Senior Manufacturing Engineer

Icarus; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity options

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Daily lunch

Job summary

Icarus, based in El Segundo, California, seeks a Manufacturing Engineer to lead the manufacturing of solar-powered aircraft hardware. This role involves designing build processes and developing tooling while working alongside engineering teams.

Candidates should have at least 2 years of hands-on experience in manufacturing or aerospace systems. The position offers a competitive salary range of $120,000 - $220,000, alongside significant equity opportunities.

Qualifications

• 2+ years working as a manufacturing, production, or build engineer on real hardware.
• Experience building mechanical, electrical, or aerospace systems.
• Ability to operate in fast-moving environments.

Responsibilities

• Own manufacturing and production of flight hardware from prototype through to production.
• Design and improve build processes for various systems.
• Develop tooling and perform quality checks.

Skills

Hands-on experience building mechanical systems

Strong intuition for tolerances

Ability to solve problems on the factory floor

Experience working closely with design engineering teams

Job description

Overview

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

• 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.