Engineer (Formula SAE Track)

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

Benefits offered by this job

Meaningful equity

Top market salary and bonuses

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Daily lunch

Dream desk setup

Job summary

Icarus is seeking a dedicated engineer to design and fly solar-powered aircraft at stratospheric altitudes. Ideal candidates should have Formula SAE experience and a passion for hands-on building, alongside a willingness to learn and drive projects from concept to flight.

This position entails owning mechanical subsystems, collaborating across teams, and executing rapid iterations of flight systems to achieve groundbreaking results in the aerospace industry. Competitive compensation, equity, and a unique work environment are offered.

Qualifications

• Must have built real hardware, not just presentations.
• Willingness to learn anything for flying the aircraft.
• Comfortable working hands-on in various environments.

Responsibilities

• Design and fly lightweight, high-reliability structures.
• Own mechanical subsystems from concept to flight.
• Build, test, break, and refine flight hardware.

Skills

Formula SAE experience

Mechanical instincts

Electrical instincts

Manufacturing instincts

Systems instincts

CAD experience

FEA experience

Embedded systems experience

Education

Recent grad or current student

Tools

Machining

Avionics

Power electronics

Batteries

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.

This role is built for Formula SAE people.

If you were the person on your team who got things built, stayed late, solved ugly problems, learned whatever was needed, and refused to quit until the car worked, we want to talk.

You do not need a perfect resume. You do not need years of industry experience. You do not need to have had the fanciest title on the team. You need grit, horsepower, humility, technical curiosity, and the will to become great.

Mission

Re-establish and maintain dominance in the Stratosphere.

What you’ll do

• Design and fly lightweight, high-reliability structures for stratospheric aircraft
• Own mechanical subsystems from concept to flight
• Perform first-principles sizing, trade studies, and rapid iteration
• Build, test, break, and refine flight hardware
• Support integration, production, and flight operations
• Work closely with avionics, GNC, power, RF, and software teams

What we’re looking for

• Formula SAE experience
• Recent grad, soon‑to‑graduate student, or exceptional student willing to take a break from school to join a startup
• Evidence that you have built real hardware, not just worked on presentations
• Strong mechanical, electrical, manufacturing, or systems instincts
• Willingness to learn anything required to get the aircraft flying
• Comfortable working hands‑on in a factory, lab, desert, field environment, or wherever the mission requires
• Able to take feedback, improve quickly, and keep pushing
• No ego about doing dirty work
• Obsessed with building, testing, learning, and getting better
• You owned a subsystem on a Formula SAE car
• You manufactured parts yourself
• You wired harnesses, machined parts, tuned systems, ran tests, or fixed failures in the field
• You have CAD, FEA, machining, avionics, embedded systems, GNC, power electronics, batteries, or test experience
• You have a story about something breaking and how you fixed it

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

• This one is simple. One interview with the CEO. The only hard requirement is Formula SAE experience. No long process. No endless interview loops. No corporate nonsense. If you built real hardware on a Formula SAE team and you have the grit, hunger, and humility to grow fast, I want to talk.

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.