Quality Assurance Engineer - Development

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

As a Quality Assurance Engineer – Development, you will play a central role in both maintaining our Quality Management System and ensuring quality assurance is embedded throughout the development lifecycle of our projects. Working within the Quality System & Development Assurance team, you will operate across two closely related areas: supporting the ongoing operation and improvement of our QMS in line with EN 9100 and AQAP standards, and acting as responsible Quality Assurance Engineer on software-intensive programmes.

You will set priorities, make decisions, and take initiative to drive forward your workstreams. You will work directly with project teams, process owners, and external stakeholders, requiring you to communicate with precision and confidence in both English and German. You will be expected to navigate complex contractual and regulatory quality requirements, translate them into practical quality plans, and ensure compliant execution throughout the project lifecycle.

The day-to-day

• Maintain and continuously improve the QMS to meet EN 9100 (incl. ISO 9001) and AQAP standards - working with process owners across the organisation to ensure the system remains coherent and evolves with the business, while monitoring quality data such as NCRs and OFIs to identify trends and drive improvement.

• Plan, manage, and conduct internal QMS audits; support the preparation and execution of third-party certification body and customer audits.

• Act as the responsible Quality Assurance Engineer on programmes - engaging during contract requirements development, coordinating and signing off quality plans, and overseeing quality-compliant execution through gate reviews and project audits.

• Bring development assurance expertise to software-intensive programmes - working alongside engineering teams to ensure software quality requirements are correctly interpreted, embedded in development processes, and verifiable at each stage of the lifecycle.

• Liaise with process owners, project teams, and external stakeholders including defence customers and their quality representatives, representing the Quality function at formal customer interfaces.

You should apply if you

• Have at least 5 years of experience in quality assurance within aerospace, defence, or another regulated industry.

• Have solid working knowledge of EN 9100 (incl. ISO 9001); familiarity with AQAP 2110/2210/2310 and/or DO-178C is a strong advantage.

• Have experience with development assurance in software-intensive environments - you understand how quality requirements apply across the software development lifecycle and are comfortable working alongside engineering teams to implement them.

• Have hands-on experience conducting audits (internal or external) and working with quality plans in a project context.

• Communicate with precision and confidence in both English and German - written and spoken - and are comfortable engaging with multicultural teams as well as formal defence customer and regulatory interfaces.

• Are comfortable managing competing priorities across both QMS and programme workstreams, and can navigate ambiguity without losing focus.

• Bring strong analytical and structured thinking skills, and approach problems with both rigour and pragmatism.

• Have a university degree in Quality Management, Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.

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.

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 .