Electrical Engineer

Icarus; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Meaningful equity

Top market salary

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Daily lunch

Job summary

Icarus, located in El Segundo, California, is looking for engineers to design and build high-reliability avionics for stratospheric aircraft. The role involves owning electrical subsystems from concept to flight, with significant responsibilities and opportunities for real ownership in spacecraft systems.

Engineers will be part of a small, dedicated team focused on delivering quality results and innovations. Competitive salary with equity in a pioneering aerospace company.

Qualifications

• 1+ years building real electronic hardware.
• Strong fundamentals in electrical engineering.
• Experience with avionics or high-reliability systems.

Responsibilities

• Design and fly high-reliability avionics for stratospheric aircraft.
• Own electrical subsystems from concept to flight.
• Support integration, production, and flight operations.

Skills

Building electronic hardware

Fundamentals in electrical engineering

Experience with power electronics

Debugging in the field

Job description

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

• Design and fly high-reliability avionics for stratospheric aircraft
• Own electrical subsystems from concept to flight
• Build, bring up, debug, and iterate fast
• Support integration, production, and flight ops
• Work closely with mechanical, GNC, RF, and software teams

What we’re looking for

• 1+ years building real electronic hardware
• Strong fundamentals in EE and first-principles thinking
• Experience with power electronics, avionics, or high-reliability systems
• Comfortable moving fast, owning outcomes, and debugging in the field

Why Icarus

• Meaningful equity
• Top market salary and bonuses
• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• Real ownership, real hardware, real flight
• Small team, massive responsibility
• High signal (engineering) to noise (management) culture
• Dream desk setup
• Daily lunch

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

$100,000 - $160,000 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.