Deployed AI Engineer

Who we are

Helsing is a defence AI company. Our mission is to protect our democracies. We aim to achieve technological leadership, so that open societies can continue to make sovereign decisions and control their ethical standards.

As democracies, we believe we have a special responsibility to be thoughtful about the development and deployment of powerful technologies like AI. We take this responsibility seriously.

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

Software only matters when it is actively being used and making a difference. As a Deployed AI Engineer, you will be at the heart of this - taking state-of-the-art software and integrating it into complex systems. You will be defining and executing against the end-to-end outcome and all steps on the way to delivering novel capabilities in some of the most challenging environments around.

For example: you collaborate directly with customer avionics engineers to understand the data structures and APIs used in aircraft mission control systems. Instead of being scared, you embrace the complexity of unfamiliar databases, APIs, or network protocols; you dig into the specification and use your creativity and ingenuity to implement adapters for integrating them with Helsing’s cloud infrastructure. By working closely with our partners and customers (both metaphorically and quite literally), you continuously evolve, improve, and operate Helsing software. You own the outcome end-to-end.

The day-to-day

In close collaboration with our product teams, you will discover and formalise customer requirements, identify bugs, and ship the latest features directly to our users. Technology demonstrations are our chance to shine - you will coordinate between customers, partners, and Helsing engineers to showcase Helsing’s software and AI capabilities in simulations or with real systems.

You should apply if you

• Have a degree in computer science, software engineering, electrical engineering, or other relevant fields.
• Have a broad understanding and creative use of computer systems; this is the Swiss army knife in Helsing’s toolbox of world-class talent.
• Prefer asking questions over stipulating answers.
• Love figuring things out, digging deeper and deeper into unfamiliar systems until it finally clicks, and you understand how they work.
• Are not afraid of legacy systems and would rather make them work than give up and try to rewrite it all.
• Are comfortable with scripting languages such as Bash or Python and have experience with software engineering in C++, Java, Rust, or similar.
• Can navigate and configure Linux systems and have an understanding of network stacks and database systems.
• If applying for Germany- it is a requirement that you are able to speak business level or fluent German

Note: We operate at an intersection 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

• Experience with Rust and Python.
• Experience with container-based, cloud-native and edge application architectures.
• Experience with maintaining and operating production systems using Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, or similar.
• Experience with SQL, NoSQL, and streaming database systems.
• Experience with production ML systems.
• Bonus points: you have professional experience working in a defence context.

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

• A focus on outcomes, not time-tracking
• Competitive compensation and VSOP options
• Relocation support
• Social and education allowances
• Regular company events and all-hands to bring together employees as one team across Europe
• A hands-on onboarding program (affectionately labelled “Infraduction”), in which you will be building tooling and applications to be used across the company. This is your opportunity to learn our tech stack, explore the company, and learn how we get things done - all whilst working with other engineering teams from day one

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 .