Security Engineer

EngineersOfAI; Germany (OH); On-site; USD 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Helsing is seeking a Junior Security Engineer to join our defence AI team. You will work across cloud infrastructure, applications, identity systems and products to identify and reduce security risks from day one, under mentorship.

You will learn secure-by-default practices, collaborate with senior engineers on threat modelling and security reviews, and contribute to automated tooling, testing, and incident response as you grow.

Qualifications

• You should apply if you have built non-trivial software—projects that demonstrate genuine engineering ability, not just framework usage (e.g. security tools, automation pipelines, network utilities, infrastructure-as-code, compilers, or embedded systems)

Responsibilities

• Work alongside senior security engineers on threat modelling and security reviews - learning to identify architectural risks, trust boundary issues, and failure modes
• Build and improve security tooling and automation - writing code that reduces manual security work and embeds secure-by-default practices into engineering workflows
• Contribute to security testing across our systems and products, including hands-on technical testing under supervision
• Own well-defined security workstreams, progressively taking on more scope and autonomy as your skills develop
• Observe and learn from security incidents through ride-alongs with experienced engineers, progressing to hands-on incident response roles as you develop and gain the required access
• Help maintain and improve our security documentation, runbooks, and internal guidance
• Support assurance activities such as audits and certifications alongside experienced team members

Skills

Software development

Security tooling

Threat modelling

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

• Security Engineering at Helsing sits at the intersection of deep technical expertise, adversarial thinking, and real-world impact. As a Junior Security Engineer, you will join a team that works across the full breadth of our technology - from cloud infrastructure to applications, identity systems, and products - identifying and reducing the security risks that matter most.

• This is a role for someone early in their career who has the engineering foundations, security instincts, and curiosity to grow into a highly capable security engineer. You will be paired with an experienced senior engineer as a dedicated mentor, work on real problems from day one, and be supported with a structured development path. We are not looking for someone who already has all the answers - we are looking for someone who builds things, thinks adversarially, and learns fast.

The day-to-day

• Work alongside senior security engineers on threat modelling and security reviews - learning to identify architectural risks, trust boundary issues, and failure modes

• Build and improve security tooling and automation - writing code that reduces manual security work and embeds secure-by-default practices into engineering workflows

• Contribute to security testing across our systems and products, including hands‑on technical testing under supervision

• Own well‑defined security workstreams, progressively taking on more scope and autonomy as your skills develop

• Observe and learn from security incidents through ride‑alongs with experienced engineers, progressing to hands‑on incident response roles as you develop and gain the required access

• Help maintain and improve our security documentation, runbooks, and internal guidance

• Support assurance activities such as audits and certifications alongside experienced team members

You should apply if you

• You have built non‑trivial software - projects that demonstrate genuine engineering ability, not just framework usage (e.g. security tools, automation pipelines, network utilities, infrastructure-as-code, compilers, or embedded systems)