Carlsmed, and Monarch Quantum have each cleared a different institutional bar in the last six months: the Pentagon, the public markets, and NASA.

San Diego's edge keeps showing up the same way: physical-world technology that earns federal, regulatory, or market validation before the rest of the country notices.

Let's help good people find great San Diego teams.

Jonah 🐺

P.S. Know someone job-hunting in SD tech? Forward this email. They can join us at thecareercoyote.beehiiv.com

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