{"id":806392,"url":"https://alion.io/job/icarus-flight-operations-generalist","title":"Flight Operations Generalist","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":"Operations","role_family":"Operations","seniority":"middle","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":90000,"max":160000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":160000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":3,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"Linux","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-06-30T16:01:11Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-07-30","last_verified_at":"2026-10-12T15:18:56Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":104,"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 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\nSet up the site and the aircraft\nStand up the test site: ground control station, comms, power, ground support equipment, and safety setup.\nAssemble, configure, and prepare aircraft for flight, including mechanical, electrical, and payload setup.\nRun preflight inspections and checklists, and own aircraft readiness.\nConfigure and verify the ground control station, telemetry links, and mission plan before every flight.\nAct as connective tissue between engineers and the products they've built as they fly.\nFly\nOperate the aircraft in flight from the ground control station, executing the test plan under the direction of engineers.\nMonitor telemetry and aircraft health in real time and respond to anomalies in the moment.\nAct as the calm, decisive voice on the sticks when something goes wrong in the air.\nRun launch and recovery, including any non-traditional takeoff and landing configurations.\nTroubleshoot and turn around\nDiagnose and fix mechanical, electrical, and software issues in the field to keep the test campaign moving.\nRefurbish and reset the aircraft between flights and prepare it for the next sortie.\nCapture flight logs, write up what happened, and feed it back to engineering to drive the next iteration.\nMaintain positive control of tools and hardware to keep the aircraft safe.\nIn the field\nBuild and improve the standard operating procedures that make our flight operations repeatable and safe.\nSolve novel problems without hesitation.\nWhat we’re looking for\n3+ years of hands-on UAS, RC, or aircraft operations experience, or equivalent military experience as a UAV operator, maintainer, or crew chief.\nDemonstrated ability to set up, preflight, operate, and recover an unmanned aircraft.\nStrong hands-on troubleshooting across mechanical, electrical, and software systems.\nComfort with ground control station software.\nFamiliarity with the Linux command line for debugging and troubleshooting.\nCalm, decisive judgment under pressure, especially with an aircraft in the air.\nComfort taking direction from engineers and translating it into safe flight operations.\nWillingness to travel to remote test sites and work long, physical days outdoors.\nStrong communicator, non-negotiable.\nHigh trust, extreme ownership, no ego.\nBonus\nFAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate.\nExperience with developmental flight test, first-flight events, or build-up test programs.\nBackground building RC or UAS aircraft (SAE Aero, Design Build Fly, or serious hobbyist).\nFAA Airframe and Powerplant license or military aviation maintenance background.\nExperience operating in austere or remote field environments.\nAviation-adjacent military specialty with \"air sense\" (JTAC, CCT, etc).\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 the aircraft in the field end to end. Set it up. Preflight it. Fly it. Fix it. Fly it again.\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 simulators standing in for the real thing. No watching others fly. 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 who puts our aircraft in the sky. If you want to be on the sticks when the thing you prepared climbs to 60,000 ft, this is it.\nNo tourists. No bystanders. Only builders.\nHiring process\nPhone screen\nHands-on operations and troubleshooting assessment\nMeet the flight and engineering team in-person\nUS salary range\n$90,000 - $160,000 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":5577,"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":"2026-09-12T09:29:28Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":5,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.186,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":103,"expected_fill_days":19,"reasons":["conf:3","stale_co","ghost","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-12T06:55:09Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":160000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/icarus-flight-operations-generalist","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/icarus-flight-operations-generalist.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-12T16:49:50Z","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":26793,"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-flight-operations-generalist"},{"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-flight-operations-generalist"},{"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-flight-operations-generalist"},{"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-flight-operations-generalist\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Ficarus-flight-operations-generalist"}]}