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Salary: USD 120,000 - 220,000 / annual
Icarus is building solar-powered aircraft that operate at 60,000 feet for weeks at a time, establishing persistent presence in the stratosphere. As Senior Aerodynamics Engineer, you will own end-to-end external aerodynamics CFD work, from geometry preparation and meshing through solver setup, convergence, and post-processing in STAR-CCM+. You'll build and maintain automated simulation workflows using Java macros, Python, and STAR-CCM+ APIs, then deploy and scale these workflows on AWS infrastructure. You'll design aerodynamic geometry in CATIA, post-process and visualize results, and communicate trade-offs and confidence levels to airframe and guidance/navigation/control teams.
This is a hands-on role requiring 2-3+ years of experience building automated CFD workflows in STAR-CCM+ and running CFD at scale on AWS or comparable cloud/HPC environments. You need strong fundamentals in fluid dynamics, turbulence modeling (RANS, DES/LES), and boundary layer physics, plus proficiency in CATIA for complex aerodynamic geometry. A bachelor's degree in aerospace or mechanical engineering and excellent understanding of fixed-wing flight mechanics are required.
Icarus operates as a high-signal engineering culture with minimal management overhead. You'll work directly with the CEO and a small team of world-class builders, owning your subsystem end-to-end: design it, build it, break it, fix it, validate it in the desert, fly it, then iterate faster. The company expects extreme ownership, fast learning, field troubleshooting, and pushing hardware to its limits. You'll be a core executor of flight systems from concept to reality, working across design, integration, testing, and flight operations. The team moves fast—expect early-morning trips to Mojave for testing and validation. This role is for builders who thrive under pressure and are obsessed with quality and speed.
