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Simulation Engineer
HelsingLondon; Oxford
Apply 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
We can't flight-test our way to every answer, the range time, the cost, and the sheer number of edge cases we need to cover make that impossible. Simulation is how we de-risk fast, explore the trade space before we cut metal, and understand what happens in scenarios we'd never dare fly for real. But we don't trust a model that's never been checked against reality, the sim exists to earn its way onto the range, not replace it.
As a Simulation Engineer on the Physical Products team, you'll build and maintain the modelling and simulation environments that let us understand how our platforms will actually behave, aerodynamically, structurally, and as part of a full engagement, before they're built, and help interpret what happens after they fly. You'll work closely with GNC, mechanical, and systems engineers, and you'll be expected to hold your models to the same standard we hold our hardware: are they good enough to trust a decision on, and how do you know.
The day-to-day
- Build and maintain high-fidelity simulation environments, 6-DOF vehicle dynamics, aerodynamics, structural, and/or engagement-level models, depending on where your depth sits
- Develop Monte Carlo and sensitivity analysis capability to explore performance across the real range of conditions a platform will see, not just the nominal case
- Work with GNC, mechanical, and systems engineers to define what needs modelling, at what fidelity, and why, simulation effort should always trace back to a real design or operational question
- Validate models against real test and flight data, and be honest about where a model is trustworthy and where it isn't, model credibility is a first-class deliverable, not an afterthought
- Support design trade studies across the vehicle, aerodynamic configuration, control authority, engagement geometry, structural loading, using simulation to narrow the design space quickly
- Build tooling and infrastructure that makes simulation faster and more accessible across engineering teams, this is as much a software engineering problem as a physics one
- Support flight and ground test campaigns, defining what to instrument and measure so test data can actually be used to validate or correct the models
- Communicate simulation results and their limitations clearly to engineers and decision-makers who need to act on them, not just archive them
You should apply if you
- Have built and maintained simulation environments for a real physical system aerospace, automotive, robotics, or a similarly dynamic and safety-relevant domain
- Understand the underlying physics well enough to know when a model is a reasonable simplification and when it isn't, flight dynamics, aerodynamics, structures, or controls, depending on your background
- Are strong in a relevant programming/scientific computing environment (Python, MATLAB/Simulink, C++, or equivalent), and write simulation code that other engineers can actually use and trust
- Have experience validating simulation output against real test or field data, and can reason about the gap between the two
- Are comfortable working with uncertainty, Monte Carlo methods, sensitivity analysis, and communicating results probabilistically rather than as a single "answer"
- Collaborate effectively across disciplines and can explain simulation results and their limitations clearly to people who aren't simulation specialists
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
- Experience with 6-DOF flight/missile simulation specifically, or engagement-level/wargaming simulation
- Experience with CFD, FEA, or other high-fidelity physics-based modelling tools
- Familiarity with real-time or hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) simulation environments
- Experience building simulation tooling or infrastructure used by a wider engineering team, not just yourself
- Exposure to flight test or range test data analysis and model correlation
Join Helsing and work with world-leading experts in their fields
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Helsing’s work is important. You’ll be directly contributing to the protection of democratic countries while balancing both ethical and geopolitical concerns
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Competitive salary and VSOP options
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Relocation support: up to €2,500 and 4 weeks temporary accommodation
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Learning: €500/£450 yearly allowance
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Health & wellness: gym membership and mental health support (Nilo.health)
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Social: regular company events and monthly social allowances
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Enhanced parental leave: 22 weeks fully paid for primary caregivers & 6 weeks for secondary caregivers
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Family support: 5 days of paid family emergency leave, 100% remote work option during pregnancy and phased return to work
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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
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.