Why the Stratosphere?

From first principles, it is the obvious place to build. Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites orbit at 400 kilometers, moving at 17,000 mph and offering only brief snapshots. An autonomous solar-powered bird at 20 kilometers, or 65,000 ft, flies steady above the clouds and weather. In other words, it’s very close to Earth. And persistent by flying in circles. Effectively a Cell Tower in the Sky. The Stratosphere provides the physics of permanence. That persistence is priceless. That is Skylink.

Start small. Build upward.

The first product of Icarus is a small, affordable solar-powered Stratospheric bird. A platform designed to be light, simple, and built under constraints. Affordability is the foundation. More importantly, it solves a real use case now. A wedge into the market through intelligence and communications. A beachhead that proves the model, attracts customers who need it so badly they’ll use it even before it’s perfect, and opens the path to market disruption at scale.

The vision: Skylink

The vision goes further than building one plane or even one fleet. The goal is Skylink: a persistent Stratospheric grid delivering continuous intelligence, uninterrupted communications, and global connectivity. A new layer of infrastructure. The next backbone of how we see, sense, and connect the world.

Our mission at Icarus is to re-establish and maintain dominance in the Stratosphere. We asked ourselves: what is the fastest and best way to execute this? The answer was not to start with a massive, billion-dollar program. It was to start with affordable birds, scale endurance step by step, and build upward into Skylink.

What it’s like to work here

At Icarus, we are building toward that vision one aircraft, one flight, and one endurance milestone at a time. 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.

Our culture = elite sports team. Winning = having fun

1. Hyperfocus
2. Extreme Ownership
3. Radical Transparency

Extraordinary rewards

1. Meaningful equity
2. Top of the market salary and bonuses
3. Factory in El Segundo
4. Health, dental, and vision insurance
5. Dream desk setup
6. Daily lunch
7. Unlimited celsius

Hiring process

1. Phone screen with the hiring manager
2. Onsite presentation and panel Q&A

No tourists. No bystanders. Only builders. Apply now.