Flight Operations Engineer

What you’ll do

Set up the site and the aircraft

• Analyze and verify test site conditions to ensure successful conduct of a flight test; sound judgement in aviation safety, preflight analysis of atmospheric conditions, and adherence to regulations.
• Assemble, configure, and prepare aircraft for flight, including mechanical, electrical, and payload setup.
• Run preflight inspections and checklists, and make the call on whether the aircraft is ready.
• Configure and verify the ground control station, telemetry links, and mission plan before every flight.

Fly

• Prescribe autonomous mission sets and operate the aircraft in flight by modifying software characteristics, ensuring efficient execution of the test plan.
• 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.

Engineer the operation

• Write and refine test plans, test cards, checklists, and standard operating procedures.
• Configure and tune autopilot, GCS, and aircraft software parameters.
• Analyze flight logs and telemetry, run root cause analysis, and write up quick-look and formal test reports.
• Build tooling and scripts that speed up setup, data review, and field operations.
• Own the technical interface between flight operations and the engineering team.

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.
• Drive the next iteration based on what the data and the flight told you.

What we’re looking for

• Bachelor's degree in aerospace, mechanical, electrical, or software engineering, or equivalent hands-on experience in aviation or aviation-adjacent military occupational fields.
• 3+ years of UAS, flight test, or aircraft operations experience, or equivalent military experience.
• Demonstrated ability to set up, preflight, operate, and recover an unmanned aircraft.
• Strong technical troubleshooting across mechanical, electrical, and software systems.
• Proficiency with ground control station software.
• Strong Linux command line skills for debugging, scripting, and troubleshooting.
• Calm, decisive judgment under pressure, especially with an aircraft in the air.
• 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.
• Aviation-adjacent military specialty with "air sense" (JTAC, CCT, etc).
• Experience operating in austere or remote field environments.

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

US salary range $120,000 - $180,000 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.)