Founding Recruiter

Icarus•El Segundo, CA

2d•$130,000 - $170,000•Onsite

About The Position

Icarus builds solar-powered aircraft that fly at 60,000 feet for weeks at a time, providing persistent, affordable, and scalable presence in the stratosphere. The Founding Recruiter will help bring exceptional engineers, technicians, and operators to the company and will own recruiting from initial outreach through signed offer. Working directly with the CEO and hiring managers, this person will identify talent, build candidate interest, and develop recruiting systems while remaining hands-on in searches. The role covers recruiting across engineering, manufacturing, flight operations, and business. It includes sourcing, screening, interview coordination, offer management, candidate closing, recruiting operations, and tracking hiring results. The recruiter will also turn the work taking place in Icarus’s factory and field into compelling job descriptions, outreach, and candidate conversations. The role is based at Icarus’s El Segundo factory and requires working there five days a week. The stated U.S. salary range is $130,000–$170,000, with meaningful equity and bonuses also mentioned. The company describes its culture as a small team with substantial responsibility and an engineering-focused, high-signal environment.

Requirements

At least 3 years of recruiting experience, with a record of sourcing and closing difficult technical roles.
Experience recruiting for hardware, aerospace, defense, robotics, manufacturing, or another technically demanding environment.
Strong sourcing instincts and the ability to find candidates beyond obvious companies and keywords.
Technical curiosity sufficient to understand what candidates have built and why their experience matters.
Clear writing, strong judgment, and the ability to earn trust with candidates and demanding hiring managers.
Ability to manage multiple searches and changing priorities while keeping commitments.
Personal ownership of outcomes, including following through, spotting problems early, and improving what is not working.
Ability to work at the El Segundo factory five days a week.

Nice To Haves

Experience building recruiting at an early-stage company.
Experience hiring across mechanical, electrical, embedded software, RF, GNC, or flight test disciplines.
Strong networks in aerospace, defense, or hardware.
Experience creating referral programs, university relationships, or technical events that produced exceptional hires.

Responsibilities

Own recruiting from start to finish, including sourcing, screening, interview coordination, offer management, and closing candidates across engineering, manufacturing, flight operations, and business.
Build targeted talent maps and source candidates through thoughtful outreach, referrals, technical communities, and creative research.
Partner with hiring managers to translate technical needs into role requirements, interview plans, and evidence of candidate success.
Build candidate relationships by learning candidates’ motivations, communicating clearly, and explaining the mission, work, and expectations.
Work with leadership on offers, address candidate concerns early, and guide candidates through decisions and relocation.
Maintain accurate recruiting information in Greenhouse, keep interviews moving, and ensure feedback is timely.
Build practical recruiting systems that save the team time.
Track sourcing effectiveness, interview conversion, offer acceptance, and time to hire; identify and address bottlenecks.
Develop compelling job descriptions, outreach, and candidate conversations based on work in the factory and the field.