{"id":991924,"url":"https://alion.io/job/icarus-com-flight-operations-crew-chief","title":"Flight Operations Crew Chief","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":"2026-10-12T06:55:09Z"}},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"head","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":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":167000,"max_usd":316000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":549},"experience_years_min":3,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"Linux","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-06-30T16:13:09Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-16","last_verified_at":"2026-10-12T08:35:14Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":103,"trust":{"level":"ghost","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale","company_stale"],"days_open":103},"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 Crew Chief owns aircraft readiness. You assemble, prepare, inspect, and maintain our aircraft so they are safe and ready every time they go to the line. You are the person the team trusts to say the aircraft is ready to fly. When something is wrong with the airframe, you are the one who finds it and fixes it.\nMission\nRe-establish and maintain dominance in the Stratosphere.\nWhat you’ll do\nPrepare the aircraft\nAssemble, configure, and prepare aircraft for flight, including mechanical assembly, avionics connections, and payload setup.\nRun preflight inspections and checklists, and make the call on aircraft readiness.\nSet up and verify ground support equipment, power, and the physical test site.\nOwn the configuration and condition of the aircraft from the hangar to the line.\nMaintain and troubleshoot\nDiagnose and fix mechanical, electrical, and software issues on the aircraft in the field and in the hangar.\nPerform scheduled and unscheduled maintenance, repairs, and replacements.\nRefurbish and reset the aircraft between flights and prepare it for the next sortie.\nMaintain positive control of tools and hardware to keep the aircraft safe.\nFollow directions and intent from engineering personnel to make required adjustments on the fly.\nDocument and improve\nKeep accurate maintenance records, squawks, and configuration logs.\nFeed findings back to engineering to drive the next iteration of the aircraft.\nBuild and improve the standard operating procedures that make aircraft readiness repeatable and safe.\nWhat we’re looking for\n3+ years of hands-on aircraft, UAS, or RC maintenance experience, or equivalent military experience as a maintainer or crew chief.\nHolds or willing to quickly obtain FAA Part 107 certification.\nDemonstrated ability to assemble, inspect, maintain, and sign off on an aircraft's readiness.\nStrong hands-on troubleshooting across mechanical, electrical, and software systems.\nDisciplined approach to checklists, documentation, and configuration control.\nSound judgment on airworthiness and a willingness to ground an aircraft that is not ready.\nComfort taking direction from engineers and translating it into a flight-ready aircraft.\nWillingness to travel frequently to remote test sites across the world.\nStrong communicator, non-negotiable.\nHigh trust, extreme ownership, no ego.\nBonus\nFAA Airframe and Powerplant license or military aviation maintenance background.\nFamiliarity with the Linux command line for debugging and troubleshooting.\nExperience with developmental flight test or build-up test programs.\nBackground building RC or UAS aircraft (SAE Aero, Design Build Fly, or serious hobbyist).\nAviation-adjacent military specialty with \"air sense\" (JTAC, CCT, etc).\nExperience operating in austere or remote field environments.\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 flight ops 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 engineers, not behind a wall from them. You will own aircraft readiness end to end. Build it up. Inspect it. Fix it. Hand it off ready to fly.\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 bystanders. No fake projects. No watching others work. Just real aircraft, real test sites, and real flight.\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 the team trusts to say the aircraft is ready. If you want the thing you prepared to climb to 60,000 ft and come home, this is it.\nNo tourists. No bystanders. Only builders.\nHiring process\nPhone screen\nHands-on readiness and troubleshooting assessment\nMeet the flight and engineering team in-person\nUS salary range\n$90,000 - $150,000 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":5239,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":3,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Vision insurance"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Air Transport","Commercial Aviation"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-17T03:32:58Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":8,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.279,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":103,"expected_fill_days":25,"reasons":["conf:3","stale_co","ghost","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-12T06:55:09Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/icarus-com-flight-operations-crew-chief","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/icarus-com-flight-operations-crew-chief.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-12T13:49:40Z","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":21724,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-13T00:00:00Z"}},"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-com-flight-operations-crew-chief"},{"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-com-flight-operations-crew-chief"},{"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-com-flight-operations-crew-chief"},{"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-com-flight-operations-crew-chief\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Ficarus-com-flight-operations-crew-chief"}]}