{"id":2656266,"url":"https://alion.io/job/icarus-airspace-range-lead","title":"Airspace & Range Lead","company":{"id":678654,"name":"Icarus","domain":"icarus.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/icarus-3","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"D","score":54,"open_postings":22,"ghost_share":0.773,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-10-16T05:45:00Z"}},"role":"Operations","role_family":"Operations","seniority":"lead","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["El Segundo, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":150000,"max":185000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":185000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":4,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-15T20:05:34Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-15","last_verified_at":"2026-10-16T15:36:54Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":0,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":["company_stale"],"days_open":0},"description":"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.\nThe Flight Operations Generalist is the person who takes our aircraft from the hangar to the sky and back. You set up the test site, prepare the aircraft, run preflight, operate it in flight, and troubleshoot whatever comes up, all under the direction of our engineers. When Icarus goes to the field, you are the center of the operation.\nMission\nRe-establish and maintain dominance in the Stratosphere.\nWhat you’ll do\nFind the airspace\nScout and evaluate test ranges, restricted areas, MOAs, and launch and recovery sites that fit the aircraft's flight profile, from the ground to the stratosphere\nBuild working relationships with DoW ranges, range safety offices, FAA facilities and ARTCCs, and airport operators\nMap the regulatory path for every new location and flight profile, and know what it will take and how long\nGet us approved\nOwn FAA and DoW flight authorizations end to end: Certificates of Waiver or Authorization, Airworthiness Releases, waivers, exemptions, letters of agreement, altitude reservations, and range-specific approvals\nTurn engineering material (aircraft performance, C2 link and lost-link behavior, flight termination, airworthiness and safety data) into complete, defensible application packages\nWork directly with the FAA, range safety, and military airspace authorities to answer questions, close gaps, and get to yes\nBe the connective tissue between engineering, flight ops, and regulators, so nothing goes to a regulator that engineering can't back up\nSchedule the sky\nBook range space and airspace in line with the company build and flight schedule, and replan fast when the schedule moves\nDrive NOTAMs, range briefings, and pre-mission coordination so every flight day starts fully approved\nTrack every active authorization, its conditions, and its expiration, and make sure the flight crew operates inside it\nExercises and operational employment\nSupport exercise planning at high-profile multinational military exercises, from airspace requests to getting the aircraft into the exercise air plan\nWork alongside military planners, airspace control authorities, and allied partners to integrate an unmanned, high-altitude aircraft into crowded military airspace\nSpearhead compliance as the aircraft transitions to operational employment in active conflict areas, and build the process for theater airspace integration and military flight clearances\nDocument and improve\nBuild the playbook: templates, checklists, and a library of approved packages that make every new approval faster than the last\nCapture lessons from every range, regulator, and exercise and feed them back to engineering and flight ops\nWhat we’re looking for\n4+ years of hands-on experience in airspace management, UAS flight operations, range operations, or aviation regulatory compliance, including equivalent military experience as an air traffic controller, airspace manager, JTAC, Combat Controller, or UAS operator\nWorking knowledge of the National Airspace System, airspace classes, special use and restricted airspace, and how the FAA authorizes unmanned aircraft beyond Part 107 (COAs, waivers, exemptions)\nTrack record of building authorization or approval packages from technical material and getting them approved\nUnderstanding of military airspace, range scheduling, and exercise planning, including airspace control measures and the air tasking cycle\nAbility to read engineering data and ask the right questions of the engineers who wrote it\nAbility to run multiple ranges, regulators, and timelines against a moving flight schedule without dropping anything\nU.S. person, eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. Secret security clearance\nWillingness to travel frequently to test ranges and exercise locations\nStrong communicator, non-negotiable\nHigh trust, extreme ownership, no ego\nBonus\nFAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate or a manned pilot certificate\nExperience with high-altitude, long-endurance, or balloon flight operations, including altitude reservations and operations in Class A airspace and above\nPlanning experience at major multinational exercises (RIMPAC, Talisman Sabre, Balikatan, or similar) or time in an air operations center or airspace control cell\nDeployed experience integrating UAS into theater airspace\nActive Secret or Top Secret clearance\nPrior aerospace startup or other hardware experience, time spent building while procedures are still being written\nWhy Icarus\nMeaningful equity\nTop market salary and bonuses\nHealth, dental, and vision insurance\nFactory in El Segundo\nReal ownership, real hardware, real flight\nSmall team, massive responsibility\nHigh signal (engineering) to noise (management) culture\nDream desk setup\nDaily lunch\nUnlimited Celsius\nThis is not a normal compliance job\nWe 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\nYou will work side by side with flight crews and engineers, not behind a wall from them. You will own the airspace end to end. Find it. Package it. Get it approved. Book it. Fly in it. Then do it again at the next range, faster\nWe expect full extreme ownership. This is a high-trust, no-BS team, and everyone pulls their weight, especially in the field\nWe want operators, not bureaucrats. No paperwork for its own sake. No filing a package and waiting by the phone. No sitting in meetings all day. Just real approvals that put real aircraft in real airspace\nYou must thrive under pressure, learn fast, and produce in the field. We move fast. We go to Mojave at 4 am in the morning. We expect results and an obsession with quality and speed\nYou will be the person who opens the sky for Icarus. If you want to win the approval that puts our aircraft at 65,000 ft over a major exercise, and then into the hands of Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen, this is it.\nNo tourists. No bystanders. Only builders.\nHiring process\nPhone screen\nAirspace and range planning assessment\nMeet the flight and engineering team in-person\nMeet the CE\nUS salary range\n$150,000- $185,000 USD\nThe 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.\nWe’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.","description_format":"text","description_chars":7038,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":4,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Vision insurance"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Defense Manufacturing"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-15T22:58:40Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":60,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.602,"p_room":1,"age_days":0,"expected_fill_days":24,"reasons":["conf:3","stale_co","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-10-16T05:45:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":185000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/icarus-airspace-range-lead","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/icarus-airspace-range-lead.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-16T19:31:30Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":5175,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-17T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":678654},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=678654"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Ficarus-airspace-range-lead"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Ficarus-airspace-range-lead"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Ficarus-airspace-range-lead"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/icarus-airspace-range-lead\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Ficarus-airspace-range-lead"}]}