Senior Systems Engineer ESM / ELS

Who we are

The role

The day-to-day

• Define the architecture and system-level requirements of an airborne Emitter Location System.

• Translate operational emitter-detection and geolocation needsintomeasurabletechnicalrequirements.

• Develop and assessantenna-array concepts for airbornedirectionfinding.

• Define the number, type, geometry, orientation, and placement of antennaelements on the aircraft.

• Analyse arrayperformanceacross the requiredfrequencyrange.

• Assess the impact of: - Element spacing - Array aperture - Phase-centre stability - Mutual coupling - Airframe shadowing - Structural blockage - Reflections and multipath - Installation-inducedamplitude and phase errors - Polarisation mismatch

• Balance direction-findingaccuracy, angular ambiguity, frequencycoverage, installationconstraints, and platformsize.

• Developcalibrationconcepts for antenna, RF-channel, and installation-relatederrors.

• Define requirements for coherentmultichannel RF reception, channelsynchronisation, phasematching, amplitudematching, and timingaccuracy.

• Develop and evaluatealgorithms for: - Amplitude-comparisondirection finding - Phase-interferometricdirection finding - Correlativedirection finding - Monopulse techniques - Beamforming - MUSIC, ESPRIT, Capon, and related high-resolution methods - Multi-baseline and multi-frequencyambiguity resolution - Wideband and frequency-agile emitterdirection finding

• Develop robust Direction-of-Arrival estimationmethods for dense and complexelectromagneticenvironments.

• Addresschallenges such as: - Multiple simultaneous emitters - Co-channel signals - Low signal-to-noise ratio - Short-duration and low-probability-of-intercept signals - Frequency-agile and pulse-agile radars - Multipath and platform-induced interference

• Define confidencemetrics and uncertaintyestimates for Direction-of-Arrival measurements.

• Developemitter geolocation methodsusingsuccessiveDirection-of-Arrival measurements and platformmotion.

• Integrateaircraftposition, attitude, heading, timing, and navigationuncertaintiesinto the emitter-location solution.

• Define interfacesbetween the Emitter Location System, Radar Warning Receiver, ESM receiver, missioncomputer, navigationsystem, and othermission-system components.

• Develop a coherentsystemconcept in which the Radar Warning Receiver and Emitter Location System sharereceiverresources, detections, signaldescriptors, tracks, and threatinformationwhereappropriate.

• Assess the trade-offs betweenwidebandthreatwarning, accuratedirectionfinding, emitteridentification, and geolocation performance.

• Define latency, update-rate, probability-of-intercept, dynamic-range, sensitivity, and accuracyrequirements.

• Developsimulationenvironments and representativetestscenarios for evaluatingarray and algorithmperformance.

• Perform Monte Carlo analyses and sensitivitystudies for antenna-placement errors, RF imperfections, navigationerrors, and emitter geometries.

• Support hardware-in-the-loop testing, antenna-range testing, calibrationcampaigns, groundtesting, and flight-test activities.

• Define verification and validationmethods for direction-finding and emitter-location performance.

• Coordinatecloselywithantenna, RF, ESM, Radar Warning Receiver, navigation, software, aircraft, and mission-system engineeringteams.

You should apply if you

• Degree in electricalengineering, communicationsengineering, physics, aerospaceengineering, mathematics, or a relatedtechnicaldiscipline.

• Severalyears of professional experience in oneormore of the followingareas: - Direction finding - Emitter location - Radar Warning Receivers - Electronic Support Measures - Radar signal processing - Phasedarraysorantenna arrays - Multichannelcoherent RF systems

• Strong understanding of antenna-array theory, arraymanifolds, phasedifferences, amplitudepatterns, beamforming, gratinglobes, and angular ambiguity.

• Experience withairborneantennaplacement and platform-installation effectsishighlydesirable.

• Strong understanding of Direction-of-Arrival estimationalgorithms and theirpracticallimitations.

• Experience withphase-interferometricoramplitude-comparisondirection-findingsystems.

• Familiaritywith high-resolution subspacemethods such as MUSIC or ESPRIT isbeneficial.

• Understanding of radar and Electronic Support signalcharacteristics, including pulse, frequency, modulation, scan, and waveformparameters.

• Experience with Radar Warning Receiver or ESM architectures, includingdetection, pulse measurement, deinterleaving, identification, threatevaluation, and tracking.

• Understanding of the trade-offs between RWR warningperformance and precisionemitter-location performance.

• Familiaritywith geolocation, stateestimation, sensorfusion, and navigation-error propagation.

• Experience definingrequirements and interfaces for complexairbornemissionsystems.

• Experience withelectromagneticsimulationtools such as CST, HFSS, FEKO, orcomparabletoolsisbeneficial.

• Experience with real-time embedded signal-processingsystems, FPGA-basedprocessing, orheterogeneouscomputeplatformsisdesirable.

• Strong analytical, communication, and technical-documentationskills.

• Ability to workacrossantenna, RF, signal-processing, software, navigation, and aircraft-integration disciplines.

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

• Competitive salary and VSOP options

• Relocation support: up to €2,500 and 4 weeks temporary accommodation

• Learning: €500/£450 yearly allowance

• Health & wellness: gym membership and mental health support (Nilo.health)

• Social: regular company events and monthly social allowances

• Enhanced parental leave: 22 weeks fully paid for primary caregivers & 6 weeks for secondary caregivers

• Family support: 5 days of paid family emergency leave, 100% remote work option during pregnancy and phased return to work

• A hands-on onboarding program (affectionately labelled “Infraduction”), in which you will be building tooling and applications to be used across the company. This is your opportunity to learn our tech stack, explore the company, and learn how we get things done - all whilst working with other engineering teams from day one (Specifically for engineering and AI)

These are the core benefits across all locations, there may be additional benefits in certain locations.

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.

Helsing's Candidate Privacy and Confidentiality Regime can be found here.