Head of Operations

Head of Operations

About the role

Icarus is a fast-moving aerospace startup aiming to reclaim the Stratosphere, building solar-powered aircraft that fly at 60,000 ft for weeks at a time. The Head of Operations will play a crucial role in scaling the company from a small team to a category-defining aerospace entity.

Responsibilities

• Own company operations across facilities, people operations, recruiting operations, vendor management, procurement, finance/admin workflows, legal coordination, and internal systems.
• Build the operating cadence of the company: weekly leadership meetings, department rhythms, KPI tracking, company goals, hiring plans, project follow-through, and accountability loops.
• Help scale our El Segundo factory into a high-output aerospace manufacturing and flight-test operation.
• Partner with engineering and manufacturing leads to remove blockers, improve throughput, tighten execution, and keep the team focused on the highest-priority work.
• Build lightweight systems for onboarding, purchasing, inventory, facilities, documentation, compliance, security, IT, and internal communication.
• Drive special projects for the CEO, especially cross-functional projects that do not fit neatly into one department but are critical to the company.
• Help prepare the company for the next stage of growth, including larger facilities, more complex programs, more hires, more customers, and higher operational intensity.

Qualifications

• You are an elite operator who gets things done.
• You are organized, intense, low-ego, and allergic to bureaucracy.
• You can operate at 60,000 feet and on the factory floor in the same day.
• You can build systems without slowing the company down.
• You are comfortable working directly with the CEO and senior technical leaders.
• You can manage chaos, make decisions with incomplete information, and create clarity for the team.
• You have extremely high ownership. When something is broken, you fix it. When something is unclear, you clarify it. When something is moving too slowly, you accelerate it.
• You do not need hand-holding. You find the problem, create the plan, and drive it to completion.

Benefits

• A lot of 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 (but growing very fast)
• High signal (engineering) to noise (management) culture
• Dream desk setup
• Daily lunch
• Unlimited celsius

Pay

US salary range: $150,000 - $500,000 USD

Schedule

Flexible schedule to accommodate the unique demands of aerospace operations.