Programme Manager - Air 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 Programme Manager, Air, you will hold the delivery plan for Helsing's UK air programmes, working with industry partners and defence customers to turn technical dependencies into deployed capability. You will translate operational air-power needs into engineering priorities, keep partners aligned on shared milestones, and ensure that what we build reflects how air forces will operate now and in future. Working alongside the Senior Programme Manager, you will also represent the programme to senior military and industry audiences, and you will deputise for them when needed.

The day-to-day responsibilities include:

• Act as the daily link between Helsing and partner engineering teams, resolving interface and integration blockers before they affect trial or flight dates.
• Manage customer relationships at working level, converting operational requirements and user feedback into a prioritised backlog that engineering teams can act on.
• Own the delivery plan, milestones and cross-partner dependencies, keeping a single, current view of progress, risk and critical path.
• Brief senior military and industry stakeholders on programme status, risk and capability, and deputise for the Senior Programme Manager when needed.
• Bring operational air-power judgement into design and trial decisions, explaining operational context to engineers in practical terms.
• Track the delivery of capability to the user, ensuring each milestone moves the programme closer to deployment.

You should apply if you:

• Have served in an operational air-power role and understand how combat air missions are planned, commanded and executed.
• Have delivered a complex programme or workstream with external industry or government partners, and can point to capability that reached the user because of your coordination and guidance.
• Translate operational requirements into technical priorities, and technical constraints into language senior audiences can act on.
• Understand UK defence acquisition, operational test and evaluation, and airworthiness processes.
• Communicate credibly in front of senior defence and industry stakeholders, including at short notice.
• Hold, or are eligible to hold, UK security clearance and are based in the UK.

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:

• Have flown as combat air aircrew.
• Are familiar with uncrewed combat air systems, autonomy or crewed-uncrewed teaming concepts.
• Hold a programme management qualification (e.g. APM, PMP, MSP) or have delivered using Agile methods.

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.