Liaison Manager – US Desk Officer

helsing.ai; München; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

VSOP options

Relocation support

Learning allowance

Health & wellness

Social events

Enhanced parental leave

Family support

Job summary

Helsing invites a Liaison Manager / US Desk Officer to Munich to coordinate operations between the US team and our German headquarters. You will manage governance, ensure compliance with export controls, and enable rapid scaling as the US entity grows, while building relationships across offices.

You will navigate complex regulatory frameworks, engage across departments, and drive structured, timely decision-making in a fast-paced deep‑tech defence environment.

Qualifications

• Experience in operational coordination or business enablement roles (PM, Operations, Compliance liaison, governance).
• Proven track record in regulated environments (defence/aerospace/tech/public sector).
• Strong networking skills and ability to build cross‑office relationships.

Responsibilities

• Serve as single point of contact for the US team and coordinate across departments.
• Bridge operational gaps between US and German teams.
• Enable rapid scaling and knowledge transfer for the US entity.
• Manage time-zone aligned handovers between Europe and the US.
• Ensure daily exchanges comply with FOCI and export controls.

Skills

Operational coordination

Governance

Networking

Diplomacy & influence

Structure & execution

English & German fluency

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.

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

In this position, you are not a theoretical strategist, but a pragmatic driver on the operational level. As our Liaison Manager / US Desk Officer (m/f/d), you are the single point of contact for the US team within our Munich headquarters. You will coordinate all operational matters across multiple departments while ensuring strict compliance with our bilateral governance structures.

The day-to-day

• Operational Hub & SPOC: Serve as the primary contact for the US team for all matters requiring alignment with the German headquarters, routing requests to the right experts and driving them to resolution.
• Cross-Domain Coordination: Bridge the gap on an operational level between US teams and German departments.
• Enable Rapid Scaling & Knowledge Transfer: Act as a key enabler for knowledge transfer as our US entity rapidly scales its team and operations.
• Time-Zone Optimization: Optimize the daily 09:00 to 15:00 CET window to bundle all inputs in Germany, ensuring a seamless and time-efficient handover to the US starting at 15:00 CET.
• Governance & FOCI Safeguard: Ensure all daily operational exchanges strictly adhere to FOCI and export control regulations (e.g., ITAR/EAR). You act as a vital safeguard, translating complex compliance requirements into efficient day-to-day workflows.

You should apply if you

• Experience: You bring several years of professional experience in an operational coordination, interface, or business enablement role (e.g., Project Management, Business Operations, Legal/Compliance Liaison, Corporate Governance, or Management Consulting). A background in Project Management and/or Engineering is a strong plus, enabling you to quickly grasp complex technical topics and route them effectively.
• Governance Mindset: You have a proven track record of operating successfully within complex regulatory frameworks or strict corporate governance structures (e.g., in highly regulated industries such as Defence, Aerospace, Tech, Finance, or the Public Sector). You understand that compliance is not a bottleneck, but an enabler for secure scaling.
• Relentless Curiosity & Networker: You are a highly driven, proactive individual with a deep desire to learn everyone and everything across both our German and US offices. You don’t wait for information to come to you; you actively build relationships and know exactly who to talk to in order to get things done.
• Mission-driven: You care deeply about our mission to protect democratic values and are excited to work in a fast-paced, high-stakes deep-tech environment.
• Diplomacy & Influence: Since this role relies on lateral influence rather than disciplinary authority, you excel at building trustful relationships across teams. You know how to navigate organizational dynamics to get things done quickly (unblocking others takes precedence).
• Structure & Execution: You have a passion for organizing chaos, tracking deadlines, and summarizing complex technical or regulatory matters in a clear, concise, and structured way
• Communication skills: Full fluency in English and German (C1), written and spoken

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.

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

These are the core benefits across all locations, there may be additional benefits in certain locations.

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.