GNC Engineer

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.

Levels

We are hiring at Level I, Level II, and Level III through this posting. Your level will be determined during the interview process based on your technical skills, relevant experience, and demonstrated scope of ownership.

What you’ll do

Design, implement, and fly guidance, navigation, and control systems for long-endurance stratospheric aircraft

Own the GNC stack end to end: modeling, simulation, control law design, estimation, tuning, validation, and flight test

Develop and maintain vehicle dynamics models and simulation environments

Design and tune controllers for launch, climb, station-keeping, loiter, descent, and recovery

Integrate GNC tightly with avionics, sensors, propulsion, and autonomy software

Debug and iterate rapidly using flight data, hardware-in-the-loop, and field testing

Support integration, production bring-up, and flight operations in the desert

What we’re looking for

1+ years working on real GNC systems for aircraft, UAVs, spacecraft, or similarly complex dynamic systems

Strong fundamentals in dynamics, controls, estimation, and linear systems

Familiarity with state estimation (EKF/UKF), sensor fusion, and inertial navigation

Experience designing and tuning control systems that fly on real vehicles

Comfortable working from first principles and validating with test and flight data

Ability to move fast, own outcomes, and troubleshoot in the field

Our culture = elite sports team. Winning = having fun

Hyperfocus

Extreme Ownership

Radical Transparency

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

Level I: $100,000 - $140,000 USD per year

Level II: $140,000 - $180,000 USD per year

Level III: $180,000 - $220,000 USD per year

These ranges reflect annual base salary. Final level and base salary will be determined individually based on relevant skills, experience, and the scope of responsibility.

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.