Senior Frontend Engineer 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

Collaborating closely with our dynamic team of product designers and engineers, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the foundation of frontend at Helsing. Embracing a hands‑on approach, you'll not only lead by example, but also spearhead the development and expansion of a tight‑knit team that works across a wide range of internal teams and products. Your primary emphasis will be on enhancing usability, creating reusable foundations for multiple front‑ends and optimising the end‑user experience across the entire company.

The day‑to‑day

• Review code contributions, proposals, and RFCs from colleagues. At Helsing we strongly believe that unblocking others takes precedence over spending more time on your own work.
• Own the user interface end‑to‑end, from early wireframes and prototypes through to performant, production‑ready code. You'll work closely with product and UX colleagues to shape how users interact with our tools.
• Propose and implement new features, capabilities, tooling, visualizations, or even full products across our stack.
• Establish and evolve our React component library, ensuring consistency, reusability, and alignment with our visual design standards across multiple front‑ends.
• Collaborate with others beyond your team and share knowledge with the wider frontend community at Helsing.
• Become a mentor, find a mentee, and help support and develop our interviewing pipeline.
• Share your experience and technical know‑how with other Helsingers.
• Connect with, understand, and make changes to backend systems as needed.
• Present your work at our weekly demo sessions.

You should apply if you

• Can write legible, maintainable, and performant frontend code — ideally using TypeScript and React.
• Are experienced with APIs and server‑client communication like REST and GraphQL.
• Have experience with running live production software.
• Are passionate about staying on top of current development best practices, libraries and frameworks.
• Are comfortable working with unfamiliar backends, ideally with some exposure to languages like Rust.
• Communicate well in English, both verbally and in writing.
• Enjoy collaborating with others, including reviewing code and pair programming.
• Are comfortable working asynchronously.
• Strive to improve yourself, your peers, and the culture you work in over time.
• Feel like ethical considerations are an inherent part of engineering.

Note: We operate at an intersection 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.

Nice to have

• Significant recent experience with React.
• Familiarity with backend interface tools like REST, GraphQL, gRPC/Protocol Buffers.
• Established understanding of modern JS bundlers, such as Vite.
• Experience with styling utility‑class libraries such as TailwindCSS.
• Data visualization expertise (e.g., D3.js, custom charting, or complex dashboard design).
• Background in designing software for aerospace, defense, or AI end users.

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").

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.