Rust Software Engineer

Key Responsibilities:

• Designing, building, and maintaining Rust services across the Altra platform 
• Collaborating with ML engineers to integrate AI/ML pipelines into the broader system 
• Working across the stack, from networking and protocol implementation to application-level services 
• Contributing to increasingly advanced autonomy features 
• Developing and testing software using simulation environments 
• Writing software that must perform reliably on resource-constrained platforms under real-world constraints 

Requirements:

• Have 5+ years of experience in systems-level software engineering 
• Have a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field 
• Are proficient in Rust, or have strong experience in C++ or another systems-level compiled language with a willingness to work in Rust daily 
• Have experience building distributed systems, particularly in unreliable or constrained network environments 
• Have worked with real-time or low-latency systems where performance and reliability are critical 
• Have experience with at least one or two areas relevant to our stack: video streaming, pub/sub messaging, sensor data processing, embedded systems, protocol design, or robotics 
• Have designed or built systems that interface with AI/ML pipelines — streaming data to models, handling inference outputs, managing pipeline orchestration 
• Are familiar with Python, particularly for interfacing with ML/AI components 
• Are a U.S. citizen eligible to obtain a security clearance 

Nice to have:

• Direct experience with Rust in production systems 
• Background in robotics, autonomous vehicles, or drone systems 
• Experience with sensor fusion or multi-sensor data processing 
• Familiarity with swarming, multi-agent systems, or decentralized coordination algorithms 
• Experience with constrained or embedded platforms 
• Familiarity with Nix or NixOS for reproducible builds and development environments 
• Experience with SITL/HITL (Software/Hardware-In-The-Loop) simulation and testing frameworks for autonomous systems 
• Experience with RF communications, telemetry, or datalink systems 
• Background in defense or national security 

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
• Competitive compensation and stock options
• Relocation support
• Social and education allowances
• Regular company events and all-hands to bring together employees as one team across Europe
• 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.