System Architect – Distributed C-UAS Platform

Helsing; Greater London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation support

Learning allowance: €500/£450 yearly

Health & wellness support

Job summary

Helsing seeks a Systems Engineer to own the top-level architecture of a distributed C-UAS system-of-systems. You will partition the mission into network, sensor, and effector subsystems, defining interfaces and ensuring robustness even if nodes are degraded or lost.

You will translate operational concepts into a coherent architecture, collaborate with AI, software and hardware teams, and drive open, hardware-agnostic design. Fluency in English and German is expected, with willingness to travel.

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience architecting distributed systems or systems-of-systems, ideally for defence, air defence, C-UAS, or comparable networked mission systems.
• Ability to define top-level architectures and derive network, sensor, and effector requirements from an operational concept.
• Understanding distributed and decentralised system design: how nodes share state, degrade gracefully, and coordinate without a single point of failure.
• Strong foundation in requirements management and interface definition.
• Ability to communicate an architecture clearly to internal teams and external partners.
• Willingness to travel on business as required.

Responsibilities

• Own the top-level (L0/L1) architecture of the C-UAS system-of-systems, partitioning the mission into network, sensor, and effector subsystems.
• Specify network capabilities for distributed nodes to share a common air picture and coordinate engagements, including decentralised operation when central command is degraded.
• Derive requirements from operational concepts and balance coverage, resilience, latency and cost.
• Translate operational concepts into a coherent architecture and engagement concepts, maintaining consistency as design matures.
• Keep architecture open and hardware agnostic, defining interfaces for any qualified node to join the network.
• Enable engage-on-remote and launch-on-remote by defining cueing, track handover, and fire control flow across nodes.
• Produce a structured architecture describable to partners and customers without exposing sensitive detail.
• Collaborate daily with situational awareness, interceptor integration teams, and AI, software, and hardware engineers.

Skills

Distributed systems architecture

Top-level architecture

Requirements management

Interface definition

Clear architectural communication

Willing to travel

Education

Systems Engineering

Electrical Engineering

Aerospace

Computer Science

Job description

Helsing seeks a Systems Engineer to own the top-level architecture of a distributed C-UAS system-of-systems. You will partition the mission into network, sensor, and effector subsystems, defining interfaces and ensuring robustness even if nodes are degraded or lost.

You will translate operational concepts into a coherent architecture, collaborate with AI, software and hardware teams, and drive open, hardware-agnostic design. Fluency in English and German is expected, with willingness to travel.