Lead Systems Engineer - Maritime

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 Helsing expands its maritime portfolio, this role sits at the heart of delivering assured, safe, and compliant systems to defence customers. The Maritime Systems Engineer owns the solution building process from design till end-to-end Verification and Validation of capabilities, working together with engineering teams and managing subcontractors to ensure Helsing's systems meet the highest technical and regulatory standards. Based in Germany, this role bridges product development and customer delivery, providing the technical authority needed to give customers confidence in Helsing's maritime solutions. Working closely with the Chief Engineer, this position drives sub-component integration and shapes how existing and future Helsing products evolve to meet operational requirements.

The day-to-day

• Own the design of solutions within the maritime domain

• Own the Verification and Validation process for the full maritime system, including supplier-delivered components, ensuring all delivered capability is safe, assured, and compliant with relevant industry and defence standards

• Partner with the Design Engineering and Maritime Field Engineering teams to translate end-user operational experience into refined and improved product requirements, feeding structured feedback into product and technology development cycles

• Lead the management of subcontractors and external partners, holding them accountable for delivery quality and ensuring seamless integration of critical system elements into the broader programme

• Act as the primary technical interface for campaigns and customer delivery, maintaining ownership of the capability through and beyond delivery to ensure long-term through-life support requirements are understood and met

• Navigate the defence procurement landscape to bring maritime systems into service, ensuring Helsing can demonstrate to customers the compliance and safety credentials required for operational deployment

You should apply if you

• Have built and delivered maritime systems in a defence context

• Have demonstrated the ability to act as a Suitably Qualified and Experienced Person (SQEP) in maritime operations, giving customers and stakeholders confidence in system safety and compliance

• Have managed requirements through the full engineering lifecycle using industry-standard requirement management tools, and can navigate the complexity of a multi-supplier, integrated systems environment

• Communicate fluently in both German and English, enabling effective collaboration with German-based defence customers and partners alongside Helsing's pan-European engineering teams

• Have worked within or alongside defence procurement processes, understanding how to bring a product from development through to operational service

• Build architectures that fulfill customer problem statements from a technical perspective, especially when it comes to interfaces

• Hands-on experience in MBSE approaches

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

• Have experience across wider maritime defence domains, such as anti-submarine warfare (ASW), above-water warfare (AWW) or mine countermeasures (MCM)

• Hold Chartered Engineer (CEng) status or are actively working towards it

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 .