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

Launch your career in cutting-edge technology with Helsing, a leading AI defence company. Our summer internship, starting June 2025, spans 10-12 weeks and offers hands-on opportunities, mentorship, and the chance to work on real-world problems that will challenge you and accelerate your growth.

The day-to-day

Participate in mentoring sessions, code reviews, and pair programming with team members to improve your skills and learn best practices.
Be fully embedded within a dedicated team, contributing to both ongoing and new efforts under the guidance of experienced engineers.
Attend tech talks, design reviews, and knowledge-sharing sessions to expand your technical understanding.
Gain exposure to the holistic functioning of software, from build and deployment systems to algorithms, databases, and operational monitoring, with a focus on hands-on learning.

The technologies we use

We rely on Rust and Python for most of our development, but if you're proficient in writing clean, high-quality code in other languages, we'll help you master our technology stack.
Our cloud infrastructure is managed through Terraform, with Grafana and Prometheus for monitoring and visualisation.
We use Nix to streamline development, ensuring that every engineer works with reliable, reproducible environments.
We ensure an efficient and scalable communication between our services by utilising technologies like REST, GraphQL, gRPC/protobuf.

You should apply if you

You are currently pursuing a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or a related technical field such as Mathematics and Physics.
You are in your penultimate year of your university course.
Programming experience in Rust, Python, C++ or similar languages.
You are someone who enjoys taking initiative and working in a collaborative environment.

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.

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

Flexible hybrid working hours as well as regular feedback.
An ambitious team located in the heart of London (as well as Berlin, Munich and Paris).
Competitive compensation.
The chance to join other mission-driven people in a fast-growing company focused on protecting our democracies.
Opportunities to connect and network via diverse team events & fun outside the office.
A social allowance and subsidised fitness membership to support your well-being.

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.

Software Engineer Intern

Apply to protect democracies.