GNC Engineer

Why the Stratosphere? From first principles, it is the obvious place to build. Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites orbit at 400 kilometers, moving at 17,000 mph and offering only brief snapshots. An autonomous solar-powered bird at 20 kilometers, or 65,000 ft, flies steady above the clouds and weather. In other words, it’s very close to Earth. And persistent by flying in circles. Effectively a Cell Tower in the Sky. The Stratosphere provides the physics of permanence. That persistence is priceless. That is Skylink. Start small. Build upward. The first product of Icarus is a small, affordable solar-powered Stratospheric bird. A platform designed to be light, simple, and built under constraints. Affordability is the foundation. More importantly, it solves a real use case now. A wedge into the market through intelligence and communications. A beachhead that proves the model, attracts customers who need it so badly they’ll use it even before it’s perfect, and opens the path to market disruption at scale. The vision: Skylink The vision goes further than building one plane or even one fleet. The goal is Skylink: a persistent Stratospheric grid delivering continuous intelligence, uninterrupted communications, and global connectivity. A new layer of infrastructure. The next backbone of how we see, sense, and connect the world. Our mission at Icarus is to re-establish and maintain dominance in the Stratosphere. We asked ourselves: what is the fastest and best way to execute this? The answer was not to start with a massive, billion-dollar program. It was to start with affordable birds, scale endurance step by step, and build upward into Skylink. 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 • Phone screen with the hiring manager via Microsoft Teams • Onsite presentation and panel Q&A 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.