About this role
Building and maintaining high-fidelity simulation environments forms the core of daily responsibilities on the Physical Products team at Helsing. Team members develop 6-DOF vehicle dynamics, aerodynamics, structural, and engagement-level models to evaluate platform behavior prior to physical production. This engineering group exists because physical flight-testing cannot cover every edge case due to cost and range limitations, requiring robust simulations to de-risk development and guide design trade studies.
Professionals joining this team collaborate closely with GNC, mechanical, and systems engineers to establish modelling requirements and validate outputs against real flight data. Suitable candidates bring a strong background in scientific computing, a deep understanding of underlying physics, and the ability to communicate probabilistic results clearly to non-specialists. Anyone driven by complex technical challenges within a mission-oriented defence environment will thrive in this role.
What you will do
- Build and maintain high-fidelity simulation environments including 6-DOF vehicle dynamics, aerodynamics, structural, and engagement-level models.
- Develop Monte Carlo and sensitivity analysis capabilities to explore performance across real operational conditions.
- Collaborate with GNC, mechanical, and systems engineers to define modelling requirements that answer specific design or operational questions.
- Validate simulation models against real test and flight data while transparently communicating model limitations and credibility.
- Support design trade studies across vehicle configurations, control authority, structural loading, and engagement geometry.
- Build tooling and infrastructure that makes simulation faster and more accessible across broader engineering teams.
- Support ground and flight test campaigns by defining instrumentation and measurement needs for model correlation.
What you need
- Demonstrated experience building and maintaining simulation environments for real physical systems in aerospace, automotive, robotics, or similar safety-relevant domains.
- Solid understanding of underlying physics such as flight dynamics, aerodynamics, structures, or controls to determine reasonable model simplifications.
- Strong proficiency in a relevant programming or scientific computing environment including Python, MATLAB/Simulink, C++, or equivalent tools.
- Experience validating simulation outputs against real test or field data while reasoning about performance gaps.
- Familiarity with handling uncertainty, Monte Carlo methods, sensitivity analysis, and probabilistic communication of results.
- Effective cross-disciplinary collaboration skills with the ability to explain simulation results clearly to non-specialist stakeholders.
Nice to have
- Experience with 6-DOF flight or missile simulation specifically, or engagement-level and wargaming simulation
- Experience with CFD, FEA, or other high-fidelity physics-based modelling tools
- Familiarity with real-time or hardware-in-the-loop simulation environments
- Experience building simulation tooling or infrastructure used by a wider engineering team
- Exposure to flight test or range test data analysis and model correlation
Benefits
- Competitive salary and VSOP options
- Relocation support up to €2,500 and 4 weeks temporary accommodation
- Learning allowance of €500/£450 yearly
- Health and wellness benefits including gym membership and mental health support via Nilo.health
- Enhanced parental leave of 22 weeks fully paid for primary caregivers and 6 weeks for secondary caregivers
- Family support including 5 days of paid family emergency leave and 100% remote work option during pregnancy
Skills and tech stack
Questions candidates ask
What tools and languages are used for simulation?
Engineers work within scientific computing environments utilizing tools like Python, MATLAB/Simulink, and C++. Additional high-fidelity physics modelling tools such as CFD or FEA may also be encountered depending on the project.
What does the onboarding process look like?
New hires participate in a hands-on onboarding program affectionately labelled Infraduction. During this time, you will build tooling and applications to be used across the company while learning the tech stack and collaborating with other engineering teams.