Software Engineer

You should apply if you

• Can write legible, maintainable, and performant code.
• Communicate well in English, both verbally and in writing.
• Enjoy collaborating with others, including reviewing code and pair programming.
• Are comfortable working asynchronously (writing PRs and RFCs, having discussions by email).
• Have backend development experience, ideally with a language like Rust, Java, Go, or C++.
• Are familiar with backend interface tools like REST, GraphQL, gRPC/Protocol Buffers, and Arrow.
• Strive to improve yourself, your peers, and the culture you work in over time.
• Feel like ethical considerations are an inherent part of engineering.

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

• Rust and Python specifically.
• Container-based and cloud-native application architectures (e.g., Docker, Azure, AWS).
• Metrics tooling (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK).
• SQL and streaming database systems.
• Routing protocols (e.g., IGP, BGP).
• Cryptographic protocols (e.g., Signal, WireGuard).
• Hardware interfaces (e.g., Arduino).
• Robotics (e.g., control systems).
• Production ML systems.

Helsing is a defence AI company with a mission to protect our democracies. We believe we have a responsibility to be thoughtful about the development and deployment of powerful technologies like AI, and take this responsibility seriously. We are looking for mission-driven people to join our European teams and apply their skills to solve highly complex and impactful problems.

At Helsing we develop and deliver AI-based capabilities and infrastructure that allow semi-autonomous platforms to localise, navigate, and perceive the world in real-time. Our software is subject to significant and unorthodox technical constraints, and since what we build ultimately ends up in the hands of real people in high-risk, high-stress situations, it must be reliable and frictionless. We use Rust and Python, with Rust being used for anything production-adjacent due to the high stakes for correctness. Python is used mainly for AI model development and exploration, though we’re adopting Rust there too Our work covers a wide variety of engineering disciplines:

• Distributed systems (eg, partitions and byzantine actors)
• Embedded computing (eg, resource-constraints and reverse-engineering)
• Robotics (eg, control and tasking)
• Networking (eg, low-bandwidth radios and routing)
• Deployment infrastructure (eg, air-gaps and heterogenous fleets)
• Security (eg, untrusted networks and actually-secret data)
• Machine learning (eg, model execution and dissemination)

We also have “Deployed Engineers” who focus on integrating and field-testing novel capabilities. They live where software meets the real world, like the depths of aircraft control systems, embrace the complexity of unfamiliar (or undocumented) APIs or protocols, and use their creativity and ingenuity to make Helsing’s technology work where the customer needs it to.

Experience-wise, we are seeking mid-level and senior engineers (we will be opening more positions for junior profiles soon). Helsing does not have visible level titles, and it's difficult to divide experience into distinct bands, but we roughly have:

• Junior: executes, or learning to execute, smaller tasks independently; curious and eager to learn; proactively validates work with others and absorbs feedback.
• Mid-level: executes tasks 1-2 months in length independently; understands and accounts for the non-technical context of their work; has impact beyond their immediate team.
• Senior: executes independently while maximising value delivered over cost incurred; not limited by team boundaries; key contributor to technology that enables Helsing’s overall success; at the top end: shapes Helsing’s technology investments and strategy.

ESTIMATED COMPENSATION:

Depends on experience and skill, but roughly:

Junior: €50-120k plus stock options of estimated value approximately equal to 50% of that salary.

Mid-level: €110-140k plus stock options of estimated value approximately equal to salary.

Senior: €130-220k plus significant stock option grant.

,[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. ] Requirements: Algorithms, Python, Rust, Python, Nix, React Additionally: Flat structure, International projects, Small teams, Modern office, Startup atmosphere, No dress code, In-house trainings, Free beverages.

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