People Business Partner - Performance

Helsing; München; Hybrid; EUR 80.000 - 100.000; Vollzeit

Zusammenfassung

A defence AI company in Munich is seeking a Senior Manager, Performance Development & People Partner. The role focuses on designing performance systems and partnering with leadership to optimize workforce effectiveness. Ideal candidates have experience in HR business partnering within technology or defence industries, and strong skills in performance management. This position encourages mission-driven professionals to engage in meaningful work contributing to the protection of democracies.

Leistungen

Competitive compensation

Stock options

Relocation support

Social and education allowances

Qualifikationen

• Demonstrable experience in performance development or HR business partnering.
• Experience advising senior leaders in high-growth industries.
• Strong track record in building performance systems in large organizations.

Aufgaben

• Evolve and lead Helsing’s performance framework.
• Develop manager and leadership programs.
• Consult on talent planning and leadership effectiveness.

Kenntnisse

Performance development

Organisational effectiveness

Change management

Analytical skills

Coaching and facilitation

Ausbildung

Background in technology or defence

Experience within a tier 1 Management Consulting firm

Jobbeschreibung

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

We are seeking a Senior Manager, Performance Development & People Partner to join our People team at Helsing. This hybrid role is 70% focused on designing and operating rigorous performance development systems and 30% focused on partnering directly with leaders as a trusted People Business Partner. This is a builder/operator role — you will design scalable processes from the ground up, run them end-to-end, and work closely with Helsing’s leadership to ensure our people are equipped to deliver on our mission of defending democratic values whilst partnering with the business re all things People.

The day-to-day

Performance Development (70%)

• Evolve, build and lead Helsing’s performance framework (reviews, calibrations, promotion processes, feedback cycles) to align talent development with mission outcomes to achieve our Talent Density company objectives.
• Develop manager and leadership development programs tailored to high-stakes defence technology environments, focusing on resilience, decision-making under pressure, and technical excellence.
• Partner with Helsing’s Leaders and People Business Partners to embed performance standards directly linked to commercial product delivery goals.
• Drive succession planning, talent calibration, and promotion processes across Helsing.
• Be a central node in succession planning, internal mobility and M&A.
• Build scalable playbooks, tools, and training to enable managers and teams across multi-disciplinary, multi-national settings.
• Use people analytics and data-driven insights to measure performance health and inform interventions.

People Business Partnering (30%)

• Act as a trusted advisor to Helsing leaders, providing guidance on organisational design, talent planning, and leadership effectiveness.
• Support managers through performance challenges, team scaling, and change management, particularly in mission-critical contexts.
• Partner with business functions (engineering, AI research, operations, deployment) to anticipate workforce needs and risks.
• Leverage employee insights to strengthen team culture, resilience, and collaboration across Helsing’s international hubs.

You should apply if you

• Have demonstrable experience in performance development, organisational effectiveness, or HR business partnering, ideally within technology, defence, aerospace, or similarly high-stakes industries. Or a background with a tier 1 Management Consulting firm who has run large teams and projects above Associate Partner level.
• Possess a track record of building and scaling performance systems in organisations of 500+ employees, preferably across multiple countries.
• Bring experience advising senior Commercial and Technical leaders in high-growth environments.
• Have experience of change management in a fast paced environment.
• Have strong coaching and facilitation skills, with the ability to support leaders working under pressure and urgency.
• Have an analytical mindset with proven ability to leverage people data to guide strategy and decision-making.
• Are a hands-on, entrepreneurial operator able to move from design to execution quickly.
• Are mission-driven: motivated by Helsing’s purpose of strengthening the defence of democracies.

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

• 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

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.