Security Engineer

Who we are

The role

The day-to-day

• Work alongside senior security engineers on threat modelling and security reviews - learning to identify architectural risks, trust boundary issues, and failure modes

• Build and improve security tooling and automation - writing code that reduces manual security work and embeds secure-by-default practices into engineering workflows

• Contribute to security testing across our systems and products, including hands-on technical testing under supervision

• Own well-defined security workstreams, progressively taking on more scope and autonomy as your skills develop

• Observe and learn from security incidents through ride-alongs with experienced engineers, progressing to hands-on incident response roles as you develop and gain the required access

• Help maintain and improve our security documentation, runbooks, and internal guidance

• Support assurance activities such as audits and certifications alongside experienced team members

You should apply if you

• You have built non-trivial software - projects that demonstrate genuine engineering ability, not just framework usage (e.g. security tools, automation pipelines, network utilities, infrastructure-as-code, compilers, or embedded systems)
  
  
• You can reason about how systems work below the abstraction layer you operate at - memory, networking, operating systems, or hardware
  
  
• You have a track record of self-directed security interest - CTF participation, vulnerability research, protocol analysis, bug bounties, or open-source security contributions
  
  
• You have shown initiative and ownership in student or early-career contexts - leading a project, driving a decision, or building something beyond what was asked of you

Nice to Have

• Participation in a selective security programme - examples include CyberFirst, GCHQ summer schemes, NCSC-sponsored bursaries, BSI programmes, CSAW, military technical roles, competitive research placements, or funded PhD positions
  
  
• Hands-on offensive security experience through CTFs, personal projects, or structured programmes
  
  
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and infrastructure-as-code concepts
  
  
• Exposure to AI or machine learning systems and an interest in their security implications
  
  
• Contributions to open-source security tools or research
  
  
• Experience with reverse engineering, binary analysis, or low-level systems programming

Join Helsing and work with world-leading experts in their fields 

• This role includes a structured development programme. Every junior hire is paired with a senior security engineer as a dedicated mentor, with clear milestones at 3, 6, and 12 months. You will work on real security problems from your first week - supervised and reviewed, but genuine. Details of the mentorship and development framework are available on request.

• 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: regular 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

• 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 (Specifically for engineering and AI)

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. 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.

Helsing's Candidate Privacy and Confidentiality Regime can be found here.