Avionics Hardware 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

As Avionic Hardware Engineer, you will own the integration of avionic systems onto Helsing's drone platforms, working across architecture, component selection, hardware and software integration, flight testing and series production. Working across hardware and software boundaries with equal confidence, you will drive fault isolation, requirements traceability and production scalability.

The day-to-day

• Contribute to avionic system architecture decisions and LRU selection from the start of the design cycle, providing integration and production feasibility input that directly shapes component choices, system topology and scalability from prototype to series production

• Integrate avionic LRUs onto the airframe, including mounting, harness routing, connector mating and configuration management, and collaborate with software engineers on hardware and software integration covering board bring-up, firmware flashing, interface verification and debug

• Perform system-level fault isolation across hardware, software and mechanical boundaries using schematics, ICDs, logic analysers and oscilloscopes, managing non-conformances and root cause analyses and driving corrective actions to verified closure

• Develop and execute integration and acceptance test procedures with full traceability to system and LRU-level requirements, supporting ground and flight test campaigns with hands-on troubleshooting in real time

• Own the serialisation and productionisation of avionic LRUs, developing production test procedures, acceptance criteria and workmanship standards that enable consistent, repeatable production at scale, and contribute to safety analyses including FMEA and hazard identification throughout integration and test

You should apply if you

• Have integrated avionic or electronic hardware within UAV, aerospace or defence programmes, working across architecture input, LRU selection, harness integration and configuration management with a clear understanding of how requirements flow down through subsystems

• Have taken hardware from prototype to series production, owning serialisation, productionisation and the development of workmanship standards that enable scaling without quality loss

• Can work at the hardware and software interface, with hands-on experience in embedded systems debug, firmware bring-up, log analysis and familiarity with protocols such as CAN Bus, Ethernet, MIL-STD-1553 and ARINC 429

• Have planned and executed integration, acceptance and flight test campaigns, performed circuit-level fault analysis using lab equipment, and managed NCs and RCAs through to verified closure in a regulated development environment

• Act decisively with minimal guidance, own outcomes end-to-end and initiate solutions without waiting for direction

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

• Familiarity with structured requirements management and design review processes within aerospace or defence programmes, including functional safety concepts in avionic system integration

• Experience contributing to DfM reviews and feeding production lessons learned back into the design process to reduce rework and improve manufacturability at scale

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 : regular 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

• 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 .