AI Research Engineer - GPU Simulation

About Helsing

Helsing is a defence-focused AI company with a mission to defend democracies by achieving technological leadership. We are committed to ensuring open societies maintain sovereign decision-making powers and uphold ethical standards. Our ethos involves thoughtful consideration around the deployment of powerful technologies such as AI, emphasizing ethical implications and responsibility.

Our team comprises skilled engineers, AI specialists, and programme managers dedicated to solving complex, impactful problems. We foster an open, transparent culture welcoming diverse perspectives on technology in defence.

Role Overview

We invite you to join our GPU simulation team to develop the simulator that trains reinforcement learning agents enabling air autonomy. This involves creating scalable learning environments that replicate complex air-combat scenarios, simulating the physics involved, and facilitating the policy transfer to actual aircraft. Your contributions will include enhancing flight model fidelity, scaling simulations across thousands of parallel environments, and the development of training tools. This position intersects AI, GPU computing, and physics-based simulation and offers potential for leadership as the team grows.

Daily Responsibilities

• Design, enhance, and scale our GPU-based simulation platform to train reinforcement-learning agents across thousands of parallel scenarios.
• Create tools supporting reinforcement learning training, including domain randomisation techniques that assist sim-to-real generalization.
• Enhance the accuracy and efficiency of simulation models, covering flight dynamics and sensing capabilities.
• Support sim-to-real transfer by exporting trained policies and assets to downstream simulators and physical hardware.
• Collaborate closely with AI experts and engineers to ensure the simulator aligns with training objectives and mission-critical outcomes.

Candidate Profile

• Master's or PhD degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Robotics, Control Engineering, or related discipline.
• Strong software engineering skills with proficiency in writing clean, maintainable code in Python, Rust, or modern C++.
• Experience in deploying production software systems, including testing and monitoring.
• Expertise in at least one area: GPU programming, high-performance simulation, physics or flight-dynamics modeling, or navigation and control.
• Commitment to writing high-quality code and contributing to shared codebases and libraries.
• A passion for mission-driven work with tangible operational impact.

Note: We recognize under-representation of women and minority groups in this industry and encourage applications even if some qualifications are unmet; ability and impact extend beyond bullet points.

Preferred Skills

• Solid understanding of AI principles, with the ability to reason about training and evaluation of models.
• Cross-disciplinary experience, such as combining GPU programming with simulation environment design.
• Deep expertise in GPU technologies, including writing and optimizing CUDA kernels or experience with libraries like Taichi, NVIDIA Warp/CuteDSL, Triton, or Helion.

Why Work with Helsing

• Make meaningful contributions to protecting democratic nations while balancing ethical and geopolitical considerations.
• Engage with unique technical challenges in a domain requiring robustness, safety, and ethical mindfulness.
• Be at the forefront of technological innovation in reinforcement learning, distributed systems, generative AI, and deployment infrastructure.
• Join a company leading significant leaps forward with multiple important government contracts.
• Participate in a culture that encourages healthy, proactive discussion, autonomy, critical thinking, and ownership.

Employee Benefits

• Competitive salary with VSOP options.
• Relocation assistance: up to €2,500 plus four weeks of temporary accommodation.
• Annual learning allowance of €500/£450.
• Health and wellness: gym membership and mental health support through Nilo.health.
• Regular company social events and monthly social allowances.
• Enhanced parental leave: up to 22 weeks fully paid for primary caregivers and 6 weeks for secondary caregivers.
• Family support: five days paid family emergency leave, 100% remote work options during pregnancy, and phased return to work.
• A comprehensive onboarding program called “Infraduction” involving practical tooling development while collaborating with engineering teams from day one.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Helsing is committed to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, or gender identity. Applicants are requested not to submit personal data revealing sensitive demographic information.