About this role
About the role
Icarus was founded on the belief that the Stratosphere is the Forgotten Frontier and that reclaiming it will define the next era of aerospace and what is possible from the sky. We build solar-powered aircraft that fly at 60,000 ft for weeks at a time, delivering persistent, affordable, and scalable presence from this layer of the atmosphere.
Mission
Re-establish and maintain dominance in the Stratosphere.
What you’ll do
Build and own end-to-end software systems that power flight operations, autonomy, and user interaction
Develop mission-critical backend services for telemetry, command and control, data ingestion, and analytics
Build clean, fast frontends for ground control, monitoring, and operator workflows
Design APIs and data pipelines that connect aircraft, ground stations, and users
Work closely with embedded, avionics, GNC, RF, and operations teams to ship tightly integrated systems
Support flight test, field ops, and rapid iteration using real flight data
Take systems from concept to production with speed and ownership
What we’re looking for
2+ years building real full-stack software in production
Strong backend experience (Python, Go, Rust, or similar)
Strong frontend experience (React, TypeScript, or similar)
Experience designing APIs, databases, and distributed systems
Comfort working close to hardware, real-time systems, or operational data
Ability to move fast, own outcomes, and debug under pressure
Why Icarus
Meaningful equity
Top market salary and bonuses
Health, dental, and vision insurance
Factory in El Segundo
Real ownership, real hardware, real flight
Small team, massive responsibility
High signal (engineering) to noise (management) culture
Dream desk setup
Daily lunch
Unlimited celsius
This is not a normal engineering job
We are pioneers, not corporate managers. Icarus deliberately optimizes for a high signal (engineers) to noise (management) ratio, where engineering, flight, and execution matter more than process, politics, or management overhead
You will work side by side with the CEO and a small team of world-class builders. You will own your subsystem end to end. Design it. Build it. Break it. Fix it. Validate it in the desert. Fly it. Then do it again, faster
We expect full extreme ownership. This is a high-trust, no-BS team, and everyone pulls their weight
We are hiring across the stack: mechanical, aerodynamics, RF, GNC, electrical, avionics, power electronics, energy storage, software, and systems
We want builders. No hand-holding. No fluff. No fake projects. No slide decks. No sitting in meetings all day. Just raw engineering, real hardware, and real flight
You must thrive under pressure, learn fast, troubleshoot in the field, and push hardware to its limits. We move fast. We go to Mojave at 4 am in the morning. We expect results and an obsession with quality and speed
You will be a core executor of flight hardware, taking systems from concept to reality and driving rapid iteration loops. You will work across avionics, power electronics, energy storage, integration, and production bring-up. If you want real ownership, real hardware, and real flight milestones, this is it
No tourists. No bystanders. Only builders.
About the interview
Hiring process
Technical interview
One-on-one with CEO
Meet the team in-person
About Icarus
Icarus was founded on the belief that the Stratosphere is the Forgotten Frontier and that reclaiming it will define the next era of aerospace and what is possible from the sky.
Icarus
Founded:
2023
Batch:
F25
Team Size:
16
Status:
Active
Location:
Los Angeles, CA
Founders
Henry Kwan
Founder