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Icarus

Software Engineer (Generalist)

El Segundo
Salary
$120,000 - $220,000
Level
Mid

Not stated in the posting: work type, visa.

Open. First seen 14 March 2026.

Apply on the company's site →

About the role

Icarus's standard text

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

  • Build and own end-to-end software systems that power flight operations, autonomy, and user interaction
  • Develop mission-critical backend services for telemetry, command and control, data ingestion, and analytics
  • Build clean, fast frontends for ground control, monitoring, and operator workflows
  • Design APIs and data pipelines that connect aircraft, ground stations, and users
  • Work closely with embedded, avionics, GNC, RF, and operations teams to ship tightly integrated systems
  • Support flight test, field ops, and rapid iteration using real flight data
  • Take systems from concept to production with speed and ownership

What we’re looking for

  • 2+ years building real full-stack software in production
  • Strong backend experience (Python, Go, Rust, or similar)
  • Strong frontend experience (React, TypeScript, or similar)
  • Experience designing APIs, databases, and distributed systems
  • Comfort working close to hardware, real-time systems, or operational data
  • Ability to move fast, own outcomes, and debug under pressure

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
Icarus's standard text

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.

Icarus's standard text

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.

What this role asks for

Standard for software engineering roles

Python

Common in software engineering postings at any company.

44% of this description is written for the role. The rest is Icarus's standard text, folded away below.

Read against Icarus's other open postings on this site.

The team: Engineering

This role is one of 7 open in Engineering.

WHAT THE TEAM WORKS WITH, ACROSS ITS POSTINGS

C (1 of 7), C++ (1 of 7), Embedded Systems (1 of 7), Golang (1 of 7), Python (1 of 7), React (1 of 7), RTOS (1 of 7)

OTHER ROLES ON THIS TEAM

From the team and dates on Icarus's own job board.

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