(Senior) Systems Engineer – IT Architect

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 As a (Senior) Systems Engineer – IT Architect, you will define the architecture of the IT estate that supports Helsing's European offices and engineering teams, and build its key parts yourself. Across endpoint, identity, network, on-premises and cloud, you will work with Security, Engineering and IT Operations to turn operational and compliance requirements into clear roadmaps. You will prove your designs with reference implementations, then hand them to the IT Engineers and IT Support team to run. Working in German and English with colleagues, auditors and authorities, you will help Helsing scale across jurisdictions without weakening security or slowing engineers down. The day-to-day • Architect and build end-to-end systems across corporate, development and regulated environments, connecting Microsoft 365, Azure and on-premises infrastructure securely • Design and implement identity, access and device management (Entra ID, Conditional Access, MDM) that enforces Zero Trust on macOS, Windows and Linux endpoints • Define network and boundary protection for European sites and remote work, including segmentation, VPNs, and host- and network-based controls • Set standards and reference builds for on-premises compute on Linux, virtualisation and Kubernetes • Automate with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible, Python, PowerShell) so every system is reproducible and auditable • Work with Security, Compliance and external auditors to turn ISO 27001, NIS2, BSI IT-Grundschutz and UK Secure by Design into accreditation-ready architectures • Make key architecture decisions, document the trade-offs, and review designs with IT Engineers and the IT Support team You should apply if you • Have proven experience designing and building enterprise IT systems with security and compliance built in, ideally in defence, government or other regulated sectors • Have hands-on experience with hybrid environments: Linux on-premises, Kubernetes, macOS, Windows, and Azure, Microsoft 365 or AWS • Have built identity, network segmentation and Zero Trust architectures, automated with Infrastructure as Code • Turn ambiguous regulatory and cross-border requirements into clear roadmaps, and explain trade-offs to technical and non-technical colleagues • Collaborate op