Simulation Engineer

Helsing; Greater London; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Helsing is seeking a Simulation Engineer to build and maintain high-fidelity simulation environments for 6-DOF dynamics, aerodynamics, and engagement-level models. You will perform Monte Carlo analyses and work with GNC, mechanical, and systems engineers to define modelling needs tied to real design questions.

You will validate models with test data, ensure credibility, and enable faster design trades through tooling. Strong physics intuition and cross-team communication are essential.

Qualifications

• Built and maintained simulation environments for real physical systems (aerospace/robotics).
• Understand physics well enough to judge model simplifications and limitations.
• Proficient in Python, MATLAB/Simulink, or C++ and write usable simulation code.
• Experience validating simulation output against real tests or field data.
• Comfortable with uncertainty, Monte Carlo methods, and probabilistic results.
• Able to collaborate across disciplines and explain simulation findings clearly.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain high-fidelity simulation environments and 6-DOF dynamics.
• Develop Monte Carlo and sensitivity analyses across real-world conditions.
• Collaborate with GNC, mechanical, and systems engineers to scope models.
• Validate models against flight/test data and communicate credibility.
• Support design trade studies using simulation to narrow options.
• Create tools to speed up simulation access across teams.
• Support flight and ground test campaigns and instrument selection.
• Communicate results and limitations clearly to engineers and decision-makers.

Skills

Python

MATLAB/Simulink

C++

Tools

Simulink

CFD

FEA

HITL

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

We can't flight-test our way to every answer, the range time, the cost, and the sheer number of edge cases we need to cover make that impossible. Simulation is how we de-risk fast, explore the trade space before we cut metal, and understand what happens in scenarios we'd never dare fly for real. But we don't trust a model that's never been checked against reality, the sim exists to earn its way onto the range, not replace it. As a Simulation Engineer on the Physical Products team, you'll build and maintain the modelling and simulation environments that let us understand how our platforms will actually behave, aerodynamically, structurally, and as part of a full engagement, before they're built, and help interpret what happens after they fly. You'll work closely with GNC, mechanical, and systems engineers, and you'll be expected to hold your models to the same standard we hold our hardware: are they good enough to trust a decision on, and how do you know.

Day-to-day responsibilities

• Build and maintain high-fidelity simulation environments, 6-DOF vehicle dynamics, aerodynamics, structural, and/or engagement-level models, depending on where your depth sits
• Develop Monte Carlo and sensitivity analysis capability to explore performance across the real range of conditions a platform will see, not just the nominal case
• Work with GNC, mechanical, and systems engineers to define what needs modelling, at what fidelity, and why, simulation effort should always trace back to a real design or operational question
• Validate models against real test and flight data, and be honest about where a model is trustworthy and where it isn't, model credibility is a first-class deliverable, not an afterthought
• Support design trade studies across the vehicle, aerodynamic configuration, control authority, engagement geometry, structural loading, using simulation to narrow the design space quickly
• Build tooling and infrastructure that makes simulation faster and more accessible across engineering teams, this is as much a software engineering problem as a physics one
• Support flight and ground test campaigns, defining what to instrument and measure so test data can actually be used to validate or correct the models
• Communicate simulation results and their limitations clearly to engineers and decision-makers who need to act on them, not just archive them

Required qualifications

• Have built and maintained simulation environments for a real physical system aerospace, automotive, robotics, or a similarly dynamic and safety-relevant domain
• Understand the underlying physics well enough to know when a model is a reasonable simplification and when it isn't, flight dynamics, aerodynamics, structures, or controls, depending on your background
• Are strong in a relevant programming/scientific computing environment (Python, MATLAB/Simulink, C++, or equivalent), and write simulation code that other engineers can actually use and trust
• Have experience validating simulation output against real test or field data, and can reason about the gap between the two
• Are comfortable working with uncertainty, Monte Carlo methods, sensitivity analysis, and communicating results probabilistically rather than as a single "answer"
• Collaborate effectively across disciplines and can explain simulation results and their limitations clearly to people who aren't simulation specialists

Nice to have

• Experience with 6-DOF flight/missile simulation specifically, or engagement-level/wargaming simulation
• Experience with CFD, FEA, or other high-fidelity physics-based modelling tools
• Familiarity with real-time or hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) simulation environments
• Experience building simulation tooling or infrastructure used by a wider engineering team, not just yourself
• Exposure to flight test or range test data analysis and model correlation

Join Helsing and work with world-leading experts in their fields Helsing’s work…

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.