AI Research Engineer - GPU Simulation

Helsing; Greater London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation support

Learning allowance

Health & wellbeing programs

Social events

Generous parental leave

100% remote option during pregnancy

Job summary

Helsing is building a GPU-driven simulator to train reinforcement-learning agents for air autonomy. You will develop the physics-based flight models, scale thousands of environments and create tooling to support RL training and sim-to-real transfer.

This role sits at the intersection of AI, high-performance computing, and flight dynamics, with opportunities for leadership as the team grows. Join a mission-driven team focused on responsible autonomy.

Qualifications

• Masters or PhD in CS, ML, robotics, or control engineering.
• Strong software engineering in Python and C++, plus deployment & monitoring.
• Deep experience in GPU programming, sim-to-real, or flight dynamics modelling.

Responsibilities

• Build and scale GPU-based simulator for RL agents in thousands of environments.
• Develop RL training tooling including domain randomisation and evaluation.
• Improve simulation fidelity from flight dynamics to sensing.
• Enable sim-to-real transfer by exporting trained policies to downstream simulators.

Skills

Python

C++

Rust

Machine Learning

GPU programming

Education

MSc or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Robotics, or Control Engineering

Tools

CUDA

Taichi

NVIDIA Warp/CuteDSL

Triton

Helion

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

Join our GPU simulation team and build the simulator that trains our reinforcement-learning agents for air autonomy. You will shape the simulator that turns complex air-combat scenarios into learning environments at scale, model the physics behind air combat, and support the transfer of those policies to the real aircraft. Your work will span flight model fidelity, scaling to thousands of parallel environments, and the training tooling that makes it all possible. This role sits at the meeting point of AI, GPU computing and physics-based simulation, with room to grow into a leadership position as the team matures.

The day-to-day

• Build, extend, and scale our GPU-based simulator to train reinforcement-learning agents across thousands of parallel environments
• Develop the tooling that underpins RL training, including domain randomisation, to improve sim-to-real generalisation
• Improve the fidelity and performance of simulation models, from flight dynamics to sensing
• Enable sim-to-real transfer by supporting the export of trained policies and assets into downstream simulators and, ultimately, onto physical hardware
• Collaborate with AI specialists and engineers to align the simulator with training needs and mission-relevant outcomes

You should apply if you

• Hold an MSc or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Robotics, Control Engineering, or a closely related field
• Possess solid software engineering skills, writing clean and well-structured code in Python and/or languages like Rust or modern C++, and have experience deploying software to production including testing, and monitoring
• Bring depth in at least one of the following: GPU programming, high-performance simulation, physics or flight-dynamics modelling, or navigation and control
• Own high-quality, maintainable code and shape the shared library and ecosystem that the wider team builds on
• Care about our mission and want your work to have real operational impact

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

• Have solid AI knowledge and can reason about how models are trained and evaluated
• Have knowledge breadth across the specialist areas above, for example combining GPU programming with simulation environment design
• Have deep GPU expertise, such as writing and optimising CUDA kernels, or expertise in libraries such as Taichi, NVIDIA Warp/CuteDSL, Triton or Helion

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: regular 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
• A hands-on onboarding program (affectionately labelled “Infraduction”), in which you will be building tooling and applications to be used across the company. This is your opportunity to learn our tech stack, explore the company, and learn how we get things done - all whilst working with other engineering teams from day one (Specifically for engineering and AI)

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.

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

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