FP&A Team Lead in London

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 involves being responsible for all finance and accounting activities for our global business. You will have a chance to work with a diverse and highly motivated Finance team, across a plethora of projects and directly influence the success of the wider Helsing group. This is a rare opportunity to join the company at an exciting stage of its early development and to help set the conditions for rapid growth and success over the next few years.

The day-to-day responsibilities include:

• Leading monthly financial forecasting processes and managing the budget for all business areas, partnering with Business Partners and Managers.
• Publishing formal annual budget forecasts and tracking in-year adherence, adjusting as required.
• Coordinating monthly overhead cost forecasts and providing solid support for overhead forecasting.
• Supporting investor relations and strategic initiatives, including developing advanced financial models.
• Conducting scenario analysis and sensitivity testing to evaluate the financial impact of various business decisions.
• Delivering strong business partnering to key stakeholders, offering financial guidance and challenging assumptions of business leaders.
• Implementing process improvements within FP&A to enhance efficiency and accuracy.

You should apply if you:

• Hold a background in Accounting or Economics, or are a Qualified Accountant (CIMA / ACCA preferred), with strong knowledge of GAAP/IFRS reporting standards.
• Have proven relevant professional experience in a hypergrowth environment, start-up/scale-up, or consulting (preferably within tech).
• Possess in-depth knowledge of budgeting and forecasting methodologies, advanced Excel skills, and familiarity with ERP systems (SAP desirable).
• Demonstrate excellent team leadership, advanced presentation and data analysis skills, capable of 'storytelling' with data, to influence senior stakeholders.
• Are adept at building and managing internal and external stakeholder relationships in an international environment.
• Are business fluent in English, possess excellent attention to detail, and can work both independently and collaboratively within a flexible, fast-paced environment.

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 includes:

• 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.

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.