Senior Operational Architect/Analyst (UCAV)

We are an ambitious and committed team of engineers, AI specialists and customer-facing programme managers. We are looking for mission-driven people to join our European teams – and apply their skills to solve the most complex and impactful problems. We embrace an open and transparent culture that welcomes healthy debates on the use of technology in defence, its benefits, and its ethical implications.

The role

As Senior Operational Architect/Analyst for our Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) programme, you will define how the system operates and show that it works. You will shape the operational weapon system architecture, from the Concept of Operations (ConOps) to the scenarios that test it. You will oversee simulation studies and use operations research methods to turn the results into clear evidence for engineers, programme managers and customers. Your work will set the operational requirements the UCAV is built against and ensure they reflect the needs of European NATO nations. You will connect military users with technical teams.

The day-to-day

• Write and maintain the UCAV Concept of Operations (ConOps), so that every design decision traces back to a documented operational need
• Define the operational weapon system architecture and present the trade-offs between capability, cost and risk to engineering teams and customers
• Build and validate mission scenarios that reflect realistic European NATO operations, and keep them as the shared baseline for all operational analysis
• Oversee and evaluate operational analysis simulation studies, applying operations research methods, and report findings that shape requirements and design priorities
• Translate the typical requirements of European NATO countries into traceable, testable system requirements, and brief customers and internal teams on the results

You should apply if you

• Have created operational weapon system architectures and ConOps documents that shaped a real system
• Have designed operational scenarios and supervised simulation studies, and can show how the results changed decisions
• Have carried out operational analysis and applied operations research methods, such as modelling, optimisation and statistical analysis, to Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles or comparable combat air systems
• Have served in a NATO military and understand how European NATO countries define and prioritise requirements
• Explain complex analysis clearly to military users, engineers and senior decision-makers

Note: We operate in an industry where women, as well as other minority groups, are systematically under-represented. We encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet all the listed qualifications; ability and impact cannot be summarised in a few bullet points.

Nice to Have

• Have worked with national procurement bodies or contributed to multinational NATO requirements processes
• Have applied AI or autonomy-enabled methods to operational analysis, such as automated scenario generation or large-scale simulation

Join Helsing and work with world-leading experts in their fields

• Helsing’s work is important. You’ll be directly contributing to the protection of democratic countries while balancing both ethical and geopolitical concerns
• The work is unique. We operate in a domain that has highly unusual technical requirements and constraints, and where robustness, safety, and ethical considerations are vital. You will face unique Engineering and AI challenges that make a meaningful impact in the world
• Our work frequently takes us right up to the state of the art in technical innovation, be it reinforcement learning, distributed systems, generative AI, or deployment infrastructure. The defence industry is entering the most exciting phase of the technological development curve. Advances in our field of world are not incremental: Helsing is part of, and often leading, historic leaps forward
• In our domain, success is a matter of order-of-magnitude improvements and novel capabilities. This means we take bets, aim high, and focus on big opportunities. Despite being a relatively young company, Helsing has already been selected for multiple significant government contracts
• We actively encourage healthy, proactive, and diverse debate internally about what we do and how we choose to do it. Teams and individual engineers are trusted (and encouraged) to practise responsible autonomy and critical thinking, and to focus on outcomes, not conformity. At Helsing you will have a say in how we (and you!) work, the opportunity to engage on what does and doesn’t work, and to take ownership of aspects of our culture that you care deeply about

What we offer

• Competitive salary and VSOP options
• Relocation support : up to €2,500 and 4 weeks temporary accommodation
• Learning : €500/£450 yearly allowance
• Health & wellness : gym membership and mental health support (Nilo.health)
• Social : regularly company events and monthly social allowances
• Enhanced parental leave : 22 weeks fully paid for primary caregivers & 6 weeks for secondary caregivers.
• Family support: 5 days of paid family emergency leave, 100% remote work option during pregnancy and phased return to work

These are the core benefits across all locations, there may be additional benefits in certain locations.

Helsing is an equal opportunities employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability or gender identity. Please do not submit personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, data concerning your health, or data concerning your sexual orientation.

Helsing's Candidate Privacy and Confidentiality Regime can be found here .

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Source: Statistisches Bundesamt (Destatis), table; dl-de/by-2-0; StarIn's calculation