Product Manager - Autonomy

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

As Product Manager for Autonomy, you will shape the autonomous decision chain, from mission planning and configuration to the decisions that guide an engagement, while keeping a human meaningfully in control.

You will define how autonomy is configured and trusted, working with product design, engineering and operational experts to shape how operators set boundaries before a mission and supervise decisions during it. Your work will help make air defence decisions at machine speed while keeping autonomous behaviour understandable, accountable and safe.

The day-to-day

• Set the roadmap for the autonomous decision chain, covering mission planning, configuration and the decisions that guide an engagement

• Work with operators and domain experts to translate operational needs into tasking concepts and human autonomy teaming requirements

• Partner with engineering and product design to create clear interfaces for configuring autonomy, supervising its behaviour and maintaining situational awareness

• Define how operators set autonomy boundaries before a mission and review decisions during it, translating AI capabilities into decisions on scope and operator interaction

• Align internal teams, partners and customers on product direction, priorities and trade-offs, communicating clearly with technical and operational audiences

You should apply if you

• Have taken complex software products from discovery through delivery, ideally in real-time systems, operator-facing interfaces, AI or mission-critical workflows

• Translate user and operational needs into clear, high-impact product requirements

• Work closely with engineering and design to make considered trade-offs across product scope, architecture and user experience

• Assess how autonomous decisions affect the wider system and bring structure to complex or unfamiliar problems

• Communicate fluently in English and German, and are based in or willing to relocate to Munich, with flexibility to travel to operator, partner and customer sites

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

• Understand autonomy, human autonomy teaming or manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) concepts

• Have worked with AI decision-making in real-time systems, or in defence or aerospace, including alongside military operators

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…