Forward Deployed 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.

Levels

We are hiring at Level I, Level II, and Level III through this posting. Your level will be determined during the interview process based on your technical skills, relevant experience, and demonstrated scope of ownership.

What you’ll do

- Deploy forward with our aircraft and ground systems to test ranges, airfields, and customer environments, and own getting them set up and operational.

- Provide end-to-end field support: system setup, software and hardware configuration, integration with site infrastructure, and pre-deployment checkout.

- Troubleshoot hardware, software, and networking issues in real time, in unstructured environments, and drive them to resolution.

- Execute flight tests, demonstrations, and exercises in the field, with responsibility for planning and leading full campaigns increasing with level.

- Train and guide operators and customers on how to run our systems and get the most out of them.

- Be the link between the field and engineering: capture flight data, ground truth, and operator feedback, run incident reviews, and feed clear, specific recommendations back into the product.

- Maintain and improve deployment documentation, procedures, runbooks, and standards that keep our aircraft flying for weeks at a time. At higher levels, help build and grow the forward-deployed team.

- Work closely with mechanical, GNC, RF, and software teams.

What we’re looking for

- 2+ years supporting, deploying, or operating real hardware systems in the field (aerospace, defense, robotics, autonomy, or hardware startups).

- Strong hands-on troubleshooting across hardware, software, and networking. You're comfortable with tools, cables, configs, and the command line, and you stay calm when something breaks far from home.

- Practical technical range over deep specialization: comfortable with networking fundamentals and software/hardware setup and configuration. You don't need to be the deepest engineer in any one discipline — you need to make the whole system work in the field, and help others do the same.

- A track record of operating independently in ambiguous, high-pressure environments, and of bringing structure where there was none.

- Strong communication skills. You can work with engineers, operators, and customers, and translate between them.

- Willingness to travel frequently and operate out of test ranges, airfields, and remote locations for extended periods.