Head of Operations

Icarus•El Segundo, CA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Icarus is seeking a Head of Operations to transform a rapidly growing aerospace startup into a world-class hardware company. This pivotal role involves working directly with the CEO to establish the company's operational framework, encompassing people, facilities, manufacturing, supply chain, finance, legal, recruiting, business rhythm, and internal scaling systems. The position is described as a 'wartime operations role' requiring the individual to proactively remove obstacles, bring order to complex situations, and enhance the overall speed and efficiency of the team. The Head of Operations will collaborate across various departments including the factory floor, leadership team, engineering, manufacturing, finance, government programs, and recruiting. This role offers a growth path towards Chief Operating Officer.

Requirements

Elite operator with a proven ability to get things done.
Organized, intense, low-ego, and allergic to bureaucracy.
Ability to operate at both strategic (60,000 feet) and tactical (factory floor) levels.
Capacity to build systems without impeding company speed.
Comfort working directly with the CEO and senior technical leaders.
Ability to manage chaos, make decisions with incomplete information, and create clarity for the team.
Extremely high ownership: proactively identify and fix broken processes, clarify ambiguity, and accelerate slow progress.
Self-starter who can find problems, create plans, and drive them to completion without constant supervision.
Thrive under pressure, learn fast, solve problems across functions, and push the company to operate at a higher level weekly.
Obsession with quality and speed.

Nice To Haves

Prior experience in startups, aerospace, defense, manufacturing, hardware, operations, consulting, finance, or military leadership.

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 the 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.