Senior Embedded Software Engineer

About the role

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 ship flight-critical embedded software for long-endurance stratospheric aircraft

Own embedded subsystems end to end: architecture, implementation, bring-up, debugging, test, and flight validation

Write firmware for MCU-based avionics, sensors, actuators, power systems, and comms interfaces

Integrate sensors and peripherals (IMU, GNSS, air data, magnetometer, servos, radios) and build reliable drivers and middleware

Design robust telemetry, logging, and health monitoring to support long-duration autonomous operations

Build test harnesses, HIL hooks, and automation that makes iteration loops faster

Support integration, production bring-up, and flight ops in the desert

What we’re looking for

2+ years shipping real embedded systems (aerospace, robotics, automotive, defense, or similarly high-reliability domains)

Strong C/C++ fundamentals and comfort working close to hardware

Experience with RTOS or bare-metal firmware, interrupts, timing, and deterministic systems

Experience with common embedded interfaces and protocols (SPI, I2C, UART, CAN, Ethernet)

Strong debugging skills using scopes, logic analyzers, JTAG, and real-world fault reproduction

Comfort moving fast, owning outcomes, and troubleshooting in the field

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

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.

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.