Guidance, Navigation Control Engineer

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.

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.

Helsing delivers AI-powered capabilities that redefine machine perception and decision-making. Our technology powers a range of UAS platforms, accelerating critical mission functions.

You will work in a dedicated Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) team and take full end-to-end responsibility for developing and validating state estimation, navigation and guidance algorithms. In close collaboration with field engineers, your goal is to elevate the performance of our UAS platforms to unprecedented levels and impact the future of defense technology.

• Own the development of bespoke controllers for UAS end to end; through conception, design, simulation, physical integration and feature iteration.
• Design, test and implement state estimator algorithms that work robustly in contested environments
• Simulate the performance of navigation and guidance algorithms to inform the definition of sensor stacks, which could include IMUs, GPS/GNSS, barometers, magnetometers and advanced image-based positioning systems
• Analyse real sensor and test data to calibrate sensors and validate performance, closing the simulation-to-real gap
• Support the specification and execution of tests for navigation and guidance algorithm evaluation
• Collaborate with interfacing disciplines such as Flight Mechanics, Aerodynamics, Embedded Hard- and Software, and Testing
• Contribute to, follow and analyse flight tests

• Hold a M.Sc. or PhD in Aeronautical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Robotics or an equivalent degree
• Have at least 5 years of professional experience in navigation, guidance or state estimation development
• Have very good skills in Matlab/Simulink
• Have a solid background in state estimation theory, aerodynamics, stability and control, and systems modelling
• Have excellent communication skills and the ability to report and present findings clearly and efficiently both internally and externally
• Possess solid software engineering skills, writing clean and well-structured code in Matlab and/or languages like Python, Rust, Java, or modern C++
• Are passionate about keeping up to date with current research and enjoy reimplementing / extending papers on state of the art navigation and guidance algorithms

• Hands-on experience with fixed-wing aircraft / drones
• Have worked with or even contributed to open-source autopilots like Ardupilot or PX4

• 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…