Lead Systems Engineer - Weapon Integration

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 Lead Engineer you will drive all weapon integration activities for our advanced aerial platforms. In this role, you will be responsible for leading the end-to-end integration of a diverse range of weapon systems across multiple domains, ensuring seamless functionality with the core mission and avionics systems. You will act as technical authority for weapon integration, providing guidance and mentorship to a dedicated team of engineers, and driving the successful delivery of this critical capability.

The day-to-day

• Lead the overall weapon integration programme across all relevant domains, ensuring a coherent and fully functional system-of-systems.

• Perform and oversee the detailed integration of weapons with the aircraft’s mission system and avionics architecture, including data buses and software interfaces.

• Develop and manage the weapon integration roadmap, from concept definition through to flight testing and final qualification.

• Liaise with internal design teams, including structures, aerodynamics, and systems engineering, to manage the physical and functional integration of weapon systems.

• Author technical specifications, interface control documents (ICDs), and statements of work for suppliers and subcontractors.

• Provide technical mentorship to engineers within the team.

• Oversee the verification and validation strategy.

You should apply if you

• Hold a degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical, or Systems Engineering.

• Have significant experience within the aerospace or defence industry, with a demonstrable focus on weapon systems integration.

• Have comprehensive understanding of the full engineering lifecycle, from initial requirements capture to in-service support.

• Have direct, hands-on experience integrating a variety of weapon types (e.g., missiles, bombs, rockets) onto fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft.

• Have In-depth knowledge of mission systems, avionic architectures, and associated data bus standards.

• Proficiency with engineering tools for requirements management, modeling, and simulation

• Possess excellent communication skills and the ability to report and present results clearly and effectively to both internal and external stakeholders.

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

• A focus on outcomes, not time-tracking

• Competitive compensation and VSOP options

• Relocation support

• Social and education allowances

• Regular company events and all-hands to bring together employees as one team across Europe

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 .