AI Research Engineer - Reinforcement Learning

Helsing is hiring an AI Research Engineer - Reinforcement Learning in Munich, Germany. Level rates it ; you can apply on Helsing.

Level's read on this job

Level rates this role Builds AI ●●●●: the job is building AI systems.
The posting mentions Reinforcement learning, AI research and machine learning among its tools and skills.
Level classes it as a senior role.
Helsing has 159 other open roles on Level.
Posted in the last few days.

AI in this role

Research and develop advanced AI capabilities including reinforcement learning for defense applications.

Reinforcement learning

ai-researchmachine-learningdistributed-systemsgenerative-ai

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

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The day-to-day

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You should apply if you

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Nice to Have

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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.

How we rate this

AI Research Engineer - Reinforcement Learning at Helsing rates 90 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.

●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Key facts

AI Research Engineer - Reinforcement Learning is an open job at Helsing.
Level rates this role AI Level 4 of 4: Builds AI.
The role is based in Munich - Berlin - London - Paris.
The job was posted on November 6, 2026.
Seniority: senior.
Applications are handled by Helsing. Apply on Helsing

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

AI ResearchMachine learningDistributed SystemsGenerative AIReinforcement learning

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a research question you investigated. What did you find?
Tell me about a project where machine learning was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where distributed systems was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where generative ai was part of your work. What did you do?
Walk me through how you've used Reinforcement learning in your day-to-day work.

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: AI Research, Machine learning, Distributed Systems, Generative AI, and Reinforcement learning. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
Lead with what you built, trained or shipped. This role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.

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