Engineer (Formula SAE Track)

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 High grit, high urgency, high ownership 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 Bonus points You owned a subsystem on a Formula SAE car You manufactured parts yourself You stayed late to debug problems before competition You wired harnesses, machined parts, laid composites, tuned systems, ran tests, or fixed failures in the field You have CAD, FEA, machining, composites, 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 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 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 $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. #J-18808-Ljbffr