Drone Prototyping Engineer — Flight-Ready Hardware Innovator

helsing.ai; Greater London, Oxford; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

VSOP options

Relocation support

Learning budget

Health & wellness

Social events

Enhanced parental leave

Family support

Job summary

Helsing, a defence AI company in the UK, is seeking a Rapid Prototyping Engineer to bridge mechanical design, electrical integration and hardware iteration for our drone platforms. You will own the build cycle from concept to field testing, delivering flight-ready prototypes and resolving integration bottlenecks to accelerate development.

Collaborating with design and test engineers, you will enable faster learning cycles, build custom hardware solutions, and keep the developmental fleet

Qualifications

• Experience turning concepts into flight-ready drone prototypes.
• Skilled in 3D CAD design and structural validation for UAV hardware.
• Hands-on fabrication and wiring harnessing experience.
• Proven ability to iterate quickly with hardware-in-the-loop testing.
• Comfort with evolving requirements and end-to-end ownership.

Responsibilities

• Design, fabricate, and assemble flight-ready prototypes with complex folding structures.
• Integrate avionics, power, and sensors; iterate across tests.
• Configure flight control platforms and calibrate systems.
• Plan field tests and analyze telemetry to inform CAD refinements.
• Collaborate to surface integration risks and deliver hardware solutions.

Skills

3D CAD

SolidWorks

Siemens NX

FEA

GD&T

PX4/ArduPilot

Wiring & harnessing

Prototype build

Tools

PX4/ArduPilot

Soldering & test

Job description

Helsing, a defence AI company in the UK, is seeking a Rapid Prototyping Engineer to bridge mechanical design, electrical integration and hardware iteration for our drone platforms. You will own the build cycle from concept to field testing, delivering flight-ready prototypes and resolving integration bottlenecks to accelerate development.

Collaborating with design and test engineers, you will enable faster learning cycles, build custom hardware solutions, and keep the developmental fleet