Who we are

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

As a working student in computer vision research, you will push the current understanding of how advances in the research community can add value to real world applications.
You will bridge fundamental and applied research with concrete implementations for real-world problems in the defence domain
Be part of a highly talented, boundary-pushing visual localisation team and work with globally renowned AI experts.
Your work will contribute to one of the biggest european programmes
You will work closely with a team based in Munich or Paris, but interact with a broader team all over Europe
You will propose and evaluate different methodologies to improve mission-critical systems
You will work as part of a team to deliver high-impact products

The day-to-day

Research relevant papers in the areas of AI (in particular Computer Vision)
Conceptualise application of state of the art technologies and discuss them with the team
Understand advantages and disadvantages of different algorithmic approaches for our product
Derive requirements regarding software architectures and implement selected software designs
Summarise findings in clearly understandable documents
Contribute towards the implementation of the most promising concepts

You should apply if you

Currently pursuing a PhD
Demonstrated theoretical and practical experience in Computer Vision or SLAM
Proficient in Python
Experience with Rust or C++
Experience with AI frameworks like pyTorch, NumPy, OpenCV
Experience with software and infrastructure frameworks like Gitlab CI/CD, Docker, Nix, FastAPI
Ability to work reliably and independently

Note: We operate at an intersection where women, as well as other minority groups, are systemically 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

Published a paper, ideally regarding applied Computer Vision at a top-tier conference or journal
Experience with Object Detection or DNNs
Experience in the defense domain and problems
Experience with working in a fast-paced, high-scale start-up

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

A focus on outcomes, not time-tracking
Social allowances
Regular company events and all-hands to bring together employees as one team across Europe
A hands-on onboarding program (affectionately labelled “AI-duction”), in which you will be familiarising yourself with our tools and ML pipelines 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 AI and engineering teams from day one

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.

AI Research Intern (PhD) - Computer Vision

Apply to protect democracies.