Partner (Permanent) 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.

As a People Business Partner at Helsing, you will play a hands-on role in delivering the people programmes and partnerships that keep our teams performing and growing. Working closely within a cross-functional People function — spanning People Operations, Talent Acquisition and People Partnering — you will support the day-to-day execution of our performance and talent development frameworks, while building trusted relationships with managers and team members across our London offices and company domains.

A defining feature of this role is the ability to network with depth and intention: cultivating relationships across engineering, research, policy and operations teams to stay close to the business, understand what is really happening on the ground, and act as a credible, well-informed partner rather than a distant function. Alongside this, you will actively develop your understanding of Helsing's technology, domain and commercial context — because the most effective people partnering at Helsing is rooted in genuine business acumen, not process alone.

The day-to-day responsibilities include:

• Evolve and deliver Helsing's performance framework — including probation reviews, feedback cycles, calibration and promotion processes — ensuring talent development is tightly aligned to business outcomes and consistently applied across the London hub.
• Design and deliver leadership and management development programmes suited to a mission-critical environment, building the capabilities that Helsing's continued growth requires.
• Build scalable playbooks, tools and training that equip managers and individual contributors to grow in line with business needs, reducing reliance on ad hoc support over time.
• Actively cultivate a broad internal network across Helsing's London teams and wider European organisation, developing the relationships and domain fluency needed to anticipate people needs before they become problems.
• Invest continuously in understanding Helsing's business — its technology, its customers, its strategic priorities and its domain — translating that knowledge into people advice grounded in commercial and operational reality.
• Use people analytics to measure organisational and performance health, surface meaningful trends and inform targeted interventions before issues compound.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for team members on people policies, UK employment law and employee relations matters, escalating complex cases with clear framing and appropriate context.
• Leverage employee insights to strengthen team culture and collaboration across Helsing's offices, translating qualitative signals into clearly prioritised, actionable recommendations.

You should apply if you:

• Have built and scaled people processes and systems across multiple functions within high-growth organisations, with outcomes that held up under scrutiny.
• Have advised commercial and technical stakeholders on people strategy, organisational design and talent planning, drawing on a genuine understanding of the business context you were operating in.
• Are a natural relationship-builder and networker — you invest in knowing the people and teams you support, and use those relationships to partner with credibility and informed judgement.
• Have designed and delivered change management programmes in fast-moving environments, balancing pace with care for the people affected.
• Bring genuine curiosity about the business context you operate in — actively seeking to understand organisational strategy, domain knowledge and commercial dynamics to inform your people work.
• Are motivated by Helsing's mission and share our conviction that democratic values are worth protecting.

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:

• Experience working within a high-growth technology, defence, deep-tech or similarly complex and regulated environment — bringing relevant domain familiarity to the role from day one.
• Familiarity with UK employment law, including experience managing employee relations cases through to resolution.
• Exposure to organisational design, workforce planning or broader talent strategy work at a function or company level.
• Experience working across multiple European employment jurisdictions alongside the UK.
• A demonstrated track record of building wide internal networks and using those relationships to improve the quality and reach of people partnering.
• Proficiency in building or iterating on people systems and tooling (e.g. HRIS platforms, engagement survey tools).

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:

• Competitive salary and VSOP options.
• Relocation support: up to 2,500 and 4 weeks temporary accommodation.
• Learning: 500/450 yearly allowance.
• Health & wellness: gym membership and mental health support (Nilo.health).
• Social: regularly company events and monthly social allowances.
• Enhanced parental leave: 22 weeks fully paid for primary caregivers & 6 weeks for secondary caregivers.
• Family support: 5 days of paid family emergency leave, 100% remote work option during pregnancy and phased return to work.

These are the core benefits across all locations, there may be additional benefits in certain locations. 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.