Data Engineer

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.

At Helsing, data lies at the core of our AI capabilities and we put huge emphasis on acquiring real world records to validate our algorithms. As this is an entry level role, you are given the task of leading the data acquisition and labelling process for the development of our AI algorithms, enabling you to learn how advanced AI algorithms are trained and deployed in real life applications. Over time you will become a recognised expert at Helsing on how to collect and annotate data most useful for our products and grow your career by working closely with our AI researchers and software engineers.

The day-to-day

• You will support the engineering team, in various steps of the data preparation pipeline (collection, annotation, quality control, storage & management of mission critical datasets).
• When requested, working outdoors to collect / record video data, such as by flying drones, driving vehicles, and operating cameras.
• You will use our data annotation tools to tag captured images / videos with metadata and upload them for access by other Helsing engineers.
• You will assess, scope, and prioritise requests for data from other teams at Helsing.

You should apply if

• Hold a BSc in computer science, engineering or related field.
• Are an independent and creative problem solver (you can make use of duct tape and a screwdriver).
• Possess strong communication skills, written and verbally.
• Hold a driving licence valid in EU.
• Have experience operating from a terminal and writing scripts to automate tasks, using a programming language such as Python.
• Are meticulous at housekeeping and pay extra attention to detail.

Note: The above bullet points describe the ideal candidate. None of us matched all of these at once when we first joined Helsing. We encourage you to apply even if you believe you meet only part of our wish list.

Nice to have

• An interest in computer vision applications and familiarity with annotation tools such as CVAT.
• Experience in data acquisition / annotation.
• A license to fly drones (Open A3).
• An interest in defence hardware or previous service in the armed forces.

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 stock options.
• Relocation support.
• Social and education allowances.
• Regular company events and all-hands to bring together employees as one team across Europe.
• 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.