Senior Manufacturing Engineer

On-siteUnited States

El Segundo, California, United States

About the opportunity

Icarus was founded on the belief that the Stratosphere is the Forgotten Frontier henryicarus.substack.com/p/the-forgotten-frontier?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true 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

Own the manufacturing and production of flight hardware from prototype through low-rate and scaled production
Design and improve build processes for airframes, avionics, power systems, and integration
Develop tooling, fixtures, work instructions, and quality checks that enable speed and repeatability
Partner with design engineers to make hardware more manufacturable, reliable, and scalable
Drive root-cause analysis and corrective actions on build and test issues
Support integration, environmental testing, and flight operations
Help stand up production capabilities inside our El Segundo factory

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

2+ years working as a manufacturing, production, or build engineer on real hardware
Hands-on experience building mechanical, electrical, or aerospace systems
Strong intuition for tolerances, processes, and how things actually get built
Experience working closely with design engineering teams
Ability to move fast, own outcomes, and solve problems on the factory floor
Comfort operating in ambiguous, fast-moving environments

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 systems, taking them from concept to reality and driving rapid iteration loops. You will work across design, integration, testing, and flight. If you want real ownership, real hardware, and real flight milestones, this is it.

No tourists. No bystanders. Only builders.

HIRING PROCESS

Technical interview
One-on-one with CEO
Meet the team in-person

US SALARY RANGE

$120,000 - $220,000 USD

The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations. Highly competitive equity grants are considered part of Icarus' total compensation package.

We’re an equal opportunity employer. We welcome all applicants without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.

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Senior Manufacturing Engineer

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