Software Engineer - Embedded NixOS

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

You’ll work on a mix of traditional embedded Linux and NixOS system development work. Your main responsibility will setting up, deploying, and debugging embedded NixOS systems. This will be both on a small scale for R&D purposes, and on a large scale for our production military hardware, most prominently for our recce-strike drones in Ukraine.

Key Skills

Note: We operate in an industry where women, as well as other minority groups, are systemically 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.

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Have deep knowledge of GNU/Linux system development. For example, having opinions on bootloaders, using gdb and strace in your day-to-day debugging work, and being familiar with C calling conventions.

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Excellent knowledge of and experience with NixOS, either in a FOSS context or in a professional context.

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Experience with low-level/system programming in C, C++ or (preferably) Rust.

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Knowledge of embedded Linux technologies, e.g. kernel development, device trees, ARM architectures.

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Knowledge of network protocols, in particular the Internet protocol stack (e.g. IP, TCP, UDP, TLS, Wireguard).

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Knowledge of OS-level security engineering in the Linux ecosystem, e.g. UEFI Secure Boot, LUKS, dm-verity.

Nice to Have

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Hands-on experience with porting NixOS to pre-existing embedded systems.

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Professional experience with developing high-stakes, safety critical embedded systems, such as in aerospace.

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Experience with “traditional” embedded Linux development, such as Yocto, postmarketOS, or low-level Android/AOSP development.

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Knowledge of setting up and maintaining cross-compilation of Nix packages.

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Experience with developing and debugging UEFI systems

What we offer

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A focus on outcomes, not time-tracking

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Competitive compensation and stock options

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Relocation support

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Social and education allowances

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

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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.