Legal Counsel IT & Privacy

Helsing; Berlin; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary and VSOP options

Relocation support: up to €2,500 and 4

Learning: €500/£450 yearly allowance

Health & wellness: gym membership and

Social: monthly social allowances

Parental leave: 22 weeks fully paid +

Remote work option during pregnancy

Job summary

Helsing is a defence AI company seeking a Senior Privacy Counsel to own data protection across the group. You will guide product, engineering and commercial teams on GDPR, AI Act and international regimes, shaping records, assessments and policies to ensure compliance in Europe and beyond.

In this role, you will collaborate with DPOs, draft privacy clauses in major contracts, and drive privacy training across the organisation. Fluency in English and a strong regulatory mindset are essential.

Qualifications

• Fully qualified lawyer with 2. Staatsexamen or equivalent in another jurisdiction.
• Advised technology or AI organisations on the GDPR in practice, including privacy-by-design, data governance and international transfer mechanisms.
• Drafted and negotiated data processing agreements and IT contracts, in a law firm or in-house.
• Translate complex regulatory requirements into clear, pragmatic advice that non-legal colleagues can act on.
• Communicate fluently in English, balancing regulatory rigour and commercial pace in sensitive government and defence contexts.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain Helsing's data protection framework across all entities, including records of processing activities, DPIAs, privacy policies and breach response processes.
• Advise product and engineering teams on privacy-by-design, training-data governance, international data transfers and GDPR/AI Act interplay.
• Draft, review and negotiate DPAs, joint controller agreements and privacy clauses in contracts.
• Partner with DPOs and external authorities; handle data subject requests and supervisory authority inquiries.
• Deliver privacy training and support due diligence for M&A, procurement and new market entry.

Skills

Privacy by design

Data governance

International transfers

DPA drafting

IT contracts

English fluency

Regulatory advisory

Education

2. Staatsexamen / equivalent

Law degree (EU)

Job description

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.

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

You will own data protection and privacy across Helsing's group of companies, building our framework from the ground up. Working within the Legal team, you will be the go-to adviser on the GDPR, the AI Act and international privacy regimes, guiding product, engineering and commercial colleagues on how personal data is handled in AI model development, training and deployment. You will set the records, assessments and policies that keep us compliant in Germany, the UK, France and new markets as we grow. Privacy at Helsing is not a compliance afterthought. It shapes how our products are designed and how governments trust us with sensitive data.

The day-to-day

• Build and maintain Helsing's data protection framework across all entities, covering records of processing activities, data protection impact assessments, privacy policies and breach response processes
• Advise product and engineering teams on privacy-by-design, training-data governance, international data transfers and the interplay between the GDPR and the AI Act, turning regulation into practical guidance teams can apply
• Draft, review and negotiate data processing agreements, joint controller agreements and privacy clauses in commercial and government contracts
• Partner with our Data Protection Officers and external DPOs across jurisdictions, handle data subject requests and act as our contact with supervisory authorities
• Deliver privacy training across the organisation and support M&A, procurement and new market entry with data protection due diligence

You should apply if you

• Are a fully qualified lawyer (2. Staatsexamen or equivalent in another jurisdiction)
• Have advised technology or AI organisations on the GDPR in practice, including privacy-by-design, data governance and international transfer mechanisms
• Have drafted and negotiated data processing agreements and IT contracts, in a law firm or in-house
• Translate complex regulatory requirements into clear, pragmatic advice that non-legal colleagues can act on
• Communicate fluently in English, with the judgement to balance regulatory rigour and commercial pace in sensitive government and defence contexts

Nice to Have

• Advise on emerging digital regulation such as the AI Act, NIS2 and DORA, or hold further legal qualifications such as an LL.M or Dr. iur
• Work comfortably in German as well as English, given our European footprint

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

• Competitive salary and VSOP options
• Relocation support: up to €2,500 and 4 weeks temporary accommodation
• Learning: €500/£450 yearly allowance
• Health & wellness: gym membership and mental health support (Nilo.health)
• Social: regularly company events and monthly social allowances
• Enhanced parental leave: 22 weeks fully paid for primary caregivers & 6 weeks for secondary caregivers.
• Family support: 5 days of paid family emergency leave, 100% remote work option during pregnancy and phased return to work

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. Helsing's Candidate Privacy and Confidentiality Regime can be found here.