Supporting Tech Lead - 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

Helsing's maritime team is developing next-generation uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs), including the SG-1 Fathom platform and the Lura AI system, purpose-built to secure the subsea domain for open societies. As Supporting Tech Lead, you will sit at the centre of that effort, providing the whole-system engineering perspective needed to move the programme from prototype to a documented, repeatable, production-ready platform across a 40-unit build.

You will work alongside a skilled team of mechanical, electrical, and embedded engineers, bringing subsystems together into a coherent, buildable whole. Where competing design approaches create decision deadlocks, you will draw on your knowledge of what works underwater, what has been proven at depth, and what scales to production, to make well-reasoned calls and keep the programme moving. You will also play an active part in day-to-day team coordination, ensuring that deep domain expertise converts into concrete decisions and forward momentum rather than further analysis. The work is technically demanding, the timelines are short, and the output has direct relevance to the security of open societies.

The day-to-day

Own the Production Pathway:

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Ensure every design decision accounts for manufacturing, assembly, and test from the outset, so that unit 37 can be built identically to unit 1

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Own design documentation, version control, and assembly instructions to a standard complete enough for someone outside the room to build from

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Support supplier selection and qualification, identifying volume-available components, custom-development requirements, and single-source risks that could affect programme delivery

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Drive the transition from engineer-built prototype to a fully documented, production-ready build across the 40-unit programme

Drive Integration & Testing:

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Lead the integration of all subsystems, including the flight-controller board, edge compute, hydrophone array, satcom, network router, and sensor suite, ensuring each interface is clearly defined and validated

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Coordinate with the Software Tech Lead to ensure the on-glider software stack and hardware requirements remain mutually consistent throughout the development cycle

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Define and execute the test strategy from bench through tank trials to open-water sea trials, capturing findings and iterating the design accordingly

Break Design Deadlocks:

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Apply whole-system UUV knowledge to resolve competing design approaches, drawing on what has been validated at depth and what is known to scale to production

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Assess available options with the information at hand, make well-reasoned calls, communicate the rationale clearly to the team, and keep the programme moving

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Ensure the team's collective expertise in mechanical, electrical, and embedded domains converts into forward momentum

Close the Design:

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Work with the existing technical team to advance Helsing's maritime products from current concept to a fully buildable, producible system

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Own trade-off decisions that span mechanical, electrical, and embedded software boundaries, articulating reasoning with enough clarity to secure team alignment

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Distinguish between designs that are ready to build and those that need further iteration, preventing the programme from stalling in unnecessary refinement cycles

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Embed scaled-manufacturing thinking from the outset, not as a downstream consideration

You should apply if you

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Have built, integrated, tested, and deployed complex electromechanical systems in real operational environments, not in simulation or on paper

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Make systems-level engineering decisions that span mechanical, electrical, and embedded software boundaries with clarity and confidence

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Resolve technical trade-offs under ambiguity, document your reasoning transparently, and bring a multi-disciplinary team to a shared decision

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Have led design reviews and coordinated technical output across engineering teams with different domain specialisms

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Know when a design is ready to build and when it requires further iteration, and have the judgement to act on that distinction

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

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Direct experience with UUVs, AUVs, or underwater gliders, including buoyancy-driven platforms, variable buoyancy systems, or underwater propulsion

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Familiarity with subsea communications (Iridium SBD), underwater acoustics, or edge compute platforms such as Jetson

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Experience delivering within a defence or defence-adjacent programme, including LARS and vessel operations

Join Helsing and work with world-leading experts in their fields

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Helsing’s work is important. You’ll be directly contributing to the protection of democratic countries while balancing both ethical and geopolitical concerns

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Competitive salary and VSOP options

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Relocation support: up to €2,500 and 4 weeks temporary accommodation

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Learning: €500/£450 yearly allowance

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Health & wellness: gym membership and mental health support (Nilo.health)

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Social: regular company events and monthly social allowances

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Enhanced parental leave: 22 weeks fully paid for primary caregivers & 6 weeks for secondary caregivers

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Family support: 5 days of paid family emergency leave, 100% remote work option during pregnancy and phased return to work

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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.