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

At Helsing, we develop the AI-based capabilities and underlying infrastructure that allow systems to operate reliably in highly constrained, complex environments.

You will contribute directly to these impactful projects by writing code and testing it on hardware, collaborating closely with people across several teams and backgrounds.

Embracing the complexity of unfamiliar systems and unorthodox constraints, you will help integrate state-of-the-art AI into real-world applications. Ultimately, you will support Helsing engineers in preparing and deploying our software and AI capabilities to be showcased in simulations or on real edge systems.

You should apply if you

You are currently enrolled in a Master’s program in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Robotics, or a related field (e.g., at TUM, LMU, or a similar university) and are eligible to work as a working student, based in Munich.

You possess solid programming skills in Rust, C++, Python or Java, and you strive to write clean, well-structured code.

You communicate clearly and efficiently in English (and German), and you enjoy collaborating with others through code reviews, pair programming, and asynchronous discussions.

You love figuring things out. You are the type of person who digs deeper into unfamiliar systems until it finally clicks, you aren't afraid of legacy code, and you prefer asking questions over stipulating answers.

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

You have experience building or evaluating AI-based systems, and you are passionate about keeping up to date with current research.

You enjoy the idea of getting your hands dirty by testing combined software and hardware products end-to-end.

You are comfortable navigating and configuring Linux systems, utilizing scripting languages and have a foundational understanding of backend concepts (such as network stacks, databases, or interfaces like REST/gRPC).

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

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

The chance to work on exciting, fast-moving projects with other talented researchers and engineers

Lots of growth opportunities, multi-disciplinary, a high degree of ownership; of products, of processes, of results.

Work on new problems, pushing the edge of what is possible

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.