Head of people

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.

Head of People

This is for exceptional candidates only. You will be the first HR hire at a ~50-person defense tech company, joining a People team of one (our Founding Recruiter). You will build HR at Icarus from zero: the systems, the policies, the compliance, and the culture that let engineers build and fly.

What you’ll own

• HR infrastructure: select and run the HRIS, payroll, and benefits stack; own open enrollment and broker/PEO relationships.
• Compliance: California and federal employment law, multi-state compliance as we hire outside CA, I-9/E-Verify, and wage-and-hour (exempt vs. non-exempt, overtime, meal and rest breaks for factory and field teams).
• Defense requirements: partner with security and legal on ITAR/export-control hiring checks, security clearance processes, and government contract labor requirements.
• Onboarding and offboarding: a fast, repeatable process from signed offer to first flight.
• Employee relations: be the trusted, discreet point of contact for concerns, investigations, and hard conversations.
• Compensation and equity: build leveling, salary bands, and an equity grant framework with the CEO & Recruiter.
• Performance and growth: lightweight review cycles and feedback that engineers actually value.
• Policy: a lean handbook, leave, PTO, travel, and safety policies that hold up legally and fit how we work.
• Scale: partner with our Founding Recruiter to grow from ~50 to 200+ people without losing the culture.

What we’re looking for

• 6+ years of HR experience, including at least 2 years as the first or sole HR leader at a startup.
• Deep working knowledge of California employment law and wage-and-hour rules.
• Experience supporting hourly manufacturing, technician, or field teams alongside salaried employees.
• Experience at a hardware, aerospace, or defense company. Familiarity with ITAR, export controls, or security clearance processes.
• Sound judgment and discretion handling sensitive employee relations issues and investigations.
• Hands-on and operational. You will run payroll and fix the spreadsheet yourself.
• Comfortable working directly with a CEO and moving at startup speed.
• Able to work on-site in El Segundo, 5 days a week.
• Must be a U.S. person as defined by ITAR.

Bonus

• Built HR from scratch before: HRIS, payroll, benefits, handbook, and core processes.
• Experience scaling a company from ~50 to 200+ people.
• Experience with government contracts, FAR/DFARS labor requirements, or affirmative action plans.

Why Icarus

• 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.

This is not a normal HR job. We are pioneers, not corporate managers. HR here exists to help engineers build, test, and fly. Not to add process and politics.

You will work side by side with the CEO and our Founding Recruiter. You own HR end to end, from strategy to the paperwork.

We expect full extreme ownership. There is no HR team behind you. You are the team, and you will build it.

You will cover the full stack: compliance, payroll and benefits, onboarding, employee relations, performance, compensation, and policy.

We want builders. No hand-holding. No fluff. No 40-page handbooks nobody reads. Lightweight systems that work at 50 people and scale to 200+.

You must thrive under pressure, learn fast, and make sound calls with incomplete information.

You will be a core operator of the company, taking People operations from concept to reality and iterating fast as we scale.

No tourists. No bystanders. Only builders.

Hiring process

• Interview with our Founding Recruiter.
• One-on-one with CEO.
• Meet the team in-person.

US salary range

$175,000 - $250,000 USD. The 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.

We’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.