Who we are

The role

We are seeking a Senior Performance Development & People Partner to join our People team at Helsing. This hybrid role is 70% focused on designing and operating rigorous performance development and People development systems and 30% focused on partnering directly with leaders as a trusted People Business Partner. This is a builder/operator role — you will design scalable processes from the ground up, run them end-to-end, and work closely with Helsing’s leadership to ensure our people are equipped to deliver on our mission of defending democratic values whilst partnering with the business regarding all things People.

The day-to-day

Performance Development (70%)

• Lead and evolve Helsing’s performance framework (probations, reviews, calibrations, promotion processes, feedback cycles and so on) to align talent development with business outcomes to achieve our Talent Density company objectives.

• Develop leadership and management development programs fit for a fast paced and mission critical environment.

• Build scalable playbooks, tools and training to support Managers and ICs to develop capabilities in line with business needs.

• Use people analytics and data-driven insights to measure performance health and inform interventions.

People Business Partnering (30%)

• Act as a trusted advisor to Helsing leaders, providing guidance on organisational design, talent planning and leadership effectiveness.

• Support managers through performance, team scaling and change management.

• Leverage employee insights to strengthen team culture, resilience, and collaboration across Helsing’s international hubs.

• Develop and implement pragmatic solutions in a rapidly changing environment.

• Contributing to the development of world-class People frameworks and tools.

You should apply if you

• Have demonstrable experience in performance development, organisational effectiveness, or HR business partnering, ideally within technology, defence, aerospace, or similarly high-stakes industries.

• Or a background with a tier 1 Management Consulting firm who has run large teams and projects from Engagement Manager level onwards.

• Possess a track record of building and scaling performance systems in high performance organisations across multiple functions and countries.

• Bring experience in advising senior Commercial and Technical leaders in high-growth environments.

• Experience of change management in a fast paced environment.

• Have strong coaching and facilitation skills, with the ability to support leaders working under pressure and urgency.

• Have an analytical mindset with proven ability to leverage people data to guide strategy and decision-making.

• Can identify needs, develop appropriate solutions and implement them pragmatically

• Are a hands-on, entrepreneurial operator able to move from design to execution quickly.

• Motivated by Helsing’s mission.

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.

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

• Helsing’s work is important. You’ll be directly contributing to the protection of democratic countries while balancing both ethical and geopolitical concerns

• The work is unique. We operate in a domain that has highly unusual technical requirements and constraints, and where robustness, safety, and ethical considerations are vital. You will face unique Engineering and AI challenges that make a meaningful impact in the world

• Our work frequently takes us right up to the state of the art in technical innovation, be it reinforcement learning, distributed systems, generative AI, or deployment infrastructure. The defence industry is entering the most exciting phase of the technological development curve. Advances in our field of world are not incremental: Helsing is part of, and often leading, historic leaps forward

• In our domain, success is a matter of order-of-magnitude improvements and novel capabilities. This means we take bets, aim high, and focus on big opportunities. Despite being a relatively young company, Helsing has already been selected for multiple significant government contracts

• We actively encourage healthy, proactive, and diverse debate internally about what we do and how we choose to do it. Teams and individual engineers are trusted (and encouraged) to practise responsible autonomy and critical thinking, and to focus on outcomes, not conformity. At Helsing you will have a say in how we (and you!) work, the opportunity to engage on what does and doesn’t work, and to take ownership of aspects of our culture that you care deeply about

What we offer

• A focus on outcomes, not time-tracking

• Competitive compensation and stock options

• Relocation support

• Social and education allowances

• Regular company events and all-hands to bring together employees as one team across Europe

Helsing is an equal opportunities employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability or gender identity. Please do not submit personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, data concerning your health, or data concerning your sexual orientation.