---
title: 'Flight Operations Generalist at Icarus'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/flight-operations-generalist-icarus-el-segundo-sf0zb9thdk33'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-09'
---

# Flight Operations Generalist at Icarus

- **Company:** Icarus
- **Location:** El Segundo, CA
- **Posted:** 2026-06-30
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/icarus/jobs/5287151008

## Job description

Icarus was founded on the belief that the Stratosphere is the [Forgotten Frontier](https://henryicarus.substack.com/p/the-forgotten-frontier?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true) 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.

The Flight Operations Generalist is the person who takes our aircraft from the hangar to the sky and back. You set up the test site, prepare the aircraft, run preflight, operate it in flight, and troubleshoot whatever comes up, all under the direction of our engineers. When Icarus goes to the field, you are the center of the operation.

Mission

Re-establish and maintain dominance in the Stratosphere.

## What you’ll do

Set up the site and the aircraft

- Stand up the test site: ground control station, comms, power, ground support equipment, and safety setup.
- Assemble, configure, and prepare aircraft for flight, including mechanical, electrical, and payload setup.
- Run preflight inspections and checklists, and own aircraft readiness.
- Configure and verify the ground control station, telemetry links, and mission plan before every flight.
- Act as connective tissue between engineers and the products they've built as they fly.

Fly

- Operate the aircraft in flight from the ground control station, executing the test plan under the direction of engineers.
- Monitor telemetry and aircraft health in real time and respond to anomalies in the moment.
- Act as the calm, decisive voice on the sticks when something goes wrong in the air.
- Run launch and recovery, including any non-traditional takeoff and landing configurations.

Troubleshoot and turn around

- Diagnose and fix mechanical, electrical, and software issues in the field to keep the test campaign moving.
- Refurbish and reset the aircraft between flights and prepare it for the next sortie.
- Capture flight logs, write up what happened, and feed it back to engineering to drive the next iteration.
- Maintain positive control of tools and hardware to keep the aircraft safe.

In the field

- Build and improve the standard operating procedures that make our flight operations repeatable and safe.
- Solve novel problems without hesitation.

## What we’re looking for

- 3+ years of hands-on UAS, RC, or aircraft operations experience, or equivalent military experience as a UAV operator, maintainer, or crew chief.
- Demonstrated ability to set up, preflight, operate, and recover an unmanned aircraft.
- Strong hands-on troubleshooting across mechanical, electrical, and software systems.
- Comfort with ground control station software.
- Familiarity with the Linux command line for debugging and troubleshooting.
- Calm, decisive judgment under pressure, especially with an aircraft in the air.
- Comfort taking direction from engineers and translating it into safe flight operations.
- Willingness to travel to remote test sites and work long, physical days outdoors.
- Strong communicator, non-negotiable.
- High trust, extreme ownership, no ego.

Bonus

- FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate.
- Experience with developmental flight test, first-flight events, or build-up test programs.
- Background building RC or UAS aircraft (SAE Aero, Design Build Fly, or serious hobbyist).
- FAA Airframe and Powerplant license or military aviation maintenance background.
- Experience operating in austere or remote field environments.
- Aviation-adjacent military specialty with "air sense" (JTAC, CCT, etc).

## 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 flight ops 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 engineers, not behind a wall from them. You will own the aircraft in the field end to end. Set it up. Preflight it. Fly it. Fix it. Fly it again.
- We expect full extreme ownership. This is a high-trust, no-BS team, and everyone pulls their weight, especially in the field.
- We want operators, not bystanders. No simulators standing in for the real thing. No watching others fly. Just real aircraft, real test sites, and real flight.
- You must thrive under pressure, learn fast, and produce in the field. 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 the person who puts our aircraft in the sky. If you want to be on the sticks when the thing you prepared climbs to 60,000 ft, this is it.

No tourists. No bystanders. Only builders.

Hiring process

- Phone screen
- Hands-on operations and troubleshooting assessment
- Meet the flight and engineering team in-person

US salary range

$90,000 - $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.

## About Icarus

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Icarus builds solar-powered, autonomous stratospheric aircraft (called "birds") that operate above 60,000 feet for weeks at a time, providing persistent intelligence, surveillance, and connectivity.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed VC stage)
- **Headquarters**: El Segundo, California, United States (also has a flight test area in the Mojave Desert)
- **Founded**: 2023
- **Founders**: Henry Kwan (founder & CEO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Defense & Space Manufacturing / Aerospace
- **Target customers**: Government and defense agencies (ISR, communications), plus commercial sectors such as agriculture, construction, energy, insurance, transportation, and urban planning.
- **Mission/purpose**: "Re-establish and maintain dominance in the Stratosphere."

## Products & Services
- **[APOLLO](https://www.icarus.one/)**: A fully solar-powered, autonomous aircraft that flies at ~60,000 ft for weeks without landing. It offers persistent wide-area coverage (7,500 km²), ultra-low latency (5–10 ms, fiber-like), direct-to-device high-bandwidth connectivity, and real-time high-resolution sensing. Deployed in hours, reusable and upgradeable. Type: Hardware (UAV) + Service (data/connectivity).

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding raised – $500,000 (as of latest Pre-Seed round in Dec 2025)
- **Notable Investors**: Y Combinator (lead investor in latest round), Pioneer Fund, xTech Accelerator, Transpose Platform, Predictive Venture Partners, and others (11+ investors total)
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Headcount: 48 employees (as of mid-2026) with +17.6% monthly growth.
  - Active Job Postings: 11, with quarterly growth of +266.7%.
  - First aircraft (APOLLO) successfully flew in 2024 — "no hype, just hardware in the sky."
  - Scaling from R&D to manufacturing and deployment, with a factory in El Segundo.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Stratospheric persistence**: Weeks-long endurance without refueling, unlike satellites (intermittent passes) or drones (limited endurance).
- **Ultra-low latency**: 5–10 ms direct-to-device communication, compared to 25–60 ms for LEO satellites.
- **Weather-immune and threat-resistant**: Operates above weather and most threats, providing continuous coverage.
- **Cost-effective**: Fraction of the cost of satellite-based solutions.
- **Rapid deployment**: Can be airborne in hours, no orbital launch constraints.
- **Full vertical integration**: Designs, manufactures, assembles, and tests everything in-house (L.A. headquarters and Mojave test site).

## Strategic Focus
- Scaling the team across engineering, manufacturing, flight operations, and business.
- Transitioning from prototype to operational deployment (APOLLO in active service).
- Building out a mesh network of stratospheric birds for global persistent coverage.
- Maintaining a "high signal-to-noise" ratio: prioritizing engineers over management, extreme ownership, and rapid iteration.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Described as an "elite sports team" — high-trust, no-BS, radical transparency, idea meritocracy, extreme ownership. You will work directly with the CEO and own subsystems end-to-end.
- **Work environment**: On-site in El Segundo, CA (engineering, manufacturing, and business nerve center), with frequent field testing in the Mojave Desert (early mornings, hands-on).
- **What you'll do**: Design, build, break, fix, validate, and fly real hardware. No slide decks, no fake projects, minimal meetings.
- **Perks & rewards**:
  - Meaningful equity
  - Top-of-market salary and bonuses
  - Health, dental, and vision insurance
  - Daily lunch and unlimited Celsius
  - Dream desk setup
  - Factory in El Segundo
- **Hiring process**: Technical interview → one-on-one with CEO → meet the team in-person.
- **Open roles**: Manufacturing, Engineering (mechanical, electrical, GNC, RF, software, embedded), Flight Operations, Business Operations, and more.

## Sources
1. [icarus.one](https://www.icarus.one/) – Company homepage, product details
2. [icarus.one/about](https://www.icarus.one/about) – About page, founding story, team, locations
3. [greenhouse.io](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/icarus) – Careers page, job listings, culture description
4. [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/icarusone) – Funding info, investors, headquarters
5. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/icarusindustries) – Employee count, growth, company details, financials

## Other roles at Icarus

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- [Senior Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-forward-deployed-engineer-icarus-el-segundo-d7jkesevtnqa) — El Segundo, CA
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